One month after securing a seat on the Broward County School Board, Brenda Fam was photographed on December 3 talking earlier than a small crowd on the “Protect the Children” rally organized by conservative teams Moms for Liberty Miami, Florida Fathers for Freedom, and Gays Against Groomers.
Fliers for the occasion, which was promoted on the far-right outlet One America News Network, function a cartoon of oldsters holding up an umbrella to defend their youngsters from a rainbow, an emblem of homosexual satisfaction.
The occasion was marketed as a rally in opposition to “a radicalized sexual curriculum,” “youngster grooming,” and “gender affirming care.”
In pictures posted on-line, Fam will be seen standing on a seashore wall and talking earlier than a small crowd, which included uniformed members of the far-right Proud Boys group.
VIDEO THREAD: On Saturday, Proud Boys rallied with the teams Gays Against Groomers and Moms for Liberty held a rally in Fort Lauderdale titled “Protect the Children.”
Video in thread by @davedeckerphoto for @N2Sreports pic.twitter.com/mzrrZ9RPw2
— Ford Fischer (@FordFischer) December 4, 2022
Fam, a lawyer and part-time flight attendant from Davie, received her election in opposition to Steven Julian in November. She is considered one of 9 Broward County School Board members and represents District 6, which encompasses Weston and Davie, amongst different communities in southwest Broward County.
According to her marketing campaign website, her predominant platform factors are “household values,” “educational excellence and transparency,” and “security and safety for college students and workers,” which she defines partially as “the flexibility to specific a differing opinion with out judgment, retaliation, ridicule, the specter of being canceled, or detrimental penalties.”
In a pre-election Sun Sentinel profile, Fam voiced assist for HB 1557, the Parental Rights Bill in Education AKA the “Don’t Say Gay” invoice, which prohibits lecturers from discussing sexuality with college students in public faculties earlier than fourth grade. Fam claimed within the interview that lecturers are indoctrinating college students with leftist concepts, consciously and unconsciously.
“Students readily admit that they’re afraid of being canceled, together with socially, if they don’t go alongside. Indoctrination is going on as many college students finally succumb to see strain,” she informed the paper.
She additionally campaigned on the removing of “obscene and age-inappropriate” books and classes from the classroom.
Fam declined New Times’ request to discuss her attendance on the rally.
Broward-based politician and advisor Elijah Manley, who ran for a Broward County School Board seat in 2018, says Fam falls neatly consistent with Gov. Ron DeSantis’ plan to imprint his self-styled anti-woke agenda on native college boards.
Manley says he beforehand believed Fam would “average herself a bit of bit from the far-right rhetoric” as soon as she was sworn in.
“But I think her attendance at this event, and her speaking at this event, shows her true character and what she’ll be doing for the next four years,” says Manley, who’s coming off a loss within the Democratic major for Florida House of Representatives District 94.
The trope about America’s youth supposedly being groomed en masse to develop into homosexual, bisexual, or transgender is way from new, although it has develop into a central theme of right-wing activists within the current classroom tradition wars. The idea has been used for many years to impress distrust in opposition to the homosexual neighborhood.
In Florida, the trope dates again at the very least to the Seventies when singer-turned-activist Anita Bryant spearheaded the anti-gay “Save Our Children” marketing campaign in response to an ordinance granting homosexual folks housing and employment protections. Bryant’s motion, born in Dade County, aimed to restrict the authorized rights of LGBTQ folks beneath the guise of defending the nation’s youngsters.
Anthony Raimondi, rally attendee representing Gays Against Groomers, stated within the time main as much as the occasion that the rally was not directed in opposition to trans or homosexual folks.
“Well look, anyone is usually a groomer. It’s not simply the LGBTQ neighborhood. Anybody can try to brainwash a toddler or groom a toddler,” Raimondi stated.
Several tense arguments broke out on the rally over the “groomer” terminology, together with an change between Fort Lauderdale Mayor Dean Trantalis, who’s homosexual, and right-wing activists.
“When you begin utilizing inflammatory phrases like groomers, it means extra than simply what you are saying,” Trantalis argued.
Counter protesters gathered throughout the road from the seashore and held an indication stating, “These gays bash again” amid chants of “Erasers are for blackboards, not for folks.”
The Anti-Defamation League categorised the rally as a part of a wave of occasions with anti-LGBTQ messages that happened over the weekend.
Near an arts pageant that featured a drag performer in Orlando, an overtly bigoted gathering was held Saturday night, during which males carried Nazi flags and a banner that learn “Drag queens are pedophiles with AIDS.”
Meanwhile, in Ohio, a Unitarian Church was pressured to cancel a Drag Queen Story Hour occasion after it was focused by Proud Boys and different far-right teams.