Grace Christian School Says LGBTQ Students Will be Asked to Leave

Amid a calamity of anti-LGBTQ stances, laws, and legislation popping up all around the country, families of Grace Christian School in Valrico, Florida, about 20 miles outside of Tampa, woke up on June 6 to an email titled, “Important School Policy Point of Emphasis. … Please Read.” According to the email obtained by NBC News, administrator Barry McKeen stated that gay, transgender, or gender-nonconforming students, “will be asked to leave the school immediately.”

The June email from Grace Christian reads, “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. Students who are found participating in these lifestyles will be asked to leave the school immediately.”

The email additionally outlines the schools’ policies and viewpoints in relation to transgender and gender-expansive pupils, unveracious of the National Institute of Health‘s definitions of sex and gender, clearly stating that sex refers to the genetic differences between males and females, whereas gender refers to a social construct.

“We believe that God created mankind in His image: male (man) and female (woman), sexually different but with equal dignity. 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 (Genesis 1:26-28). Students in school will be referred to by the gender on their birth certificate and be referenced in name in the same fashion.” 

Unfortunately, these policies are not new, nor are they uncommon with religious schools.

“It’s kind of been beyond me that this has blown up to what it is, like, you’re shocked that a Christian school has this policy?” McKeen says.  In the email that outlines the Grace Christians human sexuality policies, parents of students enrolled in the K-12 school were also told that they must sign documents complying with the standards before enrollment. 

McKeen recently confirmed and reaffirmed the policy in a video published on Grace Christian’s official Facebook page on August 18. 

In the video, he reiterates: “It is true that a student cannot come to our school… and be transgender or homosexual. That is rooted in scriptures; God has spoken on those issues explicitly, aggressively, and (we) have had those policies in our school since day number one in the early 1970s.” McKeen also states, “We are not a hateful group of people. We don’t hate students who are of a particular persuasion… We’re not going to be hateful, but we’re not going to back down from this policy.”

Since the initial email, both  McKeen and Grace Christian school have been hit with a wave of criticism, even menacing threats. “It’s funny for us to…  be painted as hateful. We have fielded hundreds, probably thousands of phone calls Thursday, Friday over the weekend, with just some of the most outrageous things: People threatening to burn my house down, threatening to kill my family.” McKeen says.   

Despite communicated contentment, McKeen says that this criticism will not alter his stance.

“If I backed down from something like this, I’m abandoning what God has said is the truth. I… kind of rack my brain to, like, ‘How is this hard for people to understand? This is what God said.’ This is one of the many reasons we have a Christian school,” he tells Fox News Digital in an interview. “And we’re not going to abandon this policy. God has spoken on these issues.”