Watch This Dad’s Glorious & Brutal Takedown Of A School Board For Its Anti-LGBTQ+ Policies

https://www.pride.com/gay-news/cody-conner#toggle-gdpr

Cody Conner at the podium at a Virginia Beach school board meeting
VBSchools/YouTube

PRIDE spoke with Cody Conner who is going viral after speaking out during a Virginia Beach school board meeting.

 

 

 

In the face of anti-LGBTQ+ policies being implemented in schools across the country, some parents are speaking out and it’s glorious to watch. Especially when it’s done like this.

A video of Cody Conner, a Virginia Beach dad, is going viral on social media after he spoke at a school board meeting on October 10. The father of three gave an impassioned speech about the state’s “discriminatory policies” and called out anyone who stands in favor of them.

“You are never going to find a right way to do the wrong thing and Governor Youngkin’s policies are wrong,” he began his speech.

Conner is referring to the Virginia governor’s “model policies” for public schools that require students to use the bathroom and sports team that matches their assigned sex. It also requires written instruction from parents for a student to use names or gender pronouns that differ from the official record, meaning that teacher can deadname students—refer to them by their prior name—if paperwork isn’t filled out by the parents and it requires the school to inform parents if a student is questioning their identity, according to 13 News Now. These policies will be especially detrimental to LGBTQ+ students who come from conservative homes.

Conner started speaking out at school board meetings (he’ll be speaking for the 17th time on November 15) because he moved his family to Virginia Beach right before Youngkin’s policies passed and he worries about the future of his 13-year-old trans daughter who is now in the 8th grade. The family moved from rural Virginia to Virginia Beach so that their kid, who came out as trans a year ago, would be in a school system that would be supportive, but that all changed because of Youngkin.

“I think at that point, I just wasn’t going to run,” he tells PRIDE. “I couldn’t anymore.”

The 42-year-old father said that he’s a quiet person and might not have made the choice to speak up if not for his kids. “I just knew I couldn’t standby and do nothing, just let it happen and hope everything worked out ok and I also wanted to make sure my kid knew that I would stand up for them,” Conner explains as he begins to tear up. “My big job as a parent is not to tell my children who they are, it’s not to make the decisions for them, it’s not to live their life or decide what their life is going to be, but to show them the best way I know how to walk through this world.”

Watching a father stick up for his trans kid and the queer community and rail against conservatives is a cathartic experience and likely why the video has gone viral online.

In his speech that already has nearly 90,000 likes on TikTok, Conner pointed out that the fact that the Proud Boys and the “parental rights” group Moms for Liberty—both considered hate groups by the Southern Poverty Law Center—support these discriminatory and draconian policies is further proof that the policies are wrong.

“Never in history have the good guys been the segregationist group pushing to legislate identity,” he said. “Never in history have the good guys been closely connected with and supported by hate groups like the Proud Boys. And the good guys don’t put Hitler quotes for inspiration on the front of their newsletters. News flash: they’re the bad guys. They’re the bad guys supporting bad policy. And if you support the same bad policy, guess what? You’re one of the bad guys too.”

@beezay22

#CapCut #virginia #virginiabeach #schoolboard #schoolboardmeetings #lgbtqiaplus #transrightsarehumanrights #protecttranskids #stoptransgenocide #fyp

♬ original sound – BeezayDad

After nearly a year of delays, Youngkin’s policies are finally being implemented in the Virginia Beach school system, with a few minor alterations, which is why Conner has no plans to stop speaking out. He finished his dynamic speech by reminding the school board members to “be the good guys while you still can.”

Conner explains to PRIDE that for him speaking at school board meetings is about more than just trying to sway board members. “It was just about a lot more than just trying to change the minds of those 11 people up there,” he says. “It was about trying to bolster the hearts of the thousands and thousands of people out there that those 11 people’s decisions are threatening.”

With anti-LGBTQ+ laws sweeping the country it’s easy to become disillusioned, but watching Conner call out bigotry and homophobia is the kind of catharsis the queer community needs right now. But speaking truth to power isn’t the only way Conner is trying to change the world for the LGBTQ+ community. He’s also an organizer with the trans rights nonprofit the Calos Coalition. When speaking with PRIDE Conner was gearing up to cook a trans-Thanksgiving dinner put on by the group. It’s only the second “trans family dinner” they’ve put on—they plan to do it every month—but they are already expecting 70 guests.

“In a very real way the LGBTQ+ community gets treated by a lot of people as if they’re unwholesome in some way, with zero acknowledgment that so many members of the community have been isolated and ostracized from these presumed wholesome places and traumatized in places like the family dinner table,” he explains. “And I just wanted to take that back, create a safe space to sit down and break bread with people [who are] welcome and wanted.”

This is what allyship looks like. This is what parenting looks like. And this is hopefully what the future looks like — which if Conner gets his way, it will.

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Published by Scotties Playtime

I am an older gay guy in a long-term wonderful relationship. My spouse and I are in our 36th year together. I love politics and news. I enjoy civil discussions and have no taboo subjects. My pronouns are he / him / his and my email is Scottiestoybox@gmail.com

4 thoughts on “Watch This Dad’s Glorious & Brutal Takedown Of A School Board For Its Anti-LGBTQ+ Policies”

    1. Hi Barry. In most cases, I agree. This man has a trans child. He moved once to protect the child and yet hate followed in the state the moved to. He really feels he is unable to move again but I ask why should he have to? The US is still a secular country and these religious bigots are destroying young people’s lives just as they did in the past, in the 1950s and when I was growing up in the 1970s. I still remember being a Jr high school student listening to my classmates quote the hate pushed by Anita Bryant. How that hurt and how that made me even hate my self. We must not let those people gain power or come back to hurt kids like me again. Best wishes. Scottie

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      1. the US might be secular constitutionally, but the majority of the population still professes to be Christian, even if their version of it is horribly distorted. So in some ways you could say it’s a Christian country, but not necessarily for the best.

        Only a third of New Zealanders identify as Christian, and a significant percentage of those are not practising Christians. (“Hey Mum, I’m filling out the census form and they want to know my religion. What is it?”). More than half the population identify with no religion at all.

        But even here there is an increase in anti LGBTQAI+ sentiment and it doesn’t seem to be confined to Christians or other religions. It seems to be more aligned with a swing to the right politically and away from our historical lean to liberal social democracy. And this worries me.

        This is a country where back in the 1930s our version of socialism was described by politicians of the day as “Christianity in action”. A far cry from the American version of right wing Christian nationalism that is seen today.

        Anti LGBTQIA+ sentiment in the US may be fuelled by religious zealots, but the same can’t be said here. In part it’s not knowing the source of the hate that concerns me.

        As for how to fight it, I’m not convinced anger and inflammatory language ever works. It might feel good, but It just makes the opposition double down. You’ve previously shown the example of a black American who by befriending KKK members has persuaded them to have a change of heart. And I have Quaker models such as John Woolman and QUNO to call on.

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        1. Hi Barry. I agree with you that religion alone is not the only reason for hate against the LGBTQIA or basically anyone different from the one doing the haters. I often only speak from what I know best, my own country.

          As for anger and rage changing minds, I agree. Yet some days when it is me constantly targeted and children constantly targeted by these people I do get angry and I am ready to rage.

          But instead, Barry I keep posting every day about their attacks on the LGBTQIA kids and adults. I keep asking people to help me and others to stand up to this hate and bigotry. But … I see very little backlash or movement to stop this religious bigotry racist take over by the republicans in red states here in the US. In some states the republicans have so badly gerrymandered the voting districts before people realized it, that it gives them a super majority in the state legislature even though they are a much smaller minority so fighting back against them is almost not possible. What people are starting to realize is republicans want to rule the public, not serve it.

          As for that example, it is one out of thousands that worked the other way. Sorry but sometimes uprising is the only way to change things. Not every non-violence stance wins, sometimes the being willing to stop everything does. Look at recent actions in France as an example, the people showed they simply wouldn’t accept what the government was trying to do, and the government backed down. Here in the US the BLM movement faced a lot of government attempts to stop them, hurt them, and attack them, but they still shut down entire cities and it made a huge difference. Same with several oil pipelines in the US. So it is a mixed bag really. Sometimes the peaceful way wins and sometimes it loses, sometimes it takes being willing to answer violence with violence.

          I think of the armed Proud Boys showing up and shutting down drag queen story hours in the US, until the pro drag queen story hours people also showed up with the same weapons and stood between the Proud Boys and the story events. The Proud Boys backed down and the events proceeded. But it took being willing to respond to their violence with our being willing to stop them with violence. Bullies only back down when confronted with superior force, not with being nice, in my experience. Best wishes. Scottie

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