setho212 t1_ivqdvd4 wrote on November 9, 2022 at 9:08 PM

My thought process was that progressives focused hard on Adler’s far right views and conservatives focused hard on Newberger’s progressive views so voters might have been reluctant to vote for either of them. Chen was very good at concealing that he is a conservative guy. Everything I saw that he posted was just so generic and vague. Other the redistricting, pretty much all his positions are just generic promises that anyone could get behind. It would take further digging that most voters don’t do to realize that Chen does not have the best view of the less well off of that he is incredibly dismissive of the issues facing LGBTQ students.

nosayso t1_ivqfht3 wrote on November 9, 2022 at 9:18 PM

Yeah I think Chen's outreach to Asian communities and his intentional withholding of the scary specifics of his agenda worked to get him the seat. Then Chen sign in front of Hunan Manor always made me disappointed.

There's also a lot of rich republican or republican-leaning people who have been really against redistricting and he appeals to that block.

[deleted] t1_ivt42nt wrote on November 10, 2022 at 12:32 PM

[deleted]

setho212 t1_ivt5crm wrote on November 10, 2022 at 12:44 PM

She supported policies that would have prohibited even mentioning the existence of LGBTQ people in classes below the high school level and even then she supported giving parents the right to pull their kids out of any class that discussed LGBTQ issues. Her opinions on book banning also went beyond just that one example. She supported overriding decisions made by educators and librarians to allow banning books that have “sexually explicitly content”. What exactly is considered sexually explicit remained to be seen, but given the postings on Facebook by her most ardent supporters, it is clear that it if she were in power there would be attempts to ban books more innocuous than the example you provided. That language she used in her campaign, specifically the phrases neighborhood schools and parents rights while sounding innocent enough are code words used by far right groups pushing agendas far right agendas.

[deleted] t1_ivt69j1 wrote on November 10, 2022 at 12:53 PM

[deleted]

setho212 t1_ivt93h5 wrote on November 10, 2022 at 1:18 PM

Let’s just start off with the fact that I did not downvote you so don’t jump to conclusions.

Adler was very good at putting on a nice face and saying things that sound ok at first but weren’t quite what they seemed when you looked deeper, so I didn’t trust her to restrict her position on books to just be “pedophilia dick-sucking.” Her positions on LGBTQ issues is a good example of this. She frequently said that she supported all students and that students should feel welcome and accepted in schools, but then supported policies that treated LGBTQ students like pariahs. Banning even the mention of anything relating to LGBTQ people from middle and elementary schools is absurd and detrimental to LGBTQ youth and kids with LGBTQ families. How do you think a kid in elementary school with 2 male or 2 female parents would feel if in a discussion of families they were not permitted to talk about their family? It’s potentially even worse for middle schoolers given their greater awareness. It’s hard to believe an 8th grader struggling with conflicted feelings about their sexual orientation wouldn’t feel some sort of shame about their feelings if presented with a policy that does not permit the mention of LGBTQ people or that they wouldn’t offended by the reduction of their own parents to inappropriate sexual beings rather than loving parents.

All one has to do is look to the groups pushing the Adler candidacy to see what a change in book policies in schools would have lead to. She was heavily supported by people from two Facebook groups, Howard County Neighbors United and Families Unite Howard County (yes, FUHC). These groups had many postings vilifying LGBTQ people and decrying the “indoctrination of students.” Their complaints went far beyond the example we’re talking about to anything LGBTQ related. To these people anything LGBTQ is sexually explicitly and needs to be banned. It seemed clear to me, given Adler’s position on even talking about LGBTQ issues that she would be sympathetic to this claim at the very least if not an outright supporter of it.

[deleted] t1_ivtb02p wrote on November 10, 2022 at 1:34 PM

[deleted]

setho212 t1_ivtc306 wrote on November 10, 2022 at 1:43 PM

https://www.cary-hoco.org/adler

Look at questions 4 and 5.

Also, at a recent BOE candidate forum, a gay father asked Adler (and Chen) why they don’t support his child feeling accepted in school. Adler’s response was that there are parents who aren’t comfortable yet. Others may disagree, but I don’t feel as though people that do not accept gay people in this day and age should dictate school policy. We do not accept racism as a valid reason for making school policy and we should not accept anti-LGBTQ beliefs as a valid reason.