For those not familiar with southern California geography, Glendale is a medium-sized city (about 200,000) just north of Los Angeles and directly between Hollywood and Pasadena. Yesterday the Glendale school board held a meeting and two opposing groups of people showed up for it. On one side was a group who’d come to protest the recognition of Pride month, though this seems to have been just a tipping point for other gender identity related issues. Some of them were wearing white t-shirts that read “Leave our kids alone.”

On the other side were some counter-protesters carrying Pride flags, some of whom wore masks, hoodies and sunglasses and seemed to be trying to hide their identities.

The protesters showed up in the afternoon and were peaceful for several hours until the counter-protesters showed up. Around 6pm is when the fighting broke out with Glendale police officers doing their best to keep the two groups apart.

Demonstrations outside of the Glendale Unified School District building stayed relatively civil throughout the day. However, scuffles between the around 200 protesters and counter-demonstrators began after 6 p.m. School administrators said many of the protesters did not have students in the district.

The city’s police department deployed around 50 officers to the meeting to prevent scuffles among the groups. After several brawls, officers ordered the protesters to disperse and threatened to use less-than-lethal force to break up the crowd.

Eventually an unlawful assembly was declared and a few people were arrested.

A dispersal order was issued around 6:15 p.m. as police were heard using a loudspeaker to order the crowds’ removal, declaring an unlawful assembly. A large barricade was placed in the middle of the parking lot, separating the two contentious groups.

While most of the protest remained peaceful, police said a “small group of individuals engaged in behavior deemed unsafe and a risk to public safety.”

Again, I don’t think the issue here was the recognition of Pride month so much as concern about what kind of gender identity curriculum, particularly involving trans identity, was going to be introduced in elementary schools.

“Bringing in curriculum for K-6 on gender ideology, that is what we’re against,” said Any Torosyan, a Glendale parent opposing the curriculum. Torosyan believes money should be spent focusing on improving students’ testing scores instead.

“We were talking about children,” said Philip George, an LGBTQ+ curriculum opposer. “They are not ready for such choices. It confuses them and ultimately these are things that parents should decide.”

This clip from inside the school board meeting shows what parents are up against. This woman says she deals with “the trauma of LGBT youth related to the hetero-normative, Judeo-Christian, patriarchal, imperialist, capitalist system that oppresses them.” And if you disagree with her about any of that you’re a bigot. She suggests most kids know they are trans by age 3 or 4. That’s the message these parents outside are objecting to for very young kids, not that some kids will grow up to be gay but that some girls will grow up to be boys and vice versa. That’s not an idea a majority of parents want introduced in elementary school.

A teacher in the Glendale School District in California, where the violent protests went on earlier between Antifa and Armenians over pride month, went on an absolutely batshit insane rant during the school board meeting:

"I deal with a lot of the trauma of LGBT youth related to… pic.twitter.com/9igIPL5R4Q

— Greg Price (@greg_price11) June 7, 2023

Of course it is true that there are trans people and some girls will grow up to live as boys and even take hormones and gave gender reassignment surgery. But it’s absolutely not necessary to do a deep dive on all of that in 1st grade with kids who don’t really have an identity yet. Here’s video showing some of the fighting that happened outside the meeting. Apparently, this could be heard from inside.

A physical brawl breaks out between anti-LGBTQ protestors and LGBTQ supporters outside the Glendale unified school board meeting in Los Angeles. pic.twitter.com/jcqML9NmAi

— Sergio Olmos (@MrOlmos) June 7, 2023

Another clip. Honestly I can’t tell if this is the same fight from another angle.

Massive fight pic.twitter.com/2ASdXmXhkv

— Notorious Tinatanium 🆓 (@TinaDesireeBerg) June 7, 2023

Andy Ngo reported that Socal Antifa were encouraging to come to this meeting. They are likely some of the counter-protesters who seem to be trying to hide their identities under masks. And as we’re all aware, they are always willing to fight.

.@GlendalePD made three arrests at the violent protest on June 6 outside the Glendale, Calif. school board meeting. There, @SoCalAntifa members & their allies were met by mostly immigrant families who opposed LGBTQIA+ curriculum/events in elementary schools. A group of… pic.twitter.com/4ia33ojR0z

— Andy Ngô 🏳️‍🌈 (@MrAndyNgo) June 7, 2023

Others have reported some of the protesters were connected to the Proud Boys. That may be true but it looks as if there was a mix of people on both sides. Some were not locals and were there to brawl, others were actual parents concerned about their kids.