Support for Pride Flag Initiative

Dear Editor,

I was glad to have attended the rally to support the Castro Valley School District Pride Flag Initiative. I believe it is very important to understand and support gender equality in our community. A number of fellow citizens were there to spread lies and disinformation about what is being taught in our schools. They complained that sexually explicit information was being taught and they carried signs that accused the teachers of sexualizing, indoctrinating and imposing gay culture on 5, 6, and 7 years olds. Where do these crazy and false claims come from?

Their claims come from the same Internet sewer that brings us Breitbart “news”, Alex Jones and Infowars, Qanon cult ideas and other unsubstantiated, wacky conspiracy theories. Like the Big Lie about the 2020 election and the claim that Democrats are secretly pedophiles running child trafficking schemes, these lies are not just the crazy rantings of ignorant lunatics but are just plain dangerous for all of us. I could sense a measure of fear among the teachers, staff and students who were at the rally. And why not, these lies and disinformation brought us the violent January 6 insurrection and have caused violent threats to election workers as well as teachers and even librarians in our towns.

I strongly suggest that we resist the internalizing of fake claims, lies and disinformation about sex education. No normal teachers, probably 99.99%, are providing inappropriate information, pushing any special agenda or forcing children to learn about gender facts against their will. These lies are just crazy, silly and a danger to our communities. Sex education actually promotes good, medically safe behavior and significantly LESSENS the chance of underage pregnancy, sexual disease and predation by adults and even premature sexual behavior. Please support real science and education and our schoolteachers.

–David Siegel, Castro Valley