The Chattanooga-based Moms for Social Justice group held two “gender inclusive” workshop events at the Chattanooga Downtown Public Library over the weekend with the purpose of creating “safe spaces” for “queer children.”
Moms for Social Justice, according to its website, was founded in 2017 with a mission of “building a local movement of citizens to engage in, advocate for, and act in the service of social justice issues in an effort to improve the community for all generations.”
The organization says it has chapters in Chattanooga, Knoxville, Denver, Mat-Su, and St. Louis.
Last Saturday’s workshop events at the Chattanooga Public Library featured Dave Edwards, founder and owner of the Minnesota-based organization Gender Inclusive Schools, which “provides parent and educator training to proactively create safe learning environments for LGBTQ+ young people.”
Edwards, according to his organization’s website, “is the proud parent to a transgender daughter, and his family’s experience with the discrimination she experienced in kindergarten directly informs his vocation of helping school communities create safe learning environments.
Furthermore, Edwards is “a queer person and career educator who has served in almost every role in preK-12th grade school communities,” the website states.
The first Gender Inclusive Schools workshop held at the downtown library on Saturday from 10:00 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. was geared towards community members and parents to “help queer children…feel supported and safe” in “households, communities, etc.,” according to event fliers posted by Moms for Social Justice.
The second workshop, held from 1:00 p.m. to 2:30 p.m., was geared towards educators on how to make “classrooms, schools, churches, etc.,” a “safe space for queer students.”
Notably, the workshop events were held at the same time the downtown library hosted three events for babies (Baby Bounce Downtown), toddlers (Toddler Time Downtown), and elementary-aged children (Lower Elementary Flavor Lab).
Street evangelist Daniel Rusk and his wife, Mary traveled to the library in protest of the workshop events.
In a now-viral video, the Rusks are seen confronting the workshop organizers.
“What will you tell God when he asks you why you perverted your children? That’s what you need a workshop about,” Daniel Rusk told the organizers. “This is a public library paid for by the tax dollars of Chattanooga.”
The Rusks were ordered to leave the library’s premises, with an employee telling the couple that their presence violated the library’s patron code of conduct.
Once outside the library, the Rusks were confronted by a Chattanooga police officer, who affirmed their right to protest the workshops and preach the Gospel on the public sidewalk outside the library.
“You guys are perfectly protected in what you’re doing right now…as long as you stay off their property,” the officer said.
Moms for Social Justice, on its Facebook page, called the Rusks a “loud and hateful duo.”
The Chattanooga Public Library, according to its website, allows meeting rooms at all of its locations to be used by nonprofits, for-profit organizations, and individuals who have a Chattanooga Public Library card in good standing free of charge.
The library system says final approval of meeting room applications are made by Library Administration.
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Kaitlin Housler is a reporter at The Tennessee Star and The Star News Network. Follow Kaitlin on X / Twitter.
Photo “Moms for Social Justice Chattanooga” by Abolitionists Of Alabama.
