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CMS Board Approves Diversity Policy That Includes LGBTQ Students

Charlotte-Mecklenburg school board members voted 7-2 Tuesday night to increase support for LGBTQ students by expanding the district’s multiculturalism policy. The vote followed a public hearing on the matter that was heated and, at times, combative. 

With the change, CMS’ multiculturalism policynot only defines diversity in terms of race, religion, national origin and gender, it now includes gender identity/expression and sexual orientation. This did not sit well with many people at the meeting.

Joey and Ruth Parker say they do not hate LGBTQ people, but feel the CMS policy has the potential to confuse young students about gender issues.
Credit Gwendolyn Glenn
Joey and Ruth Parker say they do not hate LGBTQ people, but feel the CMS policy has the potential to confuse young students about gender issues.

“Making changes to the multiculturalism policy to include language about gender identity and sexual orientation is anti-science, anti-parent and anti-child,” said CMS parent David Evans.

WFAE's Gwendolyn Glenn talks to All Things Considered Host Mark Rumsey about Charlotte-Mecklenburg school board's contentious meeting on the district's multiculturalism policy.

About 25 people spoke against the policy changes. Some accused school board members of forcing their children to accept what they called an LGBTQ lifestyle and undermining parents’ rights to teach them about values and sexuality in the privacy of their homes.

The chamber was packed. Many people carried signs that read “Parents are the best teachers,” "Protect our kids innocence.” Some used biblical references in opposing the policy change. 

“You can’t make a moral wrong a civil right,” Flip Benham said. “To be black is not a sin, to be Chinese is not a sin, to be Jewish is not a sin, to be handicapped is not a sin, but homosexual sodomy is sin and it separates our kids from God.”

When Benham’s time was up, he continued talking, causing board chairman Mary McCray to bang her gavel and call for order.

Benham began approaching the dais, even after he was warned by McCray and other board members not to approach them. He was escorted out of the meeting by security guards.

A handful of supporters of the policy spoke at a public hearing earlier this month. They were in the minority at this second hearing.

“Public education is all about diversity and inclusion,” said parent Allen Smith. “So, yeah, it is for the LGBTQ kid who’s afraid to go to class but it’s also for the Latino students who don’t feel welcome at their own prom and you know who else? Students whose parents hold such fundamentalists values that the only place their kids will ever experience an environment free of homophobia and racism is a public school classroom.”

School board members Thelma Byers Bailey and Sean Strain were the only votes cast against the policy change. Strain wanted to know if some parents’ fears that it would result in curriculum changes were warranted. He was told there would be professional development for teachers around LGBTQ protections, but no curriculum changes. He wasn’t convinced.

“The words in this policy state that we are to acknowledge and support multiculturalism by intentionally incorporating diversity throughout the curriculum and instructional development,” Strain said. “So if the answer is no, it’s not curriculum related, I’m a little troubled by the disconnect between the language and the policy.”

Board members who voted for the policy change say they believe it will result in making all students feel safer and more comfortable in schools. School board members have been working on this policy for a year but it was put on hold while they focused on the new student assignment plan. 

Copyright 2021 WFAE. To see more, visit WFAE.

CMS Board Approves Diversity Policy That Includes LGBTQ Students

A packed house heard the pros and cons for changing CMS' s multiculturalism policy to increase support for LGBTQ students
Gwendolyn Glenn /
A packed house heard the pros and cons for changing CMS' s multiculturalism policy to increase support for LGBTQ students
Kadean Maddix teaches eighth-grade math at Whitewater Middle School. He says the multiculturalism policy change will make it easier for him to deal with diversity issues when his students have problems.
Gwendolyn Glenn /
Kadean Maddix teaches eighth-grade math at Whitewater Middle School. He says the multiculturalism policy change will make it easier for him to deal with diversity issues when his students have problems.

Gwendolyn is an award-winning journalist who has covered a broad range of stories on the local and national levels. Her experience includes producing on-air reports for National Public Radio and she worked full-time as a producer for NPR’s All Things Considered news program for five years. She worked for several years as an on-air contract reporter for CNN in Atlanta and worked in print as a reporter for the Baltimore Sun Media Group, The Washington Post and covered Congress and various federal agencies for the Daily Environment Report and Real Estate Finance Today. Glenn has won awards for her reports from the Maryland-DC-Delaware Press Association, SNA and the first-place radio award from the National Association of Black Journalists.
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