Earlier this month, when news broke that anti-trans speaker Walt Heyer was scheduled to give a talk at Vergennes Union High School, LGBTQ+ advocates expressed dismay at the chosen venue.
Hosting an anti-trans speaker in a public school would tell โqueer and trans youth that they are not welcome in public spaces,โ Amanda Rohdenburg, associate director of the LGBTQ+ advocacy nonprofit Outright Vermont, told VTDigger on June 16, four days before Heyerโs talk.
Behind the scenes, however, school district officials were receiving a different kind of message about the event: warnings, from the high-profile Christian law firm Liberty Counsel, against canceling it.
โLiberty Counsel โฆ strongly cautions the District against cancelling the (Walt Heyer) Event on the basis of protests or claimed threats,โ an attorney wrote to the Addison Northwest Supervisory District on June 18.
The exchanges โ in which a prominent evangelical advocacy group pressured a local school district not to call off a two-hour event โ reflect the extreme politicization of LGBTQ+ identities, particularly in K-12 education.
Theyโre also the latest example of a prominent Christian legal firm getting involved in local Vermont educational practices. The Alliance Defending Freedom, a separate Christian advocacy group based in Arizona, has also represented Vermont parents in challenges to the stateโs public tuition system and in disputes with districts.
โI was surprised that a large, well-known, far-right legal organization was interested in a very, very local small-town โ well, little-city โ matter,โ John Stroup, the chair of the Addison Northwest Supervisory District board, said in an interview, adding that he perceived the letter to be โthreatening us with a lawsuit.โ
In late May, emails show, organizers emailed the district seeking to rent space for an evening event titled โTransgender โCareโ/Helpful or Harmful?โ
The two-hour evening seminar was set to feature a talk by Heyer, an activist who identified as a transgender woman for eight years before detransitioning. Heyer is now a critic of gender-affirming care, and argues that a personโs gender is fixed from conception and cannot be changed.
The event was put on by the Vermont chapter of Parentsโ Rights in Education, an Oregon-based organization that opposes LGBTQ+ equity initiatives in schools.
Tara Ferf Jentink, the head of Vermontโs branch of Parentsโ Rights in Education, told VTDigger earlier this month that she believed schools that LGBTQ+ subjects are โnot age-appropriate materialโ for young children. She did not reply to a phone call and email Tuesday.
In late May, Jentink wrote to the Addison Northwest district seeking to rent space for the talk. The emails show that Jentink asked the district to help advertise the event โvia the districtโs email newsletter or website โฆ physical bulletin boards in the high school and middle schools; take-home distribution; and any other available methods of distribution.โ Jentink also requested permission to distribute flyers on school grounds.
But Sheila Soule, the superintendent, declined to publicize the event in the newsletter and told Jentink that the schools had no bulletin boards for public use. โI cannot agreeโ to volunteers distributing flyers, Soule said, citing district policy on non-school sponsored literature.
At one point, the district even canceled the event, saying that school officials did not have the proper equipment to host it, before allowing it to proceed.
Multiple Vermont news outlets covered plans for the event the week prior, and LGBTQ+ advocacy groups and community members vowed to hold a counter-protest.
โA far cry from โpromoting dialogue,โ this event is part of a coordinated, national smear campaign that aims to instill fear, censor and obscure the truth about trans lives, and justify deadly restrictions on the rights of LGBTQ+ people – especially youth,โ Outright Vermont said in a June 16 statement.
Two days before the event โ on Addison Northwestโs last day of school โ a Liberty Counsel attorney, Richard Mast, sent a letter to the district and warned school officials not to cancel the talk.
โPeaceful protest activity outside of District property is protected by the First Amendment; but disruptive activity on District property may not be used as a pretext to cancel the Event,โ Mast wrote.
Mast also urged the district to โto provide equal treatment to the (Parentsโ Rights in Education) Event in terms of electronic announcementsโ โ in other words, advertise it via the school newsletter.
In an interview, Soule said that the district had never planned to cancel the event.
โWe had understood loud and clear that our policy was such that we wouldnโt be able to cancel, that they would litigate and probably get an injunction to hold their event anyway,โ Soule said. โThat was before we even knew that Liberty Counsel was involved.โ
And because of the end of the school year, she said, Addison Northwest would not be publishing any more newsletters this summer.
Addison Northwest policy allows community members to rent out school facilities for events, but district officials cannot discriminate based on their content, even if they disagree with it. Heyerโs event โwas not a reflection on our principles,โ Soule said.
A day after Mastโs letter โ and one day before Heyerโs talk โ a district staffer emailed Jentink and asked for a certificate of insurance. If the document was not sent by the morning of June 20, the staffer said, โthe event will need to be cancelled.โ
Later that day, Mast sent a second letter reiterating his warnings and accusing the district of seeking โa pretext for cancelling the event.โ
โUnless the District is confident that ALL past facilities use approvals a) have required a facilities use form/application, and b) have had โadequateโ insurance (and these points may well be tested in litigation discovery, should that become necessary), the District would be ill-advised to cancel the event less than 36 hours prior based on purported lack of โinsurance,โโ Mast wrote.
The district dropped its request for insurance, citing the short notice, and allowed the event to proceed. Soule said the late request โwas a flaw in our procedure.โ
Liberty Counsel has offices in Florida, Virginia and Washington, D.C., according to its letterhead. โIn general, Liberty Counsel has a strong interest in matters involving First Amendment rights, including issues involving the fundamental rights of parents; as well as speakers who wish to speak on issues of sexuality, identity, religion, and a variety of others,โ Mast wrote in his July 18 letter.
The organization has been involved in multiple high-profile legal cases, including several before the Supreme Court. Recently, the organization represented Hal Shurtleff, a man whose bid to fly a Christian flag at Boston City Hall was denied. The Supreme Court ruled unanimously last year in Shurtleffโs favor.
It was not immediately clear whether Liberty Counsel had been formally hired to represent anyone in this case. In an email, Holly Meade, a Liberty Counsel spokesperson, said only that the organization โwas contacted by individuals involved in the event and sent the demand letters setting forth the law.โ Meade did not respond to emailed questions.
On June 20, the event appeared to go on as planned. Seven Days reported that Heyer spoke via video call to a crowd of about 60 people, while the counter-protest grew to roughly 300 people, including former gubernatorial candidate Christine Hallquist, the first openly trans major-party candidate in the country, and Vermont State Treasurer Mike Pieciak.
โThat day was a truly great outpouring of support for our transgender kids and our LGBTQ community,โ said Stroup, the Addison Northwest board chair.
At the same time, he said, the board plans to examine its policy on community use of school facilities. But he said that, if any changes are proposed, the process would involve consultation with the state school boards association, as well as discussion with community members.
โIt takes a long time for policies to change,โ he said.
