Haley Clarke

Kasey Catlett always knew he wasn’t like other boys.

He grew up knowing something was different about him, and it made his childhood difficult. He later realized the reason he felt different was he is a cisgender gay man.

In 2013, The Cube, a drive-thru convenience store in Norman, displayed a sign on one of its bathroom doors that read, “NO TRANS-GENDER ZONE.” The Cube faced immediate backlash from the LGBTQ community in Norman.

In more than half of U.S. states, no protection exists to keep businesses from discriminating against individuals based on sexuality, race and gender. With members of the LGBTQ community being refused service and fired from their jobs because of their sexuality, Meredith G.F. Worthen thought something needed to be done.

Most people would be intimidated to join the U.S. Army and might consider it a last resort, but 17-year-old Haley Clarke has always been part of a military family. Now a senior at Indiahoma High School, she is more determined than ever to enlist when she graduates.

When she was 15, Haley’s moved away from her stepfather and her mother and lived for a short time with her biological father. It was then that she realized that enlisting in the Army would be the only escape.