As we begin Pride Month here in the US, the Columbus Dispatch reports that one Ohio high school commencement speaker has found himself on the receiving end of a rightful metric ton of furious backlash, after he utilized students’ graduation to publicly hawk his opposition to LGBT marriage based on his notion that it’s against “biblical principles.”
Jim McGuire is an alumnus of River Valley High School in Marion County, Ohio, and the owner of a manufacturing company, J.L. McGuire and Associates. But instead of respecting and encouraging the graduating students at his alma mater, McGuire used the graduation to peddle homophobic, Right-wing talking points that only served to get him buried in backlash.
“It is currently some people’s thoughts to be in vogue to diminish or play down biblical principles,” McGuire proclaimed from the stage during the ceremony. “It is what established us, it is what continues to establish us through the years. Everyone in every country on this planet lives by the calendar that was based on 2022 years ago, it was established by Jesus Christ, and we need to remember that. I promise any time you spend learning God‘s word will not be subtracted from your life.”
The manufacturing company owner went on to flat out tell the graduating class that they need to make sure that they get married to people of the opposite sex.
“Choose a spouse, I suggest. I also strongly suggest to make sure to choose biblical principles, you know a male with a female and female with a male,” the commencement speaker added in his speech.
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The backlash against McGuire and his nasty speech with plentiful and almost instant.
One 2018 River Valley graduate who attended the ceremony to watch her sister graduate posted on her Facebook that she “felt like crying” as she listened to the hate-filled speech and heard the handful of people clapping for McGuire’s words in the audience.
Alexis Osipow said, “When he made the comment that marriage should only be between a man and a woman, my jaw dropped to the floor, and I honestly thought I was hearing it wrong.”
“I had to look around and see if other people were having the same reaction that I was, and they were. I felt like crying when I heard some people in the crowd clapping. But I was absolutely outraged and so were my parents and brother. I heard people behind me whispering about how inappropriate the comment was as well.”
She pointed out that McGuire took what was supposed to be a special, celebratory moment for these graduates and completely overshadowed their accomplishments with bigotry and hate, in a speech that the school apparently didn’t even bother to pre-read.
An older graduate from the school, Robb Koons, wrote on Facebook that he was “appalled” by the fact that the high school “allowed that person just preach and basically tell the new graduates that if you don’t follow god or if you are gay, you are wrong! This is absolute BS! This is one of the biggest moments of their lives and to have to listen to that, it was very unacceptable! I can’t help to think there were kids sitting there that were like me where we still can’t be ourselves because of bigots like the guy that gave the speech! Shame on you River Valley Local Schools.”
Jimmy Longo posted on Facebook, writing, “I haven’t had many shameful moments as a River Valley alum but seeing on TikTok the homophobic rhetoric out of the guest speaker at last night’s graduation for the class of 2022 was really sad.”
“Catching wind of a graduation speaker at a local highschool (sic) back where I’m from- River Valley,” Billy Peck wrote. “Apparently during a time where he should’ve been offering words of encouragement, he decided to go on a homophobic rant. I guarantee there were LGBTQ youth forced to listen in silence while he spouted his hateful rhetoric.”
As you can imagine, the backlash has sent River Valley High School into a frantic scramble for damage control.
The Marion County Board of Developmental Disabilities conveniently announced that its mission “is that of inclusion of all people. We are learning the facts of this incident and will be meeting with the county commissioners to discuss his appointed position as a board member.”
Residents are banding together to prepare to speak at the next school board meeting, where they will demand answers on how such a speech was even approved in the first place.
MCBDD Superintendent Cheryl Plaster spoke out and said, “Still, we are an agency that believes in inclusion for all, so obviously we took this very seriously.”
She said she reached out to McGuire to address the incident, who only stated that he “hopes to not make things difficult for us here at the DD board.” McGuire refused to make any further comments.
The school stated, “As with all alumni speeches in past ceremonies, the speech was not reviewed by anyone on the RV Administrative team or Board of Education. Any views expressed by the speaker during his commencement speech reflected his personal beliefs. He was not speaking as an official representative of River Valley Local Schools.”
It is not clear whether or not any of the student speakers at the graduation ceremony were subject to a review of their speeches.
The American people have since flocked to Google to leave deserving terrible reviews for McGuire’s company. A quick search of McGuire’s political contributions exposes one past donation to the National Republican Congressional Committee.
Since the influx of backlash, River Valley High School has made the YouTube video of the graduation ceremony “private.”
Read the full report here.
Featured image via Flickr/Jeco, under Creative Commons license 2.0
