A school-board official fled a meeting after being scrutinised over his anti-LGBTQ+ social media posts.
Don Yarber left the meeting on Monday (24 March) after members of the local community confronted him over a post he made on Facebook in which he called LGBTQ+ people degenerates.
In a post that has now been deleted, Yarber wrote: “Keep letting those queers influence the minds of your children. They won’t have any sickness except Aids, mental instability, suicidal thoughts…”
During the meeting in Union County, Kentucky, Yarber asked to be excused from the public comment section. His request was denied and he was then grilled by LGBTQ+ union county schools dance teacher Mark Lamb, who accused him of homophobic bullying.
“I’ve dealt with bullies all my life, so, when you made those comments on Facebook, they roll right off me because I have developed very tough skin,” Lamb said. “When I was a kid, I suffered messages like you said, when you cavalierly mentioned suicide and they made me not want to be alive… I believe that all of us need to do better. Even the bullies, even you.”
As Lamb’s two-minute floor-time came to a close, Yarber abruptly got up from his seat to leave the room and was reportedly heard saying: “I don’t have to stand here and take this.”
News footage captured the moment as parents followed him down the hall, confronting him. One parent was heard saying: “You don’t get to walk out of here”, and members of the public continued to scrutinise Yarber’s homophobic rhetoric after he left.
District superintendent Dr Terra Hancock said views expressed by school staff or district members did not represent the values of Union County schools. Yarber, much like his fellow school-board members, were “elected officials and non-employees,” she added, and the district had “no legal authority to regulate their actions or suspend their terms”.
Following the incident, Yarber returned to Facebook, to write: “Once again, the gay community has been allowed to say, ‘It’s OK to be gay’. And I have not been allowed to say, ‘No, it’s not’.”
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