Speak up for inclusiveness

The temptation to stay quiet until the issue fades into distant memory is palpable. The opportunity to speak out and perhaps open minds to new thoughts of equity, inclusion and justice is even louder. It should be a drum beat for each of us to speak up in the face of fear and isolationism. LGBTQ rights are here, and include folks in our classrooms, offices, churches, neighborhoods and in many cases our families. The backtracking that CUSD200 did regarding an author who has individuals in her book who are gay is like saying, we should not mention that "Johnny" has two daddies or "Sammy" has two mommies in the kindergarten classroom. It is part of our wonderfully diverse society and deciding when to discuss it should be part of our everyday conversation. Love is love …. That is the conversation to have here. Thank you, Rep. Terra Costa Howard, for opening the door to this conversation by inviting the author to speak at another location in DuPage County. May we all join in.

Connie Sue Schmidt

Warrenville