Image Credit: Zach Young for Metro School Board / Facebook
The Tennessee Conservative Staff –
A recently elected school board member is set to become the first openly gay man on a local school board in Tennessee.
Zach Young, who lost his D10 seat on the Metro Council last year, ran unopposed on the August 1st ballot for District 3 for Metro Nashville Public Schools.
According to the Victory Fund, a group that wants to see 36,000 more LGBTQ people elected to public office, Young will become the first gay school board member who is “out” in Tennessee.
Young decided to run for the school board after attending a Victory Fund conference in Washington, D.C., last December. Groups like Victory Fund view school boards as a frontline in a fight against homophobia.
Certainly, school board meetings grow ever more contentious for a variety of issues. Since the pandemic, parents have become more involved with what is happening locally in schools with conservative parents in particular pushing back against what they see as an encroachment on parental rights.
Beginning with the closing of schools during 2020, and then mask mandates, more parents have been showing up to meetings and demanding action of their school board representatives, and making changes at the ballot box if necessary.
In Wilson County, conservative Greg Hohman won the race for Zone 1 School Board last Thursday over incumbent Carrie Pfeiffer by 354 votes.
Hohman, a conservative Republican who calls himself a political refugee from California, moved with his family to Wilson County after witnessing the deterioration of the school system in Orange County.
The Tennessee General Assembly has heard from school parents and passed legislation over the last couple of years to address some of these concerns.
This year, a bill sponsored by Representative Mary Littleton (R-Dickson-District 78) that requires schools to inform parents if their child requests to be identified as transgender become law.
The new law also prohibits schools from hiding information or providing false information regarding the student’s gender identity or plan to transition to a gender that is different from the assigned sex at birth.
Tennessee lawmakers also revised the Age Appropriate Materials Act of 2022 earlier this year to make it clear that books containing nudity or descriptions or depictions of sexual excitement, sexual conduct, excess violence, or sadomasochistic abuse must not be included in the library collections of public schools.
Another bill that would have outlawed Pride flags in public school classrooms failed to pass the Senate this year when eight of the senators recorded as missing during the vote, allegedly “took a walk” in order to avoid voting.
Victory Fund is also supporting a candidate for the Tennessee House who is running against Representative Mark White (R-Memphis-District 83) in November.
14 Responses
The breathless (OPENLY GAY!) headline notwithstanding, this article is much less about Zach Young and FAR more about the usual conservative cultural grievances about public schools.
For example: The hysteria about schools allegedly “hiding” students’ sexual orientation and/or gender identity from parents. It’s not like little Johnny is running off to school wearing his baseball uniform, then changing into a dress is the girls’ restroom as soon as he gets there. How clueless to parents have to be to have such lousy understanding and communication with their kids? Do you talk to your kids about such things? Have you ever suspected your kid was just a little bit different? Maybe it’s about time you opened your lines of communication with your kids a little more, rather than believing baseless rumors about teachers turning your kids into sexual guinea pigs.
You sound like an uptight pervert mad because we don’t want you brainwashing our kids with your perverted ideology.
Look, a groomer troll posting! Stay away from kids, pedo!
Hey Chuck A are you a MAP which is Minor Attracted Person. Because you sure sound like it with your statements. You really need to enlighten yourself about what goes on in most schools in Tennessee. I would suggest you read chapter one of Romans in the Bible. Also some of your statements is how grooming starts.
In God we trust not government or man.
Have a blessed day.
Don’t want to brag but Williamson County just had six seats on the school board up for election with only one incumbent on the ballot, and she was just too refined and delicate to lower herself into the pit of grubby politics so she proudly ran as an “Independent.” AND SHE LOST TO A REPUBLICAN! In total, voters elected five Republicans to the board out of the six and almost all of them were proudly CONSERVATIVE Republicans at that.
I suspect Chuck hasn’t raised any children of his own. Adolescents choose what to tell their parents, and what to keep secret from their parents. They could definitely change clothes at school -especially in schools where activists teachers are pushing that alphabet agenda.
It won’t be “baseless” when you find out what is being taught…how do you not know? Kids might not know what is ‘wrong’ so they don’t tell you. Duh. SEL IS being taught. Do you want CRT in the guise of SEL shoved into your kid? TOO LATE. It’s entrenched in the schools. How do you like that/
Hate it Anne as a matter of fact! That’s why I want to give as many Tennessee parents as possible the economic ability to place their children in schools that supplement and reinforce, rather than contradicts, the beliefs and world view that the parents are trying to instill at home. That’s why I support getting the best voucher program we can up and running with refinements to come as the political strength of voucher supporters increase, and the strength of the Government School Trust falls.
The article says > “Another bill that would have outlawed Pride flags in public school classrooms failed to pass the Senate this year when eight of the senators recorded as missing during the vote, allegedly “took a walk” in order to avoid voting.”
Please give their names – they are RINO’s and need to be defeated. The ONLY flags that should be in a Classroom are the US and Tennessee flags.
Is “Victory Fund” a Soros-funded group?
Nashville keeps going downhill.
Hey David H!
TTC covered those Senators by name and picture in this article:
https://tennesseeconservativenews.com/12-republican-senators-allow-gay-pride-flags-in-tennessee-schools-ahead-of-election/
Republicans Bailey, Haile, Massey, Powers, Reeves, Stevens, Walley, and Watson – were at the Capitol but “took a walk to skip the vote”. The three Republican senators present but not voting were Briggs, Yager, and Gardenhire.
Ken Yager was one of them. He had a great challenger in Teena Hedrick 9n the August 1, 2024 ballot. She was defeated so Yager has been re-elected and will return to the Senate.
Right-wingers are fine ones to talk about child-grooming and indoctrination. Remember Gabrielle Hanson who ran unsuccessfully in Williamson County last year on a platform of accusing drag people of grooming our children when she HERSELF turned out to be a female pimp who did time in prison for GROOMING young girls for prostitution. As for indoctrination, so-called Christian academies and conversion therapy institutions indoctrinate young people into blind robot-like support for fundamentalism, militarism, and of bigotry against those who are different from them. Conversion therapy centers are have staff who are pedophiles and molesters who take advantage of young people, especially trans-people in their care. Pretty soon, we will pick up the morning paper with another Republican being charged with indecency toward a minor. Move over, Dennis Hastart!
Speaking of MOVING ON William…..you got a thing for Gabrielle Hanson…every single article that comes up…..you gotta mention her. You are PROJECTING again, just like your whole screwed up party……you can’t ever OWN anything, it’s always accusing the opposition of EXACTLY what you are doing and what you really are. It really is immature on it’s face but scary how many dumbasses that refuse to do any research on their own fall for it. I have watched the Demonrats closely for decades….and I learned one of the biggest tools they use, besides lying about everything, is PROJECTION. Nothing is ever their fault, they can sit on their hands and watch the cities being burned down & people’s livelihoods being destroyed and have the audacity to tell you they are “peaceful protestors” and argue that killing babies up till the time of birth is somehow to be celebrated and defended. We can all struggle and starve while they increase the costs on everything but take our tax dollars and give them to a bunch of illegals, give them free money, healthcare, housing, but we aren’t allowed to say a word or we are called racist! Fact is, the Dems are the biggest racists on the planet! PROJECTION! William, you are on the wrong side of morality so don’t get on your high horse here, go troll somewhere else where you can be praised for your opinions because nobody here is ever going to agree with you defending drag queens gyrating and twerking in front of innocent children! It’s just sick and wrong.
Well said Rainey. Couldn’t agree with you more. Not only do they always project they never ever offer real solutions to any problem and if they do it always makes it worse. Keep moving william the troll and quit being redundant in your comments. It’s losing its appeal.
In God we trust not government or man.
Have a blessed day.