Dear Alderman Moore,
I read to day with great distress that the New Life Covenant Church, headed by the incredibly homophobic and bigoted Rev. Wilfredo de Jesus, will be holding services in the Auditorium of the Gale Math and Science Academy on W. Jonquil. Gale is a Chicago Public School.
While Mr. de Jesus has the absolute First Amendment right to spew his bigoted bile as he chooses, we feel it is inappropriate for him and his hateful organization to be permitted to use taxpayer funded facilities. While they may be paying a fee to use those facilities it begs the question as to whether Ms. Washington, the principal, or the LSC would permit National Socialists or The KKK to access those facilities for a fee.
The First Amendment does not guarantee his access to our school facilities to promulgate hate.
It is particularly unfortunate that Mr. de Jesus has chosen the Easter and Passover season to deliver his and his organizations message of homophobic hate and intolerance in a Chicago Public School Auditiorium on Easter Sunday.
As a teacher, taxpayer, homeowner, gay man and person of faith I wish to protest in the strongest terms the use of taxpayer funded facilities devoted to learning and the formation of future citizens to be used to further the message of hate, bigotry, and intolerance set forth by Mr. de Jesus and his hateful organization.
We hear of students being bullied and harassed, of being killed or committing suicide due to the hateful message of Mr. de Jesus, Fred Phelps, and others, and now our schools are being opened to the very messengers of hate who create the atmosphere bigotry we fight through efforts to help and support these very students.
I will be writing the principal of the school and will also be submitting letters to the editor to the local gay press. We will be spreading the word to friends, family and neighbors.
We will also be contacting Lambda Legal to see if this is a violation of the separation of Church and State. It certainly is a violation of the precepts of human dignity and the culture of our community.
John Jaffe