Sen. Christopher Murphy (D-CT) used his platform to share a moving, powerful school board testimony by a father who brought a grasp of history to his LGBTQ+ plea in Virginia. Miller amplified a post by the Tennessee Holler, a social media voice that charges itself with “shining a light on injustices in Tennessee” and, in this case, beyond.
The video testimony to a school board in Virginia Beach has accrued more than a million views. In it a father makes tells the legislature that “no matter how hard you try to implement these discriminatory policies, you’re never going to find a right way to do the wrong thing. And Governor Youngkin’s policies are wrong.”
🔥 VIRGINIA BEACH: “You’re never going to find a right way to do the wrong thing… be the good guys, while you still can.”
— The Tennessee Holler (@TheTNHoller) November 14, 2023
A local dad speaks up against anti-LGBTQ student policies. pic.twitter.com/YAGbsNIFHg
The testimony is galvanizing, winning mostly praise in the comments. The father asserts that “one of the ways you can tell they’re wrong is because you have speakers from groups like Moms For Liberty here to support them.”
That group, he reminds, uses Nazi propaganda in its own propaganda and is considered an extremist group by civil rights organizations.
“They’re not the good guys,” he says, giving a history lesson on who the good guys aren’t: book banners, segregationists, and people connected with hate groups.
Wading into the “deplorables” territory that brought such wrath upon Hillary Clinton, the father states plainly: “when you look around and see only the wrong people support what you’re doing, you’re doing the wrong thing.”
But while many applauded the father’s plea for compassion, care and equality, some objected to what they characterize as the father’s comparison between slavery and the prejudices faced by those in the LGBTQ+ community.
An X user with the handle MysterE, which claims to be a voice against corruption, writes that “It’s beyond offensive to liken the LGBTQ+ movement to the centuries-long nightmare of slavery and segregation that Black Americans were subjected to. No lynching tree or whip scars mark their history. No ‘whites only’ signs or Jim Crow laws penned them in. The LGBTQ+ community faces its own battle, but let’s not rewrite history. The black community’s struggle against the monstrous institution of slavery and the crushing weight of institutional racism is unparalleled. Any comparison is not only inaccurate but also an affront to the memory of every soul who suffered under the yoke of those dark eras.”
The point is well-taken, though in his testimony the father didn’t compare the persecution of slaves with that of LGBTQ+ people. Instead he referenced slavery as an example of a very wrong thing that used to be the law in Virginia, using it to exemplify his point that when something wrong is the law, the law can — and must — be changed.
Senator Murphy shared the video without adding caption or comment.
