Benton Franklin health board says no to LGBTQ posts this month. Here’s what you won’t see
The Benton Franklin Health District will have no social media posts this June to mark LGBTQ+ Pride Month, at the direction of commissioners from the two counties.
At a district board meeting Wednesday, three of the four county commissioners who attended and serve as board members said the district should not publish the Pride Month posts they previewed.
Each of three proposed posts — two for Facebook and one for Instagram — relied on information from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention or the American Psychological Association.
“I don’t push my religion or sexuality on people,” said Will McKay, a Benton County commissioner.
He questioned why the proposed posts included rainbow-colored stripes in the corner, saying that he was fine with factual information but that went beyond just stating facts.
Franklin County Commissioner Clint Didier said since the LGBTQ+ (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer) community is not being deprived of health district services, he questioned why Pride Month should be acknowledge or promoted.
District Administrator Jason Zaccharia brought the posts to the board before they were posted after the Franklin County Commission directed the health district to take down a Facebook post during LBGTQ+ Pride Month two years ago.
The commissioners said the post was inappropriate, apparently because they found it went beyond being informative to being celebratory.
The Tri-Cities, Wash., based health district removed the post.
Controversial LGBTQ+ post
That 2020 post gave the history of Pride Month, saying it commemorated the Stonewall Riots, which began on June 28, 1969, when police raided the Stonewall Inn, a gay club in New York.
“Back in those days, it was common for police to raid gay establishments and arrest the patrons,” the post said. ”It was illegal for persons of the same sex to engage in gay behavior such as holding hands, kissing or dancing together.”
The LGBTQ+ community fought to exist without persecution, marking the birth of the LGBTQ+ rights movement.
“... because of this, we celebrate our Pride!” the post ended.
The health district learned during the COVID-19 pandemic that social media is a great tool to communicate and engage with populations experiencing health inequities and disparities, Zaccaria said after the meeting.
“The health district strives to be a part of the community’s conversations and reach individuals from all backgrounds, demographics and identities,” he said.
The Benton Franklin Health District publishes on social media multiple times a day without bringing posts to the board for its approval. Recent posts covering topics such as quitting smoking, men’s mental health, preventing older adults from falling and COVID-19.
Celebratory LBGTQ+ posts?
Zaccaria said he was discussing Pride Month posts with the board this year because of the potential for controversy, after publishing no Pride Month posts in 2021.
He warned that publishing no posts last year also was controversial, with phone calls to the district from the public saying it was part of the health district’s job to provide information.
Zaccaria said the three proposed posts for this month were factual, not celebratory, and the district had made sure to use national authorities for the information to provide credibility.
The first proposed Facebook post quoted the CDC, saying “34% of LGBTQ+ students were bullied on school property and 28% bullied electronically.”
The second, also quoting the CDC, said “10% of LGBTQ+ Youth were threatened or injured with a weapon on school property.”
It added that CDC research showed that the first step to create safe spaces for LGBTQ+ youth is to understand the basics, with a reference to CDC core competencies for professional development.
The proposed Instagram post had three pages, starting with a quote from the American Psychological Association that said “stress and stigma of being a sexual orientation or gender identity minority can increase developmental risks for LGBTQ+ children and youth.”
The association recommends learning current terminology to help create a safe space for LGBTQ+ youth, it said, and followed that with two pages giving the meaning of terms such as gender identity, cisgender, questioning and asexual.
Franklin County Commissioner Rocky Mullen along with Didier and McKay said they should not be published.
Tri-Cities health district equity
But Franklin County Commissioner Brad Peck, who had been unhappy with the 2020 Pride Month post, said the district had to publish posts equitably for everyone or not at all or it could face legal action.
The other two board members, Benton County Commissioners Shon Small and Jerome Delvin, did not attend the meeting.
“This is not about advancing a lifestyle,” Peck said. “It is simply about education and information that there are members of an acknowledged group that according to a national association have these challenges.”
Peck said that if similar posts were published replacing LGBTQ+ with LatinX or African American or another minority population no one would take issue with the context.
Similar posts for veterans regarding stress, stigma and psychological challenges during November also would be acceptable, he said.
But if the district could not use rainbow symbolism for Pride Month, then could it use a flag or military figure to illustrate a post about veterans’ issues in November, he asked.
Didier said rather than LGBTQ+ posts, the health district could promote the protection of life in the womb and acknowledge the harm to people who go through abortions and suffer mental illness afterward.
Peck said it was not the district health board’s role to become involved in national policy matters, even though he personally supports “right to life.”
“We live here in the land of freedom and you can choose to do as you like with your life as long as you do not break the law,” Didier said. “So I am against celebrating any racial, ethnical (sic), even LGBTQ or whatever. We need to focus on the task at hand which is the health department and making sure people are healthy.”
Military service
The meeting took a turn off topic when Peck responded to Didier’s questioning of why the health district should observe LGBTQ+ month, weighing its importance with Memorial Day.
Peck said fallen soldiers were not people for whom the health district offered help.
“Of course my fellow commissioner doesn’t get the idea of a person who gave their life for our liberty to live your life as you so choose,” Didier said.
Peck replied that he was apparently the only veteran on the board, after serving in the military for more than 20 years, and had watched fellow soldiers, sailors and airmen die in service to the country.
“So you are superior to the rest of us because you served in the Pentagon pushing a pencil?” Didier said.
Peck, a Gulf War veteran, said he served in several Middle East countries that Didier had never seen.