School District Billed in Diversity Lawsuit

By Julie Bolcer

As California grapples with a massive $24 billion budget deficit, a public school district finds itself served with a bill totaling almost $15,000 related to a lawsuit over a diversity presentation it allowed to take place in March, reports the Hayward Daily Review .

The Sacramento-based Pacific Justice Institute wants the Castro Valley Unified School District near San Francisco to pay $14,700 in costs related to a lawsuit some angry parents filed after a lesbian pastor spoke at Castro Valley High School for its annual "Days of Diversity" event.

The Reverend Arlene Nehring of the Eden United Church of Christ in Hayward says she talked about tolerance and her personal experience coming out. However, the presentation sparked an anonymous e-mail alleging that Nehring gave students "step-by-step instructions on how to become gay and transsexual."

Although the school district cooperated with requests for information, the Pacific Justice Institute presented it with the bill, and also alleged that information supplied in a PowerPoint document of Nehring's presentation was altered. The Eden United Church of Christ has been issued with a subpoena.

A representative for the Pacific Justice Institute says that the PowerPoint document is not consistent with what people in the classroom recall hearing.

The Castro Valley school district said it stands by its Days of Diversity event, and wants to see documentation to justify the legal fees.

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Name: Shannon
Date posted: 7/3/2009 2:17:00 AM
Hometown: Seattle

Comment:
It's interesting to note that Rachel Maddow is an alum of this district. Fairly unrelated, but a compelling side note nonetheless.
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Name: castroglen
Date posted: 7/2/2009 10:39:00 PM
Hometown: San Francisco

Comment:
I am a Castro Valley alumni and was pleasantly surprised that they even had a Diversity Day. Considering the demographic from when I gew up there, this is a major step forward for the city and the district.
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Name: PJR
Date posted: 7/2/2009 9:39:00 PM
Hometown: Michigan

Comment:
Memo To Staffer Julie Bolcer: Quit trying so hard! Seriously, your anti gay lead in the story is some oddball justifications which amounts to concern about a bill served for $15,000 and how somehow that's a concern against a $24 BILLION state shortfall! HUH?? Come on! You're trying to make the bill the story instead of what the gay agendaer was or was not presenting. How about some decent reporting that's not so obviously biased! Frankly, this kind of gay agenda stuff at high schools is not needed! Flip this around to heterosexual, and this "diversity" speaker sounds a whole lot too much like the equivalent of having SC Governor Sanford give his personal yet annoying whines about his sexual release justifications, all spouted off in front of a captured high school teenage audience. Really, whether homo or hetero, get over yourself please!!
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Name: Dwain
Date posted: 7/2/2009 6:25:00 PM
Hometown: Richardson, TX

Comment:
I agree with Jay. If you have the temerity to bring a frivolous lawsuit, then you have to pay your own legal freight. The school district should not have been requesting documentation in support of the bill. They should have rejected it out of hand.
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Name: Jamie
Date posted: 7/2/2009 4:55:00 PM
Hometown: San Jose

Comment:
Shhh! Don't anyone tell them what the step-by-step instructions are. Because then they will try to figure out an antidote.
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Name: Blake
Date posted: 7/2/2009 2:02:00 PM
Hometown: Mississippi

Comment:
Let's say for the sake of argument that she DID give step-by-step instructions on how to become gay or transsexual even though those of us with half of a brain know that that's impossible. Wouldn't most parenting techniques and sexual education courses taught in schools be guilty of the opposite? Giving step-by-step instructions on how to be heterosexual?
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Name: Raymond
Date posted: 7/2/2009 1:27:00 PM
Hometown: NYC

Comment:
It's more of the same. My initial reaction is to laugh. It just sounds so ridiculous. Why on earth would anyone go into a high school and give "step-by-step instructions on how to become gay and transsexual." What is the motivation there? To turn someone into a gay? Good grief.
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Name: Jessica K
Date posted: 7/2/2009 1:25:00 PM
Hometown: NJ

Comment:
I could submit a bill to 365gay for a million dollars but they wouldn't have to pay for it at all. What do these morons think, that someone will just send them money without checking that the bill is legit?
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Name: Carol
Date posted: 7/2/2009 1:16:00 PM
Hometown: MO

Comment:
Google Pacific Justice Institute and you'll know where these people are coming from. The ADL (Anti-Defamation League ) condemned P.J.I. for invoking Hitler and Nazi Germany in their Campaign against CA Prop 8. They are after the Rev. because she is gay and is a United Church of Christ minister doing her job as a Christian that isn't an approved Fundamentalist Christian. No body on earth can instruct anyone how to be GLBT, no matter how hard the Fundies say they can. I don't understand how they can continue to show their ignorance in Science and still breathe.
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Name: PJR
Date posted: 7/2/2009 1:03:00 PM
Hometown: IDK...

Comment:
Apparently, now that less and less people support intolerance, these terrible have to sue us just to keep their horrible organizations against gay people running.

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