Gays given protection in contentious vote

Gay, lesbian and transgender teachers may no longer fear for losing their jobs, and gay, lesbian and transgender students will be protected from discrimination after the Orange County School Board approved protections for those groups Dec. 12. But not everybody was happy about the result inside the School Board chamber.

Speakers were at times threatened with ejection from the room as the contentious issue caused threats of a mass exodus of students or a U.S. Supreme Court free speech case by those opposed to the law.

Security guards repeatedly surrounded Apopka resident Linda Burnette after she pointed and shouted at the School Board.

“As far as what you’re proposing here, it’s not only vulgar and out of place, but unless you’ve seen real discrimination, you guys don’t know what you’re talking about,” she said.

“You are in effect bullying the majority of the kids who can’t say ‘I support marriage,’” Orlando resident Larry Godden said, “Suddenly that’s hate.”

It took six hours of testimony and deliberations before a vote that split 6-2, with Board members Christine Moore and Pam Gould voting against the change. Moore had earlier proposed an amendment that would have stripped language from the change protecting gender expression and identity. That failed 3-5, with Board members Christine Moore, Pam Gould and Chairman Bill Sublette in favor of it.

For Board member Rick Roach, passing the change, including protections for gender identity, was seemingly an easy choice, one with precedent from hundreds of schools nationwide. He disagreed with dissent based on threats that schools would face gender-bending chaos in the wake of the vote.

“There’s been so much misinformation tonight…that’s misinformation that people really believe that would happen if we pass this law,” he said. “We talk about suspending kids for disagreeing with their teachers, homosexual, heterosexual. It’s ridiculous. We talk about flip-flopping. ‘Today I’m Mr. Jones, tomorrow I’m Mrs. Jones.’ I don’t think that occurs. And Johnny says ‘Today I’m Johnny, tomorrow I’m Sally.’ That’s probably one of the toughest decisions that would ever happen to a kid. Why in the world would you play with that?”

Orange County resident Patrick Howell said that doomsayers were wielding negative hyperbole to frighten parents.

“They use scare tactics that propose scenarios that have never come to pass in the hundreds of school districts that have adopted this very similar language,” he said. “Please don’t be misled.”

Parent Martha Haney said that it wasn’t a question of restricting conservative free speech or enforcing liberal politics; it was about accepting differences rather than fearing them.

“Children need to be protected from those that would do them harm,” she said. “Sometimes they need to be protected from football coaches, and sometimes they need to be protected from troop leaders…but I do not believe they need to be protected from people who are simply different than they are.”