My name is Cristan Williams and I support the campaign to have Manuel “Manny” Rodriguez removed for his bigoted behavior. Before Mr. Rodriguez compared being GLBT to being a pedophile and that merely being against hate should disqualify you from fully participating in our society, I was incredibly proud of Houston’s school board.

On June 23, 2011 HISD, the seventh largest school district in the country and the largest in Texas voted for fully inclusive GLBT protections for students. This was especially moving because I had been a victim of anti-GLBT sentiment in my public high school. When I was a teen, I had been considering suicide as a possible option to deal with the fact that I was transgender. I reached out to a school counselor and disclosed my transgender status. Doing so resulted in my expulsion from high school.

On a personal level, I know how important it is to have supportive school leadership. That’s why I signed up to publicly speak in favor of the possible move to protect all of our GLBT students from discrimination and harassment:

Click to watch on YouTube

When HISD took the step to ensure that students and HISD employees would not discriminate against, bully or harass others because they are a member of the GLBT community, I was moved to tears. However, when Mr. Rodriguez, an HISD board member, leader and employee, went on television to make disgusting comparisons between child rape and simply being gay, I felt as if someone had punched me in the gut. I couldn’t believe what I was hearing from an HISD Board representative!

Thus far, Mr. Rodriguez hasn’t faced any official repercussions for what seems to be a blatant violation of HISD policy. In fact, Mr. Rodriguez was re-elected by 24 votes! It’s for these reasons I’m choosing to take a stand against hate. Not only will I will speak out against Mr. Rodriguez’s behavior at the next HISD board meeting, I’m going to make time to stand in protest with our brave GLBT school youth before the meeting.

There’s a lot of ways you too can take a stand:

• “Like” the effort to remove Mr. Rodriguez on FaceBook
• Sign your name on the petition to have Mr. Rodriguez removed
• Come to the protest scheduled for December 8th starting at 4:30
• Sign up to speak at the HISD Board meeting

However you feel you can support our GLBT school youth, please do!

In all the frustration, anguish, and outrage that many of us have felt after the anti-GLBT sentiments expressed by Trustee Manuel Rodriguez, it’s easy to forget that we have a lot to be thankful for in Houston ISD.

We’re thankful for this.

Thanks to the dogged efforts of dedicated community activists such as Jenifer Rene Pool, and thanks to our pro-LGBT champions on the HISD board, such as Anna Eastman and Juliet Stipeche, the Houston Independent School district has one of the most progressive non-discrimination policies in the nation.  Recent modifications, enacted just this past summer, added sexual orientation, gender identity, and gender expression to the list of classes protected against discrimination by district policy.

This policy has given the LGBT community a truly protected place at the table of the largest school district in the state of Texas, and provided a means by which we could express our outrage at the actions of Trustee Rodriguez.  As Trustee Eastman highlighted in her recent speech at Houston’s Transgender Day of Remembrance, the new policy “created a safe space for that outrage to be voiced, by kids, by straight allies who are employees of our district, by gay parents who are employees of our district.”

It has also provided a way for LGBT students of the district to begin to feel safe and come out to their peers, forming Gay-Straight Alliances in numerous schools across the district. For example, the GSA at Milby High School, which is in Trustee Rodriguez’s District, has an active and vocal membership.  The recent policy update meant that these students felt safe and protected enough to actually speak out against this bully on the board at the November 10, 2011 HISD Board Meeting.

Being LGBT means putting up with a lot of bullies.  This updated policy codifies the district’s stance against that bullying.  Despite the fact that some of the district’s own Trustees have yet to really understand it, that’s truly something to be thankful for.

Manuel Rodriguez, we don’t forget and we aren’t going anywhere!

JOIN US in protest of HISD School Board Trustee Manuel Rodriguez, who according to the Houston Chronicle, displayed "appalling homophobia" over the weekend. The HISD School Board is the LAST place that we want this kind of homophobia to be in power.

What: HISD School Board meeting
When: Thursday, December 8; outdoor protest beginning at 4:30pm, public hearing at 6:30pm
Where: The Hattie Mae White Educational Support Center, 4400 West 18th Street, in the board auditorium.

We have several signed up to speak, but also want as many as possible there to stand with us in solidarity against bigotry on the HISD School Board!
For background on this issue, see:

PLEASE SHARE THIS FACEBOOK EVENT:
http://www.facebook.com/events/279462045424422/

HOUSTON – The Houston Chronicle retracted its endorsement of an HISD trustee candidate on Sunday after he distributed a flier that the newspaper and gay rights groups call hateful and homophobic.

Current HISD Trustee Manuel Rodriguez Jr. is seeking re-election. He is running against Ramiro Fonseca in HISD District III.

Late last week a flier from the Rodriguez campaign began arriving at homes in the district.  It lists Rodriguez’s accomplishments including his Catholic church membership, his 38 years of marriage to his high school sweetheart and a photo of his four children and five grandchildren.

But in large red letters the flier says, “Vote NO for my opponent.”  It lists his opponent as having “spent years advocating for gay, lesbian, bi-sexual, transgender rights…not kids.”  It also points out that his candidate is a “54-year-old man with no children” and that he has a “male partner.”

“It’s the low road. It’s disgusting campaigning,” said Noel Freeman with the Houston GLBT Political Caucus.  “He’s taken it to a level that for years voters have rejected.”

Freeman responded Sunday because his organization is mentioned in the flier too. Fonseca is among the candidates endorsed by the caucus which Rodriguez’s flier lists as the “south’s oldest civil rights organization dedicated solely to the advancement of gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender rights.”

Those words are underlined for emphasis in the Rodriguez flier.

Freeman calls the flier openly homophobic, especially in a city that overwhelmingly elected an openly gay mayor.

Students from Milby High School speak to the Houston Independent School board about the anti-LGBT campaign flier distributed by Trustee Manuel Rodriquez. The flier encouraged Houstonians to vote against Rodriquez’s opponent, Ramiro Fonseca because of his sexual orientation.

Paul Gonzales speaks to the Houston Independent School board about the anti-LGBT campaign flier distributed by Trustee Manuel Rodriquez. The flier encouraged Houstonians to vote against Rodriquez’s opponent, Ramiro Fonseca because of his sexual orientation.

James Lee speaks to the Houston Independent School board about the anti-LGBT campaign flier distributed by Trustee Manuel Rodriquez. The flier encouraged Houstonians to vote against Rodriquez’s opponent, Ramiro Fonseca because of his sexual orientation.