According to the lawsuit, Feldman asked the district to display a “straight pride” flag in front of his children’s classrooms to include them, but the district did not respond to …
A Denver Public Schools parent has sued the district over its policy allowing teachers to display Progress Pride flags in their classrooms, saying LGBTQ+ flags “discriminate” against his straight, cisgender, white children.
Nathan Feldman, whose children attend Slavens School in southeast Denver’s Wellshire neighborhood, on Nov. 10 filed the federal suit in the U.S. District of Colorado that states DPS’ policy supporting LGBTQ+ students is “not inclusive of all students” or of his children, who are “heterosexual, Caucasian, and/or binary/’cisgender.'” The lawsuit comes after his unsuccessful attempts to have what he described as a “straight pride” flag displayed in his children’s classrooms.
The lawsuit alleges Feldman and his children have “suffered irreparable harm directly” because of the district’s policy, and it seeks an injunction stopping the district from enforcing the policy that prohibits the straight flag display and a declaratory judgment on the unconstitutionality of the policy.
The lawsuit also seeks $3 million in punitive damages from Slavens School Principal Kurt Siebold, DPS Director of Operations Christina Sylvester, and DPS family constituency specialist Katherine Diaz, who are named individually in the lawsuit as well as the district, the DPS school board, Superintendent Alex Marrero and two of Feldman’s children’s teachers.
According to the lawsuit, Feldman asked the district to display a flag he described in an email as a “straight pride” flag, a black and white striped flag with a linked male and female gender sign on it, in front of his children’s classrooms to include them, but the district did not respond to his request.
“Each day at school, (Feldman’s children) are exposed dozens, if not hundreds, of ‘Progress Pride Flags’ that DPS officials have strung throughout the Slavens School classrooms and halls as a means of expressing and promoting DPS’ favored viewpoint on the topic,” the lawsuit states. “Due to the fact that (Feldman and his children’s) views differ, (Feldman and his children) simply requested to have their views expressed, as well. But DPS has refused, and continues to refuse, to permit (Feldman and his children’s) speech or expression to even exist in its schools.”
Feldman first raised his concerns about pride flags to the district Oct. 6, 2022, according to the lawsuit, after he attended a school event and saw Progress Pride Flags displayed in front of classrooms.
He asked his children’s teachers about the flag displays because “Pride Flags are not inclusive of all Slavens School students and only represent one viewpoint on the topic of sex,” and if he could have the straight pride flag displayed as well.
Neither teacher responded, so he sent a follow-up email that Siebold answered, explaining district policy that supports teachers’ right to display a rainbow flag or any other sign of support for LGBTQ+ students.
The lawsuit alleges Siebold’s response and DPS policy “confirms” the district “does not allow students or staff to speak or express support for students or staff who are not members of the LGBTQIA+ community.”
Siebold later allegedly sent an email that stated, in part, “DPS doesn’t allow for other flags,” according to the lawsuit.
Feldman went back and forth with DPS officials and school administrators and faculty, saying the use of the pride flags and alleged non-allowance for other flags violates the 1st and 14th Amendments to the U.S. Constitution.
He also sent an email to Sylvester, stating he’d like to “follow [Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion policies] to display a straight pride flag with 2 gender symbols” in front of his children’s classrooms.
He met with Siebold and Diaz in January, where Diaz allegedly said, “‘sexual orientation, gender identity and race protections only apply to homosexuals, people of color, and trans people.”
Feldman claims, according to the lawsuit, straight, white, cisgender people should “be members of protected classes or protected against discrimination” because those are parts of sexual orientation, race and gender identity.
Feldman and his children are being represented by Michael Yoder and Chad LaVeglia, two Washington D.C.-based attorneys.
DPS Director of External Communications Scott Pribble said as of Monday the district had not been served the lawsuit, but even if they had could not comment on pending litigation.
If it helps, I know a few people who grew up in a similar situation and every single one of them has gone on to build a better life, on their own terms, filled with people who gave them everything their family never did.
When straight people have had centuries of being forced to conform into queer lifestyles out of religious, cultural or legal threat. Then they can have a flag.
It's not PRIDE to be proud of yourself, it's PRIDE as opposed to being ashamed of existing in public.
Honestly how is this any different than The Satanic Temple coming in when people require the Bible or Ten Commandments be shown in schools in order to point out hypocrisy in the rules? (I wholly support this, btw)
What's good for the goose is good for the gander. Total equality for all, I say. If you put up LGBT pride flags, "straight pride" flags have to be allowed too. If you put up the Christian Bible, you've gotta allow the Koran, etc as well.
But pride flags aren’t discriminating against straight people.
That’s like arguing that all those flags in support of the police discriminate against non-police officers, and that we now need to have flags for everyone who isn’t an officer. That’s exceedingly dumb.
Are straight people not allowed to have pride? Are they not allowed representation?
And likewise, taken this to its end - if someone wanted to have non-officer flags, so long as they were allowed alongside officer flags, that would be okay. There's firefighter flags, and everything else. The problem is when you tell someone else that they aren't also allowed representation. So long as his "Straight Pride Flag" doesn't literally just say "Death to the gays!" - then what harm is there in adding it?
The discrimination here isn't the LGBT flags, it's the inability for someone who doesn't fit in that category to also have representation.
The guy makes no secret about how his "views differ" and that JUST means homophobia. There's NO WAY "straight pride" is about feeling like being straight is "as good as" being gay... No one needs to be reminded that straight people exist and have rights. It's ALWAYS about reminding GLBTQ+ youth that there are assholes out there who AT THE VERY LEAST think they're better than GLBTQ+ people. NO ONE who supports GLBTQ+ normalization cares about flying straight pride flags. The only ones who do it are straight up homophobes.
By your argument, logically this guy's kids should be allowed to show "White Pride" flags at school... and this guy sums up very well why you just can't allow that in.
tl:dr; for the link: "You have to ignore their reasonable arguments, because their end goal is to be terrible, awful people."
You have to ignore their reasonable arguments, because their end goal is to be terrible, awful people.
This is logically flawed and benefits an 'us against them' mentality. If there actually are reasonable and logical arguments, the chances are high there are reasonable and lovely people listening to those arguments. If we shut down those reasonable arguments, because we suspect bad hidden intentions. That just gives opportunity to the people with bad intentions to radicalise reasonable lovely people.
If Anna subscribes to X, which is a reasonable idea, and Ben publicly argues for X - Anna might support Ben. However, Ben turns out to be an asshole. Since Clara also argues X, Anna is very likely to support Clara instead of Ben.
Let's assume Clara doesn't exist: People disagree with X because X is argued by the asshole Ben. Anna is still a lovely person and believes in X, because the idea makes sense and doesn't hurt anyone. But Ben's rhetoric became so much easier: "THEY don't want US to have X", "I am the only person fighting for X" and all that propaganda bullshit. It won't work on everybody, but Ben likely gains support he would not have gained in the previous scenario.
Either everyone gets representation or nobody does. In an ideal world, that's how it works. If you allow a "Black Pride", you subsequently have to allow the counter. I know that's an incredibly unpopular opinion to have, but logically, it follows. I don't have to jump through any hoops to explain why that simple premise tracks. To think otherwise, is to simply believe that it's okay to discriminate against majority groups simply because they are the majority.
The guy, and his despicable views have nothing to do with the core argument at hand. Which you're allowing to lead your opinion here. Forget the guy. Forget his whole schtick.
Reverse the situation. If teachers were putting up white pride flags, would you not argue that LGBTQ+ flags had to be allowed too? Because I would.
If there were a "White Pride" group at a college campus, I'd be arguing that they need to allow a "Black Pride" as well.
See how that opinion logically follows both ways even if I reverse it? It's because there's no bias in it. If you cannot follow your opinion to its ends and still be happy with it, it's flawed; and you have to find a way to balance the equation.
The point of the flag is not to "self segregate".
I think a lot of people dont really understand it. Displaying a pride flag isnt about expressing a belief, its not really that kind of expression. When you see a pride flag somewhere, that is a gay thing, right? And since its being displayed, it aint hiding. The thing it is expressing is that 𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘨𝘢𝘺𝘴 dont need to hide, either.
Imagine you were in a different country where a fair amount of people agressively disliked americans. You'd need to act differently, maybe adjust your voice a bit, and dress differently. If you found somewhere that was publicly displaying an American flag, youd prolly be more comfortable acting american in there.
See, this is why I dislike the combined voting scores instead of showing up votes and down votes separately. You can't tell that some people agree with you.