ABOVE: Grace Christian School. Photo via the school’s Facebook. Watermark cautions this article contains anti-LGBTQ rhetoric.
VALRICO, Fla. | Grace Christian School confirmed LGBTQ students are not welcome to attend the private institution Aug. 18, noting that “we do not hate students who are of a particular persuasion.”
Grace Christian School was founded in 1975 “to provide the highest quality of education based upon Biblical principles.” It bills itself as “a Christ-centered, college-preparatory school” serving Tampa Bay students in kindergarten through 12th grade.
After obtaining an email sent to parents by Administrator Barry McKeen, NBC News reported Aug. 18 that the school would only refer to students by their sex assigned at birth and that LGBTQ students would be asked to leave. McKeen confirmed parts of the report in a video that evening.
“There were many things in the article that were true,” McKeen said, adding that he chose not to respond to the outlet. “Our school and many schools like ours have a policy that does not allow students to be homosexuals or transgender or a number of other things.
“It is true that a student cannot come to our school, knowingly for us, and be transgender or homosexual. That is rooted in the scriptures,” he continued. “God has spoken on those issues explicitly, aggressively, and we have had these policies in our school since day number one in the early 1970s.”
According to NBC, McKeen sent the email ahead of the new school year. Its subject read “Important School Policy Point of Emphasis. … Please Read.”
“We believe that God created mankind in His image: male (man) and female (woman), sexually different but with equal dignity,” it reportedly reads. “Therefore, one’s biological sex must be affirmed and no attempts should be made to physically change, alter, or disagree with one’s biological gender — including, but not limited to, elective sex reassignment, transvestite, transgender, or non-binary gender fluid acts of conduct … Students in school will be referred to by the gender on their birth certificate and be referenced in name in the same fashion.”
It also noted that “We believe that any form of homosexuality, lesbianism, bisexuality, transgender identity/lifestyle, self-identification, bestiality, incest, fornication, adultery and pornography are sinful in the sight of God and the church.”
The email also cited specific Bible verses. Students “who are found participating in these lifestyles will be asked to leave immediately,” it added.
NBC also spoke to graduates of the school, who shared McKeen has previously asserted that “if you’re gay you’re going to hell.” The administrator denied the claim in his video, which other students corroborated in the report.
“One of my friends who is closeted, she gets very hurt by it and very scared,” one student shared. “She has very bad anxiety about it.”
In addition to outlining the school’s anti-LGBTQ position on transgender swimming champion Lia Thomas, McKeen noted that “a school that is standing for Biblical values is going to be discomforting to somebody who is not.”
He also added that “my wife and I have friends who are homosexuals … we’re not hateful.”
Grace Christian School will not alter its policy regarding LGBTQ students, McKeen stressed. Its website notes that the school “admits students of any race, color, nationality and ethnic origin.”
View McKeen’s video below, which Watermark cautions contains anti-LGBTQ rhetoric.
