Miami-Dade school board votes against recognizing LGBTQ History Month

Members of the Miami-Dade School Board on have voted against the recognition of October as LGBTQ History Month.

The measure — which would have ensured that social studies teachers get the resources to teach 12th-grade students about LGBTQ-related cases won in the U.S. Supreme Court — was rejected Wednesday night in an 8-1 vote after a long, tense and emotional meeting.

Last year, the board voted 7-1 to recognize October as LGBTQ month in a similar resolution.

However, that measure didn’t include provisions to add the two LGBTQ Supreme Court landmark cases — 2015′s Obergefell v. Hodges, which recognized same-sex marriages, and Bostock v. Clayton County, in which justices ruled in 2020 that an employer couldn’t fire someone for being gay or transgender — according to the Miami Herald.

More than 50 people waited to speak during the meeting, local television station WFOR-TV reported.

Outside the school board’s headquarters in downtown Miami, members the far-right Proud Boys got into an argument with a person carrying a transgender flag.

Lucia Baez-Geller, the school board member who introduced the proposal, said that the measure was largely “symbolic,” but got hijacked by “ugly falsities” and “disinformation.”

Ahead of the meeting, she said the measure was “mostly to recognize the dignity and the respect for each other.

“This item does not indoctrinate students, it does not force an agenda on students,” Baez-Geller said. “And, as was stated incorrectly, this item does not take away parental choice.

“This is not about beliefs. It’s about recognizing the struggle,” she added.

The vote came around 9:45 p.m., after nearly six hours of discussion.

With more than 330,000 students, the Miami-Dade public school system is the fourth-largest in the country.

With News Wire Services