Grace Christian School in Valrico, Florida boasts on its website that it does not discriminate “on the basis of race, color, nationality, or ethnic origin.”
But if a student happens to be gay, bisexual or transgender, it’s time to leave!
In an email to parents obtained by NBC News, Administrator Barry McKeen made the school’s position on LGBTQ students crystal clear.
The subject line of the email reads: “Important School Policy Point of Emphasis. … Please Read.”
How about we take this to the next level?
Our newsletter is like a refreshing cocktail (or mocktail) of LGBTQ+ entertainment and pop culture, served up with a side of eye-candy.
Related: Florida ups the ante on ‘Don’t Say Gay’ just one week into the new school year
“We believe that God created mankind in His image: male (man) and female (woman), sexually different but with equal dignity,” the email said.
It went on to erroneously reference “one’s biological gender.” For the people in the back, “gender” is defined as a social construct while “sex” distinguishes the biological difference between females and males.
“Therefore, one’s biological sex must be affirmed and no attempts should be made to physically change, alter, or disagree with one’s biological gender — including, but not limited to, elective sex reassignment, transvestite, transgender, or non-binary gender fluid acts of conduct (Genesis 1:26-28). Students in school will be referred to by the gender on their birth certificate and be referenced in name in the same fashion.”
Then the school lumped being gay in with “bestiality” and “incest,” because of course it did.
Related: Florida teen warned not to ‘say gay’ during graduation speech finds perfectly shady solution
It continued: “We believe that any form of homosexuality, lesbianism, bisexuality, transgender identity/lifestyle, self-identification, bestiality, incest, fornication, adultery and pornography are sinful in the sight of God and the church (Genesis 2:24; Leviticus 18:1-30; Romans 1:26-29; I Corinthians 5:1; I Corinthians 6:9; I Thessalonians 4:2-7).”
“Students who are found participating in these lifestyles will be asked to leave the school immediately,” the email said.
In a video statement, McKeen reaffirmed the school’s position and added: “We are not a hateful group of people. We don’t hate students who are of a particular persuasion.”
At least one LGBTQ student has disenrolled from the school after the email went out.
“It’s not like my daughter goes around wearing rainbow flags or anything like that,” the teen’s mother said. “But I’m not going to have her feel ashamed of herself for any reason.”
BEARY FLINTSTONE
Well dam
CatholicXXX
“ pornography are sinful in the sight of God and the church” welp.
Guess every teenage boy, and some girls, is going straight to hell.
All those priests are going to be so disappointed when they get to heaven.
TomG
It seems to me that they are also confused, since from my understanding God DOES NOT MAKE JUNK, therefore LGBTQ+ people are blessed by God just like these so-called “Christians” (and I use the term Christian loosely since apparently these people are more like Satan’s minions and do not even realize it.
jt1990
Ikr? Haven’t the school officials heard of “Gays for God?” I don’t have a dog in this fight, but I’d give $20 to the kid who mentions it at Show N Tell. As a former student, stirring $hit up for laughs is what made school halfway tolerable lol
Rocinante
If for some bizarre reason I found myself in that school at 14(Very bad period for me) in the 80s, there would have been a few dead administrators. I thought about doing that then at my public school. I grew out of it. That’s where this will lead eventually.
dc1WPB
McKeen says…”We are not a hateful group of people”….I doubt that very much. I also wonder how you treat the priests who rape little boys….I guess you can just turn a blind eye to that and continue your tax-free status.
monty clift
Right, I doubt any LGBT student would be safe in that school, not with creeps like him around every corridor.
Dennisw
Why would anyone identify as a Christian if they do not follow any of the basic teachings attributed to the character historically referred to as Christ? Stop providing any federal dollars to these bigotry factories
Kangol2
Because they are hateful, evil people who seek a doctrine or creed that will allow them to hate other people. Many are angry, repressed, unhappy, etc. and rather than getting psychological help, they utilize Christianity as a cover/excuse not to deal with their problems or to rationalize their own failings. That’s why. Many can’t even tell you what’s in the Bible they love to invoke so often!
sebell75
The Bible passage they reference: “So God created mankind in his own image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them.” So, if god is a singular being, but created us in their image, does that not mean that god is therefor both male and female? Then aren’t we technically both male and female? Or is this god non-binary? In which case, are we by definition non-binary? I really wish that people would understand that these so-called Christians are basing everything on a thousands year old text, written by a bunch of different people, and then cherry picked to be assembled into a book, which was then translated dozens of times, through at least 5 different languages, each with different meanings to the words used.
boblrice
I can say that after reading this, I’ve seen the light.
Seriously, I don’t know why I haven’t seen this pointed out before. It’s so simple and follows basic logic. God is definitely non-binary.
monty clift
They don’t understand, and they never will understand because they don’t care to. Ignorance is bliss, and they revel in it because it breeds hatred and bigotry and that’s something they can’t live without.
davex01
Well said. More importantly, if God “created” mankind, then he made us men half female at the chromosome level, i.e. XY compared to YY for women.
barryaksarben
I ,ive in Florida and any kid with anytime of future doesNOT go through this particular states schools.Now some of their v very worst students are now hired by DiSantis. and are running the nuthouse
mikem10033
Does he realize that Christ was unmarried, had 12 unmarried friends and his “beloved” was the youngest, John?
Fenix443
Actually that’s not exactly true. Remember all the depictions of the crucifix? There was always a woman and her son watching him on the cross. That in fact was his wife and son, later protected by Jesus’s older brother Thomas. The church omitted a lot of facts, like he was married to Mary Magdalene, was the second of six children Mary had, among others. Ask a priest about the Book of Thomas…
Erik
Fenix is wrong. Those depictions, for one thing, were not created during the crucifixion, they are not photos. Second, they depict Mary, Christ’s mother, and John the disciple, and usually Mary Magdalene, and then any number of other disciples, followers, etc.
mikem10033
I never heard anything about Jesus’ “son”. Mary Magdalene was what we might call a “fag hag” who keeps the company of gay men because they feel safer and accepted as a friend, with no expectations. I don’t think he would have been executed for having divergent approaches to Judaism – he probably would have just been exiled, but leading a group of gay men and accepting of that diversity would certainly have merited death. And it is even so today, as Barry McKeen shows us. Meanwhile, the Book of Thomas is not in the bible and is considered heretical and was written 2 centuries after Christ’s time on earth.
Redmon17
Deplorable as this is, we have to keep in mind that this is a private school. Unless it receives federal dollars, there isn’t much that can be done about this, aside from public ridicule — and clearly that is not important to the people who send their children there. More investigation into the finances of the school would be helpful. My hope is that the ACLU and other groups might find a way to sue their asses.
Short of that, we’re a free speech country and this is part of the deal. :-((
Steven R
I agree. I’d prefer all schools (and other institutions, businesses, etc.) do the same thing. Can you imagine being a gay kid at that school? Even if they hadn’t sent out the memo, they still feel that way. A gay kid would be tortured there. Let the hate groups wave their flags proudly so we know to avoid them (and spend our money and time elsewhere).
Besides, it’s not like the church’s hatred of gay people is news. They’ve been screaming it for years.
Brian
Well sure, a policy can be technically *legal* while also being bigoted and tyrannical. I’m glad that writers take the time to cover the story anyway. It would be awful if everyone just looked the other way. These people deserve to be publicly shamed on a national scale.
MainelyStories
Did you notice the word fornication included in that? I would like them to point out the students who have not been involved in fornication.
FROLIC
These maggots need to crawl back under their rock. It’s HIHO — Hate In, Hate Out. They go to church to fill up with hate from their pastor preaching hate, and then go out into the world and spread the hate, believing it is normal and “righteous.”
fredk3
Barry McKeen declares “We are not a hateful group of people” … in other words: “we are a hate group”
Diplomat
Just one more indication the gawd in the Bible is one long horned sulfur sniffing beast. Get a clue people. Oh that’s right. They are as hypnotized as the Maga crowd. It’s like knocking on cement
maddog
I have no problem with this school or their attitudes as long as it receives none of my tax money, pays for all of its government-supplied services by paying taxes (i.e. it is not tax exempt) and is up-front with its policies.
I hope that they make the children wear school uniforms so I can identify them, and if I see the school’s name on their diploma I can decide if I want to hire them later in life.
Any college or university might have certain questions on their entrance exam like “how old is the earth?” and “is homosexuality inherently evil?”
And of course, if I ever had a child I would never send my child to this school.
JRamonMc
Hope the fornication, adultery and pornography rule applies to straight identifying kids as well. Guessing tuition will be going up since they’ll be a mass exodus of children being expelled.
MHaumesser
The question is when is this school being taken to court? Or like these so called churches like to do to others why aren’t there loads of gay people standing outside of this school holding signs, screaming God hates Liars! Etc.
justtiredofitall
I always relish asking extreme right wing Christians: Why did God give man tits?
terryr504
Interesting how they avoid the mention of pedophilia. Wouldn’t want to implicate any of their own.
Just.my.opinion
This world is filled with such awful people. God should just completely destroy this world and start all over.
still_onthemark
God promised he would never destroy the earth again with a flood (Genesis 9:11) so it will be something else… maybe Facebook!
Tacapollo
Public schools quoting scripture?! So much for separation of church and state! Hope no one making those laws are eating seafood or wearing tattoos. They also better fire all the female teachers. Let’s go, Florida! You want to follow the Bible? Then just don’t pick and choose, follow ALL the rules set forth in the Bible! With rising sea levels, I don’t think it’s going to save you from “God’s wrath”.
still_onthemark
It’s not a public school, fortunately! But 20 years from now, who knows.
RickHeathen
Churches and pious hypocrites and a$$holes can go f*ck themselves.
johncp56
I did not have to read anything to do with religion is scummy, I jumped ship in 5th grade and came out at 14, this tax-free con cult of hypocrites, need their asses handed to them all, godless people seem to be more realistic, prove me wrong religions judge put people out, ask other for money when some tax-free cults are among the billionaires club, catholic church/company, one of the biggest land money art holders and still ask us to help, why are they not housing the poor and helping with healthcare,
carllonghorn
And of course this a-holes expect all the rest of us to help fund their bigotry and Biblical terrorism by diverting public school dollars via vouchers to their private, screwed up schools. And my guess is the SCOTUS will uphold such funding requirements as justified, because that’s where we are headed. So this is what hate looks like on a state level.
abfab
Is this school on Taliban BLVD?
Rikki Roze
Let’s not lose sight of fact that this is a CHRISTIAN school. And this is the religion that wants to determine the laws in our democratic (separation of church and state) country? No!
Hillers
Wouldn’t the constitutional freedom of religion trump this mandate if the student was Muslim or some other religion that didn’t adhere to the Christian Bible? And even so, a biblical scholar could argue that this is a misinterpretation of the text.
Once again, misusage of the Bible to justify hatred and bigotry.
Joshua333
Why are they against incest? It’s Florida, and those people are clearly Republican so you’d think the only people they could find suitable to marry would be a sibling or a cousin.
missvamp
let the lawsuits begin.
LumpyPillows
Won’t work.
wikidBSTN
They think because a man/boy is gay they are not a male? And that a lesbian is not a female?
Do people in Florida aspire to stupidity?
Georgeiv2
When will Florida ban divorce ? after all its what Jesus would have wanted !
dbmcvey
It’s a Christian school. Of course they discriminate.
That’s what Jesus would do.
Raphael Klarfeld
One comment suggested that the priests were going to heaven. Uh…You sure about that? Another said God made man in his own image suggesting that that image was straight male or female. Uh.. You sure about that?
I believe the the Big Guy does not make mistakes and that S/He certainly does not condemn Gay people to damnation, particularly because they are born that way and have no choice about their sexual orientation. If you think otherwise, ie they do have a choice you are seriously misinformed. To make statements like you made, you have a responsibility to be informed and if you are not guess who is going down rather than up.
mtrodetguy
Hhmmmm. How odd, that is NOT What Jesus Would Do (WWJD). This is at an astronomically UNCHRISTIAN level. SMDH Evangelical “self proclaimed” Christians are so far astray from comprehension of their wrongdoing, their souls are doomed (at the least) to linger in purgatory until they see the err of their ways here in this physical realm.
Sanjo
If their Christ embraced the “sinfull,” why don’t they? Why don’t they want the opportunity to show the incestuous and adulterous sinners the light?
Hypocrites all.