LGBT protections stall before Brevard School Board, activists regroup

LGBT protections stall before Brevard School Board, activists regroup

Viera – LGBT activists are getting prepared for another round before the Brevard County School Board following a setback Feb. 23.

“A group of us that have been attempting to update the nondiscrimination policy for the school board to include sexual orientation and gender identity for about a year and a half now were attending that meeting under the belief that it was a formal step that has to be taken, and that the board would, during that meeting, move the policy change along,” President of Space Coast Pride Lexi Wright says.

Instead, they faced a large, organized group of anti-gay speakers, much like the group that helped derail adding LGBT protections to Palm Bay’s Human Rights Ordinance last month.

“We had a very good group of stakeholders that had been signing up to speak, attending every board meeting since 2014, urging them to update policy, not only for employees but also for students, inclusion and the ability to learn and work authentically and free from discrimination,” Wright says, so it was very disappointing when the Board voted to move the policy changes to a workshop, effectively killing the proposal.

“In the past when they’ve moved items to workshop, there’s been no action taken on them after that,” she says.

Wright called the meeting room a “circus,” and about 90 anti-gay people signed up to speak before the school board, the “same group of people we saw in Palm Bay that is headed by the Liberty Counsel.”

The Liberty Council is an Orlando-based legal organization “that advocates for anti-LGBT discrimination under the guise of religious liberty,” according to the Southern Poverty Law Center, which classifies Liberty as a hate group.

Wright says speakers in favor of adding the LGBT protections included students, former students, teachers and parents. Some testified about their own bullying and discrimination, one even stating that it led to a suicide attempt.

“During the meeting there were several courses of ‘amen’s and a speaker didn’t speak to board but read entire biblical passages for his three minutes,” Wright says. “It was incredibly disrespectful to the board and to us.”

She says the good news is that since the meeting, they’ve received “an overwhelming outpouring of support and encouragement” from other areas of the community, and they’re getting organized to again bring the issue before the Brevard School Board.

“I hope there are enough people who have seen this and are outraged that it happened again,” Wright says.

They plan to speak to the board at their March 15 meeting and at an April 12 workshop.

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