Philadelphia – The Philadelphia School District has received about 120 complaints – including one from a parent who said she would keep her child out of school for the entire month of October – because the district recognized Gay and Lesbian History Month on its school calendars.
Gay and Lesbian History Month was added for the first time this year in an effort to be more inclusive and follow a long-standing district policy requiring equity for all races and minority groups, said Cecilia Cummings, the district’s senior vice president for communications and community relations.
It is one of four special history months noted, along with Hispanic Heritage in September, African-American in February, and Asian Pacific American in May.
Cummings said the district was not planning to roll out any districtwide curriculum or hold celebrations to coincide with the month, although individual schools with gay- straight alliances may have observances.
The uproar in response to the calendar was not unexpected.
“We knew that this would be controversial,” Cummings said. “When you deal with diversity, there are some hot-button issues that emerge.”
An irate Senita Watson went to school district headquarters Wednesday to find out how she could home-school her daughter for the month of October.
She won’t let her 7-year-old second-grader attend Emlen School in that period, she said.
“How can you celebrate gay and lesbian month? What are you going to teach my daughter?” asked Watson, who said she was calling on other parents to boycott the district in October. “They need to have a nonviolence month, not a gay and lesbian month. … Our children have enough to worry about with drugs.”
Cummings said that about 200,000 calendars had been sent to parents, agencies affiliated with the district, and other district partners, and that there had been some calls of support for recognizing gay history month.
Greg Wade, president of the district’s Home and School Council, the parents group, said he supports the decision to include gay history month.
“I understand that there are many people out there who have their problems with the gay community, but they’re part of our community, and we, as a council, have to support every parent and every student in our school district,” he said.
