Kentucky school excludes gay basketball player from yearbook spread

An openly gay Kentucky high school basketball player was left out of his school yearbook's tribute to the boys' basketball team.

According to OutSports.com, Dalton Maldonado's exclusion from the yearbook comes after a long and difficult year for the teen player. He and his teammates have been harassed, attacked, ridiculed and ignored by school administration.

In a lengthy statement on his Facebook timeline [Warning: Page autoplays loud music], Maldonado said, "I recently saw my senior yearbook, I flipped right to the sports basketball page only to find my senior basketball picture missing...which devastated me."

The Betsy Layne High School yearbook did a two-page spread on the boys' basketball team with every player featured except Maldonado.

"His deletion from this special spread in the yearbook is pretty telling," wrote OutSports.com's Cyd Zeigler. "Maldonado has shared stories of discrimination by the school for the last few months, so it shouldn't be a surprise that people at Betsy Layne High School may demonstrate deep-seated homophobia by excluding him from such an important honor for recent high school graduates."

Principal Cassandra Akers has refused to discuss her and the school's antigay discrimination against Maldonado, who graduated in the spring and will attend the University of Louisville this fall.