Transcripts are computer generated and not edited
Brad Shreve:
This is Queer We Are. In 1994, high school history teacher Rodney Wilson told his class something simple. He let them know he was gay. Now today, I believe in most parts of the country, students would shrug their shoulders and say, yeah? So? But this was 29 years ago, And it caused an uproar in the school. It caused an uproar in his town, and it went way beyond that. Rodney became national news. He was a big deal. Rodney Wilson was a trailblazer.
Brad Shreve:
The following year, Rodney gathered a planning committee with members from around the country and launch Gay and Lesbian History Month. This month, October 2023, is the 29th anniversary of the first of what we now call LGBTQ History Month. And while Rodney is still teaching, he continues to make a difference beyond the classroom. He is still a big deal. Rodney continues to be a trailblazer. Last year, he helped found International Committee on LGBTQ plus History Months, which now includes countries around the globe from Armenia To Uganda. I love his story, and so will you. So hang on because you do wanna hear it.
Brad Shreve:
So here we go. I’m Brad Shreve, and my guest is Rodney Wilson. Don’t go anywhere because queer we are. Rodney Wilson, I don’t know if you realize, you were 29 years old, and it was exactly 29 years Go when you made national headlines because you had the nerve to tell a group of people you were gay. And, of course, That group of people happen to have been your students in high school, which made your local papers, which made the bigger papers, and, eventually, you wound up on Dateline and some other shows. But I wanna ask you something. I went on Google Maps, Melville High School is still there. Everything looks fine.
Brad Shreve:
And I’m sure you know, I went to their website, and I was excited to see after all that you went through, today, they have a GSA gay straight alliance that meets twice a month. How’s that make you feel?
Rodney Wilson:
That makes me feel great. And in fact, When I left Melville High School to move to Massachusetts in 1997, I did not find myself back in that school for 20 years. And it’s then really that I learned that they had a GSA, that things were much different. Things were much better. The students had opportunity to meet with a sponsor in the high school to talk about these issues. There were openly gay, lesbian teachers there who came out even during the interview session. So things had changed. And in fact, there was a little documentary short made about my Experiences in 1994 and in October of 2019, that was shown at the high school, And we had lots of students, the principal, assistant principal, and others involved actually come into the what was the old theater room To watch that documentary about what had happened at their school, you know, some 25 years prior.
Rodney Wilson:
So it’s really nice to know That perhaps I had a little role in advancing that conversation and in making things better For all LGBTQ teachers and students in the Melville School District, because of what happened when I was 29 and decided that I just had to tell the truth about my life and my being. And whatever the repercussions were, I was ready to Face them, and there were repercussions. But in the end, I survived. I was hired the following year. I was granted tenure the year after that. I taught 2 additional years before I decided 7 years as a public high school teacher was enough and decided to move to Massachusetts and do other kinds of education work.
Brad Shreve:
And I’ll say in the videos that I watched, and listener Rodney has provided me with some links, and so you can look at those in the show notes, after this episode is done. The news reports and the things that people were saying in those news reports 29 years ago We’re much different than the things you’re saying today, so we’ve come a long way, baby. I’d like you to first tell what happened The moment that you came out. And then I want to find out what was going through your mind beforehand, how much foresight. Because the way you came out was beautiful, it’s perfectly reasonable and logical reason to do so. But How much foresight did you have? How much did you have to think about it?
Rodney Wilson:
Well, there were many factors, of course, that went into making that final decision as is the case with all of us When when we come out, and I had been thinking for several months that I needed to be honest everywhere. Because by that point, I was already honest with all friends and all family outside the school. It was only in my workplace. Only as a teacher did I have this area of my being that I hadn’t integrated fully with all the other areas of my being. So I’d been thinking about it, and many, many reasons were compelling me to make that decision and actually enact that decision. On that particular day in in March of 1994, we’d been discussing World War 2, and we talked about the holocaust naturally. And I had just been to Washington DC the week prior, and I’d gone to the US Holocaust Museum, which at that point was like 1 year old. And I purchased while I was there this magnificent educational poster.
Rodney Wilson:
It shows various patches of various individuals who might have been Found in a concentration camp or in some cases, even a death camp, and it included a pink triangle. So in talking to my students, I pointed out this would have been a A German Jew, a Dutch Jew, a purple triangle for Jehovah’s Witness, and and here’s a pink triangle. And I identified myself With that pink triangle that if I had lived then in 1943, in 1944, in 1944, in 1945, perhaps I could have been one of the people Targeted through paragraph 175 targeted by Nazis. So I do think it was a very natural way To identify with a group of people in the past and to do so on behalf of these then 16, 17 year old students in 1994. But, yeah, I’d given it a lot of thought. And in the end, it was a difficult aftermath in many ways, but well worth it because being fully integrated, Including in your workplace is very liberating. And since we only have 1 life as far as we know and it’s short, The more quickly we can integrate ourselves and the more quickly we can live who we are, I think, the better.
Brad Shreve:
Of the many news reports that I saw in yours, I watched a talk show that you have, and it’s one that you actually weren’t on. And the host was a pretty liberal guy and he was up against 3 or 4 conservatives. And and he was defending you in the sense that, And it makes so much sense, especially I think of the way things are going today. He said, okay. You’re married. If something came up that your marriage gave a frame of reference to the students, you would bring it up. What is wrong with what Rodney did? And they couldn’t see through it. Their blinders, it was it’s so logical, and, you know, we’re seeing a day.
Brad Shreve:
I don’t wanna get too much of what’s going on in the world today, but They’re trying to teach like we don’t exist. And what kind of education is that? Because we always have been, and, you know, I think we’re always will be. Did you feel in general that there were more people on your side than people would
Rodney Wilson:
expect? I think so. There was opposition, of course. There were some Raucous school board meetings after this happened, there were those who said I should be fired. There was a school board election in which some people ran On the premise that they would not grant tenure to me, they lost that election. But there was also a lot of Support, a lot of neutrality, cautious neutrality because people wanted to see how this played out. And actually among the other LGBTQ teachers at the school, and there were about a dozen of us. We knew each other, but no one was open yet. Not to colleagues generally, certainly not to their students.
Rodney Wilson:
So I think there was a lot of caution. And, curiously, More of the support that I felt came from my straight colleagues, certainly open support than from the LGBTQ colleagues because for them to openly support, openly speak out on my behalf Could put them in a light of curiosity where people are wondering why are they so invigorated about supporting this gay teacher. Among students, there were a few generally those with a more conservative religious background who We’re in opposition to what I had done and disappointed by it and frustrated by it because other than that, they liked me. They had a good rapport with me. They appreciated Being in my classroom. But students, I think, like is always the case among young people, they’re a little more advanced in many ways, a little more, quote, unquote, progressive in many ways. So, generally, although I did Impressive in many ways. So generally, although I did receive, you know, the word fag written on a few documents, A Bible verse put under my door from a German Bible, Romans chapter 1.
Rodney Wilson:
So there were a few events like that, but I think overwhelmingly, it was much more positive.
Brad Shreve:
Yeah. And I saw a lot of hypocrisy where people say, well, we can’t teach religion in school. Yet the school board, they were talking about, you shouldn’t be able to speak out because of religious values. It actually made me laugh even though it really wasn’t funny to agree. But several of your students were interviewed. They were great. Even there was a young lady that didn’t think you should come out. She was very pleasant, but they said that there was applause in the class when you came out After the dead silence.
Rodney Wilson:
Yes. I think the initial event was a little shocking to the Students because this hadn’t happened before. In fact, recently, I moderated a panel at the Missouri Historical Society or at the Missouri History Museum, And we were talking to, freshman and sophomore college students, and I asked them, how many of you have had an openly LGBTQ teacher? And one of them, perhaps 2 of them had had 1, maybe 2, but still it’s not the case that young people have a lot of openly BTQ teacher. So for those students in 1994, initially, I think it was a little shocking, a little surprising. You know? This was new information, But, yeah, it seems very quickly they absorbed the information, and then there was a bit of an applause for speaking out, for standing up, for saying what it was that was on my mind, especially about such an important and heartfelt issue Being a gay person in a society that wasn’t as gay friendly as it is now, obviously, I think for some of the students that brought about some, deeper sense of respect for a teacher who would question authority, which was one of the bumper stickers I had in my classroom question authority, and there I was, you know, literally exemplifying that particular idea in front of them.
Brad Shreve:
Over and over again, I heard what a great teacher you are. I heard it from your students. I heard it from other teachers, even from the administration, and They described some of your teaching techniques, which I thought was incredible. You really tied in history with what’s going on today, which made it perfect that you came out at that particular time. And I especially thought it was interesting, a young lady that wasn’t in your class who wasn’t thrilled that you came out, to put it nicely, and her father had a few things to say about it. But when asked if they thought you were a good teacher, they said, oh, without hesitation, but they still didn’t think you should have come out. And one thing I thought the father said that really struck me is the concern is now, where do we go from here? And what I liked about it is Now we know where we went from there, and we owe a lot of that to people like you.
Rodney Wilson:
We have made a lot of progress. Yes. We have challenges now, And this year has been more challenging than others, but we have made tremendous progress. LGBTQ people are much more free and liberated than we were in 1994, 29 years ago, and we’ll continue to move forward. There are always it seems in in all of human history, there are steps forward and then a a step backward. And if steps forward, Notice plural steps. Mhmm. And then maybe a step singular backward.
Rodney Wilson:
But I do think as long as we pay attention, As long as we’re involved, as long as we stay engaged, we can continue slowly advancing the rights of LGBTQ people forward.
Brad Shreve:
My regular listeners are not gonna be surprised about this. The challenges that we are facing today are your fault and other people like you Because you swung that pendulum, and so naturally it swung back, and it means that you did your job even though there’s still work to be done.
Rodney Wilson:
Exactly. I think that’s how I would definitely view it. And what I was able to do and survive and be granted tenure was because of what everyone else did in the 19 fifties, sixties, seventies, and eighties. And then I come along in the nineties and continue that work. And now other young people, all of the under 30 people, for example, are taking us even in another direction, And they’re making us think about things we hadn’t thought about before. They’re raising our consciousness. They’re teaching us and moving us forward. So It’s definitely the passing of a baton to a new generation like Kennedy talked about in this movement.
Rodney Wilson:
And now Those under 30 are the ones who are going to advance it far beyond what we could have imagined when we were the under 30.
Brad Shreve:
So I have to wonder, you came out, you got national attention, you were on Dateline and other news reports. Then in the end, you were allowed to keep your job. You got tenure, and you could have said, good. Everything’s fine. I’m glad that I survived all that, But you didn’t do that. Instead, somehow you got this little seed in your head that said what was then called Lesbian and Gay History Month. And now is LGBTQ plus History Month? Yes. Why didn’t you just rest on your laurels and say, boy, I’m glad that’s all over?
Rodney Wilson:
Well, when I was a k through 12 student between 1970 and 1983, Obviously, I was not taught anything about LGBTQ people or events or history or social movements. Nothing. Also, I wasn’t taught a lot of women’s history or African American history. I encountered these when I went away to college. I took A black history course, for example, in undergraduate work. I took a women’s history course in graduate work. And the things I learned were inspiring and moving and uplifting, and they help Put some pieces into the puzzle that I’m always trying to figure out, which is my life and my role in it, and what’s happening, and what came before. So I was aware that black history and women’s history in this case were very important and meaningful.
Rodney Wilson:
I was aware of black history month in February, Dating all the way back to 1926 with Carter Woodson, doctor Carter Woodson, a great historian. I was aware of Women’s History Month, And it seemed to me that we, LGBTQ people, in 1994, were in a similar situation that black Americans we’re in in the 19 twenties when Carter Woodson began Black History Month that we needed an opportunity to consciously Take a spotlight and shine it on this history that had been omitted because of lack of interest, Lack of knowledge or intentionally obscured and erased so that those others could maintain their power. So the idea was very simple that we have a lesbian and gays. It was then called history month. It would be modeled on Black History Month and Women’s History Month. And in January 1994, I typed up a 2 page proposal in which I explained what a history month is, how a history month works, Why we need a history month now? What it will do? And I asked who would be interested in Endorsing the idea, and I ran it by my wonderful friend from college, John Du Bois, a lifelong friend, still is. She offered her insight into that proposal, and then I sent it out to every then known LGBTQ organization via postal mail. I didn’t have an email address even in January 1994, and I began getting endorsements, you know, from the boards of various groups, you know, national groups, National Gay and Lesbian Task Force and Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation and HRC and so on.
Rodney Wilson:
And then I put together this Small organizing committee. My friend, Jonda, was on it. Kevin Boyer was on it, who was then the chair at the Gerberhardt Lesbian and Gay Library and Archive in Chicago, Kevin Jennings, who was the founder of the Gay Lesbian and Straight Education Network. They came on it, Josiah Greenman, many others, Tori Wilson, Sarah Lynn Chestnut. And together, we created a curriculum packet, and we began promoting the idea that that October 1994 would be the 1st annual national lesbian and gay history month. And it happened and it worked, and the support for it was overwhelming, and the response to it was overwhelming. And then now this particular October will be our 30th annual event. It’s the 29th anniversary, the 30th annual event.
Rodney Wilson:
LGBTQ plus history month in the United States is going strong. Last year at Syracuse University, that 1 university had 30 events in the month of October For LGBTQ plus history month, the idea also traveled beyond the United States. In 2005, we had the first LGBT plus history month, United Kingdom. And now we’re at 19 history months around the world. Cuba and Italy and Uganda and France were the last 4 to be added in 2022. We’ve organized an international committee on lesbian and gay We are on LGBTQ plus history months that has representatives from all of these groups around the world. We meet quarterly via Zoom, and we talk about what’s going on In our location, what’s working, what’s not working, what our plans are for an upcoming history month. So the idea has like our community.
Rodney Wilson:
The LGBTQ plus Community is an international community. We are everywhere. Therefore, our history is everywhere. And the teachers and the activists and the professors and the educators and the archivists on our international committee, They are aware that this history needs to be uncovered and unveiled all over the world, and that’s what we’re working for now on our international committee.
Brad Shreve:
And I gotta say, when I looked at the international committee website and looked at the long list of countries that now have History Month, I was absolutely shocked that Cuba and especially Uganda were on the list. That’s pretty amazing.
Rodney Wilson:
It is amazing. The Cuban Idea, I reached out to a professor of history at the University of Havana in 2021 and said, this is who I am, and this is what I started in the USA, and the idea has spread. Has there ever been given any thought for Maestelai story, a history month Cuba. And he and I began having conversations about that. His name is Raul Perez Monzon. And we began having conversations about it, and eventually, he took the idea to an official government agency that oversees Duality and sex education in Cuba. It’s called Sinex, and they approved the idea of May, May Selai Historia in Cuba. And it’s gone very well.
Rodney Wilson:
Just had its 2nd annual. The Uganda experience is a little difficult and different. Last year, 2022, it was strictly online, highlighting, very important Ugandan individuals who have advanced the Conversation. As you know, Uganda this year has had some very unfortunate legislation passed, and it Puts the 1 representative from Uganda actually in a difficult situation, and that person is anonymous now. You noticed Perhaps on our website because it’s a precarious time to be in Uganda. But, yeah, the idea that was the 1st actual History month in Africa as the Cuba history month was the first one in a Spanish speaking country.
Brad Shreve:
Yeah. And listener, if you look at the list of countries, he he gives details. And when it comes to Uganda, it just says Uganda started 1 in October 2022, and that’s not surprising. And the individual or individuals that are still working on that, Even though they’re underground, they’re very brave
Rodney Wilson:
individuals. Absolutely.
Brad Shreve:
Now that you’re this big, And I don’t know if you ever expected to be this big. I usually don’t ask that question because the answer is usually, well, never. I don’t know. What now is your goal? What is your main course of action of all the many things that could be going on right now?
Rodney Wilson:
Well, personally, my main goal is to continue in education. I just started my 34th year in education. I began teaching in 1990. So I wanna continue my life as an educator For another 2 to 5 years depending on various circumstances. In terms of the activism work, I wanna continue advancing the idea that all history matters, that history provides for us a foundation from which to build. It provides lessons for us so that we can advance in a more fruitful fashion. And I think it’s just really important to remember those who came before us, the events that preceded us, how that can empower and invigorate the conversation and provide wisdom for the conversation because we remember what worked prior and what didn’t work prior. So I wanna continue to advance the idea that all history matters, women’s history, black history, Hispanic history, LGBTQ history.
Rodney Wilson:
It all matters. American, world, African, it all matters. It’s essential, I think, that the human family knows what happened before we arrived. And then specifically, as I kind of go into it of a little more deeply, the importance of LGBTQ history. Advancing the idea of history months around the world. We only have 19 locations that right now celebrate a history month. I wanna see that as 29 and then 39. I would like it to be as well known and universal As pride month is, it has a different focus.
Rodney Wilson:
Pride is about joy and a rightful pride and who we are and being who we are. History month is about looking back and seeing what we used to be and how things used to be and how we can move forward. But I would like for the idea of a history month to be as important to people as the idea of a pride month. So those are my immediate personal goals and then There were Skoules.
Brad Shreve:
Yeah. I live in California, and we have quite the challenge here. It’s very mixed here. California is much more conservative than people think it is because it’s a very large rural state, which, you know, people think LA, San Francisco. Our coast is blue. The rest of the state is red. And with our governors and the leaders that we have in the capital And the larger cities, we have excellent LGBTQ classes, education classes in our schools, But we do have the red districts that are saying, uh-uh. Uh-uh.
Brad Shreve:
Unfortunately, we have a governor that says, oh, no. This is not a choice. But naturally, it’s causing conflict, and it’ll work out in the end. I always say they’ll win some battles, but in the end, they’ve already lost the war.
Rodney Wilson:
And I agree with you. In the end, as long as we remain vigilant, the freedom movement for LGBTQ people will continue moving forward. And as long as we, right now, I think, particularly give our minds to young people under 20 Going through the k to 12 system and supporting them and being there for them occasionally in a history class, mentioning an LGBTQ person or LGBTQ event. You know, 1 mention a semester can fill so much space In the mind of a young LGBTQ person, I can’t imagine what that would have been like for me in 1970 8, when, for example, the Briggs Initiative was being fought in California or 1982, You know, at the beginning of the Reagan presidency and and my junior and senior years in high school, how much that would have meant to me Because I didn’t know a single LGBTQ person except what I might see on
Brad Shreve:
television. Mhmm.
Rodney Wilson:
So 1 mention a semester can be tremendously impactful and powerful for a young person. It also though can rile up the opposition. Just one small mention Expands in the minds of those that can help and expands in the minds of those who will be upset.
Brad Shreve:
Exactly. And listen, I mentioned Melville High School. I didn’t say, this is in Missouri. And I come from North Carolina, at least my junior high, high school years were We’re in North Carolina. And I got to tell you, a few years ago, I lived in a suburb of Los Angeles, And I was asked to speak at the Gay Straight Alliance at the high school. I was a little choked up in class, but when I got in the car, I cried. Because I can tell you in my little Southern high school, I think they have one today, but that never woulda happened back when I was a senior in no way. So if people don’t think that we’re gonna get through this, I like to point out that, was it 79? We had a 100,000 people that marched on Washington.
Brad Shreve:
Unfortunately, the AIDS crisis happened, and we became very scary. And it set us back more than probably normal set circumstances were, but we bounced back. Now we’re getting blowback again in a much different way. We’re gonna get through this again.
Rodney Wilson:
I have confidence with you that we will Get through this again, and we will continue to move forward. Now there are warnings, of course. For example, if you look at 19 twenties Germany, There’s a documentary on Netflix right now about the Eldorado Club. It’s a warning that things can go south quickly.
Brad Shreve:
Mhmm.
Rodney Wilson:
But as long as we’re attentive, as long as we don’t allow events of today to disempower us, As long as we don’t give up, as long as we don’t throw our hands in the air and simply keep moving forward, Eventually, I do feel that human liberty and human liberation win the day.
Brad Shreve:
I wanna talk about little Rodney. Growing up in Missouri, the most liberal state in the nation, It wasn’t all peaches and cream and let’s love the queer community when you were growing up.
Rodney Wilson:
Not at all. This was a small town Of 2,500 people in a very poor and rural county, Washington County, a little over an hour South of Saint Louis, we had a very small school system. We had a lot of churches in my town, you know, the proverbial on every corner. And my parents, like most parents born in the 19 forties, they were not aware really of, Well, there wouldn’t have been LGBTQ plus. It would have been lesbian and gays. They weren’t aware of that or gays or my dad used to say I don’t want a queer within a mile of me, and that was back when that word queer had not been reclaimed, and it was an awful word. And my dad would say that, and I was aware that I’m gay since I was 7 years old. So I always Understood this is a very odd thing that this man who does care for me and loves me will say this, but he didn’t know.
Rodney Wilson:
My dad later evolved and grew, and I don’t think he ever fully understood sexuality and sexual orientation, but he understood love. And he understood Supporting your children, in this case, including me. So it was rough. I would not change a thing because I do feel that it made me more aware of the outsider and how the outsider might suffer because I was an outsider. It made me more empathetic to those who did not fit in for whatever reason because I was not fitting in. It also, I think, gave me a more critical eye toward my culture, towards society, toward religion, toward what’s happening in the world because I was looking at it From the edges, from the peripheral, I think it’s partly why I became really interested and devoted to Martin Luther King Because he was attempting to take a group of people who had been isolated and were unfamiliar to the majority and make them familiar and make them part of the community. And I was in a community that also was isolated and unfamiliar, so he became a teacher in many ways. So I wouldn’t change it.
Rodney Wilson:
What I’m hoping is right now that young people don’t have to go through 20 or 30 years Of figuring themselves out, integrating who they are within their own minds, integrating themselves as the person they are in their families, in their tools in their communities because that’s what I had to do. That’s what you had to do. That’s what all of us had to do in the past.
Brad Shreve:
Talking about advancing, that comes with changing hearts and minds. And I’m thinking of your father. Let’s talk about the man that said he didn’t wanna queer within a mile away from him. I want you to talk about your final conversation you had with him.
Rodney Wilson:
Well, of course, we rarely know when we’re having our final conversations with our parents, but I was having A phone call with him, and somehow we got on the topic. This would have been in 2004 because he died in his sleep unexpectedly at age in 2004. So earlier in 2004, probably early December because he died December 20th, we were having a phone call. And he said to me that he’d never told me, but that when this was going on at Melville High School, he would sit across From the highway, it’s called LeMay Ferry Road. That’s where the high school is. He would sit across and watch me come out of the school at the end of the day, Make certain I got in my car and safely away. I had no idea. I’m so happy that he told me that because If he hadn’t, I would not have known.
Rodney Wilson:
I don’t know if anyone else knew. He didn’t tell me at the time because he knew I would object. Dad, you don’t need to come up here. I don’t need you here. It’s not this but in my dad’s mind, a man born in 1944 rural Missouri, What I had done was something that could bring a hammer upon me. Mhmm. And that was his way of protecting me. I say sometimes that There are a lot of good people who just need to be a little more educated around this issue, who just need to learn a little bit.
Rodney Wilson:
I have a lot of faith and confidence and patience for those ones who are good people. We just need to learn a little bit. So part of what we do is help educate, help them understand, help them Learn what it is we mean by nonbinary or transgender or gay or lesbian or bisexual. And that’s the work, I think of all of us in this community, it’s particularly the work of educators, in this community to help good people Be good around this issue.
Brad Shreve:
There’s still a lot of dissolution people out there and probably will be for some time. But I wanna know from you, what do you think is the one thing everyone most everyone Can do right now that can make a difference. I think
Rodney Wilson:
it’s important to Speak up when you have the opportunity. Be that simply an occasional social media post where you say something as simple as I stand with all children, LGBTQ included. I think if you’re working in a school district making certain that your counselors at that district and your administrators at that district are aware That there are LGBTQ kids, that their risk of suicide is higher, their risk of dropping out is higher, That 40% of all young people according to a poll I read recently, LGBTQ people are worried about going to the bathroom. I mean, imagine. How can you become well educated? How can you learn to read, write, think, do math, appreciate art and literature and science If you need to go to the bathroom and you’re afraid to go to the bathroom. So everything anyone can do to make our schools warm, Welcoming, safe, inviting, temples to knowledge, temples to education, temples To the advancement of human civilization by means of art and literature and science and data and history and facts, I think is really important because it does begin in the schools in many ways because that’s our 1st institution Specifically created that our young people get involved in early on pre k now, age 4, And they remain there until they finish high school at age 18, and then they go on often to public schools. It’s the 1st institution that our students Get involved in in a very deep and abiding way Monday through Friday. So making certain that we have everything in our schools that’s necessary for young people To become the best readers, writers, thinkers, mathematicians, and scientists, and artists that they want to be and that they’re capable of being, I think is the first requirement of any society that wants to call itself a righteous society or a beloved community like Martin Luther King talked about.
Rodney Wilson:
So look around, find out what’s going on in your schools, make certain they’re aware, make certain that educators have a chance to be educated Around LGBTQ issues.
Brad Shreve:
One thing I wanna let the listener know, and you may know this, but You do not have to be a parent to be in the PTA. You do not have to be a parent to be on the school board. You just have to care.
Rodney Wilson:
Exactly. And A lot of people who are not parents, myself included, every year, we pay the 1,500, 2,500 in property taxes that largely fund our public schools. So it takes a village to create a school system and to make it strong and healthy and serve the needs of all of the young people so everyone has a right to have a voice.
Brad Shreve:
Rodney, I wanna Thank you for all that you’ve done and continue to do. Hundreds of thousands, if not likely millions, owe a lot to you.
Rodney Wilson:
You’re very kind. I appreciate the invitation to be on your program. And if you would be so kind as opposed maybe the international committee website So that folks can, go over there and take a look at what we’re doing. Thank you, Brad, so
Brad Shreve:
much. Thank you for being on. It’s been great.
Rodney Wilson:
Thank
Brad Shreve:
you.
