Residents discuss LGBTQ+ inclusion, curriculum

Question of flags also raised

FRANCONIA » With Pride Month falling in June, the June 23 Souderton Area School Board meeting included public comments on related subjects.

Suicide is the second leading cause of death for persons 10 through 24, with LGBTQ+ youth having a significantly higher risk of suicide, resident Natalie Cimonetti, said.

“This is why we have Pride Month, OK? This is life or death stuff,” she said. “Please put yourselves in the shoes of parents with LGBTQ+ kids. How would you want your child to be treated if they were gay or trans?”

With more than 6,000 students in the district, hundreds are LGBTQ+, she said.

“You can’t use your religion to have justification for not making the lives of LGBTQ+ kids better, for not allowing them to feel like suicide is the answer, that their lives have value, OK?”

Cimonetti said, telling the board that, “their lives matter” and to “do better.”

Resident Bruce Hagan said LGBTQ+ curriculum has been promoted at the high school, including a lesson on the Stonewall riots and students being required in health class to learn about gender identity and sexual orientation.

A straight couple walking past a booth during Solidarity Week was met with derogatory comments about being straight, he said.

“Just as critical race theory divides us along racial lines, the LGBTQ+ beliefs divide us on gender and sexual preferences,” Hagan said.

He said he respects and can get along with members of the LGBTQ+ community while disagreeing with their ideology, but teaching it in school crosses the line.

“School is for education, not promoting gender and sexual differences,” Hagan said.

He said he has no objection to LGBTQ+ afterschool clubs.

“As a taxpayer and a parent, my objection is that sexuality and gender issues are being taught and promoted during the school day,” he said.

Resident Kaitlin Derstine said an LGBTQ+ flag was hung in a school cafeteria.

“I wanted to ask that our district be consistent in flying flags that represent all our children, not just some,” she said.

The American and Pennsylvania flags represent every ethnicity, religion, race, sexuality and gender, she said.

“Those two flags do not discriminate and they welcome everyone. When you hang an LGBTQ+ flag in the high school or hand it out in the middle school, you’re representing one group of children and it’s an affirmation of a belief system that conflicts with many of our students’ religious beliefs,” Derstine said.

“I am for every child in our school district, no matter what their race, religion, ethnicity, gender or sexual orientation, for all of them to be welcome, accepted, respected, affirmed and given every opportunity,” she said, “and the only way that that can be accomplished is if we stop giving preferential treatment to some groups and we start hanging flags that represent all of us.”