Zoey Parker, 5, is an orphan. First her mother died; then her father was killed in a work accident.
But Zoey got lucky. Her aunt adopted her. The only trouble is, her aunt is a lesbian, and married another woman; but that’s a big trouble. It got Zoey kicked out of her school.
“Her school” was the Bible Baptist Academy in DeQuincy, Louisiana. Things were fine until the adoption was finalized a week before school was to start. That makes it look like the school retaliated against Zoey for being adopted by a gay relative.
The way they did it was cruel and hamfisted, too. Two days before school started, they called in Zoey’s adoptive parents, and basically told them: You’re outta here. There was no opportunity to discuss possible ways to accommodate Zoey, no offer of help placing her in another school, no offer of support or counseling to help Zoey cope with being abruptly cut off from her teachers, classmates, and friends. They simply expelled her for being adopted by gay parents.
The school says its “first obligation is to God and being faithful to him.” So screw the 5-year-old kid. ”As a Christian institution, we are protected by federal laws that give us the opportunity to teach and practice our beliefs,” they added. Which is true, and they should have that protection, however odious their beliefs are. It’s not for government to decide what people can believe.
Zoey’s new parents say they hope they’ll learn to “accept and love all humans for their souls not their lifestyles.” Good luck with that; few things in this world are more challenging than convincing self-proclaimed “Christians” their behavior is un-Christian.
Read about this sad story here and here.
We have to respect Bible Baptist Academy’s constitutional right to expel this 5-year-old orphan girl for being adopted by a gay relative, regardless of the trauma it heaps on a kid who’s already lost both of her biological parents, because if they don’t have religious freedom, then none of us do.
The First Amendment protects their right to practice their beliefs, in however twisted a fashion, without legal or governmental interference. (It doesn’t, however, shield them from public criticism. People like me have a First Amendment right to say they shouldn’t go around calling themselves Christians when their behavior is un-Christian. You know — tolerance, forgiveness, accepting the leper, etc.)
So I’m not real concerned about what a Baptist bible school in Louisiana that could use some sensitivity training does, although I feel for the poor kid. (If it were me, I’d never have enrolled a vulnerable child — or any child — in that school in the first place, but that’s me.)
But I’m real concerned when Republican candidates and office-holders want to erase the distinction between private and public schools, and impose the thinking of the Bible Baptist Academies of the world on public education (and public libraries).
For example, the GOP nominee for Pennsylvania governor, Doug Mastriano, is a Christian nationalist who “has called the separation of church and state a myth” (according to Wikipedia here). That, of course, is false. Even if he’s elected governor, Mastriano can’t sweep away the First Amendment. He can try, and he’ll be sued in federal courts if he does. (But what if Trump’s Supreme Court backs him?)
At times, Republican homophobia borders on Laughing Out Loud, as when Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis banned rainbows from public schools. But the conservative religious agenda, when it spills over into public policy, is dangerous to our freedom. And especially dangerous to the gay citizens being persecuted by Republican politicians and religious bigots who wrongly believe that being gay is a chosen behavior, not a biological condition people are born with and can’t do anything about. (Who in their right mind would choose to be gay with people like them around?)
It isn’t just separation of church and state that’s under rightwing attack; other constitutional rights are at risk, too, if Republicans get power. I don’t trust them not to ban the Zoey Parkers of the world from public schools if they get the power to do that. I think Doug Mastriano would do that, and I don’t know where Ron DeSantis would stop, or if he would.
The point is, the Constitution won’t stop them if voters won’t. If voters allow these candidates to turn America into a Bible Baptist Academy by electing them, the words of the Constitution will be no barrier at all, they’ll be nothing more than words on paper. This has to be stopped at the ballot box, or it may become unstoppable.