Muslim protesters shut down Dearborn school board meeting over LGBTQ books

The ‘Detroit Free Press’ newspaper reported that hundreds of protesters packed a Dearborn Public Schools board meeting on Monday October 11th and shut it down with cries of anger over certain LGBTQ books they said are too sexually explicit for children.

“Vote them out!” the crowd repeatedly chanted during the raucous meeting inside an administrative center where the board holds its public meetings.

The room was packed tightly, with many using an overflow room and others standing in the back and on the sides. Several held up signs with anti-LGBT rhetoric in English and Arabic, making religious references to assert that LGBTQ educational materials and books should not be available in Dearborn Public Schools, the third largest school district in Michigan.

For weeks, Muslim leaders and community activists had been urging people to attend the meeting to voice their opposition to certain books and educational materials.

Dearborn is about 47% Arab American, most of them Muslim, and Dearborn Heights is about one-third Arab American, according to census data.