Reese Balaski
Sartell
I write this letter out of a developing concern for and disappointment in my community.
I have been a citizen of Sartell for 22 years of my 23-year-long long life. From kindergarten to my senior year I was a student of the Sartell schools, and the education I received there has been invaluable to my current time completing my English studies degree while at St. Cloud State University.
Further maturity has led me to reading the newspaper more, including going back to previous articles. One past topic has given me great pause as June annual Pride Month for the LGBTQ+ community-inches closer. What concerns me is the insidious spread of anti-queer rhetoric.
Certain people claim children are being “indoctrinated” cult-style into the queer community, accusing parents/legal guardians of abuse and school faculty of grooming the student body. As a former Sartell student, it left me exasperated. Of all schools, Sartell is the one being criticized for this? I can’t help feeling proud and dismayed all at once.
I have known I was gay before I knew what gay was back in second grade, yet due to peer discrimination I never felt comfortable sharing this until I found my irreplaceable group of fellow marginalized friends in high school. There was never such severe talk of banning history or library books accused of being “inappropriate for children” at the time, but now that queer people are gaining more of a voice in this community, there are proliferating claims of schools peddling pornography.
Ironically, it marks an improvement in visibility for young queer people, as young people challenging the status quo of restrictive and exclusive conservative propriety is what inevitably leads to these ludicrous claims and reactionary pushback. Sartell’s entire sex education courses during my time as a student were regulated to a few days in middle school and a meager two weeks in high school health class, with hardly a mention of same-sex relationships at all. I’m expected to swallow the words from school board members that this is the same district harming and indoctrinating children? Forgive me if I find it hard to believe.
