Minnesotans are once again meeting injustice in their community with defiance.
On Monday, the Detroit Lakes School Board, in Becker County, Minnesota, met to try to justify what many see as a blatant attack on the LGBTQ community. But parents, students, and the ACLU are fighting back.
Last week, the ACLU filed a lawsuit against the Board, contesting a policy it passed in a July vote prohibiting non-school-sponsored stickers, buttons, posters and flags on school grounds. Board members John Steffl, Sanford Nelson, Michelle Okeson, and Michael Walther voted in favor of the provision. Mary Rottier and Julie Smith-Yliniemi voted against it.
Last week also saw the board send a letter to the Minnesota State High School League (MSHSL) supporting an anti-trans athlete ban in women’s sports.
“At the July 27, 2026 Detroit Lakes School Board meeting, Board Member Nelson
made a motion to amend the previously published agenda to add an action item banning LGBTQ+ pride materials in the District,” the complaint from the ACLU reads. “Defendant Nelson’s action item called for ‘the immediate removal of all non-school materials not funded, sponsored, or authorized by the school district. This includes but is not limited to any rainbow stickers, posters, flags, buttons, etc. displayed in Detroit Lakes Public Schools facilities.’”
“A core concern of the LGBTQ+ Pride Ban were small, 2x3-inch rainbow stickers on some District classroom doors,” it continued, referencing what are commonly known as “safe space” stickers to indicate an inclusive environment for all students. “Prior to the vote, the principal of the District’s high school confirmed that, despite being present for years, the rainbow stickers had never been an issue at the high school. She had never heard a concern from a student, parent, or teacher about the presence of the stickers.”
The ACLU alleges the policy is unlawful on multiple fronts. It says the policy violates the Minnesota state constitution and the Minnesota Human Rights Act by discriminating against students and teachers based on sexual orientation and gender identity in education. It further says the board violated government transparency laws by failing to provide adequate public notice, or even notice to some of the board members themselves.
The board claims the policy is not anti-LGBTQ because it applies to other kinds of stickers, too, such as both Black Lives Matter and Blue Lives Matter paraphernalia. But the ideological underpinnings are undeniable. Previously, when a reporter asked if the LGBTQ+ Pride Ban would apply to cross necklaces, one board member who voted for the ban said: “I’m a Christian so that doesn’t bother me.”
This, plus extensive anti-LGBTQ animus expressed by the Board in private communications, suggests the ban “is not based on neutrality, but rather the personal viewpoints of a simple majority of the Board,” the complaint says.
One social media content creator with a child in the district, who goes by the moniker That Midwestern Mom, decried the Board’s tactics at this week’s meeting.
“Before this ban, there was no crisis, and there was no incident demanding this policy, and there was no groundswell of parents asking for it,” she told school board members in a speech at the meeting. “You created all of this disruption over a 2-by-3 inch sticker.”
She spoke out against the policy in a way only a Minnesota mother could—comparing the rainbow sticker ban to piles of manure oversaturating a farm.
“If we don’t raise a stink and continue to plow over old ground as many times as necessary, the field will never be fertilized and produce abundant crops,” she said. “That’s what I’m doing here tonight.”
“If we don’t raise a stink and continue to plow over old ground as many times as necessary, the field will never be fertilized and produce abundant crops,” she said. “That’s what I’m doing here tonight.”
That’s such a beautiful quote
Here we go again—once again, the transgender and LGBTQ+ communities are being singled out for discrimination by people who clearly have no understanding of these communities and, more importantly, no interest in learning.
I’m glad to see these parents and the ACLU fighting back. Those pushing these policies should have to defend their actions in court and answer directly for the harm they are trying to impose on real people and families.
But this is also a reminder that we cannot simply complain after the damage is done. If we are serious about taking back our school boards, local councils, state legislatures, Congress, and the Senate, we have to get involved.
Research every candidate. Attend school-board and council meetings. Go to town halls. Ask the tough questions. Demand real answers. And then support candidates who are willing to listen, learn, respect their communities, and stand up for everyone's rights.
Government belongs to the people who participate in it. If we want different results, we have to show up, pay attention, and vote.
If you want, I can also make this more biting and confrontational for social media.