Anti-gay parents compare LGBT student group to ISIS
The parents say there is no place for LGBT people in the school.
Homophobic parents at a Tennessee high school took part in a rally earlier this week against a school club dedicated to LGBT students.
The new club – called the Franklin County High School Gay Straight Alliance, or GSA – has faced controversy since it formed in the rural community.
However, the pressure on the group is set to increase, after anti-gay parents launched a Facebook page encouraging others to “stand against” the club.
John Wimley and Chris Ball claimed the LGBT student group is the first step to having terrorist group Daesh/Islamic State on campus, as Wimley shared a flier lambasted GSA online.
“If we do not band together and stop this B.S, the next thing you know, we will have F.I.M.A. (future ISIS members of America) #PUTGODINSCHOOLSPLEASE,” he wrote.
At a school board meeting Monday night, resident Robert Widelick took to the microphone and said he doubted the groups agenda, before claiming they are trying to impose “the gay agenda” on people who attend their meetings.
“There’s really no place for discussion of sexual orientation in a public high school,” Widelick said.
in response, student Kevin Hamrick, a member of the GSA, said the group is needed. “Our community demeans the LGBT community so much that there has to be something to stop it,” he said Monday night.
He also told board members, “You can take us down. You can take our signs down. You can take the tears out of our eyes. But we still have a legal right to keep meeting.”
Members of GSA have faced an increased backlash since launching the club with some students wearing anti-gay “straight pride” shirts.
The club has also had its posters and fliers torn down and defaced, the New Civil Rights Movement reports.
“We all have common troubles,” student Allie Faxon told the Tennessean.
“By having the club, even people who aren’t out can come and have a place to be themselves.”
Following the meeting on Monday, the school board decided it needs to review policies and procedures for all school clubs – though the GSA Club is able to continue their meetings.
