Fights erupted at a California school board meeting on Tuesday during protests over whether the school should include LGBTQ subjects in its curriculum for students, leading to at least one arrest.
Roughly 300 people showed up to a Glendale school board meeting near Los Angeles, with many parents protesting the LGBTQ curriculum being incorporated into the schools and many others advocating in favor of it.
“We do not want children medicalized, indoctrinated or any of that stuff,” one demonstrator could be heard saying to the crowd in a video posted by Daily Mail. “This pornography in the school, we are completely against. We need to stop it and we will fight with you full course until it ends.”
Local police dressed in riot gear erected barricades to contain the crowds of demonstrators.
Despite efforts from law enforcement, fights broke out between demonstrators on the opposing sides.
Footage of the violence was shared on Twitter by freelance journalist Sergio Olmos.
“This is the third time violence has broken out in recent weeks at anti-LGBTQ protests outside schools in Los Angeles,” he wrote.
Protestors physically fight outside the Glendale school board meeting in Los Angeles.
This is the third time violence has broken out in recent weeks at anti-LGBTQ protests outside schools in Los Angeles. pic.twitter.com/Og0aFKiWng
— Sergio Olmos (@MrOlmos) June 21, 2023
Glendale police move in to control crowd after protestors brawl in parking lot outside Glendale school board. pic.twitter.com/srznDxOL97
— Sergio Olmos (@MrOlmos) June 21, 2023
Jordan Henry, who opposes the curriculum, said the school board is “pushing policies onto traditional families, traditional values that directly conflict with that,” reported KTLA.
“We just want the school board to listen to the voices of parents rather than all these loud outside agitators,” said Glendale resident James Clark, per KTLA.
Advocates for the curriculum also spoke out.
“We are calling on anyone with a decent heart, who has a heart for humanity to not allow these fascists to intimidate people and allow that future,” said Maya Maliki, per KTLA.
She said opponents are “claiming that they’re for the children,” but are actually “not for the children.”
“They’re for getting rid of a whole section of people,” she claimed.
However, many protesters maintain their problem is not with the LGBTQ community but rather an agenda being pushed on their children.
“We don’t have any problem with LGBTQ,” said Arbi Sardarian, the father of a Glendale student, per Daily Mail. “You want to be LGBTQ, when you’re 18 go ahead, do whatever you want I don’t have any problem with that. But at eight years old they are not ready for that.”
The melee comes only weeks after another brawl broke out at a Glendale Unified School Board meeting over the same issue.
