PRINCE FREDERICK, Md. – To kick off pride month, the Calvert County school board chose to stand in solidarity with LGBTQ students with a resolution that “affirms, supports and values the gender identities and gender expressions and will continue to further efforts in our schools to create a welcoming, safe and inclusive learning environment.”
Every member of the board voted in favor of this resolution, except for Pat Nutter who made the decision to abstain. Nutter’s reasoning for choosing to do so was due to the fact that the resolution supported the right of a transgender student to participate in the athletic division of their chosen gender.
One person there to protest the resolution quoted Gubernatorial Candidate Del. Dan Cox. He states that, “It is totally false that the Civil Rights Act passed to protect African Americans and racial minorities is in any way mandating this gender propaganda — it is the exact opposite. Girls are protected as having a right to their own sports under Title IX of the 1972 Education Act, the exact thing this ‘resolution’ is violating.”
Cox has a history of making inflammatory and hateful remarks about the LGBTQ community. He once claimed Frederick County School Board President Brad Young had “approved a pedophile-grooming curriculum” and “chosen a path of confusion — misleading children for potential chemical castration and sexualized grooming…” for trying to pass a similar resolution/mandate.
The Frederick County School Board would rebuke him and other there to make problems, saying that they, “will not tolerate abusive or threatening language or action.”
A supporter of the resolution, Amanda McGrath, stated that she believes students have the right to feel safe in school and that is why this resolution is needed. According to the 1987 School System’s Equal Rights Opportunities Policy, ““Students have the right to be free from discrimination on the basis of race, color, sex, marital status, sexual orientation, pregnancy, national origin, disability, religion…”
Guidelines from the MPSSA, which Charles and Calvert County follow, also state, “Once the student has been granted eligibility to participate in the sport consistent with his/her gender identity, the eligibility is granted for the duration of the student’s participation and does not need to be renewed every sports season or school year.”
Requests from transgender students to plan on a sports team of their gender have yet to be made.
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