Across the street from Mt. Erie Baptist Church in San Diego is Mt. Erie Christian Academy, an elementary school whose student population has just decreased by one due to institutionalized homophobia.
The parents of a 5-year-old girl were recently notified that their daughter would no longer be able to attend the school, where she’d also gone to preschool and summer camp.
Why? Because this girl has the audacity to have two moms, a fact her parents Lashaune and Sheena say was already known throughout the church community.
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“They told us, ‘oh this is not about your child,’ but it is about my child,” said Sheena, who asked that her last name not be used.
“If we knew from the beginning that this was unacceptable, they didn’t condone or believe in this, if it was such a big deal, we would have never started her off there,” she continued. “I would never put my child’s emotional wellbeing in an unstable setting like that.”
Just a few days before school was to start, Lashaune and Sheena were called into the school for a meeting with the pastor.
After a prayer, he broke the news.
“It was heartbreaking,” Sheena said. “I didn’t finish the conversation with them when they took us in the room because I just, I didn’t want to look at them any longer. I just couldn’t believe that they did that.”
The school’s nondiscrimination policy was revised in June 2015, and now reads:
Mt. Erie Christian Academy is a religious, Bible-believing institution providing education in a distinct Christian environment, and it believes that its biblical role is to work in conjunction with the home to mold students to be Christ like. On those occasions in which the atmosphere or conduct within a particular home is counter to or in opposition to the biblical lifestyle that the school teaches, the school reserves the right, within its sole discretion, to refuse admission of an applicant or to discontinue enrollment of a student. This includes, but is not necessarily limited to, living in, condoning or supporting sexual immorality; practicing homosexual lifestyle or alternative gender identity; promoting such practices; or otherwise having the inability to support the moral principles of the school (Leviticus 20:13a; Romans 1:21-27; Matthew 19:4-6; I Corinthians 6:9-20).”
Current law gives private religious institutions, including schools, carte blanche to adopt and enforce any policy they claim is in line with their religious beliefs, including showing a 5-year-old the door because her parents are gay.
Related: Pastor To Gay High School Grads: “Congrats, But You’re Going To Hell!”
Some, like San Diego attorney Eugene Iredale, think that might change in the next five to ten years if a case like this were to be brought before the Supreme Court.
“Now the question is where do you draw the line?” Iredale said to local 10 News. “If you have a religion that believed in human sacrifice or amputation of the arm or the hand for theft, would we permit that in the interest of permitting the free practice of one’s religion? I don’t think so, and one could argue that psychologically… this is as devastating to the little 5-year-old girl as some of those other vicious practices.”
Meanwhile, Sheena and Lashuane’s daughter just wants her life back.
“I miss my friends. I miss my teachers,” she said.
Related: “Antigay Day” Held At Pittsburgh High School, “Lynch List” Circulated Among Students
Bisexual-Transwoman
Why would lesbian women or two bisexual women send their kid to a Fundie school?
Merv
Jesus, how long is it going to take to sink in that Christians hate gay people? Get a clue! The only viable solution is for gay people to have nothing to do with Christians. I know that I avoid them like the plague they are.
Xzamilio
@Merv: It’s not all Christians… the ones that cherry pick harder to find the good messages are fine… of course, they don’t realize that they are in fact more moral than their god, but hey… whatevs.
twinkie1cat
@Bisexual-Transwoman: Might have been the best school in their area. However, if this school gets any kind of federal funding, like if it is a charter school, it could be in deep doo doo. The parents also need to investigate suing for emotional damage to their child.
twinkie1cat
@Merv: CHRISTIANS DO NOT HATE GAYS! MANY CHRISTIANS ARE GAY. That is a lie from Satan himself. Gay people are among the “whosoever” that Jesus spoke of in John 3:16. Only narrow minded conservatives who may or may not really be Christians hate gays. They are called fundamentalists and even not all of them hate gays. On top of that there is a whole Christian denomination that is predominantly gay called Metropolitan Community Church. You can watch the services of one of them on YouTube. That is MCCBR (just type that in) Metropolitan Community Church of Baton Rouge (That’s LOUISIANA, by the way. Yep, the most backward state in the union). It has 2. One is in New Orleans and the other in Baton Rouge. There is also a new MCC in Hattiesburg Mississippi called Joshua Generation (About as backward as Louisiana) that is growing so fast that they had to get a new meeting place the week after they dedicated the last one, and a big one in Mobile Alabama. Plus there are now several other denominations that are preparing or already do same sex marriages or ordain gay people as ministers:(Beyond the MCC churches) including United Church of Christ, Episcopalian, and Presbyterian USA and United Methodist. At MCCBR Pastor Keith Mozingo has been doing weddings, both gay and hetero, right and left since the same sex marriage law passed the Supremes. Last week the head MCC lady met the Pope!
God loves you just the way you are and has never “fixed” a gay person because there is nothing in his or her sexual orientation that is broken.
So don’t call Christians wrong. Some are. Most are not. But the bad ones have plenty of money and big buildings and political influence as well as loud mouth Republican governors.
Xzamilio
@twinkie1cat: Nah… try that crap with someone who hasn’t read the bible. That god most certainly does not love you the way you are, the thousands upon thousands of denominations of Christianity only serve to demonstrate it’s human construction… that and the fact that none of you seem to even agree on what this Jesus/God figure represents.
Like I said, most of you are more moral than your god… no need to trying blow smoke up someone’s ass… all they need to do is read the whole bible.
Billy Budd
Jesus is used to justify all kinds of prejudice and hatred. Jesus would be very unhappy if he knew what have become of his teachings.
aliengod
I’m not sure what these women were thinking sending their child to a Baptist school. But how shitty for the school to treat a kid that way. I imagine they’ll be in some trouble for this.
@twinkie1cat: Well said. I agree with you for the most part.
Tommy Gunz-n Roses
Wow. But I can’t even be surprised
AlliterationAddict
Doesn’t it kind of defeat the purpose of blurring out the kid’s face if you show both of the parents?
Merv
@twinkie1cat: Thousands of years of persecution and thirty-one state anti-gay marriage amendments just in the last 15 years or so say Christians do hate gay people.
seasailor
I wonder if any of other parents commit adultery, work on the Sabbath, wear mixed fabrics or steal will also suffer the same fate of these loving mothers. What should be banned from this school is hypocrisy. Disgusting!
Giancarlo85
@Xzamilio: Absolutely. All this person is doing is blowing smoke.
Most Christians do not accept us. That is why countless polls show far greater opposition to equality among the religious than secular and nonreligious people. Hr wants to claim most aren’t like that but that is also a false, unprovable claim. The older more religious generations are also against us.
He can talk about some small denomination all he wants, but in the bigger picture there is widespread opposition. Oh and the Pope is hardly one we should talk about. He bitterly opposed Argentine President Cristina Fernandez’s move to legalize same sex marriage in Argentina, years before the US Supreme Court even considered it here in the US.
Giancarlo85
@aliengod: You agree for the most part? Oh I see… You disagree with the small criticism he posted towards republican governors… Typical. A gay republican bootlicker will do anything to agree with that party.
Douglas Schlitz
I am hoping that this school does not get one dime in any state or public money !
Simon Greenham
So , grow up – ditch the religion that despises you and move your child to secular school.
Vivienne Warner
Oh you are so lucky most children only have one MUMMY you have double the love
aliengod
@Giancarlo85: Why are you always so desperate to pick a fight with people? Are you really that miserable of a person? Stop making up stuff. I never said anything about Republican governors. I’ve told you numerous times I’m not a Republican. Maybe when you grow up you’ll realize that not all adults think alike. It’s okay to disagree from time to time without having to resort to lying and name calling.
Arnold Stollar
Much ado about nothing?
DuMaurier
This is so awful, to make a little girl feel unwanted like that.
But I do think it should be legal, and the “parallel” with religious human sacrifice is at best inapt. I don’t want religious bodies controlling our secular government (and yeah, I know many would like to), but the flip side of separation of church and state is leaving religious institutions alone to run things as they please (always, again, excepting those rather rare examples of human sacrificing…)
Andrew Yang
@seasailor: Well said. I could not agree with you more my friend.
Wooly
Sue their asses.
Spencer696969
It’s separation of church & state! We can’t have it both ways.
Churches don’t have to accept us. And the state can’t reject us.
Gay kids and parents — don’t support religious schools.
But make sure public schools are held accountable for equality.
Spencer696969
@Simon Greenham: Exactly. Same thing with that poor kid in Tennessee. Why is he at a religious school if he wants to take a guy to the dance?
Spencer696969
@Spencer696969: Indeed. I am heartbroken for him, but why is he there?!