Ocean City High School grad starts petition seeking affirmation of acceptance for LGBTQ community; more than 2,250 have signed
Editor’s note: The petition is online at change.org/p/lgbtq-students-belong-at-ochs
OCEAN CITY — “Queer students, queer teachers and queer parents deserve a statement of their support for us. We want someone, the superintendent or principal of one of the schools, to reaffirm that queer students are not only accepted in the schools but welcome and their participation and existence is valued.”
That was the reaction of Hayden Wathen, a 2022 graduate of Ocean City High School, to the rally held Sept. 8, when more than 100 people gathered across from City Hall purportedly to protest the Ocean City Board of Education’s approval of the state Comprehensive Health and Physical Education Standard.
Wathen started a petition at Change.org, LGBTQ Students Belong at OCHS, that had been signed by more than 2,271 people as of early Sunday afternoon.
Wathen said he feels most people support acceptance and inclusivity.
“The reason I thought it was appropriate for something as quantifiable as a petition is it is important to note these people saying horrible things are loud but a loud minority,” Wathen said. “About 100 people showed up at the rally but within two days more than 2,000 rebuked that. If they are to listen to any group, listen to us.”
The gathering, which was organized by school board candidates Robin Shaffer, Catherine Panico and Liz Nicoletti, focused on issues surrounding gay, lesbian and transgender rights, and what they called the “indoctrination” and “grooming” of children.
The candidates invited the Rev. Gregory Quinlan, president and executive director of The Center for Garden State Families, to speak.
Quinlan, who called his group is an unapologetic advocate for Christian families, opened with a Bible verse while making off-color jokes about the LGBTQIA population.
“In the beginning the Creator made them male and female … it was Adam and Eve, not Adam and Steve in Eden,” he said. “It was male and female. Man and woman,” he said, adding the verse referenced “mother and father, not his daddy and daddy’s roommate. He’s not leaving his two mommies.”
Quinlan said Jesus “defined marriage, defined family, defined sex. Do you see LGBTQIA-XYZ anywhere in that definition?” The crowd shouted an emphatic “no.”
Wathen said that kind of rhetoric is unacceptable.
“I saw the Sentinel article about the rally and just reading the language that was used by the people at the rally, especially pastor Gregory Quinlan, was appalling, disturbing and dehumanizing,” Wathen said. “Any LGBTQ person can recognize the danger in that language. He called it unnatural, insinuating that we are dangerous, then went on to say any acknowledgement of us is indoctrination. That violent language is asking for queer students, queer teachers and queer parents to be unwelcome and something to be shunned.”
The petition states those who attended the rally had one message: “LGBTQ students in Ocean City aren’t welcome. According to them, any mention of LGBTQ people’s existence in schools is ‘indoctrination,’ ‘sexualization.’ To them, gay & trans people and students are dangerous, ugly, wrong.”
Wathen said what the LGBTQ community is looking for is “an unapologetic statement of inclusivity.”
“We deserve recognition — we deserve, and are entitled to, a spot in Ocean City. Our plentiful history deserves to be taught in our classes, and our health needs deserve to be acknowledged in health classes. Anything less is a refusal of our humanity, of our dignity as people. This is not the 1950s. LGBTQ people and students are here, we’re proud and we’re going nowhere.”
Wathen said those speaking at the rally have been spreading dangerous and false notions about the LGBTQ community, fearing they may lead to self-harm.
“Whether intentionally or not, they are seeking higher suicide rates among LGBTQ students. They are seeking to shun us from society. They are seeking to turn back the clock to a time when gay and trans people were subjugated under the same ‘pedophile’ or ‘groomer’ charge,” the petition states.
Wathen, a freshman at George Washington University in Washington, D.C., who is majoring in political science, said homophobia and transphobia have been a problem in the school district for generations, as evidence by those who commented.
Alexa Raymond commented “this is disgusting and should not be being discussed in 2022. These white Christian PTA moms with nothing better to do than spew hatred are going to ruin the lives of so many innocent LGBT students, and of course Ocean City will let that happen because they can’t stand to have a bad reputation. Do better.”
Marina Yioannos of Ocean View wrote: “As a former student at OCHS, I myself have seen the hatred that goes on within the city itself. It’s often covered up and ignored. I will never understand people who use their own religion as an excuse to discriminate against others, when Jesus or any other figure is meant to accept all those that they have put on this Earth. It’s time for a change.”
Another Ocean View resident, Keely Calloway, stated the problem is far beyond a few parents.
“The OCHS administration actively allows homophobia and discrimination to occur at this school and does nothing to stop it. This school will never be accepting of queer students. The school board and administration should be taking a stand for all queer students, not against them. … Christian hatred holds no place in a public school. If you’re gonna impose your religion on others, go to a religious school.”
City resident Jay Barrett wrote: “I was a transgender student at OCHS and I have experienced hatred from faculty and staff. Their bigotry did not change my identity, but only proved that our school systems did not care about their students’ well-being.”
Another island resident, Zeph Zensen, states: “As an OCHS graduate, I witnessed more extreme opinions being formed in the Ocean City community and the negative impact on this school that it’s had. Queer kids deserve to feel like they belong and aren’t suddenly inappropriate or in need of censure just for living their own life.”
– STORY by CRAIG D. SCHENCK/Sentinel staff