James Barnett

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For the Australian colonial architect of similar name, see James Barnet.

James Mark Barnett II

Born	September 30, 1986 (1986-09-30) (age 21) Hutchinson, Kansas
Occupation	Entrepreneur

James Barnett, (September 30, 1986 in Hutchinson, Kansas) is an American entrepreneur^[who?] and community activist from Dallas, Texas. At 17, he created a social networking site for gay teens and young adults called My-Boi.Com, which resulted in his expulsion from his Christian high school and his outing to his parents. His situation received national media attention and Barnett received several awards for his efforts on behalf of gay youth.^[1] Barnett has since created a web development firm and a social networking site for the general highschool and college community.

1 Early life
2 Expulsion, media attention and awards
3 Current activities
4 References
5 External links

[edit] Early life

Barnett was motivated to create his own social networking site for gay youth after the then only existing service, XY.Com, went from being a free service to being fee based one.^[2] In July of 2004, he created My-Boi.Com, announcing the free status of his service in advertisements on XY.Com.

[edit] Expulsion, media attention and awards

Three months after My-Boi's creation, Trinity Christian Academy was notified of Barnett's homosexuality, and the school administration called on him to further discuss his sexual orientation. The school also notified Barnett's parents about James' homosexuality and website. Trinity took the further action of expelling Barnett for his "promotion" of homosexuality.^[2] A compromise was eventually reached wherein Barnett's father withdrew him from the school to avoid any damage to James' permanent school record. He completed his studies at a public high school.^[3]

After an article on NotGeniuses by Ryan J. Davis^[4] Barnett's situation was picked up by both the mainstream and gay focused press, with national organizations such as the Human Rights Council discussing his situation on The O'Reilly Factor.^[3] Barnett contacted the ACLU, but as his expulsion was a private school matter, they declined to take the case^{[citation needed]}.

In January of 2005, Barnett was awarded the Point Foundation Scholarship. Vance Lancaster, the executive director of the foundation, noted that "[James' story]is a sadly common and very real example of why Point Foundation scholarships are necessary."^[5] In June of 2005, Barnett was recognized with the Lawrence & Garner Courage Award, given by the Lambda Legal Foundation, for "outstanding courage in the face of uncertainty, discrimination and hostility in the advancement of civil rights for the LGBT and HIV/AIDS communities."^[6]

[edit] Current activities

James is currently launching a website for Gay fans of SciFi, Fantasy and Horror called DoorQ. This is the first project of DoorQ, a Hollywood production company he launched in May of 2007 with two associates, Jody Wheeler and Daniel Greeney.

Barnett graduated from Plano West Senior High in 2005, a public high school. He currently attends the University of Texas at Dallas, where he has declared business as his major. His long range goal is to attend law school.^{[citation needed]}

He also owns and operates Pointblanc, a web development corporation.