Diane Douglas blasts two officials in Facebook rant
Former Arizona Superintendent of Public Instruction Diane Douglas is taking criticism over a Facebook post that associates the transgender pride flag with pedophilia and blasts two public officials.
Former Arizona Superintendent of Public Instruction Diane Douglas is taking criticism over a Facebook post she made Wednesday that associated a transgender pride flag with pedophilia and blasted two public officials.
Douglas later said she had mixed up the blue and pink transgender pride flag, which was briefly displayed at the Capitol, with a flag reportedly adopted by MAPs, or “Minor Attracted Persons.”
The concept of MAPs and its flag is actually a social media hoax. Anti-LGBTQ trolls continue to push the long-disproven idea that homosexuality and pedophilia are somehow connected.
In her initial post Wednesday evening, Douglas said she believed the “medically & scientifically accurate” sex education rules that current Arizona schools superintendent Kathy Hoffman supports are an effort to “get kids to be accepting of sex with adults.”
She then accused Secretary of State Katie Hobbs of displaying “the pedephilia flag” at the state Capitol last week along with “the homosexual flag” and alleged that the LGBTQ movement’s next advocacy efforts will be focused on pedophilia and incest.
Douglas did not respond to The Arizona Republic’s request for comment.
U.S. Sen. Kyrsten Sinema, the nation’s first openly bisexual member of Congress, posted a comment under a shared version of the post, saying only, “Spelling is hard.” Douglas in her post misspells pedophilia multiple times.
Hoffman responds
In an interview with The Republic on Thursday morning, Hoffman said she was “disturbed” by Douglas’ post, adding that she believed the sentiments behind it were harmful to both the LGBTQ community and abuse survivors.
“This feeds right into the discrimination and propelling of fear that leads to increased rates of bullying in our schools, an increased rate of suicide and other mental health challenges,” she said.
Hoffman said that as a former speech therapist she is “sensitive” to the words used in communication.
“As someone who’s elected, as someone who is a former elected leader of our schools, her words do carry weight and that’s part of what makes it so appalling that she would post these comments in a way that propels this fear and discrimination and makes it even more difficult for survivors to come forward,” she said.
She went on to say Douglas’ allegations about her and Hobbs’ intentions were “completely false.”
Changes to sex education rules
Last week, the State Board of Education attempted to pave the way to changes to the state’s sex education guidelines in a jam-packed meeting that eventually had three overflow rooms.
The rule changes up for public debate were proposed after a lawsuit over a decades-old state law forbidding sexual education in public schools that promotes a “homosexual lifestyle” compelled Arizona legislators to repeal that law in April.
The State Board resolved the lawsuit by changing a portion of the sex ed rules in May. This new proposal, which Hoffman asked the board to consider, would have made several more changes developed by Sen. Martin Quezada, D-Glendale, and stakeholders such as the LGBTQ group GLSEN, teachers and school board members.
The proposed changes to the sex education rules would have:
❚ Removed language that states sex education “shall not include the teaching of abnormal, deviate, or unusual sexual acts and practices.”
❚ Added language that states sex education should “be medically and scientifically accurate.”
❚ Added language that instruction over sexuallytransmitted infections should include medically accurate instruction on how to prevent infection transmission.
❚ Allowed schools to teach sex education to boys and girls together, instead of separately. The rule change would have made teaching the two genders separately an option for schools.
Opponents, including numerous members of Purple for Parents, the group created by parent Forest Moriarty in response to #RedForEd that Douglas is involved with on social media, alleged the changes were intended to sexualize students.
Ultimately, board members decided not to take action and let existing rules stand.
Associates transgender pride flag at state Capitol with pedophilia
Douglas’ post also referenced Hobbs, who last week hung a gay pride flag on the balcony of the state Capitol building.
Hobbs last week said posting the flag was likely a first for Arizona and that her office was getting calls from legislative staff asking about it within 10 minutes of the flag going up.
The Arizona Legislative Council removed the Pride flag as well as a smaller blue and pink transgender pride flag that was also displayed.
Douglas in her initial Facebook post referred to the transgender pride flag as a “pedephilia flag,” misspelling the word pedophilia.
“LGBT, next on the list for acceptance is pedaphilia [sic] then incest,” she wrote. “Leave our children OUT of your sex life and sexual agendas.”
In a Thursday morning post, Douglas retracted her earlier statement and noted the difference between the transgender pride flag and the flag reportedly adopted by so-called MAPs, per reports from several LGBTQ websites.
“Nonetheless I stand by my original sentiments stay AWAY from our children and keep the symbols of any and all specials interests off our Capital.”
In a phone interview with The Republic, Hobbs said that Douglas has a First Amendment right to post her beliefs but added that her sentiments were “utterly false.”
Hobbs said she had “absolutely no political agenda” in hanging the flags, which she said was an effort to commemorate LGBT Pride month as well as the 50th anniversary of the Stonewall uprising in New York.
“I wanted to find a way to celebrate and honor that,” she said. “To me, that is not a political agenda — that is about showing our state is inclusive and celebrates the diversity in our community.”
Hobbs said those criticizing the flag display at the Capitol were only drumming up more support for the cause.
“We’re still talking about it seven days later,” she said. “If they had just left the flag up it wouldn’t have been a story at all.”
Hobbs said last week she had permission from the director of the Arizona Capitol Museum to hang the flag.