{"id":20336,"date":"2023-10-16T09:10:24","date_gmt":"2023-10-16T16:10:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/peninsula360press.com\/?p=20336"},"modified":"2023-10-16T09:10:24","modified_gmt":"2023-10-16T16:10:24","slug":"anti-lgbtq-group-in-san-jose","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/peninsula360press.com\/en\/anti-lgbtq-group-in-san-jose\/","title":{"rendered":"San Jos\u00e9 city council leaders condemn anti-LGBTQ group"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"City
Councilmembers Pam Foley and Omar Torres drafted a resolution supporting LGBTQ+ students in reaction to efforts by San Jose-based anti-LGBTQ group Informed Parents of Silicon Valley to ban books with LGBTQ+ themes and encourage parents to opt out of LGBTQ+-supportive school curriculum. Photo: Alexander Grey, Pexels.\u00a0<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

By Lorraine Gabbert. San Jose Spotlight<\/a>.<\/strong><\/p>\n

San Jose officials are standing with LGBTQ+ communities against discriminatory organizations causing conflict in local schools.<\/span><\/p>\n

Councilmembers Pam Foley and Omar Torres drafted a resolution supporting LGBTQ+ students in response to efforts by Informed Parents of Silicon Valley to ban books with LGBTQ+ themes and encourage parents to opt out of LGBTQ+-supportive school curriculum.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The resolution will be presented at the San Jose City Council meeting on Oct. 24 for a vote.<\/span><\/p>\n

Foley said hate speech and misinformation are unacceptable and the city needs to take a stand.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThe allegations portrayed in these groups\u2019 distributions are inaccurate and desperately misrepresent what is happening in our schools,\u201d Foley told San Jos\u00e9 Spotlight.<\/span><\/p>\n

The resolution says Informed Parents of Silicon Valley is trying to prevent schools from carrying books or teaching curricula about gender identity and LGBTQ+ families, as well as social and emotional health and racial justice. It references an incident on Sept. 1 when members distributed literature at local schools, including Bagby Elementary School in the Cambrian School District.<\/span><\/p>\n

Maria Noel Fernandez, a parent at Bagby Elementary School, said Informed Parents of Silicon Valley confronted her with incendiary bookmarks on Sept. 1 while she was driving her son to school.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cInformed Silicon Valley Parents and their partner, the Values \u200b\u200bAdvocacy Council (which advocates for Judeo-Christian values \u200b\u200bin public policy issues), have a history of harassing not only the LGBTQ+ community and communities of color,\u201d she told San Jos\u00e9 Spotlight, \u201cbut our children and parents, through a targeted campaign focused on instilling hate in our schools, the only place every child and family should feel safe.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

In a letter to the City Council, Informed Parents of Silicon Valley said the resolution violates the city\u2019s ethics code by \u201ctouting demonstrably dishonest claims about us, allowing partisan bigotry to override basic fairness, and creating an environment that would restrict citizens\u2019 basic First Amendment rights.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

The group also threatened to sue the city. Informed Parents of Silicon Valley said the resolution is not responsible, fair, honest or open and elected officials are spreading misinformation about it.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIt is vital to note that no legal finding has ever determined whether any Informed Parents volunteer harassed anyone,\u201d the group said in its letter to councilmembers. \u201cAll we want is for parents to be able to exercise their right to opt out of curriculum they deem inappropriate for their children, a right enshrined in the California Education Code.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Informed Parents of Silicon Valley did not respond to requests for comment.<\/span><\/p>\n

Foley said her office was told that members of Informed Parents of Silicon Valley distributed literature in the San Jose and Franklin-McKinley unified school districts urging parents to remove students from curriculum aimed at increasing acceptance and understanding of LGBTQ+ children and families.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Members of the group distributed flyers before the Franklin McKinley School District board meeting on Sept. 26 and attended the meeting to protest the censure of board member Marc Cooper.<\/span><\/p>\n

Foley said Informed Parents of Silicon Valley is misrepresenting reality. She said the isolation and marginalization of the LGBTQ+ community puts students at risk. The group said it is not anti-LGBTQ+ and denied harassing parents in schools on the specific date mentioned in the resolution.<\/span><\/p>\n

Foley said she expects the council to take action after ensuring the resolution is based on a solid legal foundation, and she believes it is.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThe attached resolution reaffirms that the City of San Jose is a welcoming and supportive place for the LGBTQ+ community,\u201d she and Torres said in the resolution, \u201cand makes clear that hate and efforts to marginalize LGBTQ+ people have no place in our city.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"\"\"\"This publication was supported\u00a0<\/em>in whole or\u00a0<\/em>part by funding provided by the State of California,<\/em>\u00a0a<\/em>you administered<\/em>red by the\u00a0Cali<\/a><\/em>Fornia State Library.<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

You may be interested in:<\/strong> Silicon Valley meetings disrupted by virtual hate speech<\/a><\/em><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Por Lorena Gabbert. San Jos\u00e9 Spotlight. Los funcionarios de San Jos\u00e9 est\u00e1n apoyando a las comunidades LGBTQ+ contra las organizaciones discriminatorias que causan conflictos en las escuelas locales. Los concejales Pam Foley y Omar Torres redactaron una resoluci\u00f3n que apoya a los estudiantes LGBTQ+ en reacci\u00f3n a los esfuerzos de Informed Parents of Silicon Valley […]<\/p>","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":10608,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14,306],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-20336","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-cover","8":"category-santa-clara"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/peninsula360press.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20336","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/peninsula360press.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/peninsula360press.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/peninsula360press.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/peninsula360press.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20336"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/peninsula360press.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20336\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":20339,"href":"https:\/\/peninsula360press.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20336\/revisions\/20339"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/peninsula360press.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/10608"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/peninsula360press.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20336"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/peninsula360press.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20336"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/peninsula360press.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20336"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}