<p>“Brandon Holt, Civil Rights Activist, Headed to Princeton” (Tennessee)</p>
<p>[Teen</a> activist sees historical parallels in civil protests | The Tennessean | tennessean.com](<a href=“http://www.tennessean.com/article/20110604/NEWS/306040019/Teen-activist-sees-historical-parallels-civil-protests]Teen”>http://www.tennessean.com/article/20110604/NEWS/306040019/Teen-activist-sees-historical-parallels-civil-protests)</p>
<p>"Yesterday morning, while other teenagers slept in or lounged in front of their televisions, Brandon Holt and more than 20 of his peers from across Middle Tennessee mopped sweat from their brows while marching to the state Capitol brandishing homemade posters and a petition.</p>
<p>For Holt, this was part of an increasingly familiar routine. This was his eighth protest in less than a month.</p>
<p>The 18-year-old graduate of Martin Luther King Jr. Magnet High School spent the last days of his senior year organizing seven protests against what has been dubbed the Dont Say Gay bill, legislation that would prevent teaching about homosexuality in schools.</p>
<p>Yesterday, he and his peers turned their attention toward Nashvilles anti-discrimination ordinance that was overturned when Gov. Bill Haslam signed HB 600 into law on May 24.</p>
<p>The cluster of protests has united high school students from several local schools under the banner of gay rights.</p>
<p>I really feel like this is the civil rights movement of our time, Holt said.</p>
<p>Friends and community leaders say protest efforts by the Princeton University-bound Holt are not a surprise but rather what they have come to expect from him. . . . (continued)</p>
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<p>. . . and another nice story profiling Brandon:</p>
<p>[Burch:</a> A young man’s protest | Nashville City Paper](<a href=“http://nashvillecitypaper.com/content/city-voices/burch-young-mans-protest]Burch:”>http://nashvillecitypaper.com/content/city-voices/burch-young-mans-protest) </p>
<p>Brandon Holt is a young man on a mission. Whether that mission is impossible or not remains to be seen. After all, hes trying to bring Tennessee government to its senses a truly Herculean task. But I wouldnt be surprised if he and his fellow student-activists eventually manage to muck out our state legislatures smelly chambers, just as Hercules once cleansed the stinky stalls of King Augeas. According to legend, the Olympic games were founded to celebrate the victory of Hercules over the rotten-egg rulers of his day.</p>
<p>Holt recently graduated from Martin Luther King Jr. Magnet High School and is now bound for Princeton University. During his senior year, he helped organize seven protests against the now-infamous Dont Say Gay bill, which along with other bizarre bits of bigoted buffoonery (euphemistically called legislation) have made Tennessee the butt of many a late-night comedians ridicule. . . .</p>
<p>Holt has also been quoted nationwide by news organizations such as NBC News and msnbc.com, which reported him saying: This is the civil rights movement of our time, and if we don’t take advantage of our opportunity to stand up for what we believe in, then we have lost that opportunity. And this is something that we all feel so strongly about. . . . (continued)</p>