Emails show response to anti-gay speech
“Choose a spouse, I suggest. I also strongly suggest to make sure to choose Biblical principles, you know, a male with a female and female with a male.”
These words created outcry that made national news after they were given to a room full of graduating seniors at River Valley High School's May 27 graduation commencement by the district's distinguished alumni speaker, Jim Mcguire.
In the weeks that followed, the conversation continued throughout the Marion community as the Marion County Board of Developmental Disabilities (MCBDD), a county board on which Mcguire is a board member, publicly asked him to resign in response to the public outrage.
According to MCBDD Superintendent Cheryl Plaster, the organization received about 200 emails regarding Mcguire's position as a board member following his speech, ranging from anger that he was not yet removed from his position to outrage from others that he was asked to resign.
After he refused to resign from his position, the appointing body, the Marion County Commissioners, likewise chose to not remove him from the board: a decision made after consulting with legal counsel and finding no legal grounds for removal, though the commissioners received their own slew of community feedback.
Marion Star requests public records
To make known the depth of the conversation, the Marion Star made a public records request for emails regarding Mcguire's speech between the public and the county commissioners, the board of DD and the River Valley administration and board.
One such email was sent by several different community members to River Valley urging the district to not apologize for the words expressed by the guest speaker, the stance the district ultimately chose to pursue following the viral incident.
“These are trying times for the leadership of the school district, and I am praying that the Lord strengthens your resolve and gives you courage to do what is right, which I believe is to stand with your current statement. Do not apologize,” the email read.
In the email communication between the district and Mcguire himself, the recent alumni speaker said he complied with the one rule he was given, which was to keep his speech brief, explaining he had the best interests of the graduates in mind when he suggested they pursue heterosexual relationships.
“I want to thank you personally for your gracious appreciation after my speech. Sorry that changed on the speaker phone Saturday morning with Superintendent after some fringe backlash,” Mcguire wrote.
“The only thing I was told was to keep speech short. I truly had the best interests of the Graduates in mind; the Graduates were my audience.”
He also referred to the public outrage from his words as a “fringe” phenomenon to the county commissioners after they chose to not remove him from the county board, claiming it was them who told him not to cave to such pressure.
“As you all mentioned we can not give into woke social media fringe, so I will be staying on the Board till term(s) are complete,” Mcguire wrote to the commissioners.
Commissioner Kerr Murray, who previously noted he did not find anything “anti-gay” in Mcguire's speech, told the Star he did not recall saying that, but he could say that he thought Mcguire's statements were taken out of context and the crowd at graduation seemed to like the commitment to “Biblical principles” given the applause.
Likewise, Commissioner Ken Stiverson said he didn't remember the email because he had received so many in support of Mcguire, but he didn't think that many people were upset with his statement.
“I don't think there were that many people hurt by his comments. I think the valedictorian, or whatever you call her, said some things about the Bible also, and nobody wrote about her in the paper,” Stiverson said.
Upon reviewing the emails to the commissioners from the public, over twice as many emails were sent asking for Mcguire's removal from his office with the MCBDD than emails sent requesting no action be taken.
One such email to the county's leaders in favor of Mcguire's removal from the board of DD came from the father of a River Valley High School student.
“I was amazed that on the day of graduation, the Alumnus speaker Jim Mcguire used a platform of congratulations to take a biblical dig at the students. Our kids do not need to be told by anyone, who or whom to marry on the day of their graduation,” he said.
“Seeing now how opportunistic he has proven himself to impose his own religious beliefs on a day of celebration for the graduating class, if left in any position over young minds, to include the
MCBDD, that he currently holds, I question your judgement as County Commissioners,” the parent later concluded.
Commissioner Andy Appelfeller said he didn't have a lot to comment on the issue as he wasn't there when Mcguire spoke.
River Valley valedictorian speaks out
The valedictorian Stiverson mentioned, Caroline Lee, was worried to give her speech after hearing the applause to Mcguire's statements as she had already planned to include comments encouraging people to love one another unconditionally regardless of religious views or preferred pronouns.
After feeling “appalled” by Mcguire's comments about choosing a spouse, she also decided to add in a line encouraging the audience to show love to men who marry men and women who marry women.
“As the Bible puts it, ‘Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself.' Yes, even if they're a jerk, we still need to love our neighbors. Putting love and compassion into all of our relationships will unite us all as Americans,” Lee said in her valedictorian speech.
“Even if you don't understand someone's political views, if you don't understand why someone would want to use she/her as their pronouns instead of he/ him, even if you don't understand why a man would want to marry a man, or if a woman would want to marry a woman, even if you don't understand someone's religious values, we still need to love one another unconditionally.”
Lee said in the weeks following the speech she has seen a lot of support from the community which has made her feel proud of Marion.
“After the graduation, a lot of people I knew and a lot of people I didn't know came up and told me how much they enjoyed my speech, and that made me really happy, and in the past week or so, I've continued to get a lot of comments about it from various places in the community,” she said.
She also added that she has seen immense support from her church, Peace Community United Church of Christ, which was one of several local churches who wrote a letter publicly supporting LGBTQIA+ youth.
“I also feel really lucky that my church, Peace Community UCC, was really supportive of this, and I'm going to read my speech at church next week, and they played it during the sermon a few weeks ago, so I'm really lucky to have a pastor who is a really good person and believes in the values of love and harmony and uniting people,” Lee said.
Preparing to attend Vanderbilt University in the fall to double major in chemical engineering and climate studies, Lee is grateful for the educational opportunities River Valley afforded her.
Still, she thought the district board's decision to not publicly apologize was “shameful,” and she said she felt disappointed for the reputation the school would have moving forward, noting that she hopes the district will not stop having a distinguished alumni speaker at graduation in years to come as she believes there are many accomplished River Valley alumni who could inspire the graduates.
Lee said she gave the district a copy of her speech the day before graduation. Meanwhile, the district announced in a letter to parents following the commencement that Mcguire's speech was not read ahead of time, although he was required to send a short autobiography via email in advance in preparation for his speech.
In the short write-up, Mcguire described himself as follows before listing his accomplishments:
“Jim says he is a dumb engineer who loves to serve God and country. Ask him anytime of his personal relationship with Christ, strong conservative views and patriotism.”
When asked if the biography was reviewed in advance to graduation day, River Valley Superintendent Adam Wickham chose not to provide a statement.
“We have no further comments on this matter,” he said.
This public backlash from the speech touched not only each of the organizations involved but also the greater Marion community.
Marion economic development agency Marion Can Do! received an email from an angry member of the public following the speech simply because it also serves the Marion community as was discovered in a forwarded email from Executive Director Gus Comstock to MCBDD Director of Communications Nicole Workman.
In response to the email checking to see if Marion Can Do! “respects and values every county citizen, every business operation and every visitor,” Comstock said:
“Optimistically, maybe this will spark some graduates into activism to correct such division. My heart goes out to those hurt. Unbelievably very sad. Hopefully Marion's economic momentum will make this memory a ripple in the tidal wave of growth and excitement.”
Story by: Sophia Veneziano (740) 564 5243 | sveneziano@gannett.com