I am writing in response to the Feb. 28 letter from Harry Trent of Centralia suggesting that religiously conservative public school teachers move their careers to private Christian academies. I agree with him to the extent that religious fundamentalists shouldn’t be in public education, but I believe so for different reasons entirely.
The homophobic and transphobic undertones in his opinion must not go unchallenged. He refers to the LGBTQ community as “twisted sexual concepts” that, according to him, are irreconcilable with “moral absolutes that transcend time and culture.” But the reality is that people are and have been homosexual, bisexual, transgender and nonbinary across all cultures and all human history. Furthermore, our public schools are supposed to be and must always remain a safe haven for all of our youth to be who they are and to be respected as human beings and not as an immoral lifestyle. If such a principle “violates your conscience” then you shouldn’t be working with our youth, period.
By the way, if you would move your child from public to private Christian school or homeschool them for these reasons, I would worry about how your kid will fare in these unaccepting environments should they turn out to be LGBTQ.
Nicholas Cook
Chehalis
