click to enlarge - Alison Novak
- Vergennes Union High School
Walt Heyer, a national activist who appears frequently on right-wing media warning about gender-transition surgery, will speak via Zoom at an event next Tuesday at Vergennes Union High School. The evening talk is being organized by several Addison Northwest School District parents, members of an organization called
Parents' Rights in Education.
The Oregon-based nonprofit states on its website that it "reject[s] current practice by public school staff facilitating mental health counseling, medical treatment and procedures without parent knowledge, circumventing the relationship between parents and children."
Heyer, who is in his 80s, lived as a transgender woman for eight years before transitioning back to living as a man. He writes frequently for conservative publications such as the Federalist and the Daily Signal and is a regular guest on Fox News, where he speaks out against gender-affirming care.
Addison Northwest superintendent Sheila Soule said the school district is not hosting the event. Instead, the parent group is renting the space, which it is entitled to do under school district policy.
Soule said the parents requested the space in late May. After consulting with its lawyers, the district determined that the request did not violate the school board's building-use policy. That policy provides limited grounds to deny a request, including if an event "could reasonably be expected to give rise to a riot or public disturbance."
While Soule said the event may attract protesters, "a protest is not a riot and, in and of itself, is not a public disturbance."
"As our attorney has shared, if you're going to open the facilities to anyone, you have to open the facilities to everyone," Soule said. "These folks and their viewpoints — although I very much disagree with them ... they are within their rights to have their opinions."
Still, Soule said, she questions why the group decided to hold the controversial event in a school building.
Parents Tara Ferf Jentink and Tonya Meacham are hosting the talk, according to a
calendar on Vergennes Union High School's website. In March, Ferf Jentink was featured in an article published in
True North Reports about "gender theory" being taught in the Addison Northwest School District. John Klar, who has made unsuccessful bids for governor and the Vermont Senate, wrote the piece, and reported that Ferf Jentink said her daughter, a third grader, was being taught about "gender ideologies, transgenderism, consent and sexuality" and was not allowed to opt out of the instruction. Ferf Jentink also was interviewed about the topic on a
recent episode of "Generally Irritable," a show on YouTube. Host Ericka Redic made an unsuccessful bid to represent Vermont in the U.S. House.
In an interview on Wednesday, Ferf Jentink said she was Vermont's affiliate leader for Parents' Rights in Education and chose to get involved with the organization when she learned that her daughter was learning about gender in school without parental consent.
"Parents don't know what their children are being taught behind closed doors, and I feel that it would at least be fair for parents to have total knowledge of what is being discussed ... and that they're able to have a say in the age-appropriateness of the material," she said.
Ferf Jentink said she doesn't think there's "any better place" to hold the event than at a school. "This is a community topic. This is involving the school system. This is involving parents' rights in education," she said.
On the Instagram account People's Pride Burlington, a message urged people to contact superintendent Soule and provided a sample script they could use asking her to cancel the event.
"Hosting this violent and transphobic event in a time when queer and trans people are being so targeted is dangerous, cruel and irresponsible," the script reads. "If this event is not canceled, I plan on being there to show my support for queer and trans people."
Outright Vermont, a nonprofit that works with LGBTQ+ youths, is aware of the event and is working with community members to develop a response, according to V Pearson, the organization's director of organizing.
In an email, Dana Kaplan, executive director of Outright, questioned the school district's rationale for allowing the event to happen at one of its schools.
"Regardless of school policy for booking events, we know hate has no neutrality," Kaplan wrote, "and the message this sends to the students and wider community, regardless of intent, is that Vergennes is hosting."
Correction, June 15, 2023: An earlier version of this story misspelled Tonya Meacham's name.