Community gatherings continued July 18th, with nearly 170 people attending an independently organized public meeting to examine a subject that stirred passionate discourse among those assembled during the nearly 3 hour event. The topic to be addressed by legal representatives and several members of the Hastings Area Ministerial community was contained in a handout given to participants as they entered Mother Seton Hall at SEAS Church. Eight pastors represented that they share concerns about societal promotion of Transgenderism, focused, they say on the harm or even trauma that may be caused by allowing and promoting an ideology of a young person’s supposed confusion about gender identity.
One concern, stated in the handout, was that information has been made available to students in District 200 that they believe promotes acceptance or normalizing the movement of gender dysphoria, for which the eight stand firmly against. They pointed to the fact that the Middle School Library has one book, I am Jazz, that describes a young person who is deemed to be affected, the speakers said, by an ideology of inaccurate feelings that the body they were born into is somehow incorrect in it’s gender assignment The group points to their beliefs in religious documents that refute the trend and suggest that parents have legally supported responsibilities to protect their children from such content,including the right to request their student opt out of classes to avoid teaching that provides transgender information to their children.
Speakers referred to a Parent’s resource guide that will be made available online in August designed to provide support in addressing administrations including the school district. Those supporting the attendance were met with several who felt just as strongly that there should be no censorship of library resources or topics involved in accreditted classroom cirriculum. The last portion of the meeting featured questions submitted in writing that were posed to the organizers. Many of those who disagreed with the statements, left the meeting prior to the question representatitves referred to the School District, it is believed that no current member of the administration attended the meeting. KDWA has requested a comment from the District Superintendent office, whose response will be featured in an upcoming newscast.
