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OFM Gallery: Counter-Protest Outside Poudre School District Board Meeting

OFM Gallery: Counter-Protest Outside Poudre School District Board Meeting

counter-protest

On May 24, Fort Collins community members gathered outside the Poudre School District building in the rain to counter-protest an anti-LGBTQ protest. The protest surrounded a recent video announcement reaffirming the school district’s commitment to inclusion made by the new Superintendent Brian Kingsley.

“The school district has really been doing some good work in the last bunch of years around building inclusion which finally resulted in this last year they hired an LGBTQ coordinator internally,” says Kimberly Chambers, organizer of the counter-protest and founder of NoCoSafeSpace, and organization providing support to LGBTQ students, community members, and businesses in the Northern Colorado area.

This protest arose from an incident that happened at one of the local schools in which a child came home and came out to their parent. Their mother blamed the school and the GSA meetings the child had attended, pulled the child out of school, and enrolled them into a religious, conservative school against their wishes.

The goal was to show support for LGBTQ students and staff within the Poudre School District, and the number of LGBTQ counter-protestors far outweighed the number of anti LGBTQ protestors, by at least three times. The community came out to let LGBTQ students and staff know that this will be a safe place for them to work and attend school.

Photos courtesy of  Milo Gladstein

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