TRANSGENDER: Superintendent wrong to apologize

Confused. Dismayed. Saddened, embarrassed, angered. These were the emotions I felt after reading the article about the public apology from Lakeland School District superintendent Lisa Arnold. Apologizing? For educating students via a traveling theater company with an employee who happens to be transgendered? The only thing more appalling than parents complaining about this situation is the fact that the administrator made the decision to apologize.

Since when did we adopt the need to apologize for promoting equality and human rights? Are we going to “vet” our guests to avoid “exposing” kids to speakers/performers of different races/religions/genders/sexual orientation? This is akin to disallowing a speaker because of their skin color, religion or gender, harkening to a history of discrimination that I thought we had moved beyond.

I can only hope and pray that this administrator was coerced into this apology by some frighteningly misguided parents, and that she did not come to this decision of her own accord. The only necessary apology at this stage in the game is one from our community, to say sorry for this level of ignorant intolerance. And before you even think it, do not disguise these actions under the banner of protecting our Christian values. This act of ignorance and intolerance is about as un-Christian as it gets.

ALISON GRANIER

Coeur d’Alene