An author's clash with a Georgia school district over a brief mention of homosexuality in a presentation highlights the reach of conservatives' push for what what they call parents' rights.
Marc Tyler Nobleman was supposed to talk to kids about the secret co-creator of Batman, with the aim of inspiring young students in suburban Atlanta’s Forsyth County to research and write.
Then the school district told him he had to cut a key point from his presentation — that the artist he helped rescue from obscurity had a gay son. Rather than acquiesce, he canceled the last of his talks.
Then the school district told him he had to cut a key point from his presentation — that the artist he helped rescue from obscurity had a gay son. Rather than acquiesce, he canceled the last of his talks.
“We’re long past the point where we should be policing people talking about who they love,” Nobleman said in a telephone interview. “And that’s what I’m hoping will happen in this community.”
They didn't ask him not to "say 'gay'", as the title all but claims. They asked him to participate in the erasure of a relevant gay person from a story he was teaching to children.
He should have let himself be fired. Then he could have brought a lawsuit against the school district over the matter. The school district would have had to demonstrate their reason to fire him on the record. If the researcher received damages for wrongful termination, the taxpayers would know it's their money that is being frivolously spent to support someone's homophobic agenda.