MT. STERLING, Ky. — A former Kentucky teacher of the year is making sure every student has access to a feeling of self-respect.

Willie Carver, quit teaching in 2022 amid anti-gay discrimination and is now advocating for the rights of gay youth and is a published author. Recently, Carver created a space where LGBTQ+ youth can read books with characters they can see themselves in.

What You Need To Know

  • Willie Carver was named Kentucky Teacher of the Year in 2022 and taught English and French 

  • Carver, an openly gay man, left teaching in July 2022 due to anti-gay discrimination 

  • Students in Open Light, an LGBTQ organization at Montgomery County HS and Carver started the Rainbow Freedom Library 

  • The Rainbow Freedom Library is full of books with LGBTQ+ characters and themes

“There are very few books of any type of that show minoritized characters specifically characters that are talking about the experience of being minoritized," Carver said.

The former Kentucky teacher of the year helped students at his former school in Montgomery County create the Rainbow Freedom Library.

“These students applied for a grant with the It Gets Better Project, which gave them $10,000, $4,000 of which was allocated to books. They ended up giving half of their donation to Oldham Co Schools because they heard those students needed them," Carver said.

But Carver says school Montgomery County School administration denied his request to get the books into the library.

“My assumption is it was because they were LGBTQ books; one Oldham County was able to take all the books and two the legal changes simply state the superintendent has the authority to choose curriculum not that they can’t take library books," Carver said.

Carer says the Gateway Regional Arts Center happily took the books and is now home of the library.

“Students need to hope and hope is imagining yourself in some future scenario," Carver said.

Carver says 60% of gay youth have considered suicide in the last year and over 70% consider themselves consistently miserable.

“It is 2023. Our students deserve better than just hoping that they can be alive. Especially when so many of them don’t make it to be adults," Carver said.

A GoFundMe has been set up so the students can expand the library or send books to students in more rural areas of the state with limited access to Mount Sterling.

Carver left his job at Montgomery County High School in 2022 and is now a student adviser at the UK College of Business.

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