SAVE THE RAINBOW FLAG
SUCCESS STORIES
Winning Tactics from the Battlefield
Morgantown, West Virginia
About 200 hundred students participated in the walkout Wednesday afternoon. It comes after the school district removed pride flags from Mon County Schools.
The move has caused a firestorm of controversy, including a protest at Tuesday night’s Board of Education meeting.
In a school board meeting last week, more than a dozen residents spoke in favor of displaying the flags in schools. Board members are expected to discuss the policy again at next week’s meeting.“Queer community members and allies are encouraged to attend!” Morgantown Pride said.
Yamhill County Oregon
“A county judge in Oregon ruled a school district’s ban on LGBT Pride and Black Lives Matter flags unconstitutional.
In December of 2021, the ACLU of Oregon challenged the school district’s policy on behalf of employee Chelsea Shots, who raised a rainbow flag in a classroom window at Dundee Elementary with hearts and a picture depicting the words “Be Known”. Signed. Shots, a teacher who identifies as queer, said the sign was meant to designate a safe place for students. Nevertheless, it sparked a complaint that eventually led to the school board’s decision to remove all LGBT and Black Lives Matter signs and symbols.”
Smithtown, New York
“Candidates backed by an LGBT advocacy group working with Smithtown families won election to the Smithtown Library Board.
LGBT Network president David Kilmnick told Newsday last week that he had worked with about 100 Smithtown families to organize support for their candidates because they believed they would let library patrons “choose what they want to read and think for themselves
what they want to read and think for themselves.”
Connetquot, New York
Connetquot residents collect over 1,000 signatures to push for reversal of school’s Pride flag ban.
About a dozen people gathered outside the district offices with boxes full of signatures from Connetquot residents and from allies in surrounding communities, who are demanding the district allow the Progress Pride flag to be displayed.
“We won’t stop. Why? 1 in 4 LGBTQ Long Islanders have seriously considered suicide. The rates are higher for Black, Asian and low income families … We as a community know how a ban like this, relating to historically marginalized groups, has the potential to wreak havoc on the mental health of the victims, in this case, students,” says Sarah Smith, of Connetquot.
Los Angeles
High school students in Los Angeles take part in a rally on April 22 to support LGBTQ people as districts elsewhere in the nation see pride flag bans and other crackdowns.
Stoughton, Massachussetts
A high school in Stoughton, Massachusetts was the site of a protest Tuesday night over the school’s ban on what it calls “political” flags and posters in classrooms.
The action was organized by Stoughton High School senior Olivia Tran, who was suspended last week for leading a student demonstration against the policy during class hours. Tran draped a large Pride flag outside the school’s administration office in that protest and the group refused to return to class.
Newberg, Oregon.
“In 2021, a newly elected conservative board majority banned school employees from displaying Black Lives Matter and gay pride symbols, then expanded the ban to all political or “controversial” signs after being advised the first rule wouldn’t survive a legal challenge.
The Newberg City Council and multiple Democratic members of the Oregon House and Senate all condemned the school board’s action.
The Newberg School Board voted unanimously on Jan. 10 to rescind the controversial policy, a month after the Newberg Education Association announced it had settled its federal civil rights lawsuit over the matter.
“The policy will not be amended or changed, it is gone,” says Superintendent Stephen Phillips to Oregon Public Broadcasting.