Well, the good news is, we avoided voting in an unrepentant homophobe as our next Mayor. The bad news is, we still have a Cyndi Lamm problem.
Last week, we at Seeing Red received an email from a mother who needs to work with the Autism Family Network to get a Project Lifesaver bracelet for her autistic daughter. However, she is not comfortable working with the Autism Family Network (AFN) because Cyndi Lamm sits on the Board of Directors. The AFN also works in partnership with the Arc of Lincoln whose guiding principles are these:
OUR GUIDING PRINCIPLES
- All people deserve opportunities.
- All people have diverse strengths and needs.
- All people can contribute.
- All people deserve respect.
- All people have value.
- All people have the right to influence their environment.
- Family, friends and the community are important.
As our letter writer points out, everything the Arc stands for are things to which Cyndi Lamm is opposed. Cyndi Lamm does not think gay people deserve respect or have value. How can someone who stands with Trump and DeVos possibly do right by these special needs kids? In March of this year the Arc went on record saying Trumps’s budget request would put the lives of people with disabilities at risk.
So why is a woman who has no qualms about admitting her homophobia or her support for an orange fascist who doesn’t care about kids with disabilities on the board of directors at Autism Family Network? How can parents of LGBTQ+ children take their kids to the AFN for help when they know an unrepentant homophobe sits on the board? How can any parent of any child with a disability go confidently to the AFN for help knowing Cyndi Lamm supports Trump and his disdain for people with special needs? The mother who wrote to us is also worried because her daughter is Mexican. Cyndi has made it perfectly clear that she stands with Trump who is currently holding children in concentration camps at the border only because of their skin color. How could she possibly feel comfortable taking her child to an organization where a woman who supports the dehumanization of children who look like her daughter sits on the board?
A day or two before the recent election, many citizens in Lincoln received this letter from Cyndi Lamm. In it she doubles down on her homophobia and throws in some lies about a website that says true things about her, with citation. The only hate on that website is in Cyndi’s own words.
In all our tolerance and Nebraska Nice-ness are we just going to let families continue to suffer and worry because we won’t call out bad deeds when we see them? As long as Cyndi Lamm continues to support Trump and the anti-IDEA and disability services policies of Betsy DeVos, she has absolutely no place on the AFN board.
