LGBTQ Youth
The Land of the Free … If You Agree With Me
Conservative Christians in a public school district clash with LGBTQ families
We Americans love to express our pride in living in a free country — but throughout our history when we’ve said “freedom” we’ve usually meant freedom for some people, not for everybody.
For example, white Christian men who owned property could always vote. It took a lot longer for the rest of us to gain that legal right.
Some Americans believe it’s their right to quash others’ rights.
Here’s an example of the way some Americans think:
- The Constitution gives me freedom of religion and even without it, I have a God-given right to worship my way.
- My way of worshiping God includes vilifying anyone who doesn’t believe what I believe or worship in my way.
- If the majority of my community supports me, that nullifies any so-called rights the minority claims under the Constitution.
This is what I see happening in my backyard right now.
Morton, IL is a small, prosperous town, 95 percent white, with a median household income of $81,792, according to the U.S. Census. Every single one of its 11 precincts went for Donald Trump in 2020, according to Zipdatamaps.
I live 20 minutes away and know the place well. It’s a community known for having good schools and it attracts well-off, conservative, family-oriented people. The residents of Morton are accustomed to being praised for their schools and it’s likely that few of them ever expected to be called out for things that many of them consider just and right.
Why should you care if you don’t live in central Illinois? There’s a very good chance that something similar may be happening in your backyard, and I’ll explain to you how you can find out.
It started with controversial emails.
Things came to a head in Morton after a Freedom of Information Act request revealed Michael Saunders, the principal of Grundy Elementary, received emails from organizations that hold far-right, anti-LGBTQ, anti-mask, anti-vaccine, etc. views. He received these emails on his district email address, via his district computer.
Demonstrators carried signs and banners supporting LGBTQ people, the National Organization for Women and Black Lives Matter just before the school board meeting. During the long, contentious meeting, Saunders’ supporters and detractors spoke to the board.
A man named Bill Martin, who identified himself as a former city employee, said — largely to applause — that non-local people had no business dictating anything to his community. He spoke in support of Saunders and the district.
“There’s a serious sodomite spirit that is trying to infect the school system here. I find it is widespread. It’s a parasite spirit that in Jesus’ name, as people of God, we cannot allow that to happen.”
Tammy Riekena Woodmancy, wearing a T-shirt that read “PROTECT TRANS KIDS,” noted her long-time roots in the community, pointing to people she has gone to church with. She spoke against Saunders, her remarks drawing loud reactions from both sides.
“I have kids that are in the LGBTQ-plus community. I don’t care who thinks what about that. When they are in public school, they have a right to know that they are supported. Everything I have heard about Michael Saunders, I would have said that about him because when we went to Grundy … I thought he was amazing. I believe him subscribing to these hateful emails is a disqualifier,” she said.
“In the United States of America, we have to follow the Constitution. I thought I was in Sunday School, listening to some of you. We do not have the same Jesus. We do not. I know him and I love him and he is not this hateful evil person that (was) contained in these emails. It is disgusting.”
Spam or subscriptions?
While several of Saunders’ supporters noted that anybody can receive spam emails, an analysis of the emails from the FOIA request, as posted on the district’s website, shows many troubling groups to which he appears to have actively subscribed. For example:
“You are currently subscribed to a mailing list of Illinois Family Institute and/or IFI Action. If you wish to unsubscribe, please click here.”
(Illinois Family Institute is named a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center.)
Another controversial website:
“The International Organization for the Family (IOF) is a 501(c)(3) registered public charity: all donations are fully tax-deductible. This message was intended for [email protected]. To unsubscribe, click here.”
(Click here to read what the Southern Poverty Law Center says about this group.)
What’s on your local district’s computers?
The district where Saunders works doesn’t have a policy against its employees using their taxpayer-purchased computers for private purposes, the superintendent has said. Presumably, if a district employee subscribed to emails from the Church of Satan or a gay porn site, and read those emails during work hours using their official district emails on their district-provided computers, the administration would be just fine with that, too.
Every place I’ve worked since the inception of the internet has had a policy against workers misusing company computers and company internet access and company time. It shocks me that this school district has no such standards.
Does your school district have a policy against misuse of the internet?
You might well wonder what your local district allows to be done with the computers your tax dollars pay for. Fortunately, you have every right to know that.
Anybody can submit a Freedom of Information Act request. You do not have to be a journalist to do so. You can learn more about how to do it here. As a journalist I used to work with noted, you can write it with crayons on a cocktail napkin and it’s valid. It’s not a complicated legal document.
Emails on a government computer are not (with a few exceptions) private. You can ask for any and all emails within a given timeframe or you can ask for emails that contain certain keywords. In the Morton case, the FOIA request called for:
….all emails to/from Mr. Saunders in March 2023 containing the terms “Black Lives Matter,” “CRT,” “LGBTQ,” “gay,” and “colorful flag.”
You can decide what you want your parameters to be and ask accordingly.
Be aware of Moms For Liberty.
Like many of the names of controversial groups, the name sounds innocuous. We all love moms. We all love liberty. But do not be fooled. These people are quietly working their way onto school boards across the country. The group is spreading like wildfire and is just as dangerous.
Think about running for your local school board. It’s generally a tedious, thankless job, but you can do a lot of good — particularly if you fill a spot that would otherwise be filled by a far-right, zealous crusader looking to change the character of your school and make it unsafe for LGBTQ kids, kids of color or any other child.
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About me:
I’m a writer in central Illinois. If you like my work, subscribe to me! You can also find me on Substack, Mastodon, Twitter or LinkedIn.