Virginia
LGBTQ students join protests over new Fairfax County school superintendent
Critics say incoming official lacks experience leading large, diverse district
The Fairfax County, Va., School Board voted 9 to 3 on April 14 to approve the appointment of a new school superintendent for the county school system after more than 200 students, including members of an LGBTQ student group, held demonstrations against the appointment at several high schools earlier in the day.
After a months-long search process, the School Board selected Michelle Reid, the current superintendent of the Northshore School District in Bothell, Wash., a small city located within the Seattle metropolitan area, to replace current Fairfax School Superintendent Scott Brabrand, who is stepping down effective June 30.
The student protesters have joined other community and advocacy groups, including the Fairfax chapter of the NAACP, in expressing concern that Reidās experience in leading a relatively small school district with about 22,000 students is insufficient to head the Fairfax school system, which enrolls about 180,000 students who come from more diverse racial and ethnic backgrounds.
School officials and members of the School Board who voted for Reidās appointment said they were impressed with the knowledge, understanding, and staunch support Reid expressed for policies embracing and supporting a racially diverse school system such as Fairfax County Public Schools.
Reid, a former school principal who holds a doctorate degree in educational leadership, expressed strong support for the needs of LGBTQ and other minority students during her interview process, according to gay Fairfax School Board member Karl Frisch, who voted in favor of Reidās appointment.
āThroughout all of our interviews with her, Dr. Reid routinely spoke ā unprompted ā of the ways she addressed the equity needs of her study body ā LGBTQIA students, Muslim students, students of color, English language learners, students with special needs, and more,ā Frisch said during the April 14 School Board meeting.
āHer commitment to equity and inclusion was a thread woven through her answers, her accomplishments as a superintendent, and her commitments to this Board,ā Frisch said.
Information on the Northshore School District website shows that the district adopted a strongly worded nondiscrimination policy protecting transgender and gender nonconforming students in 2017 during Reidās tenure as superintendent. Fairfax County Public Schools adopted a similar policy on gender identity nondiscrimination in 2021.
The school system in previous years adopted polices banning discrimination against students, teachers, and other employees based on sexual orientation, which Reid strongly upheld, according to her supporters.
Although the Northshore School District adopted a strongly worded policy banning bullying and harassment of all students, including LGBTQ students, in 2011, new guidelines for updating and enforcing the anti-bullying policies were updated in 2020 under Reid, who began her tenure as Northshore superintendent in 2016.
Aaryan Rawal, a spokesperson for Pride Liberation Project, the LGBTQ student group that helped organize the student protests over the Reid appointment, told the Washington Blade one day before the protests that the Pride group was not aware of any actions taken by Reid against the LGBTQ students, but the group was unaware at that time of any actions she may have taken in support of LGBTQ equality.
Rawal pointed to a letter signed by 375 students sent last week to School Board members and a consulting firm that Fairfax school officials retained to organize a search for the new superintendent explaining the studentsā objections to the approval of Reid as superintendent.
āUnfortunately, the voices of the student body were not heard during this search process,ā the letter says. It says that while school officials held a 15-day community outreach period that included an 11-member student āstakeholder group,ā the group was not representative of the full student body.
In a separate statement, the NAACP said it favored the hiring of another finalist candidate for the Fairfax school superintendentās job, a Black woman educator and Omaha, Neb., Public Schools Superintendent Cheryl Logan, who withdrew from contention for the job on April 9 without giving a reason, according to reports by the Washington Post.
āThe issue we all agree on is that Fairfax County Public Schools needs a superintendent who has commensurate experience in leading organizations of this size, diversity, complexity, and that the Superintendent of Northshore School District isnāt the right fit,ā a joint statement released by the NAACP and other groups opposing Reidās appointment, including Pride Liberation Project, says.
School Board members who supported Reid said she stood out from the pool of 72 applicants, among other things, because of her approach to equity and inclusion, according to FFX Now, the online Fairfax local news site. āAmong this large, strong group, Dr. Reid was consistently at the top,ā FFX Now quoted School Board Vice Chair Rachna Sizemore-Heizer as saying.
āWe asked all of our applicants about how they would heal a divided community,ā Frisch told fellow board members. āIt says a lot about her character that she told us she would listen and that she would not presume to speak for others whose lived experience is different from her own,ā Frisch said.
Virginia
Freddieās to hold āLove Festā Drag Story Hour after bomb threat
Arlington gay bar receives outpouring of support from community
Freddieās Beach Bar and Restaurant, the Arlington, Va. LGBTQ establishment, has announced it is hosting a āLove Festā celebration on Saturday, May 4 that will include a Drag Queen Story Hour brunch in response to a bomb threat that interrupted the first Drag Story Hour event it hosted four weeks earlier.
āHelp us stop the hate,ā a flier announcing the May 4 Love Fest event says. āJoin us for our next story time brunch, dressed in your favorite Rainbow/Hippie outfit,ā the flier says. āCarry your homemade signs of support.ā
Freddie Lutz, Freddieās Beach Bar owner, said a portion of the proceeds of the event will be donated to local LGBTQ charities.
Lutz has reported that separate email messages with a bomb threat were sent to the Freddieās in the Crystal City section of Arlington, the Freddieās Beach Bar in Rehoboth Beach, Del., and to him personally with a threat targeting his and his husbandās house located near the Freddieās in Crystal City.
He said the first threat arrived about an hour before the April 6 Drag Story Hour was scheduled to begin, with drag queen Tara Hoot scheduled to read childrenās stories to what Lutz said was a large turnout of kids with their parents and family members. After asking all patrons to exit the bar into its rear outdoor seating area and parking lot, Arlington police conducted a thorough search of the premises with a bomb sniffing dog and found no trace of a bomb.
All customers, including parents and their children, were invited back inside and the show took place as planned, with drag performer Hoot describing the event as a display of āfun and love and joy.ā
Lutz has said the May 4 Love Fest event, which is scheduled to begin at 11 a.m., is intended to show the community and those responsible for bomb threats at many of the past Drag Story Hour events, that these events enjoy strong community support.
āTheyāre trying to scare us and intimidate us, and I just donāt think as a community we can allow that to happen,ā he told WUSA 9 TV News. āIt emboldens me to just carry on,ā he said.
He told the Washington Blade he and his staff are honored that they have received an outpouring of support from community organizations, other nearby businesses, and government officials.
The Arlington County Board, which is the governing body of the county, voted unanimously on April 9 to approve a statement supporting Freddieās Beach Bar and the LGBTQ community in response to the bomb threat incident.
āArlington County and the County board unequivocally support the LGBTQ+ community,ā the statement says. āArlington County Police Departmentās swift response ensured the safety of patrons and staff, and the fortitude of Freddie and drag queen Tara Hoot allowed the show to go on,ā the statement continues.
āWith protests, threats, and violence targeting the LGBTQ+ community ā and drag shows in particular ā on the rise across the country, expressions of hatred and bigotry have absolutely no place in our community, and the Arlington County Board condemns these threats of violence and attempted intimidation of our community,ā it says.
Virginia
Norfolk transgender resource center vandalized
Anti-trans graffiti spraypainted onto Southeastern Transgender Resource Center’s windows
The Norfolk Police Department is investigating the vandalism of a transgender resource center’s building.
Tarena Williams, founder of the Southeastern Transgender Resource Center, told WAVY that someone spraypainted anti-trans graffiti on the windows of her organization’s offices on Sunday or Monday morning. Williams told the Hampton Roads television station that seeing the messages was like “walking into hell.”
āI opened up STRC, even the Lamina House,ā she told WAVY. āI opened up that to get away from those types of words. This is a place you can come to get away from that, but to see that sprayed over the window. Itās kind of like you are walking into hell. ā¦ To be honest, I was like in shock.ā
Authorities are investigating the vandalism.
Virginia
Bomb threat interrupts Drag Story Hour event at Arlington gay bar
Event resumed after police, bomb sniffing dog search of Freddieās Beach Bar
A Drag Story Hour event hosted by the Arlington, Va. gay bar and restaurant Freddieās Beach Bar was interrupted by a bomb threat sent by email on Saturday, April 6, requiring parents and their children attending the event to exit the bar into its rear outdoor seating area and parking lot until police and a bomb sniffing dog searched the premises and found no trace of a bomb.
Freddie Lutz, owner of Freddieās Beach Bar, located in the Crystal City section of South Arlington, said the threatening email from an unidentified sender came during the first time he has hosted a Drag Story Hour event, which includes a drag performer reading childrenās stories to children accompanied by their parents.
āWe had a lot of neighborhood families with kids and babies and one grandmother in there,ā Lutz told the Washington Blade. āIt was a great turnout, and we had to push them all out to the back parking lot,ā he said. āAnd they waited, which I thanked them for, until the coast was clear. And then they came back in.ā
Lutz said that two protesters opposed to the drag event showed up outside Freddieās on Saturday, at the time of the Drag Story Hour event. He said drag performer Tara Hoot, who conducted the Drag Story Hour at Freddieās, told him before the event started that some of her previous Drag Story Hour events have been targeted with bomb threats and protesters.
āSo, we were kind of prepared or I guess you could say psychologically prepared for it,ā Lutz said. āAnd sure enough, we got an email threatening the bar and also me personally at my residence, which was a little unsettling,ā he said, adding that nothing was found at his nearby South Arlington house.
In response to an inquiry from the Blade, Arlington police released a brief statement about the incident.
āAt approximately 11:15 a.m. on April 6, police were dispatched to the report of a bomb threat emailed to a business,ā the statement says. āResponding officers made contact with the occupants, conducted a sweep of the business and found no evidence of criminal activity located at the restaurant during the sweep,ā it says. āThe investigation into the threat is ongoing.ā
Hoot, who has been conducting Drag Story Hour events in the D.C. area for more than a year, said as many as eight of her past events have been targeted by hostile protesters or bomb threats, although no bombs have ever been found at the locations where the events have taken place.
Hoot said like protesters targeting her previous events, the two protesters at the Freddieās event, a man and a woman, cited their religious believes as their reason for opposing the Drag Story Hour event.
āThey were spewing religious hate,ā Hoot told the Blade. āThey were trying to shame parents for bringing their kids.ā
Hoot said she includes in the performances songs of interest to children and reads from childrenās books such as the Very Hungry Caterpillar, a book that talks about bravery and other positive themes. āAnd then I give them bubbles and rainbow ribbons and we all color together,ā she said. āItās just fun and love and joy.ā
Started in San Francisco in 2015 by an organization called Drag Story Hour, the story hour events have taken place across the country in libraires, bookstores, and venues such as restaurants and bars.
āIn spaces like this, kids are able to see people who defy rigid gender restrictions and imagine a world where everyone can be their authentic selves,ā the organization says on its website.