A Denver Public Schools parent has sued the district over its policy allowing teachers to display Progress Pride flags in their classrooms, saying LGBTQ+ flags “discriminate” against his straight, cisgender, white children.
Nathan Feldman, whose children attend Slavens School in southeast Denver’s Wellshire neighborhood, on Nov. 10 filed the federal suit in the U.S. District of Colorado that states DPS’ policy supporting LGBTQ+ students is “not inclusive of all students” or of his children, who are “heterosexual, Caucasian, and/or binary/’cisgender.'” The lawsuit comes after his unsuccessful attempts to have what he described as a “straight pride” flag displayed in his children’s classrooms.
The lawsuit alleges Feldman and his children have “suffered irreparable harm directly” because of the district’s policy, and it seeks an injunction stopping the district from enforcing the policy that prohibits the straight flag display and a declaratory judgment on the unconstitutionality of the policy.
The lawsuit also seeks $3 million in punitive damages from Slavens School Principal Kurt Siebold, DPS Director of Operations Christina Sylvester, and DPS family constituency specialist Katherine Diaz, who are named individually in the lawsuit as well as the district, the DPS school board, Superintendent Alex Marrero and two of Feldman’s children’s teachers.
According to the lawsuit, Feldman asked the district to display a flag he described in an email as a “straight pride” flag, a black and white striped flag with a linked male and female gender sign on it, in front of his children’s classrooms to include them, but the district did not respond to his request.
“Each day at school, (Feldman’s children) are exposed dozens, if not hundreds, of ‘Progress Pride Flags’ that DPS officials have strung throughout the Slavens School classrooms and halls as a means of expressing and promoting DPS’ favored viewpoint on the topic,” the lawsuit states. “Due to the fact that (Feldman and his children’s) views differ, (Feldman and his children) simply requested to have their views expressed, as well. But DPS has refused, and continues to refuse, to permit (Feldman and his children’s) speech or expression to even exist in its schools.”
Feldman first raised his concerns about pride flags to the district Oct. 6, 2022, according to the lawsuit, after he attended a school event and saw Progress Pride Flags displayed in front of classrooms.
He asked his children’s teachers about the flag displays because “Pride Flags are not inclusive of all Slavens School students and only represent one viewpoint on the topic of sex,” and if he could have the straight pride flag displayed as well.
Neither teacher responded, so he sent a follow-up email that Siebold answered, explaining district policy that supports teachers’ right to display a rainbow flag or any other sign of support for LGBTQ+ students.
The lawsuit alleges Siebold’s response and DPS policy “confirms” the district “does not allow students or staff to speak or express support for students or staff who are not members of the LGBTQIA+ community.”
Siebold later allegedly sent an email that stated, in part, “DPS doesn’t allow for other flags,” according to the lawsuit.
Feldman went back and forth with DPS officials and school administrators and faculty, saying the use of the pride flags and alleged non-allowance for other flags violates the 1st and 14th Amendments to the U.S. Constitution.
He also sent an email to Sylvester, stating he’d like to “follow [Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion policies] to display a straight pride flag with 2 gender symbols” in front of his children’s classrooms.
He met with Siebold and Diaz in January, where Diaz allegedly said, “‘sexual orientation, gender identity and race protections only apply to homosexuals, people of color, and trans people.”
Feldman claims, according to the lawsuit, straight, white, cisgender people should “be members of protected classes or protected against discrimination” because those are parts of sexual orientation, race and gender identity.
Feldman and his children are being represented by Michael Yoder and Chad LaVeglia, two Washington D.C.-based attorneys.
DPS Director of External Communications Scott Pribble said as of Monday the district had not been served the lawsuit, but even if they had could not comment on pending litigation.
Straight people already have representation. Plenty of it. Almost every love story in modern western society is straight. The law itself in many places only recognizes straight couples. This has only started to change in the last 10-20 years. The point of pride is to give a heavily marginalized, underrepresented group of people a shared voice and a way to find joy in a society that make it difficult to be that way. Trying to celebrate “straight pride” makes no sense since society doesn’t make it difficult to be straight. We don’t need pride because everything is built for us. And if you still want to join in, you can be an ally - it even has a flag if you want one.
But these are children you’re talking about. They have no concept of the history of racism, sexism, the turmoil of the past, etc.
All they see is all the LGBT kids being celebrated, while they aren’t for some reason. I wonder as a child, what I would do if I saw all this love and pride for people that were gay…I might just want to announce myself gay as well, because I yearned to gain the acceptance and tolerance that those who claimed they were LGBT were getting as well. Even if I weren’t, I would certainly feel pressured to, without representation of my own.
You have to understand the context of all of this, and you clearly don’t. You’ve decided the stance you’re going to take, and have worked your way backwards to support it rather than thinking about it as a whole, and coming to a sane conclusion from there.
It’s a school. If the students have no concept of the history of racism, sexism, homophobia, and transphobia then maybe the school should, you know, educate them?
Also I went to public school while the gay pride movement was getting mainstream traction, and I was straight and cis. The bullying they had to go through did not make me wish I was gay.
And not to mention, this article is about an adult arguing for this. There’s no excuse for them not understanding the “turmoil of the past.”
Do you understand what it was like being a Jew during the holocaust?
Even though you have been educated about it…do you really? Education doesn’t impart anything more than knowledge. Knowledge is not Understanding.
And yes, it’s an adult arguing for this, because nobody will listen to a child and children need Adult proxies to argue for things when they can’t. Did your parents never take up arms for you as a child when you were wronged?
It’s discrimination to display LGBT flags all over the schools and then balk when others want to be represented as well. But it’s clear that you support discrimination, so long as it’s “for the right people”. You’re no different than a Republican.
Don’t assume what people think to match your prejudices. No one is saying that straight people are wrong.