Lesbian Teen Katy Butler Delivers 200,000-Plus Signatures to Protest 'Bully' Rating

Katy Butler, a Michigan high school student who identifies as lesbian and who launched a Change.org petition to overturn the antibullying documentary Bully’s R rating, personally delivered 200,000 signatures to the Motion Picture Association of America.

Bully, which chronicles the lives of bullied students in the U.S, received an R rating last month ahead of its March 30 release due to six expletives. Butler has petitioned to lower the rating to PG-13 in order to reach a broader student population. Butler says she was inspired to start the campaign after experiencing a bullying incident in her own life, when bullies slammed a locker on her hand and broke one of her fingers.

"Today, with the help of more than 200,000 people who have signed my Change.org petition, we sent a loud and clear message to the MPAA that the movie Bully shouldn't be given an R rating," Butler says in an exclusive statement to The Advocate. "Every day in every middle school and high school in America, students are bullied. This movie, if given a PG-13 rating, could reach those students as well as bullies themselves and help put a stop to the epidemic of school bullying in our country. The MPAA should pay attention. They ruled by one vote thatBully should be rated R. We're telling them, with more than 200,000 voices, that an R rating will prevent this movie from being seen by those students who need to see it the most."