Brandon trustees shut down LGBTQ 'hate speech' at board meeting
CBC
The Brandon school board is looking for ways to prevent hate speech by people addressing trustees at their meetings, the board chair said after a presentation to the board was stopped for veering off-topic and into anti-LGBTQ rhetoric.
Lorraine Hackenschmidt, who sparked a public outcry in May when she asked that "transgender books" be removed from school libraries, was cut off from speaking about the "LGBTQ agenda" at the school board meeting in the southwestern Manitoba city on Monday.
"We are not going to tolerate hate speech in this building," board chair Linda Ross said at the meeting.
Trustees are looking at changing school board bylaws to prevent repeated delegations like Hackenschmidt's, in which LGBTQ community members are called sexual deviants and other derogatory terms, Ross told the CBC after the meeting.
The board has had discussions with the Manitoba School Board Association about changes and has requested a template for possible policies, Ross said.
"We have to put a stop to it if people are just saying the same thing over and over again without presenting new information," Ross said.
"Things like tonight, where people are just saying really hateful things, we have to put a stop to that."
The board agenda said Hackenschmidt had asked to talk about LGBTQ history in response to a request that it be taught in schools.
Hackenschmidt, who said she was "adamantly against the LGBTQ agenda," was given three opportunities to speak, but each time devolved into what the school board deemed hate speech.
Trustee Kim Fallis said Hackenschmidt should not speak because of the way she characterized the LGBTQ community.
"These are ... consenting adults that want to love who they love," Fallis said.
"They're not deviant because they choose to love somebody that maybe you don't agree with."
Trustee Jim Murray said Hackenschmidt's presentation was out of order because it was centred on discrimination against LGBTQ people.
"The Manitoba government is committed to creating a fostering, safe and inclusive learning environment for all children," Murray said.