Gorham won't remove a sex education poster from a middle school classroom.
The Gorham school board has voted to keep a "Gender 101" poster in the town's middle school. Credit: CBS 13

The Gorham school board voted to allow the poster “Gender 101” to stay in a sixth-grade health classroom.

Most people who spoke at Wednesday night’s meeting were in favor of keeping that poster and another defining gender terms in school. But some still are asking that they be removed.

“And I hope that tonight you’ll follow the district policy and either remove the posters, or provide opposing viewpoints,” said Eric Lane, a parent of a Gorham student.

“So what is the opposing view,” said Kelli Deveaux of Gorham. “The only opposing view is to deny the existence of the LGBTQ+ community.”

Regional School Unit 9 in Farmington heard from dozens in the community Tuesday night on the same “Gender 101” poster. But no decision was made.

Gorham’s superintendent, Heather Perry, said the posters are not a part of any curriculum taught at school.

Gia Drew, executive director of Equality Maine, said the organization has noticed the recent controversy being generated around these posters, and said they are important for promoting understanding inside Maine schools.

“It really is unfortunate that some schools have all of a sudden, or lots of schools all of a sudden, started to attack posters and educational information around what it means to be LGBTQ,” Drew said.