A father in Colorado is suing the state’s largest school district for refusing to display a “straight pride” flag alongside the LGBTQ Pride flags at his children’s Denver school.
Nathan Feldman said his children are being barred from exercising their freedom of speech, in what he claims is discrimination.
Feldman’s lawyer, Michael Yoder, argued that equity policies were to blame, like Denver’s, for “the overt sexualization of content in elementary schools nationwide.”
“This is not a groundbreaking lawsuit. This is just a controversial lawsuit,” said David Lane, a civil rights attorney based in Denver.
A spokesperson for LGBTQ Colorado sent the following statement in response to the lawsuit:
“A Pride flag is not meant to be exclusive – it is designed to be inclusive. It is meant to draw attention and humanity to people who historically have been considered “illegal,” ostracized, excluded, and for too long, quiet victims of discrimination and violence. “
“A Straight Pride Flag speaks “us vs them” wherein a Pride flag lifts up an “all of us” dynamic that recognizes the too often quiet and quieted LGBTQ+ community.”
CBS reported:
“This lawsuit has riled up a lot of discussion and concern on social media, especially among the Slavens School community.
Slavens’ parents created a change.org petition supporting the school’s teachers and inclusivity and calling for Feldman to stop the lawsuit.“
“People are under the mistaken belief that offensive speech or hate speech is not protected speech. The U.S. Supreme Court has said the government doesn’t get to choose and decide what is offensive, what is not offensive,” said Lane.
“If they’re going to allow any political speech, they’re going to have to allow all political speech of a related nature.”
“If we had more parents like [Feldman], then these policies would never have been rolled out in the first place, and they’d be teaching kids about math and science,” Yoder said.
“They wouldn’t be talking about sexual orientation and homosexuality and having this flamboyant breeding ground for inappropriate content.”
The conflict began last year when Feldman visited Slavens School and noticed dozens of Progress Pride flags displayed in classrooms and hallways, according to the suit.
Feldman told the school the flags were “not inclusive of all Slavens School students and only represented one viewpoint on the topic of sex,” the suit claims.
He then requested if he could place an identically-sized flag representing his children’s views alongside existing flags.
However, the teacher did not respond.
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