Please Don’t Call Racist and Anti-LGBTQ Attacks a Culture War

That euphemism neutralizes reality and helps us look away

Let me tell you a terrible, painful, sad story set in a big Texas high school. It’ll only take a second, and please don’t look away, because I promise you LGBTQ kids getting beat up is a big reason why we must strike “culture war” from our vocabularies.

Up until a couple years ago, MacArthur High School in Irving, Texas (a prosperous Dallas suburb) was a pretty good place to be an LGBTQ teenager, according to … LGBTQ teenagers. They had staunch teacher allies, a thriving GSA (Gender and Sexual Alliance) club, peer support, and safety in numbers. They enjoyed the support of at least hundreds of outspoken cis/straight allies from the rest of the student body.

Pretending marginalized minorities aren’t marginalized isn’t neutral. It’s actively hostile.

Then, as I wrote in more detail not too long ago, their school district declared war on them, firing teachers over rainbow stickers that identified their classrooms as safe spaces, and targeting the GSA in the name of “parental rights” and “neutrality.” Even though hundreds of cis/straight students joined queer students in a walkout/protest, the district did not relent.

They’ve all but won their war against queer kids. MacArthur is now a terrible, scary place to be an LGBTQ teen.

In the face of intimidation tactics, including what GSA members call “interrogations” by hostile staff, GSA attendance dropped from 50 to 60 per week to no more than 5 to 10 per month. Queer students say bullying and physical assaults have surged. You can read the latest updates in an article them.us published a few days ago. It ain’t pretty.

MacArthur waged their anti-LGBTQ war in the name of neutrality

Here’s the thing. The McArthur school board, which opens its meetings with explicitly Evangelical Christian prayers, waged its anti-LGBTQ war by citing “neutral values.” They say teachers should not express opinions in the classroom supporting LGBTQ students … because teachers should be neutral. In an absurd twist on the meaning of neutral, they say teachers must not display rainbow safe-space stickers because cis/straight students would be harmed:

“Labeling certain classrooms as safe havens for certain groups could communicate to students who do not see themselves reflected in that classroom’s decorations that they are unwanted or unsafe in those rooms.”

The school board affirmed that position last month in a vote upholding the sticker ban, as the board’s attorney repeated that rainbows make cis/straight kids “unsafe.” He insists that “The District’s protocols are viewpoint neutral.”

But the only people not safe are LGBTQ people, say McArthur students, who tell NBC News that bullying, including physical violence, surged after the district’s anti-LGBTQ campaign. Three LGBTQ teachers have been suspended and/or fired as of last week. Violence continues to rise, and students say staff are doing nothing to stop it.

Being queer at MacArthur has gone from being fairly ordinary and accepted to being a HUGE problem — because the Irving ISD was not waging a war FOR neutrality, but AGAINST queer students and teachers.

Let’s be crystal clear about something. Teaching students that LGBTQ people deserve to be supported, safe, and treated like ordinary human beings IS NEUTRAL. That’s as neutral as you can get in a society where LGBTQ people are in fact common and ordinary members of a minority. Not letting teachers say that with words or symbols is hostility that should be fairly classified as hateful. Public schools exist, after all, to serve the public, and that means members of minorities too.

Pretending marginalized minorities aren’t marginalized isn’t neutral. It’s actively hostile.

Let’s talk about racism. Want to call that a “culture war” too? Check this out:

Not taking action to protect Black voters from racist state policies/laws that reduce their ability to vote isn’t neutral. It’s actively hostile. That happens all the time. Republicans aren’t even coy about their intent. But they sure will puff up about being “neutral.”

Not making efforts to open up higher education to Black students traditionally excluded from opportunity isn’t neutral. It’s actively hostile. It’s an attack.

Not reining in an epidemic of cops killing Black men isn’t neutral, it’s actively hostile. Claiming police policies are “race neutral” when they continue to result in the hugely disproportionate deaths of Black men is an active attack.

“Culture War” is a euphemism that implies neutrality

America is not having a “culture war.” Conservative people, mostly conservative Christians, are waging war on queer PEOPLE, on Black PEOPLE, on women, on immigrants. Real PEOPLE, even kids, are getting beat up, losing jobs, losing health care, losing opportunities to thrive. Black PEOPLE are losing the right to vote and literally losing their lives.

When we call those attacks a “culture war,” we are ignoring truth’s painful sting. We are softening reality. We are looking away, pretending a war against PEOPLE is a war on some nebulous concept called culture.

What’s going on at MacArthur and at schools all over the U.S. isn’t a “culture war,” it’s a violent war against LGBTQ teenagers. Say it. Face it. Don’t neutralize it.

Governments refusing to reform law enforcement agencies killing Black people isn’t a “culture war,” it’s a violent attack on Black people. Say it. Face it. Don’t neutralize it.

Passing laws to stop teachers from talking about trans and gay people isn’t a culture war, it’s a vicious assault on trans and gay people. Say it. Face it. Don’t neutralize it.

Passing laws to keep Black people from voting or Black votes from counting equally (as in Florida last week) isn’t a culture war. It’s far worse. It’s a racist attack on Black people. Say it. Face it. Don’t neutralize it.

Say it with me, America isn’t having a culture war. Conservatives are waging war on Black people.

Say it with me, American isn’t having a culture war. Conservatives are attacking LGBTQ people, increasingly violently.

Call it what it is. Don’t look away. The next time somebody tells you we’re in a culture war, tell them they’re mistaken, tell them they’re buying into a false message about neutrality. Tell them attacks on people are attacks on people, not on “culture.”

Then ask them to stand up for the marginalized, to fight for the underdog, to join us making the United States a place that offers freedom and opportunity to all, even to members of minorities.

Ask them to stand up and be counted.

This story is a response to the Prism & Pen writing prompt, Fight for Positive Change during the Global LGBTQ Backlash.

James Finn is a columnist for the LA Blade, a former Air Force intelligence analyst, an alumnus of Queer Nation and Act Up NY, and an “agented” but unpublished novelist. Send questions, comments, and story ideas to [email protected].

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