Michael Keehan
Staff Writer
The Independence Law Center (ILC), a conservative law firm that has been advising over a dozen school boards in Pennsylvania over the past few months, has seen two major delays in their attempts to push anti-LGBTQ policies.
The first was in the South Western School District in Hanover, where windows were added to gender-inclusive bathrooms without notice. The windows were boarded up on Oct. 3, and an apology was issued shortly after.
The other was on Oct. 21 at the Penn Manor School District near Millersville, where various anti-LGBTQ policies were postponed to be revised come January. Penn Manor appointed the ILC last August, while South Western used their assistance for book bans before the windows scandal that made national news. The ILC refused to comment when asked and linked a statement denying any involvement.
The ILC, formed in 2006 by the Pennsylvania Family Institute (PFI) to protect discrimination of gender and sexual identity under “religious freedom,” has been advising the South Western and Penn Manor districts for the last few months.
According to WGAL 8 On Your Side, The PFI has been funded by the Alliance Defending Freedom, which helped overturn Roe v. Wade, and has been having secret meetings with school boards. The PFI is also labeled as an anti-LGBTQ hate group by the Southern Policy Law Center.
Hanover mother Jennifer Holohan first discovered the windows when her son showed her pictures of them at Emory H. Markle Middle School, where the South Western school board meets. Holohan’s son was assigned to a “male gender-identity” bathroom where, according to Holohan, windows were being constructed before approval. She said parents weren’t notified outside of the school board before thousands were spent to change the bathroom.
When she spoke to the school board, school board president Matthew Gelazela attacked her in the meetings and on social media. He accused her of being a pawn for a “woke agenda,” shamed her weight, and described her as a “libtard,” described as unprofessional by Hanover Area Diversity Alliance (HADA) Executive Director Amanda Bonnett. Despite this, Holohan says she plans to continue fighting for the privacy of kids in the school district.
At Penn Manor High School, Millersville students attended and spoke to oppose various anti-LGBTQ measures, which according to Dr. Jill Craven in a Lancaster Online opinion, is discrimination and violation of separation of church and state. Leading this was Elliot Simcoe, president of Millersville’s Transgender Action Group, who shared that they were concerned for potential students who’ll be affected by these policies, including some they know.
They were one of many who gave speeches to the board, including an African-American mother worried about her transgender daughter, who saw the policies as “heartbreaking.”
Activist Morgan Thomas criticized the board’s involvement with the ILC, saying that once the ILC gets “What they want, which is national media attention and a case to put before the Supreme Court, they’re going to happily move on to destroy the next community.”