Openly lesbian Michigan high school student Katy Butler has collected close to 300,000 signatures on her Change.org petition challenging the MPAA’s “R” rating for the new documentary Bully. She now has the support of Ellen DeGeneres, who discussed the controversy on her show last week. In an interview with MSNBC’s Thomas Roberts today, Butler articulated how important it is that young people have the opportunity to see Bully, because the offensive language heard in the film is what bullies use in school every day:
BUTLER: I think we can definitely win. I think taking out the language in this movie is just taking away from the message. I mean, the message is so strong, and the language in this movie is the language that kids hear every day and the language that kids are bullied with. If we go in and take it out, it’s definitely taking away from that. No one goes into schools and edits out the language that kids hear in schools. It just doesn’t happen.
Watch it: