Equality Texas and the ACLU of Texas teamed up to host a Community Conversation: Pride in Wimberley, with local residents to discuss the recent controversy around the Wimberley ISD logo and all things LGBTQ.

You might remember a news story from December of 2019 about a Wimberley school board member who wore a PRIDE shirt to show support for LGBTQ students. Board Trustee Lori Olson received a lot of back lash from conservative groups and conservative board members after posting support on Facebook for Wimberley’s first PRIDE parade while wearing a shirt with the school’s logo altered to include a rainbow. A local Wimberley constituent then filed a grievance against Ms. Olson.

When alerted about what was happening, Equality Texas’s new CEO (only two days into the role) Ricardo Martinez decided to take action. He, along with board members Jo Ivester and Nicole DeLeon, started driving to Wimberley. We put out an action alert to Equality Texas members to send messages of support for Ms. Olson to every school board member. Within hours, more than 150 of you had emailed messages. Later that evening, when a special school board meeting convened, community advocate Cynthia Millonzi had gathered more than 100 people to attend in support of Ms. Olson, LGBTQ students, and the entire LGBTQ community.

A resident and parent of Wimberley students, Bryan Burke, contacted the ACLU to file suit against the school. In this online discussion, Brian Klosterboer of ACLU of Texas offered a legal overview of the situation and the school board’s grievance decision concerning the use of the school logo.

Joining the conversation are community members Bryan Burke, Cynthia Millonzi, and Wimberly student Daniel Morgan for a conversation about PRIDE and social justice in Wimberley — past, present, and future.