No safe space, no quiet room to decompress for every kid who needs one, because a minority thinks some kids are evil and they might feel safe and welcome there. WTF! Seriously! Adults need quiet places to decompress, and yet these old grandparent fucks think kids have it so easy they now all they need is Christ and the 10 commandments in school to be happy. This wouldn’t have cost the district. It was free money. But again religious people have the self entitled idea that somehow they get the right to force their religious convictions on other people’s children. I hate it, kids crying for safety, begging adults to help them. But all they got from some was hate, anger, judgement, and disdain.
I included a few more comments than I normally do because I want everyone to note how many people said hate, distrust, non-accptance and intolerance kept them in the closet, kept them denying who they were and stopping them from living openly as gay people. It kept them from dating and having fullfilling relationship. That is what the religous right wants to return to, the right to opress the LGBTQIA and keep them out of society. That is the world they love, where only people like them are seen in public, and on social media.
Last thing. At the very end someone who was able to see the entire meeting (* I was not able to read the article as it required me to regester and log in. *) reported that the board did agree to the need for a safe space. What they couldn’t accept was the money from “those people” again because the goal is to keep anyone different from being able to show it. To make sure the only accepted way to be is cis straight with strict gender roles from the 1950s. So they do see the need, they just refused free money because queer people were donating it. Again it makes it quite clear the goal they have. And I say together we have to stop them. Hugs. Scottie
The Lynchburg City School Board has voted not to accept a $10,000 grant from an LGBTQ-focused nonprofit, a possible temperature gauge for the board’s upcoming consideration of Gov. Glenn Youngkin’s model policies on the treatment of transgender students. At its meeting Tuesday, the board voted 7-2 against accepting the grant from the nonprofit It Gets Better Project, with board members Anthony Andrews and Sharon Carter the only votes in favor.
Students with the E.C. Glass High School Gender and Sexuality Alliance (GSA) club applied for and were recently awarded a grant from the nonprofit to develop a safe-space or “quiet room” at the school, intended for all students’ use. One grandparent of a student spoke in opposition: “Let me be very clear, the LBGTQ agenda in schools is about indoctrination and grooming our children into an evil and wicked lifestyle, all while circumventing the rights and responsibilities of parents.”
Read the full article. In the screenshot seen above and in the cued-up video below, tearful students begged the school board in vain for the safe space.
School Board votes against accepting grant from LGBTQ-centered nonprofit | Tap on the picture to learn more 🔽 https://t.co/3uWrSdxjE1
A quiet room where students can read or do homework or just sit without being bullied. Imagine being against that. Now you understand the religious right. They want to be free to abuse anyone they want and when they are not allowed to do that they think they are being persecuted.
It reminds me of when I was in college, and an LGBT group was created, only to face a backlash from a counter group preaching “Society needs a home!” Rumor had it that this counter group sent plants into the LGBT group to potentially publicly out those attending…basically what Laura Ingraham did in college.
That threat kept me in the closet for a few more years, until I was out on my own and 1000 miles from my family. It should never have to be like that!
I started hitting the clubs at around 16 (back then in 1980’s NOLA I was just one face in a sea of gays and got away with it!) but didn’t come out until 1989 when I got out of the Army. It really was just too much trouble to be a double agent all the time. The idea of a “safe space” was unthinkable! Besides, I knew I was an ugly, twisted, perverted abomination that couldn’t be trusted around children. It took decades to partially heal from all that garbage. The kids deserve better than that, but that’s the message they get when they are denied these spaces. Oh, and I fucking HATE people like that Grandparent. I do not wish them well.
I ‘m sorry you had a moment when you viewed yourself as a “twisted abomination.” I understand it. I was raised a good Catholic boy. My parents even strong-armed me into going to their Catholic college, instead of the state college I wanted to attend, but I never saw myself as an abomination as I wanted so much more than just sex. I wanted love and a relationship…so how could that be wrong?
Of course it also helped that at the same time, Oprah, Geraldo, and other talk shows started featuring LGBT guests, who looked like “regular people,” acted like regular people, some were even ex-military & cops and this all flew in the face of what I was told what queer people were.
AIDS was devastating. I lost so many dear friends. The worst when when I would talk to my dad, and he deemed AIDS as “gawd’s judgement.” He eventually came around, when my parents met my gay friends and really liked them A LOT more than my sisters’ straight, boring, unfunny, uncultured friends. At one point, it was a bit unsettling when I had a bf my dad wanted to hang out with all the time, as they had way too many interests in common.
I’m a cis gendered white guy, and I’m ashamed that I had similar attitudes growing up. To be fair, I learned sex ed through ’60’s TV. I’m so glad I got past it. Even though I used to get hit on by gay guys all the time. 😉
My dad told me that all gay men acted & like to dress like women. “I couldn’t be gay. I’m not drawn to crossdressing nor attracted to effeminate men.”
Nothing’s worse than that time when I was closeted & neurotic 17-22 year old…desperately wanting some gay man to come onto me, only to be offended and terrified of being detected as gay.
When I was in an internship in college, there was this very cute, 30-ish mailman who delivered to the office all the time. One time he walked by my desk and flirted with me. I reacted rudely at the thought of being discovered. I thought about it later, and thought I should apologize the next time I saw him, and see where things go from there (never having been with another man yet.) Sadly, I never saw him again, as he had gotten sick shortly thereafter & died of AIDS.
My own self-loathing kept me away from friendly gay spaces and in my fraternity. Never mind that we would sometimes go to the big gay bar on $5 all you can drink Tuesdays. When I was finally outed and literally chased out of the house my biggest fear was that one of my ‘brothers’ would tell my parents. It’s not like the contact information wasn’t on file. But they didn’t.
I was booted from my frat when the fraternity president decided to come clean and tell his girlfriend that the two of us were having sex. After she ratted us out I was blackballed and the president stayed claiming I had “influenced” him. I guess the others I was having regular sex with as well felt it best to vote me out as to not appear to also having been “influenced”.
I never slept with any of my brothers but I did fuck my way through about a quarter of the PiKappaAlpha house. One bit of unfortunately blowback from my own outing was the guilt by association. Because I was treasurer and the assumptive president for the coming fall term, the whole thing created a bit of a scandal. I became toxic overnight and some of that stuck to others that I cared deeply for. In some cases I was the first person that they had spoken the words out loud to.
Oh man, I am so sorry to hear that happened to you.
My college’s GSU (1975) was the first place I felt comfortable coming out, and the first time I met people who felt the same way I did. It’s also where I met my first bf.
We all had/have our journeys. I survived and thrived, despite the delay & one-two punch in my journey of self-discovery & coming out.
1. Just before attending college and anticipating the exploration of my adulthood, I was reading about the sudden explosion of this ARC disease afflicting the gay community.
2. Was my college’s threat to this new gay safe space organization.
Moving 1000 miles away, 5 years later I found love (for 4-5 years), my happy gay self and tons of gay & lesbian friends.
Joining the Army saved my life. I was so afraid of getting kicked out for being gay (this was PRE-“Don’t ask, don’t tell) that I basically went celibate for 4 years, which coincided with the height of the plague. I remember going home on leave my first year. When I say that literally EVERY single person I’d slept with (and there were a lot) was dead, I’m not kidding. All those beautiful young men. It’s no wonder I’m filled with rage at the right.
I don’t get it. The school got the grant. It wouldn’t take any money and very little effort on the school’s part to make this happen. I don’t know of any school that would refuse free money. I guess I do now. 😦
True, the board voted 7-2 against accepting the $10,000 grant from the nonprofit It Gets Better Project. The negative majority objected to the It Gets Better Project “branding,” and what they percieved are implications of “indoctrination.”
However, in discussion beginning at hour 2:05 through 2:58 the board recognized the need for such a safe space, without objection. Eventually, the board voted 6-3 to direct the school system to find the funding for the safe space.
School Board Chair Dr. Gupta, a “No” voter on the It Gets Better Project grant, then offered to personally fund the project with $10,000. Accordingly, the Board then voted 9-0 to reconsider the 6-3 vote at their next meeting, pending investigation of any legal matters that might arise around Dr. Gupta’s donation.
I’m as disgusted as anyone here that in early discussion some board members wanted to accept the grant but were not willing recognize the grantor with a sign on the safe room’s door. But by the end of the meeting the glass was half-full — a safe room will be established, and a prominent local individual has offered to fund it.
Retiring after 17 years in my own city’s government, a place not unlike Lynchburg VA, I swore I’d never again watch another local government meeting. But watching the Lynchburg meeting I was encouraged. Especially that the needs of LGBT children were discussed (in Lynchburg, home of Liberty University!)
The meeting was calm and deliberate, without any Moms-for-Liberty stunts. I was especially struck by the diversity of the school board members, politically and ethnically. (Again in Lynchburg!) Another long, boring meeting, but I was surprised to find this one fascinating.
So, if I am reading this right, the school board recognized the need for a safe space for LGBTQ students, and approved the creation of such a space – they just couldn’t bear to take those queer dollars to fund it.
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
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2 thoughts on “VA School Board Rejects Safe Space For LGBTQ Kids”
Yes Keith, I find it very sad. The board eventually did the best thing for the students, by giving them a safe space to decompress. But they couldn’t accept a small plaque that gave credit to a LGBTQIA child support group. Instead, that credit will now go to a church. In their minds it is OK to put up a sign saying this room provided by church XXX but not the “It Gets Better Project”. What does that tell the kids, especially the LGBTQIA kids in that school? And Keith yes they are there, I was one of them in the 1970s listening to the Anita Bryant hate spewing. What it says is what these religious right wing board members want it to, church is good, being different, being non-straight non-cis is very bad. Hugs. Scottie
Scottie's Playtime 
Sad commentary is it not?
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Yes Keith, I find it very sad. The board eventually did the best thing for the students, by giving them a safe space to decompress. But they couldn’t accept a small plaque that gave credit to a LGBTQIA child support group. Instead, that credit will now go to a church. In their minds it is OK to put up a sign saying this room provided by church XXX but not the “It Gets Better Project”. What does that tell the kids, especially the LGBTQIA kids in that school? And Keith yes they are there, I was one of them in the 1970s listening to the Anita Bryant hate spewing. What it says is what these religious right wing board members want it to, church is good, being different, being non-straight non-cis is very bad. Hugs. Scottie
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