{"id":29812,"date":"2023-09-07T00:25:00","date_gmt":"2023-09-07T06:25:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/la-plata-county-republicans-host-moms-for-liberty-speaker\/"},"modified":"2026-03-31T01:04:04","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T07:04:04","slug":"la-plata-county-republicans-host-moms-for-liberty-speaker","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/la-plata-county-republicans-host-moms-for-liberty-speaker\/","title":{"rendered":"La Plata County Republicans host Moms for Liberty speaker"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><figure class=\"wp-block-image naviga-inline-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/imengine.public.prod.dur.navigacloud.com\/?uuid=29f57d6a-cc77-54aa-a105-a6520b3d5338&amp;function=cover&amp;type=preview&amp;source=false&amp;width=2000\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1188\" alt=\"About 100 protesters carry signs on Main Avenue protesting keynote speaker, Darcy Schoening, chairwoman of El Paso County, Colo., Moms for Liberty, on Tuesday during the La Plata County GOP meeting at the Durango Veterans of Foreign Wars, Post 4031. (Jerry McBride\/Durango Herald)\" class=\"naviga-image\" loading=\"lazy\"><figcaption><span class=\"caption\">About 100 protesters carry signs on Main Avenue protesting keynote speaker, Darcy Schoening, chairwoman of El Paso County, Colo., Moms for Liberty, on Tuesday during the La Plata County GOP meeting at the Durango Veterans of Foreign Wars, Post 4031. (Jerry McBride\/Durango Herald)<\/span><span class=\"credit\">cca<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p><p>There was commotion outside the Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 4031 during a La Plata County Republicans meeting Tuesday night.<\/p>\n<p>Protesters outside the building voiced their displeasure for the meeting\u2019s guest speaker, Darcy Schoening, chairwoman for the El Paso County chapter of Moms for Liberty.<\/p>\n<p>Moms for Liberty, as defined by the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.momsforliberty.org\" id=\"link-ab0dab07c6a7217e548b72e873016f52\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">organization\u2019s website<\/a>, is a conservative group \u201cdedicated to fighting for the survival of America by unifying, educating and empowering parents to defend their parental rights at all levels of government.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>In recent years, the group has garnered controversial attention for its views on the LGBTQ community, opposing critical race theory and attempting to remove books from school libraries.<\/p>\n<p>The group has been vocal about standing up against educators teaching what it considers \u201cwoke\u201d ideology.<\/p>\n<p>About 100 people showed up to oppose Schoening\u2019s speech. There were two people in favor of Schoening\u2019s perspective standing along Main Avenue, with more inside the VFW waiting for her to speak.<\/p>\n<p><figure class=\"wp-block-image naviga-inline-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/imengine.public.prod.dur.navigacloud.com\/?uuid=c095fc4b-b51b-51fc-996e-bc1bf31e6449&amp;function=cover&amp;type=preview&amp;source=false&amp;width=2000\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1407\" alt=\"Darcy Schoening, chairwoman of El Paso County Moms for Liberty, the keynote speaker for the La Plata County GOP meeting, on Tuesday said, \u201cHonestly, I could not be more honored,\u201d referring to the protesters outside on Tuesday at the Durango Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 4031 who showed up to voice their opinions against her being in Durango. (Jerry McBride\/Durango Herald)\" class=\"naviga-image\" loading=\"lazy\"><figcaption><span class=\"caption\">Darcy Schoening, chairwoman of El Paso County Moms for Liberty, the keynote speaker for the La Plata County GOP meeting, on Tuesday said, \u201cHonestly, I could not be more honored,\u201d referring to the protesters outside on Tuesday at the Durango Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 4031 who showed up to voice their opinions against her being in Durango. (Jerry McBride\/Durango Herald)<\/span><span class=\"credit\">cca<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p><p>\u201cWe invited Darcy, who is actually part of the El Paso (County) chapter, to come on down and give us a little information on Moms for Liberty and how we can help start protecting our kids in the fashion of school,\u201d said Vice Chairwoman of the Colorado Republican Committee, Hope Scheppelman, holding a sign that read \u201cProtect Our Kids\u201d in support of Moms for Liberty.<\/p>\n<p>That protection, which many meeting attendees cheered for, relates to school districts that are allegedly indoctrinating children by acknowledging students by their preferred gender, allowing explicit reading material in libraries and not allowing parents to have a say in their child\u2019s curriculum.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe big thing that we\u2019re really wanting to make sure that our kids are learning history and not erasing history and not telling them there\u2019s like 26 or 27 genders,\u201d Scheppelman said.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video wp-block-embed-youtube naviga-video-embed\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/UZM1CTn30-k\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<p>Scheppelman further explained that she is a nurse practitioner and expressed that there are only two genders. She was concerned that school districts had been telling students not to disclose what was being discussed in the classroom.<\/p>\n<p>On the other side, members of the Four Corners Alliance for Diversity, Indivisible Durango and other residents hoisted signs that read \u201cBan Bigots, Not Books\u201d and \u201cCensorship is not equal to liberty.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The front lawn of the VFW was layered with Pride and Black Lives Matter flags. Post Commander Mike Benton said the VFW is a nonpartisan group and that its first priority is to support the community.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThey\u2019re an anti-student inclusion group. They\u2019re a white supremacist group. They actively campaign against public education. They actively campaign against the existence of trans and gay kids,\u201d said Four Corners Alliance for Diversity Chairperson Tyler Frakes.<\/p>\n<p>Frakes said the protesters wanted to make it clear that hateful views were not welcome in Durango.<\/p>\n<p><figure class=\"wp-block-image naviga-inline-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/imengine.public.prod.dur.navigacloud.com\/?uuid=33a8b554-5a61-53d1-84a9-001583c7b27c&amp;function=cover&amp;type=preview&amp;source=false&amp;width=2000\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1363\" alt=\"Hope Scheppelman, vice chairwoman of the Colorado Republican Committee, carries her sign on Tuesday next to protesters on Main Avenue who showed up to voice their opposition against keynote speaker, Darcy Schoening, chairwoman of El Paso, Colo, Moms for Liberty, on Tuesday before the start of the La Plata County GOP meeting at the Durango Veterans of Foreign Wars, Post 4031. (Jerry McBride\/Durango Herald)\" class=\"naviga-image\" loading=\"lazy\"><figcaption><span class=\"caption\">Hope Scheppelman, vice chairwoman of the Colorado Republican Committee, carries her sign on Tuesday next to protesters on Main Avenue who showed up to voice their opposition against keynote speaker, Darcy Schoening, chairwoman of El Paso, Colo, Moms for Liberty, on Tuesday before the start of the La Plata County GOP meeting at the Durango Veterans of Foreign Wars, Post 4031. (Jerry McBride\/Durango Herald)<\/span><span class=\"credit\">cca<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p><p>\u201cMoms for Liberty is recognized as a hate group. We want them to know that we are a town that values our diversity and our inclusiveness,\u201d said protester JoAnne Smotherman.<\/p>\n<p>The Southern Poverty Law Center, a civil rights organization that tracks extremists, considers Moms for Liberty a far-right extremist group but has not classified them as a hate group.<\/p>\n<p>In November, Durango School District 9-R will host an election to fill school board seats in Districts B and D. Smotherman said that she wasn\u2019t concerned about the election of a potential right-wing extremist candidate, but still wanted to stand up against the views of Moms for Liberty.<\/p>\n<p>Scheppelman said she was hopeful that a candidate would come forward to represent the stances presented by Moms for Liberty, but did not specify if there was a candidate.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cRight now, we have a school board that values education and values young people, and they take care of their teachers,\u201d Smotherman said.<\/p>\n<p>Another protester, Robert Bridges, said that he identifies as intersex and that there are some commonalities between trans people and intersex people in terms of discrimination.<\/p>\n<p><figure class=\"wp-block-image naviga-inline-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/imengine.public.prod.dur.navigacloud.com\/?uuid=b2fda804-8b2d-5f47-adeb-c70e73f81278&amp;function=cover&amp;type=preview&amp;source=false&amp;width=2000\" width=\"2000\" height=\"781\" alt=\"About 100 protesters carry signs on Main Avenue protesting keynote speaker, Darcy Schoening, chairwoman of El Paso County, Colo., Moms for Liberty, on Tuesday during the La Plata County GOP meeting at the Durango Veterans of Foreign Wars, Post 4031. (Jerry McBride\/Durango Herald)\" class=\"naviga-image\" loading=\"lazy\"><figcaption><span class=\"caption\">About 100 protesters carry signs on Main Avenue protesting keynote speaker, Darcy Schoening, chairwoman of El Paso County, Colo., Moms for Liberty, on Tuesday during the La Plata County GOP meeting at the Durango Veterans of Foreign Wars, Post 4031. (Jerry McBride\/Durango Herald)<\/span><span class=\"credit\">cca<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p><p>\u201cThere\u2019s legislation that they\u2019re trying to pass to prevent transgender kids from getting appropriate medical care, exactly the same treatments that intersex kids need,\u201d Bridges said.<\/p>\n<p>Bridges said his father was gay and suppressed those feelings for a long time living in Missouri during the 1960s and \u201970s and never really came out because of the era he was living in.<\/p>\n<p>Inside the VFW, Schoening started her speech in front of about 70 spectators, lamenting that public education was failing parents. She referenced the protesters outside, saying she was honored by their presence.<\/p>\n<p>She referred to protesters\u2019 claims that Moms for Liberty is bigoted. She said white supremacist groups were just buzzwords meant to cancel the organization.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cEverybody\u2019s here for the same reason. We all want to educate our kids,\u201d Schoening said. \u201cMy kids in the front row here are 7 and 8 years old. They have the right to go to school, to learn math, English, to learn to read, to learn science based in chemistry, without being told that they\u2019re racist.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>She took issue with teachers and superintendents asking students what their pronouns were and that educators were \u201cpoisoning them with leftist ideology.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThere is no such thing as pronouns. I\u2019m a woman. You\u2019re a man,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n<p>Much like other members of the Moms for Liberty group, Schoening expressed distaste for alleged unspecified literature in school libraries that referenced two men involved in sexual settings.<\/p>\n<p><figure class=\"wp-block-image naviga-inline-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/imengine.public.prod.dur.navigacloud.com\/?uuid=31c09926-31c0-5c2b-87f1-a614dbc93f1c&amp;function=cover&amp;type=preview&amp;source=false&amp;width=2000\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1217\" alt=\"Darcy Schoening, chairwoman of El Paso County, Colo., Moms for Liberty, the keynote speaker for the La Plata County GOP meeting, on Tuesday, said, \u201cHonestly I could not be more honored,\u201d referring to the protesters outside on Tuesday at the Durango Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 4031 who showed up to voice their opinions against her being in Durango. (Jerry McBride\/Durango Herald)\" class=\"naviga-image\" loading=\"lazy\"><figcaption><span class=\"caption\">Darcy Schoening, chairwoman of El Paso County, Colo., Moms for Liberty, the keynote speaker for the La Plata County GOP meeting, on Tuesday, said, \u201cHonestly I could not be more honored,\u201d referring to the protesters outside on Tuesday at the Durango Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 4031 who showed up to voice their opinions against her being in Durango. (Jerry McBride\/Durango Herald)<\/span><span class=\"credit\">cca<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p><p>She also referenced the book \u201cPush\u201d by Sapphire, which was later made into a movie called \u201cPrecious,\u201d claiming that she could not read the book in a public setting because she would be arrested for exposing children to its explicit material. However, she never indicated whether the book was in any of the Durango School District 9-R schools.<\/p>\n<p>She accused school districts of putting this material in elementary school libraries.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cMy son Dexter can\u2019t go into Cinemark tomorrow and watch a movie with people doing gross things and people saying gross things and people being violent,\u201d she said. \u201cWhy the hell can the state of Colorado do it?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>She was also upset by scenarios where a local principal in El Paso County allegedly put a sticker of the transgender pride flag on a water bottle.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cYou think if it was a Trump flag, it would fly in that environment? It wouldn\u2019t because leftists don\u2019t believe in free speech,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n<p><figure class=\"wp-block-image naviga-inline-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/imengine.public.prod.dur.navigacloud.com\/?uuid=b81f32eb-737a-599b-aefc-c06d5c88de3e&amp;function=cover&amp;type=preview&amp;source=false&amp;width=2000\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1394\" alt=\"Some signs on Tuesday as people show up in opposition or support for keynote speaker, Darcy Schoening, chairwoman of El Paso County, Colo., Moms for Liberty, before the start of the La Plata County GOP meeting at the Durango Veterans of Foreign Wars, Post 4031. (Jerry McBride\/Durango Herald)\" class=\"naviga-image\" loading=\"lazy\"><figcaption><span class=\"caption\">Some signs on Tuesday as people show up in opposition or support for keynote speaker, Darcy Schoening, chairwoman of El Paso County, Colo., Moms for Liberty, before the start of the La Plata County GOP meeting at the Durango Veterans of Foreign Wars, Post 4031. (Jerry McBride\/Durango Herald)<\/span><span class=\"credit\">cca<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p><p>Schoening also took the opportunity to blast HB23-1003, which seeks to create a sixth through 12th grade mental health screening act.<\/p>\n<p>Her concern was that the bill was written in a similar fashion to California\u2019s AB-957, which seeks to include a parent\u2019s affirmation of the child\u2019s gender identity or gender expression as part of the health, safety and welfare of the child.<\/p>\n<p>The bill says, \u201cthe health, safety, and welfare of the child includes, among other comprehensive factors, a parent\u2019s affirmation of the child\u2019s gender identity or gender expression. Affirmation includes a range of actions and will be unique for each child, but in every case must promote the child\u2019s overall health and well-being.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The bill would make parents affirming their child\u2019s chosen gender an extra piece of information used in making a decision about parental custody. Some other criteria involve the amount of contact a child has with a parent, the nature of the contact, and the health, welfare and safety of the child.<\/p>\n<p>Her fear is that the state would try to implement something of this nature in HB23-1003.<\/p>\n<p>Currently, <a href=\"https:\/\/leg.colorado.gov\/sites\/default\/files\/2023a_1003_signed.pdf\" id=\"link-ae980887db8b3979ae7c385f627f6d3f\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">the bill<\/a> does not specifically discuss students disclosing their gender identity to their parents, but says if during one of the proposed screenings it is discovered that the student is suffering child abuse or neglect or that the child\u2019s home situation presents an immediate serious threat of harm, the screener must contact social services or local authorities.<\/p>\n<p><em id=\"emphasis-7e46854c67d87e64f5acf48cecdddfe1\"><a href=\"mailto:tbrown@durangoherald.com\">tbrown@durangoherald.com<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n<p><em id=\"emphasis-a778d05f54ea0906798be6f8e528b066\">(An earlier version of this story had Moms for Liberty Darcy Schoening saying HB23-1003 would allow the state of Colorado to take parental custody away if they did not acknowledge their child\u2019s transition. Schoening was referencing California\u2019s AB-957 as the direction Colorado could take with HB23-1003.)<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Residents protest controversial chairwoman <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":29813,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[950,28,1765],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-29812","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-durango","tag-headlines","tag-lgbt"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29812","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=29812"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29812\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":80869,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29812\/revisions\/80869"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/29813"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=29812"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=29812"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=29812"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=29812"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}