On Tuesday, the New York Times featured a front page article about the Anoka-Hennepin School District and its two-year long struggle to defend policies that limit discussion of LGBT issues in district schools. It’s an issue the Minnesota Independent has covered from the beginning.The following is a full account of the dispute.
Today’s battle over how to address LGBT issues in Minnesota’s largest school district is nothing new. For the past 20 years, conservative Christian parents in the Anoka-Hennepin School District have been working to make their beliefs — from creationism to the negative effects of R-rated movies and the “Goosebumps” books on children — have impact in district schools. Their tactics have included the banning of books and films, changes to school curriculum and the forced resignation of an LGBT teacher.
The Anoka-Hennepin School District and lawyers for six students who sued the district over bullying began talks this week in an attempt to reach a settlement. While those talks were underway, the Parents Action League submitted a petition to the school board urging it not to budge on a policy that limits discussion of LGBT issues in the schools. And PAL came under scrutiny by other parents who questioned the group’s ties to the Minnesota Family Council.
The Parents Action League is circulating a petition to the Anoka-Hennepin School Board asking it to maintain a policy that limits discussions of LGBT issues in the classroom. The petition comes as six students and their parents are suing the district over alleged persistent bullying in its schools and are requesting the policy be dropped. PAL’s petition asserts that LGBT people suffer “life-threatening health risks” and a flier by the group warns of a “radical homosexual agenda.”
Anoka-Hennepin School District, the largest in the state of Minnesota, has been at the center of a tug of war between the LGBT community, which says the district is not safe for students, and religious right parents, who want all mentions of LGBT issues stricken from school curricula and programming. At issue is a policy that restricts LGBT content in the schools, a policy the school district said on Monday it would not change. In response, a pair of civil rights groups filed a lawsuit Thursday morning. In addition, federal authorities have opened an investigation into the school district.
Lawyers for the Alliance Defense Fund (ADF), a national conservative Christian legal organization, sent a letter to the Anoka-Hennepin School District this week urging it to maintain its “neutrality policy” on sexual orientation. The letter comes in response to a possible lawsuit by the Southern Poverty Law Center and the National Council for Lesbian Rights, two groups that have accused the district of creating an unsafe environment for LGBT students. The ADF argues that no changes are needed in the district, which has seen a spike in student suicides, including among LGBT students.
The Minnesota Family Council’s Barb Anderson said last week that efforts to keep LGBT-themed school safety materials out of classrooms at Anoka-Hennepin School District have been a success, and she blamed groups attempting to improve school safety for the violence, calling them “child corruption” organizations. She made the remarks on the radio program of Americans for the Truth About Homosexuality, where she discussed the controversy surrounding reports of anti-gay bullying in the district and nine student suicides, some of which LGBT advocates have said were due to bullying
The issue of suicides among LGBT students drew parents, students and community members to the Anoka-Hennepin School District headquarters Monday where they pressed the school board to change policies they say contribute to a culture of bullying. But anti-LGBT forces were on hand as well, telling the board that changing the policies would undermine parental authority.
The Parents Action League, a group of Anoka-Hennepin School District parents opposed to LGBT safety programs in district schools, shut down its website on Friday following…
As Minnesota’s largest school district records suicides by three gay students within the last year, a shadowy group called the Parents Action League is working to make sure LGBT issues aren’t discussed in Anoka-Hennepin schools. But the Gay Equity Team, motivated by the parents group, aims to make the district schools safe, healthy and welcoming for gay and lesbian students.
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