CHEYENNE, Wyo.—The Wheatland School Board has voted against allowing banners promoting an anti-discrimination campaign because a gay rights group is helping sponsor the program.
Platte County School District 1 trustees voted 4-3 this week to reject a request to keep the Anti-Defamation League’s “No Place for Hate” banners at Wheatland High and West Elementary. The program is designed to teach young people about tolerance and respecting differences, according to the Anti-Defamation League.
District administrators removed the signs after parents and school board members raised concern because the banners list the Gay and Lesbian Fund for Colorado as a sponsor. Some students requested the banners be replaced, but the board refused.
The Wheatland schools were among 25 in Colorado and Wyoming taking part in the program. The other sponsors are Qwest Communications International Inc. and the David & Laura Merage Foundation.
Wheatland, a southeast Wyoming town of about 3,300 residents, is an “ultraconservative community,” said school board member Lee Dunham.
“If this is the way one chooses, then they can lead this particular lifestyle, but I don’t believe it needs to be publicly displayed in a school,” Dunham said.
School board member Joe Fabian said he believes the Anti-Defamation League is pushing an “agenda that is pro-gay marriage” and that the community of Wheatland is not supportive of that.
“They wouldn’t want the organization, the Anti-Defamation League, dictating to their children that an alternate lifestyle is a normal lifestyle,” he said.
Fabian said school administrators shouldn’t have allowed the banners without first seeking the board’s approval.
The district intended to allow the anti-discrimination campaign to continue, Superintendent Stuart Nelson said. But the Anti-Defamation League won’t allow the Wheatland schools to participate without the presence of the banners, said Bruce DeBoskey, mountain states regional director for the group.
“(The Anti-Defamation League) will no longer allow the program if it’s not being honored and used in its fullest intent,” he said.
DeBoskey said there are many Wheatland residents who support the anti-discrimination campaign and he urged them to speak up.
“The (league) is extremely concerned that this whole program—which is designed to teach young people to respect the differences among us—has been derailed by people who appear to have biases,” he said.
Linda Burt of the Wyoming chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union also criticized the board’s decision, saying it’s “extraordinarily unfortunate and extraordinarily shortsighted.”
“Does that mean this is a place for hate?” she asked. “Does that mean this is a place for discrimination?”
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Information from: Wyoming Tribune Eagle – Cheyenne,
