“How dare you make them afraid because you are!”

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A Los Angeles school official has issued a powerful and angry rebuke to those seeking to ban LGBTQ-affirming books in schools.

Jackie Goldberg, the Los Angeles Unified School District President, recently addressed protests by parents regarding a Pride assembly held at Saticoy Elementary School in North Hollywood.

The assembly, which the school allowed parents to opt their children out of attending, included a reading of the children’s book The Great Big Book of Families. The book highlights different types of families, including those headed by same-sex couples.

The protests reportedly escalated to physical confrontations and even witnessed the burning of a rainbow flag outside the school.

A video of Goldberg, who is a member of the LGBTQ+ community, speaking out against the intolerance and hate during a June 6 Los Angeles Unified School District board meeting, has gone viral.

In her impassioned speech, she condemned the ugly protest and demanded that those behind it consider the impact on members of the LGBTQ+ community.

“What do you think that did to them?! What do you think that did to every gay teacher, every gay custodian, every gay worker in this city, every gay kid?” Goldberg asked passionately .

“It made them afraid! It made them afraid! How dare you make them afraid because you are!” she exclaimed.

Earlier, Goldberg shared, “I’ve been confronting this issue my entire life. I have been threatened. I have been harassed. I have been denied jobs because of who I am and who I love.”

“You don’t have to love me, you don’t have to like me, you can think I’m the devil incarnate. But you’d better treat me like a decent human being because that’s how I treat you, even though you don’t even believe that I have the right to exist,” she expressed.

Watch Goldberg’s inspiring speech below.

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