Hundreds of students, parents, and residents in the Becker, Minnesota School District showed up, mostly to protest, a special presentation by an anti-LGBTQ group that offered what it called an "alternative viewpoint" on transgender people. The group, the Minnesota Child Protection League, has been cited by the Southern Poverty Law Center.
"This is disgusting," said Skyler Seiler, identified by Fox9 as a transgender student at the school. "I can’t believe this, we are humans too. I don’t know why they’re treating us like we’re not. Is it not your job, as school board members, to make students feel safe and welcome?"
The school board on Monday voted to allow the group, which Fox9 says is listed by the Southern Poverty Law Center as an anti-LGBTQ hate group, to deliver the special presentation. It's unclear why the school board agreed to allow a third party organization to deliver a message of hate and discrimination that directly affects the students and families it is supposed to support, protect, and defend. It's also unclear if that information was vetted or fact-checked before being delivered. Attendees say the group's information was not from credible sources.
"Human rights don’t have two sides so bringing in another side just doesn’t make sense to me," Heather Abrahamson told Fox9.
"They were not credible sources that they were citing, and it was completely biased and really offensive and insulting," Maggie Seiler said. "This is painful, I’m sure those kids in there feel even more ostracized and like the school doesn’t back them and like they have even less rights."
