Letter: Evergreen School Board candidate addresses media reports

Vancouver resident Gary Wilson states that he has been misquoted multiple times

Editor’s note: Opinions expressed in this letter to the editor are those of the author alone and do not reflect the editorial position of ClarkCountyToday.com.

I want to set the record straight. My name is Gary Wilson and I’m running for the Evergreen School Board.

The Columbian has three times now written articles attributing to me falsely a statement about ‘transgender individuals’ that was a fabrication and lie. I contacted them the first time last December and asked for a retraction and an apology but they replied saying send us the library’s transcript or video of the meeting knowing full well the library does neither.

They have repeated this lie twice in the last 12 days and I now have a public records request of my public comment that I had emailed to the library board of trustees that shows irrefutably what I wrote. Several eye-witnesses at that meeting have the same detailed public records request and can attest that what was written in The Columbian is not what I submitted to the library and not what was read aloud word for word by a person speaking in my place at the meeting.

The portion of my comment that The Columbian is apparently quoting was:
“Fact, Drag Queen Story Hour performers have been found to be convicted sex offenders” (I have names).

The Columbian at that time attributed to me the following:

“Drag queens and transgender individuals come from a community of sexual abusers.”

I did not write that in my comment and the person speaking for me did not say that and I have three eye-witnesses that can attest to that. I never wrote and the person speaking for me never mentioned transgender individuals in the entire comment and we certainly didn’t say they come from a community of sexual abusers. Neither of us believe that, so why would we mention that?

At the library board meeting in January, myself and my friend shared what happened and the board who received my comment via email in December and had read it before the meeting and then witnessed my friend reading it decided at the end of January’s meeting to start recording their meetings in February to prevent The Columbian from false reporting in the future.

I sent The Columbian reporter Griffin Reilly an email in August after I received my December comment in a public records request warning him to not print that lie again, to no avail. On October 14 The Columbian again falsely attributed to me the statement:

“Transgender individuals come from a community of sexual abusers.’’

This time not even putting drag queens in front of it. A total fabrication/lie. Then on October 24 they repeated it substituting ‘LGBTQ+’ instead of ‘transgender individuals.’ They didn’t research that some drag queens are simply heterosexual men that enjoy dressing up and performing as women (I don’t get it, but to each his own) so obviously not are all LGBTQ+ and far fewer would be transgender.

Yes, I’ve stood up for years attempting to keep Drag Queen Story Hour out of our taxpayer funded libraries. I have a right to come to public board meetings and speak on how my tax dollars are spent and I don’t believe a fully dressed drag queen reading gender confusing books to children ages 3 to 8 is in anyone’s best interests or proper use of their facilities.

I would rather be spending my time campaigning on education issues such as Evergreen’s poor academic standards (26.9% of students meeting Math standards and 33% overall in the three academics). We are the worst out of all nine Clark County School districts academically speaking.

But I needed to set the record straight.

Visit my website for more information: WilsonforEvergreen.com.

Gary Wilson
Vancouver