This article mentions of suicide and violence against members of the LGBTQ+ community. LGBTQ+ youth can reach the Trevor Project’s suicide hotline by phone call, text or online chat by going to their website, texting ‘START’ to 678-678 or calling 1-866-488-7386. The LGBT National Hotline can be reached at 888-843-4564 and the Trans Lifeline Hotline’s number is 877-565-8860.
Graduation day didn’t feel like a celebration for Gray Byrd. Despite being selected as E.E. Smith High School’s valedictorian, earning him a speaking spot during the ceremony, Byrd wanted to get his diploma and leave the Cumberland County Crown Complex on June 3 as fast as possible.
Byrd, a trans student, said his emotions were the result of Cumberland County Board of Education policies that required him to remove lines from his speech about the growing violence against transgender people and political pressure to erase their existence.
Adding to his mix of anger and disbelief, Byrd was also “deadnamed” in the graduation program. “Deadnaming” refers to when someone uses the name a transgender person was given at birth, but they’ve since stopped using as part of their transition.
“I worked so hard for this the past four years, and all I wanted to say was that I have overcome so much, and I want to show others that they can also overcome so much,” Byrd told CityView. “But I was flagged for saying such.”
Byrd’s experience with Cumberland County Schools’ board policies comes as trans people are losing rights and facing increased assaults. There were 932 anti-LGBTQ+ incidents in the United States between May 1, 2024, and May 1, 2025, according to the 2025 GLAAD ALERT Desk Report, which tracks anti-LGBTQ extremism and incidents across the country. Over half of those attacks targeted trans people.
When President Donald Trump took office, he signed an executive order stating there were only two sexes — male and female. Another executive order bans trans girls and women from women’s sports, while another order restricts gender affirming care for trans youth under 19.
The U.S. Department of State earlier this year stopped changing the sex markers on passports to those that match a person’s gender identity, and the U.S. Department of Defense has begun forcibly separating transgender service members from the military.
“I’m just saying that’s what is happening. It’s not an opinion. It’s just a fact,” Byrd said. “It’s a fact that the voices of transgender children are being overlooked. It’s a fact that transgender people are facing new levels of violence. If the violence and silencing of transgender people affects me, I should be able to say such.”
A politically charged identity
Byrd was selected as E.E. Smith’s valedictorian on May 22. As first reported by WUNC, he promptly sent a draft speech to CCS for approval. He planned to speak about his identity as a transgender high school student from rural North Carolina who overcame personal challenges to become valedictorian and be accepted into college.
Byrd’s speech read in part: “transgender people are facing new levels of violence each day, and the voices of transgender children are being overlooked.” It also included a quote from Aristotle and Dante Dive Into the Waters of the World by Benjamin Alire Sáenz, a New York Times best-selling fiction novel about two young boys discovering their identities as gay men. The quote read: “I wondered if I was strong enough or good enough to love in a world that hated me.”
Byrd said the goal of his original speech was to show transgender and rural kids they can succeed. While Byrd recognized that many of his classmates may not be a part of these communities, he hoped they would still resonate with his message, including first-generation high school graduates.
“I wanted to direct it to inspire the communities I came from,” Byrd said. “And if the people from my class don’t identify with those communities, they can still identify with the message that I’m giving, the message of doing this for those who can’t.”
On May 29, six days before graduation, Byrd was notified that he would not be allowed to deliver his speech as written. It was denied by CCS board attorney Nick Sojka because board policy “does not allow for political or social statements,” according to an email sent to Byrd by Jessica Black, E.E. Smith’s 12th-grade assistant principal, and later shared with CityView.
Sojka’s guidance, cited in the email, said that Byrd’s speech didn’t align with E.E. Smith’s school motto, “Born of Need Destined to Serve Striving to Excel.”
“Our Board Policy on graduation requires everything that we do to be about celebrating students, including the messages in the speeches,” the message stated. “ … The speeches need to be about celebrating the milestone of graduation. At E.E. Smith, we have a rich, full history and tradition, and, as a part of that, we require that graduates give their speeches aligned with the school motto. Gray’s speech needs to be aligned to the topic of Striving to Excel.”
Lindsay Whitley, associate superintendent of communications and community engagement, said the comments, while not an official statement on behalf of CCS or the Board of Education, are consistent with verbal guidance provided to school administrators.
Byrd, like all student graduation speakers from Cumberland County public schools, had his draft speech reviewed by CCS district administrators. The review ensures student speeches align with board policy and “reflect the purpose of honoring graduates and the occasion itself,” Whitley said.
“While students are encouraged to express themselves, speeches must not include political or social statements, regardless of the viewpoint,” Whitley told CityView in a written statement. “In some cases, student speeches may require revisions to meet these expectations.”
Byrd said he was never specifically instructed to remove references to transgender people from his speech. He assumes broad statements about trans people’s struggles in America were what caused CCS district administrators to reject his speech.
“Me being trans and succeeding is a political statement. It’s not my fault that it is,” Byrd said. “It’s not like I want it to be. I wish it wasn’t, but it is, and that’s why I needed to say what I had to say. My speech was about striving to excel for those who couldn’t, and those who believe they can’t. I want to show trans kids that they can succeed and thrive, and it felt like I was being punished for wanting to say such.”
The speech that CCS district administrators ultimately approved and Byrd gave at graduation met somewhere in the middle. Byrd still spoke about being trans. He talked about how his transgender identity once left him hopeless, and how he succeeded in spite of the obstacles it placed in his way.
But the irony of having to take out a line about silencing transgender youth’s voices from his graduation speech wasn’t lost on Byrd.
“It’s a crazy statement to have a problem with when you are literally overlooking the voice of transgender youth as we speak,” Byrd said.
Programs aren’t legal documents
Byrd said the irony only continued when CCS policies required the use of his deadname in the graduation ceremony program. Byrd’s college essay, which helped him get into Davidson College, where he’ll be attending in the fall, was about how he felt like none of his accolades were his because they’re credited to his deadname.
Deadnaming, whether intentional or not, can be harmful to trans individuals. Using a trans child’s preferred name has shown to decrease their suicidality and depressive symptoms, according to a peer-reviewed study published in the Journal of Adolescent Health.
Byrd’s deadname is still his legal name, as is the case with many transgender people. Byrd understood why his deadname had to be printed on his diploma, as it’s a legal document. What he didn’t understand was why it had to be printed in the program, especially when his preferred name was printed in the class of 2024’s graduation ceremony program for his role as a junior marshal.
“Student names appearing in printed graduation programs are required to match the legal names that appear on diplomas, which are themselves legal documents issued by the school system,” Whitley said when asked about policies governing student names in graduation programs. “In alignment with the Parents’ Bill of Rights, upon request and with full disclosure to parents and express parental consent, students’ preferred names may be announced at graduation ceremonies.“
The Parents’ Bill of Rights, which the North Carolina General Assembly passed in 2023, includes a provision that requires teachers to get parental consent before making “any changes in the name or pronoun used for a student in school records or by school personnel.”
Byrd, with the help of his mom and assistant principal Black, fought for his preferred name to display on the jumbotron. Black read Byrd’s preferred name as he walked across the stage to get his diploma.
Byrd said Black and other E.E. Smith teachers and staff were supportive of him throughout his four years at the high school, including during the speech censorship and use of his deadname in the graduation program. In a meeting about his deadname being used at graduation and his draft speech being rejected, Byrd said Larry Parker Jr., E.E. Smith principal, pushed him to show CCS district administrators why their speech review policies were problematic.
“My principal said to me, ‘The county doesn’t know who you are. We know who you are. We know the work you put in. We know your activities. The county sees a name, sees a speech, and that’s all they know. Show them who you are,” Byrd said. “I definitely know that my administrators would have done more if they could have.”
In an email to CityView, Whitley said his official district statements serve as the response on behalf of both E.E. Smith and district staff, and that there are no additional comments to share on behalf of Parker and Black.
Pushing for change
Now graduated, Byrd said he’s telling his story as often as he can to ensure the next transgender student speaker doesn’t have to censor themselves. Byrd wants CCS district administrators to change what they consider to be political and social statements, particularly when those statements discuss an identity impacting how a student walks through the world.
“Maybe not at E.E. Smith, maybe in the next five, 10 years, there will be another transgender person who is [ranked] top three, and they deserve the right to express that that is who they are,” Byrd said. “I don’t want this to happen to any more people, because it was already sort of absurd that it happened to me.”
He said he’d also like an apology for what the school system’s administration put him through.
“I kind of would want them to apologize for all this stress that they put on while I was trying to graduate, as well as considering who I am as a person too political to be talked about,” Byrd said. “Because it sends the message that if I were not as confident as I am in myself and in my identity, that who I am should be silenced.”
While still angry at how his schooling experience came to a close, Byrd is thankful that he was the one to go through these struggles. He said he’s confident in his identity and doesn’t back down from a fight.
It’s something that can’t be said for every transgender student, according to Krystal Maddox, president of Fayetteville PRIDE. She is frustrated by CCS administrators’ censorship of Byrd’s speech and said it comes as many companies and organizations are pulling sponsorships for Pride Month.
For Maddox, Byrd’s story underscores a growing concern among the LGBTQ+ community: The loss of schools as safe spaces for LGBTQ+ youth. She pointed to the Parents’ Bill of Rights and organizations like Moms for Liberty — a “parental rights group” that has advocated to ban books that discuss sexuality and gender — as reasons why schools are becoming increasingly hostile to LGBTQ+ students.
“Scaring a child into trying to conform is not going to help them,” Maddox said. “The only thing it’s going to do is make them feel less about themselves.”
Transgender children are twice as likely to experience symptoms of depression and consider suicide as any other LGBTQ+ and cisgender youth, according to the National Alliance of Mental Illness. Last year, 46% of transgender and nonbinary people under 24 seriously considered suicide, according to the Trevor Project’s 2024 U.S. National Survey on the Mental Health of LGBTQ+ Young People.
The high rate of LGBTQ+ youth suicides is why Maddox said Fayetteville PRIDE stands behind Byrd and is pushing for Cumberland County Schools to better support its LGBTQ+ students.
“Schools should be a safety zone for all children,” Maddox said. “So many children live in a home where they don’t know love, acceptance or kindness. We can be the ones to give them that because they don’t have it at home. That should be the rule we all live by.”
Editor’s note: This story was updated on June 15 to clarify that guidance from Cumberland County Schools board attorney Nick Sojka about the content of approved graduation speeches was not an official statement on behalf of the Cumberland County Board of Education or the school system, but is consistent with verbal guidance provided to school administrators from district administrators.
CityView Reporter Morgan Casey is a corps member with Report for America, a national service program that places journalists into local newsrooms. Morgan’s reporting focuses on health care issues in and around Cumberland County and can be supported through the News Foundation of Greater Fayetteville.