LOCAL

Asheville's 1st trans school board member resigns following anti-LGBTQ attacks

Sarah Honosky
Asheville Citizen Times

This story has been updated to include comments from Alliance Defending Freedom.

ASHEVILLE - Asheville City Board of Education member Peyton O'Conner announced her resignation from the board Dec. 5 after an anti-LGBTQ group made several appearances during public comment periods, repeatedly misgendering O'Conner, who is a transgender woman, and spreading homophobic and transphobic rhetoric.

O'Conner is the board's first out trans member, and likely one of the only trans people to sit on a North Carolina school board, said Western Carolina University political science professor Chris Cooper, to the best of his knowledge.

The Arizona-based group, Alliance Defending Freedom, which was identified as a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center in 2016, was represented by local pastor Ronald Gates, who identified himself as an "ambassador" of the organization. Gates began speaking at ACS board meetings in October.

ACS board member Peyton O'Conner resigned on Dec. 5.

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On its website, the Alliance identifies itself as a "legal organization committed to protecting religious freedom, free speech, the sanctity of life, parental rights, and God's design for marriage and family."

O'Conner said Dec. 5 she made the decision to resign following a "dust up" at the Nov. 16 board meeting.

Her Dec. 5 resignation was effective immediately. O'Conner was appointed to the board in March 2021. Her term was intended to last until 2024.

She noted at the meeting, and in a Facebook post made shortly after she announced her resignation, that this is part of a long-established Alliance playbook.

After making continued attacks, Gates will wait until he is censured, she said, and use it as leverage to create a lawsuit, "and turn our district into the circus and s--- show that he and the ADF desire. This isn’t a guess, the ADF makes no attempt to hide its tactics."

“In light of that, I’ve decided to step down, so that that fight can hopefully be taken elsewhere. I didn’t come by that decision lightly," Peyton said at the Dec. 5 meeting.

Peyton O'Conner

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“I think the writing is on the wall in terms of what the Alliance to Defend Freedom has done in other localities, and I really don’t want that to become something that is centered on Asheville City Schools."

This Alliance strategy was also mentioned by Craig White, supportive schools director with the Campaign for Southern Equality, who noted the group's involvement in several campaigns supporting the forced sterilization of transgender Europeans and a number of anti-LGBTQ court cases.

These lawsuits also include recent action in Albemarle County, Virginia, after the alliance sued the school system in December 2021 on behalf of a group of parents who alleged that the board’s anti-racism policy discriminates against students and creates a culture of hostility, according to reporting from The Daily Progress.

“Locally, everybody loses, and the ADF moves on to the next school district," White said. “I believe there is no place for the ADF in Asheville.”

The Alliance Defending Freedom did not immediately respond to a request for comment, but did respond after deadline.

A statement provided by Jeremy Tedesco, senior counsel and senior vice president of Corporate Engagement at ADF, wrote in a Dec. 12 letter, in part: "This article repeats a false charge put forth by the Southern Poverty Law Center against ADF. While it is true that the SPLC includes ADF on its subjectively compiled “hate group” list, we categorically reject this deliberate mischaracterization of our work."

'The dust up'

The "dust up" in question came at the Nov. 16 meeting, when Gates called out O'Conner for ripping up a letter given to board, which asked that parents, school board members and local clergy be informed if teachers plan to allow “indoctrination teaching" in the school system.

A copy of the letter provided to Asheville City Board of Education.

During Gates' public comment, he repeatedly misgendered O'Conner, and was interrupted by a strike of a gavel, and Chair James Carter, who said he could not "do that," and that was not the purpose of public comment.

Peyton also spoke up to say, “Mr. Gates, I would ask that you refrain from bigotry and hate speech, that is not my gender.”

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Ronald Gates, Asheville pastor and self-identified ambassador for Alliance Defending Freedom.

Gates doubled down.

“We should be focusing on reading, writing, (arithmetic) and history, true history, instead of sexual immorality or indoctrination or CRT,” Gates said Nov. 16. "As I shared, the submittal of the information, it was submitted before the board, respectfully, and the individual that took time to rip up that information is not known, as you reflect it, as ‘Miss.’ I will say ‘Mr.’ if the blood was drawn XY, which is a male.”

At this, interim Superintendent Jim Causby can be heard repeating, "No" in the background. After Gates left the podium, audio of the meeting cut out and a police officer can be seen ushering Gates and his supporters out of frame.

'Something needs to change'

In a Dec. 6 conversation with the Citizen Times, O'Conner said situations like this only make things more difficult for LGBTQ youths in the school system.

“Queer youth are already swimming upstream, in a lot of ways. Just, basically, seeing adults debate their validity, I don’t think is a good look. It’s definitely not something that I think fosters an inclusive school system," O'Conner said.

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“They’re already seeing so much rhetoric on a national level, that I just really hated to see that brought to Asheville.”

In her time on the board, O'Conner said this was the first very visible anti-LGBTQ campaign being pushed directly to them, though it's not a new narrative in many area school districts.

“The biggest thing is that the students, staff and families need to see really positive examples of allyship. And it’s clear that the queer community alone isn’t going to be able to take on all this, we do need allyship that is assertive and aggressive, and willing to push back on some of this messaging," O'Conner said.

"This is a pretty common incident, but given the totality of things … I think it should be informative that something needs to change."

What's next?

O'Conner's resignation comes less than two weeks away from the Dec. 15 swearing in of the board's first elected members.

The newly-elected board members will replace outgoing members Shaunda Sandford and Martha Geitner in December.

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Chair James Carter and board member George Sieburg will remain until 2024, when all members will be elected to staggered four-year terms.

O'Conner said this was the "nail in the coffin" for her family, in a lot of ways, and they will "take a step back" from politics. She said they intend to "simplify" and move to Madison County.

According to ACS spokesperson Dillon Huffman, Asheville City Council will appoint someone to fill O'Conner's seat, since she was originally appointed by council.

Huffman did not know the timeline for this decision.

In the future, once there is a fully elected board, he said the school board itself will be responsible for such appointments.

Sarah Honosky is the city government reporter for the Asheville Citizen Times, part of the USA TODAY Network. News Tips? Email shonosky@citizentimes.com or message on Twitter at @slhonosky.