Group Compares LGBT Pride Flag to ‘Confederate, Christian, or Heterosexual Flag’
An anonymous group of parents is demanding an Alabama high school remove an LGBT Pride flag from one teacher’s classroom. The classroom is also home to a school diversity club. Insisting they are not anti-gay, just think the flag represents the teacher’s political views and insist she should remain “neutral,” the group says the LGBTQ Pride flag “creates a hostile and provocative learning environment for students not comfortable openly supporting the LGBTQ Community.”
The group, as WRBL reports, also calls it “unprofessional” for teachers “to openly display their political views in an unbiased and socially neutral public setting– creating a hostile and uncomfortable learning environment.”
Not only does the group of parents and students think equality and inclusion are “political” issues, they are likening the Confederate flag to the LGBT Pride flag.
“The signers of this petition would like for you to consider the uproar and chaos that would ensue were a teacher to hang for example a Confederate, Christian, or Heterosexual Flag in their classroom,” they say. “There would likely be protests, emails from teachers, and threatening of lawsuits from parents with differing viewpoints.”
There is of course no recognized “Heterosexual Flag,” and the First Amendment bars the display of a Christian flag, whatever that might be.
They also complain that “subjecting or explicitly exposing students from diverse political backgrounds to political views differing from theirs can make students uncomfortable and distract them from learning.”
In a statement Auburn City Schools Superintendent Dr. Karen DeLano says the petition is “from a group of anonymous students and parents,” and was sent to the principal of Auburn High School, Dr. Shannon Pignato. DeLano has not said what will happen, but she did offer this note:
“It is our mission to ensure each student embraces and achieves his or her unique intellectual gifts and personal aspirations while advancing the community through a school system distinguished by compassion for others, symbiotic relationships with an engaged community, the creation and sharing of knowledge, inspired learners with global perspectives and the courage to determine our future.”
DeLano told WSFA (video above) she is trying to get the students to come together to help make a decision.
“It is my sincere desire to assist our students in learning to address their opinions and values in a calm and respectful manner,†DeLano told HuffPost.
Students who do not want the Pride flag to be removed have their own petition, which is approaching 5000 signatures at Change.org.
“To be made uncomfortable by opinions differing to your own is to function as a modern human. Attempting to insulate a student from political discourse would be an insult to their intelligence,” they impressively state.
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