Port: Disregarding the law isn’t an option
MINOT, N.D. — In many ways, I sympathize with Rupak Gandhi, the superintendent of Fargo Public Schools.
This Legislature passed many cruel and stupid culture war bills targeting the LGBTQ community, and while House Bill 1522, which was introduced by a documented liar, which prohibits policies forcing public employees, including teachers, to use the preferred pronouns of students and colleagues, and which regulates public bathroom use by transgender K-12 students, is far from the worst of them, its motivations are hardly pure.
We do not have a problem with pronouns in North Dakota. We do not have a problem with bathroom use in North Dakota schools. But our lawmakers, hopped up with culture war hatred, passed these bills anyway.
The lawmakers, ensconced in their legislative chambers, did the easy work. They don’t have to look trans students in the face and explain to them why a simple courtesy like a preferred pronoun should be denied to them. Educators like Gandhi do.
It’s a shameful situation for our state.
