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 âdiscriminateâ against his straight, cisgender, white children.
Nathan Feldman, whose children attend Slavens School in southeast Denverâs Wellshire neighborhood, on Nov. 10 filed the federal suit in the U.S. District of Colorado that states DPSâ policy supporting LGBTQ+ students is ânot inclusive of all studentsâ or of his children, who are âheterosexual, Caucasian, and/or binary/âcisgender.'â The lawsuit comes after his unsuccessful attempts to have what he described as a âstraight prideâ flag displayed in his childrenâs classrooms.
The lawsuit alleges Feldman and his children have âsuffered irreparable harm directlyâ because of the districtâs 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 Feldmanâs childrenâs teachers.
According to the lawsuit, Feldman asked the district to display a flag he described in an email as a âstraight prideâ flag, a black and white striped flag with a linked male and female gender sign on it, in front of his childrenâs classrooms to include them, but the district did not respond to his request.
âEach day at school, (Feldmanâs children) are exposed dozens, if not hundreds, of âProgress Pride Flagsâ that DPS officials have strung throughout the Slavens School classrooms and halls as a means of expressing and promoting DPSâ favored viewpoint on the topic,â the lawsuit states. âDue to the fact that (Feldman and his childrenâs) 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 childrenâs) speech or expression to even exist in its schools.â
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 childrenâs teachers about the flag displays because âPride Flags are not inclusive of all Slavens School students and only represent one viewpoint on the topic of sex,â 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 teachersâ right to display a rainbow flag or any other sign of support for LGBTQ+ students.
The lawsuit alleges Sieboldâs response and DPS policy âconfirmsâ the district âdoes not allow students or staff to speak or express support for students or staff who are not members of the LGBTQIA+ community.â
Siebold later allegedly sent an email that stated, in part, âDPS doesnât allow for other flags,â 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 heâd like to âfollow [Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion policies] to display a straight pride flag with 2 gender symbolsâ in front of his childrenâs classrooms.
He met with Siebold and Diaz in January, where Diaz allegedly said, ââsexual orientation, gender identity and race protections only apply to homosexuals, people of color, and trans people.â
Feldman claims, according to the lawsuit, straight, white, cisgender people should âbe members of protected classes or protected against discriminationâ 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.
Either everyone gets representation or nobody does. In an ideal world, thatâs how it works. If you allow a âBlack Prideâ, you subsequently have to allow the counter. I know thatâs an incredibly unpopular opinion to have, but logically, it follows. I donât have to jump through any hoops to explain why that simple premise tracks. To think otherwise, is to simply believe that itâs 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 youâre 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 âWhite Prideâ group at a college campus, Iâd be arguing that they need to allow a âBlack Prideâ as well.
See how that opinion logically follows both ways even if I reverse it? Itâs because thereâs no bias in it. If you cannot follow your opinion to its ends and still be happy with it, itâs flawed; and you have to find a way to balance the equation.
No, itâs OK to discriminate against assholes, because theyâre assholes. Full stop. They can go form an asshole lobby if they donât like it⊠oh wait, they did, itâs called the Republican party.
If I want this kind of lowest common denominator cultural simplification with a bunch of slippery slope kinds of arguments, Iâll go debate the kids who go to high school with my son. This black and white âthe nuance doesnât matter, itâs just logicalâ world view exists wilfully ignorant of itâs own consequences, thinking it has the moral high ground because itâs head is up itâs own ass. I donât have time for it.
I both fixed your point and highlighted how youâre wrong. Representation for LGBT+, as well as ethnic and racial minority groups is not equal in the US.
Symbols like pride flags give those groups an opportunity to have representation where they normally wouldnât.
We donât live in an ideal world, we live in the real world. Come join us in supporting people oppressed by Mr. Feldman and those like him.
Did you mean to respond to me or the free speech / equal rights absolutist guy?
I did, although I think you did it better. I kept thinking of that quote about unlimited tolerance from Popper and I think you summed it up nicely.
I think they actually have higher representation in pop culture proportionate to their percentage of the population. 7.2% of Americans are LGBTQ+, but they are represented far above that in pop culture. As far as federal legislatures go, they are under-represented. Only about 3% of Congress is openly LGBTQ+, so they are under-represented there, by about half. The same goes for BPOC, but they have higher representation in Congress. Representation of BPOC in pop culture is far higher than 13%, which is what percentage of the population they have, but they only have about 11% representation in Congress. Weâve made a lot of progress and it seems that weâre almost there, but it feels like people are more divided than ever before in my lifetime.
Discarding that race is a construct, âWhiteâ is not an ethnicity. Irish, Swedish, French, etc. is. Go nuts being proud of that if thatâs your thing.
âBlackâ is an ethnicity in that most of that heritage went through a little nightmare called slavery which landed their ancestors here. Their culture at a granular level was forcibly erased and obscured by design, which is why black folks get a pass since most canât really pin down if theyâre Zulu, Kongo, etc. Put your melanin deficient ass through that as well as sustained systemic disenfranchisement and violence for a few generations and got can claim âWhite prideâ without being a fucking bigot.
Given that white/cisgender/heterosexual men are by and large the overriding baseline in our patriarchal society and that I would bet donuts to blowjobs you wouldnât switch places with a minority that wouldnât be represented by this mythical mayonnaise flag for less than probably ten figures explains that this bullshit argument of yours is bad faith.
Man, at least the trolls on reddit were funny