Carroll County Didn't Ban the Gay Pride Flag, and Other Lies You've Been Told
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Carroll County Didn't Ban the Gay Pride Flag, and Other Lies You've Been Told
This entire episode is another reason to stop the politicization of sexuality and the classroom and to keep these discussions in the home where they belong
There has been much conversation, discussion, and anger from a recent decision made by the Carroll County Board of Education. Their decision, if you believe far-left activists, was to ban the Pride Flag from Carroll County Public School property.
As always in instances like this, the truth is rather different from the political narrative.
The policy adopted in May by the Carroll County Board of Education states that the only flags that can be displayed in Carroll County Schools are our national flag, the Maryland state flag, the Carroll County flag, banners celebrating school accomplishments, college or pro team flags, and flags related to specific individual units within the school system.
The policy does not specifically ban the Pride flag from Carroll County Schools. The policy doesn’t mention any flags that are disallowed from being displayed on school property. It merely lists the flags that are allowed to be displayed.
The ban does not apply to the Pride flag any differently than it would a Black Lives Matter flag, a Let’s Go Brandon flag or the Confederate battle flag. All are political flags that are attempting to relay a political message. None have any place being displayed as part of a school-sanctioned display.
The ban also does not stop individual students from expressing their political beliefs in school. It only bans the display of such political flags in a school-sanctioned manner, something that has become far too common over the course of the last few years.
Realistically, the policy probably saves folks some money from needing to buy a new Pride flag every time they update it.
Activists want to turn this into an issue about “acceptance”. The statement from the Maryland Democratic Party states that the decision “sends a message to our children and future generations of Marylanders that discrimination still has too vast of a reach in our communities.” It says something about the length to which Democrats will go to score political points when they accuse an entire county of discrimination with no evidence, no references, and no relationship to the policy that was actually enacted.
The policy is about getting political messaging out of the classroom. How is this a bad thing?
If anything, how politicized the Pride movement has become in America. No longer is the Pride movement about the acceptance of a lifestyle and a live-and-let-live mentality. It has now become the expectation, damn near a requirement, that “alternative lifestyles” be not just accepted but endorsed.
Never mind the fact that these lifestyles are opposed to the religious beliefs of the vast majority of Americans.
Never mind the fact that the idea of transgenderism flies in the face of scientific fact.
Even if you get past the political nature of all of this, I come back to a basic fundamental question. What purpose does the school flying or displaying a Pride flag have?
Whether activists and politicians want to admit it, public schools are not the place for affirming the sexuality of students, teachers, or anybody else. The insistence of Democrats and activists to discuss sexuality, transgenderism, and other such topics in schools does not in any way help educate students or prepare those students for success in life.
That is not to say that schools should not protect the rights of students with alternative lifestyles. But those lifestyles should not be promoted, encouraged, and celebrated in an official capacity in the way activists insist they should.
This entire episode shows the dangers of the politicization of sexuality and of bringing politics into the classroom. We’d be a better place if we kept these discussions in the home, where they belong.