To the editor:

In his 11/1/21 letter Mr. Fluegge airs his grievances about a large range of perceived injustices, or what he calls “red flags”. While it is a bit difficult to follow his thoughts surrounding various different topics that he finds frightening, we would like to address the “flag” he appears to be most agitated by-LGBTQ rights.

As quoted in Mr. Fluegge’s letter, the trainer at the last school board study session emphasized that the morality of homosexuality is not a relevant debate for public school leaders. Legally speaking, there is no question of whether or not the rights of LGBTQ students are valid in a public school setting. Mr. Fluegge’s reasoning, citing his personal interpretation of “god’s word”, would be practical grounds for infringing on the rights of LGBTQ students in a private school setting; however when it comes to public schools there is literally no issue to debate. While there is no question that each individual is entitled to their own personal religious beliefs, these beliefs can not be a factor in decisions made in a secular setting.

The New Ulm Public School system serves students from a multitude of different religious and non religious households. The fact that Mr. Fluegge discusses “People of faith” being “forced to celebrate and affirm LGBTQ ideoloy” is a clear indicator that the only “faith” he sees as valid is his own; there are countless different faiths that do in fact acknowledge the simple truth that LGBTQ rights are human rights. Mr. Fluegge also seems to be suffering from the delusion that his personal beliefs are indicative of the views of our entire community. We are writing today to express that although Mr. Fluegge may be quite vocal about sharing his thoughts, he does not speak for the entire community and he does not speak for us.

Casey McMullen

Wendi Ringhofer

Mindy Kimmel

Katie Dorschner

Alicia Hinkle

New Ulm