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CLOSET CASE: Gay-bashing Republican ousted from teaching job for same-sex grooming

CLOSET CASE: Gay-bashing Republican ousted from teaching job for same-sex grooming

Gay-bashing Republican ousted from teaching job for same-sex grooming

Patricia Kent, Utah Republican founder of the anti-LGBTQ group Liberty Action Coalition, takes GOP hypocrisy to a new level, accusing drag shows of being “immoral,” and of grooming kids – and then losing her teaching license for what? Grooming.

Kent, most widely known for her campaign against drag queens previously resigned from her job as a teacher after details of inappropriate and intimate relationships with female students were revealed – including a sexual relationship.

According to the Daily Kos, Kent wrote intimate notes, gave gifts to her students, and provided details of her personal problems to students, according to documents obtained by The Tribune.

She also used her position to “foster intimate and dependent relationships with young teen-aged girls.”

Her teaching certificate was eventually suspended.

Kent resigned from her teaching position at Hurricane High School after details became public in 1996.

Parents of the teenage girls expressed their concern, prompting then-principal Robert Goulding to warn the educator to restrict her interaction with students to “what is professionally expected,” the Salt Lake Tribune reported.

While there was evidence, according to the documents, that Kent engaged in a sexual relationship with a student, whose name is redacted, the evidence wasn’t sufficient or compelling enough for members to find that she had engaged in immoral conduct.

Founded in 2020, Liberty Action Coalition has around 4,000 members whose mission is anti-mandate, anti-Black Lives Matter, anti-socialism, and now – anti-drag shows, which the group claims “harms civic virtue, community morals, and children, whom they say are being dragged down to the depths of depravity.”

“Drag shows in the St. George area are promoting same-sex attraction, grooming children for satanic purposes, and are being abetted by civic leaders who won’t stand up for what is right,” the write-in candidate for Washington County clerk told members at a LAC meeting.

“Those are children, teenagers at best [who are] being promoted to the ideology of same-sex transgender,” she said. “This is supposed to be the new exciting lifestyle and everybody’s supposed to love it. They are grooming our children for immoral satanic worship.”

An investigation by the Utah Professional Practices Advisory Commission (UPPAC), found enough evidence to issue a complaint against Kent in 1997 – leading to the permanent revocation of her teaching license the next year. The State Board of Education cited “unprofessional conduct.”

In June, over 1000 people attended cable giant HBO’s “We’re Here” drag event at St. George Town Square Park, sparking outrage among the city’s conservative community – including Kent.

But like most Republicans, the irony was lost.

Recent revelations prove yet again, when it comes to “conservatives,” every accusation is really a confession.

Original reporting by Mark Eddington at the Salt Lake Tribune. 

Follow Ty Ross on Twitter @cooltxchick

Ty Ross
News journalist for Occupy Democrats.

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