By Mike Simonelli
Back in July 2021, the San Francisco Gay Men ‘s Choir posted a video in which they sang, “We’ll convert your children – happens bit by bit, quietly and subtly and you will barely notice it…We’re coming for your children…The gay agenda is coming home. The gay agenda is here.”
Apparently unsatisfied with the progress so far, four years later the Long Island LGBT Network has now announced they’re coming for our school board. Claiming they feel threatened by President Trump’s (R-FL) recent actions eliminating biological men from participating in women’s sports and “banning gender affirming care for young people,” the Network is preparing candidates to run in the May 20, 2025, New York State (NYS) Board of Education elections in thirteen Long Island school districts. Among the faculty members in their candidate training academy is NYS Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli (D-Great Neck Plaza) who applauded the Network’s efforts and recognized their “critical role in the fight for justice and equality.”
Like a wolf in sheep’s clothing, the Network’s founder, David Kilmnick, cloaks his intentions under such noble ideals as justice, equality and children’s safety, saying – “This is for LGBTQ and allied folks…who think that we should have safe schools.” Who can argue with the fact that schools should be a safe place for ALL children to be able to learn math, science, English, social studies, world languages, performing arts, health, electives and participate in sports?
Rather than concern for children’s academic education, a closer look at the LI LGBT Network (which lost $10 million in state funding after an investigation found it was mishandling the millions in taxpayer dollars it received each year) reveals what they really want is for children to learn fantasy pronouns and pledge allegiance to LGBT values.
During June 2022, in response to parents who felt the books used in the Smithtown libraries pride displays were “not material suitable for the small ages that were visiting the children’s room,” the trustees voted to remove the pride decorations and books from display in all the children’s sections of the towns four libraries. Among the books parents didn’t want their young children seeing was What are Your Words? which taught children between four and eight years old nonsensical pronouns like “Ey/Em, Ze/Hir, Xe/Xir, and She/They.” The young, animated boy character details how, “Sometimes I just use one set of pronouns, sometimes I change my pronouns, and sometimes I use all the pronouns I can think of.” In another book, They, She, He, Me, children three years and older are taught the non-existent pronoun “Ze”, along with a more confusing one, “Tree.” A third book, titled Growing Up Trans is targeted at children ages eleven to eighteen. The LGBT Network led such an uproar over these books being removed from the children’s display, within forty-eight hours the library board held an emergency meeting and voted to put the pride displays back up. The LBGT Network then endorsed three candidates that would go on to beat out twelve others in the contentious October 2022 Smithtown library board elections, Annette Galarza, Mildred Bernstein, and Howard Knispel.
That same month over in the Connetquot School District, children “reported feeling uncomfortable by the Progress Pride flag being displayed” in a high school classroom. To make the classroom safe and inclusive for those students, the district leadership asked the teacher to remove the flag during regular classroom hours and display it only during the Genders & Sexualities Alliance (GSA) club meetings she led there after school hours. Even though it is the district’s policy that only the American flag and New York State flag be displayed in the classrooms, the Network complained to Governor Kathy Hochul (D-NY) that it was a “potential Human Rights law violation” and tried to bully the district, leading a protest before the next school board meeting.
Every October, the Network celebrates National Coming Out Day which, in recent years, entails encouraging children to sign a “Safe Space Pledge.” In 2022 that pledge, distributed via flyers to schools across Long Island, fought for racial equity and inclusion by having white children commit to being “thoughtful and intentional about the space I take up.” That sentence was quickly removed after backlash, but in 2024, children were still asked to pledge to “combat heterosexism” and “use terms like ‘significant other,’ ‘partner,’ or ‘spouse,’ instead of ‘boyfriend/girlfriend’ or ‘husband/wife.” In the section, “I commit to being a trans equity and gender-inclusion advocate,” along with becoming a “pronoun pro,” children pledge to “support the implementation of All-Gender Restrooms in our community and school.”
Instead of tolerance and inclusion toward LGBT classmates, children are now being taught to be advocates for the LI LGBT Network’s values in schools where the majority can’t even comprehend basic English. Along with declining scores in Long Island schools from the previous year, the most recent statewide testing showed only 38.7% of Suffolk students achieved a proficient score in English Language Arts. Against the backdrop of declining scores, there are over 4,000 GSA clubs in schools nationwide, and “nearly 6,000 public schools which hide child’s gender status from parents,” including many in New York thanks to its Supportive, and Affirming School Environment for Transgender and Gender Expansive Students policy. Despite all that “progress,” the LGBT network is focused on training school board candidates to fight against mandates protecting girls’ sports and confused children. Meanwhile the LI LGBT Network candidates will undoubtedly support fulfilling Kilmnicks’ vision for “LGBTQ literature, symbols…in all our institutions” – which includes elementary schools.
Let girls be girls, kids be kids, and students be students. Our children need schools and board members to ensure all students (not just those identifying as LGBT) have safe, supportive and inclusive environments where they can focus on the academic subjects’ parents send them there to learn. The only pledge any child should be doing in school is to the one thing that unites them all – allegiance to the United States of America.
Mike Simonelli is a retired Army officer, retired police officer, combat Veteran, author, and proud father of a United States Marine.
