To the LGBTQIA+ students in the county’s public schools, in the private schools, and everywhere you are—
You are just as human as anyone else. You deserve everything that everyone else deserves. You deserve love, opportunity, equity, equality, and above all, respect. You are entitled to the inalienable rights mentioned in this nation’s Declaration of Independence. You can dress as you please, act as you please, love as you please, serve others as you please, and at age 18 vote as you please. You are no different from anyone else. From the sampling I see on social media, there are plenty of LGBT adults who feel exactly the same way.
Some of you in the middle and high schools have probably heard about the struggle over LGBT classes and materials in the public schools. There are some parents, and maybe some students, and maybe some of your classmates, who prefer not to have those materials in the public schools. There are other parents and students who demand they be in the public schools. The characterization that is probably most representative is that most parents oppose prohibiting LGBT studies in the public schools. I certainly fall in that category, but not everybody does, and that’s OK. Being tolerant of opposing views is the best way to show respect and, in turn, to gain respect.
Public schools are a shared resource, and that makes them inherently dangerous places. Like any shared resource, they are managed and controlled by a very small group of people, starting with the Board of Education. These people have ambitions that have nothing to do with your welfare and nothing to do with your success. They are interested in only one thing: control. They are using you to get that control, and in that regard you are nothing special: they also use other people and other resources to get control.
If they really cared about you, they would not inject you into a controversy. They would not put you in situations that force attention on you that you may not need or not want.
If they really cared about you, they would offer school choice and school vouchers, so you could go to a school that matches your interests and abilities. Some of you may prefer to go to a school that offers LGBT studies without the controversy. Some of you aren’t interested in LGBT studies, and prefer to focus on core studies such as reading, writing, civics, and history. The same is true of your straight classmates.
Let’s make the school system a better place for future students of all orientations. Write to the Board of Education, write to your County Council member, and tell them that you support school choice and school vouchers. Tell your parents to do the same. Tell them you want to go to a school that matches your aspirations, and that you aren’t interested in forcing anyone to do anything “on your behalf.”
Denying intolerant people positions of control makes for a more peaceful and safer society. Treating other people the way they want to be treated, rather than the way you want to be treated, is the sure way to respect. A local official applying force, insults, and bigotry will not get you respect.
