Patricia Stanley has disgraced herself and the Franklin Township Board of Education by pursuing a homophobic crusade to have openly gay Board President Ed Potosnak resign over comments he made at a High School graduation ceremony. Ms. Stanley took exception to Mr. Potosnak's mention of his personal excitement over the Supreme Court decision to legalize gay marriage which was handed down that very same day. She claimed his remarks on the historic decision were "inappropriate" and overly "intimate" and that he "hijacked" the ceremony for his own purposes. You can judge for yourself by viewing his speech on the video above, but I can tell you that the Franklin Township community came out in force to support Mr. Potosnak at a public Board session addressing this issue.

Ms. Stanley sat for roughly two hours and listened as nearly forty people lauded Mr. Potosnak's words and condemned her efforts to unseat him. Rather than responding to the accusations of bigotry that were leveled against her, she doubled down on her stance and played the victim. She blamed her colleagues for bringing this issue to public attention, she blamed the media for creating the atmosphere of tolerance that made her actions so controversial. She claims that Mr. Potosnak, by merely acknowledging that he is a gay man, breached some timeless, universal rule of decorum which she has made no effort to explain. Her actions have caused NJPoliticker.com to appropriately dub Ms. Stanley as one of the "Losers of the Week".

This board member's words and actions, and her insistence upon defending her ignorant, homophobic views in the face of an overwhelming public outcry, have led me to believe it is Patricia Stanley who should resign or be formally removed from her position on the Franklin Township Board of Education. She was given a golden opportunity and many beautiful, persuasive arguments as to why her endeavor was clearly coming from an ignorant, bigoted, antiquated place. Her unapologetically exclusionary views have no place on a council that oversees the welfare of young people, some of whom are members of the gay community, whose very existence seems to be offensive and improper to Ms. Stanley.

Board member Walton-McCleod has asked Ms. Stanley to resign for her clear bias against LGBTQ individuals and I would ask the other members of the board to join their voices to hers in demanding the resignation of Patricia Stanley from the Franklin Township Board of Education. I would ask that anyone who believes tolerance of diversity should be a prerequisite for a position on the Board of Education please commit your name and voice to this petition.

More references on this story linked below:

http://franklinreporter.com/stanley-school-board-president-should-resign-over-same-sex-marriage-comments-at-fhs-graduation/​

http://www.bluejersey.com/showDiary.do?diaryId=27040​

http://franklinreporter.com/in-your-opinion-boe-member-patricia-stanley-should-resign/​

http://politickernj.com/2015/07/winners-and-losers-week-of-the-jeb-bush-fundraiser/