If I thought that suddenly people would be convinced by my little clip on the news, I learned fast enough that while some people loved the idea of a little girl tearing a strip off a school principal on the news, fewer people were interested in the background or rights of my friend Marilyn and others who didn't fit as easily into our assumptions as the rest of us.

What was interesting were the number and breadth of the people who were interested. Among them was the editor of New ...