In this Sacramento school board election, homophobia and misinformation are on the ballot
Natomas Unified school board candidate Megan Allen promoted a transphobic lie when asked whether she would support gender-neutral restrooms on school campuses during a candidate forum last month.
“If we’re talking about ‘all bathrooms are gender-neutral,’ I disagree with that,” Allen said. “There have been cases where girls have gone into the bathroom and they’ve been raped. So, just keeping it real.”
The idea that gender-neutral bathrooms would allow sexual predators to harm women is a dangerous, baseless, anti-trans myth. It’s also a conservative talking point that has been repeated nationwide by supporters of legislation seeking to limit transgender people’s right to use restrooms.
A study published in the journal Sexuality Research and Social Policy in 2018 found no link between gender nondiscrimination laws and violent crime in restrooms.
The fact is that transgender people are much more likely to be verbally, physically and sexually assaulted, especially when they are forced to use a bathroom that does not correspond to the gender with which they identify.
“Transgender and gender-nonbinary teens face greater risk of sexual assault in schools that prevent them from using bathrooms or locker rooms consistent with their gender identity,” a 2019 Harvard study found.
According to the same study, 36% of transgender or gender-nonbinary students facing restricted bathroom or locker room access reported having been assaulted in the past year. In 2022 alone, 32 trans people have been murdered — a number that the Human Rights Campaign believes is an underestimate given how frequently these crimes are either unreported or misreported.
Unfortunately, Allen holds other transphobic and homophobic beliefs that came to light during the recent candidate forum, including the notion that recognizing Pride Month could expose children to drag queens — another popular conservative talking point.
Sadly, Allen is not the only Natomas school board candidate whose beliefs threaten the mental and physical well-being of Natomas’ LGBTQ+ students. Monique Hokman, another candidate running for school board, has criticized curriculum that includes age-appropriate information about LGBTQ families. She also declined to say if she supports the recognition of Pride Month in schools.
According to a recent Bee story, Hokman wrote in a 2019 email that she was concerned that her son was learning about “transgenderism and LGBTQ culture.”
“Personally, I don’t think that children need to be concerned with those things at such a young age,” Hokman wrote in an email that was obtained by The Bee through a public records request.
Hokman has also spread misinformation about vaccination, stating publicly at a school board meeting in April 2022 that the polio vaccine could be replaced by ultraviolet light. She has also repeated the disproved claim that vaccines cause autism.
Allen, for her part, insisted that she is not anti-LGBTQ. Her evidence? She knows a gay couple — or, as she put it, a “guy couple.”
“I’m not homophobic,” she said at the October forum. “I’m not. Ugh. My neighbors across the street from me (are) a guy couple. I talk to them. We’re friendly. I’m not homophobic.”
Natomas Unified voters should reject Hokman and Allen. Their extreme, ignorant views and willingness to spread misinformation have no place in the leadership ranks of a major school district in Sacramento. Individuals who cannot distinguish fact from fiction or respect every student, teacher and family should not be in charge of anyone’s education.