During the Second Civil War, a new U.S. political party called the Family Protection Movement established The Divide, which separates Normal people from those who are gay, lesbian, bisexual, or transgender. Seventeen-year old Serenity Blackwater lives in the normal Midwestern town of Mapleville, but she is not normal. She hacks into an illegal gay chat room and meets Dawn, a lesbian who lives in a gay community less than a mile away. Serenity discovers normal people can bribe their way inside the walls and decides to go, both to meet Dawn and check out what may be her future home. Dawn is even more beautiful than Serenity hoped, and the two soon become a couple. But Serenity only has a few months before she must take the Normal Verification Test, and then she’ll be separated from her family forever. So she joins the Human Equality Organization, an underground group working to end The Divide. Dawn thinks the rebellion is too dangerous, and since Dawn’s ex-girlfriend Malaki is also a member, Serenity doesn’t tell Dawn about her involvement. Serenity reveals to the HEO that her parents are leading a campaign to organize attacks on all Gay Communities. With her help, the HEO creates Project Jericho, in which all Gay Communities walls will implode at once. But after too many delays, and when Dawn discovers Serenity has been spending more time with Malaki than her, Serenity knows she has to start the revolution herself. She heads to D.C. to contact a group of senators secretly against The Divide ... or straight into a trap set by the Family Protection Movement.

Uprising

Nothing I heard was earth-shaking until—


“I saw two students kissing in the hall after lunch.”


Abeytu raised both hands for silence. “Were they male and female?” he asked.


The guy who had spoken, little Drake who apparently liked to skip school, said, “Well, yeah.”


Abeytu smiled. “These things happen. Hopefully they build a strong, healthy relationship in the Lord. Now, let us pray.”


I bowed my head and closed my eyes like everyone else, and wondered what would happen if the Accountability Testimonies were supposed to be about ourselves, instead of others. It would probably take a lot less time.


Once that torture was over, Abeytu turned the floor over to the vice-president, Fidelity, who read an essay she’d written about not judging other people.


I started counting the number of times Fidelity said, “Uh.”


Chapter 7