Gay 30 Rock actor Maurik Panchor has had his planned anti-bullying lecture canceled after the school board raised concerns about his lifestyle. (Rodin Eckenroth/Wire Image)
30 locks star Maulik Pancholy has canceled an anti-bullying speech at a school assembly in Pennsylvania after concerns were raised about the gay actor’s “lifestyle”.
Maulik Pancholy was scheduled to speak at Mountain View Middle School in Mechanicsburg next month, but eight members of the district’s school board voted unanimously to cancel his appearance.
During a public meeting on Monday, April 15, School Board Member Bud Schaffner said: I don’t think that should be forced on students at any age. ”
Fellow board member Kelly Pottiger issued a warning about Pancholy’s novel. the bestfocuses on a gay Indian-American boy.
“It doesn’t discriminate against his lifestyle. It’s his choice, but he’s the one to talk about it,” Pottiger said.
Pancholi, who also appeared in weed and Murder inside the building onlyand the voice behind Baljeet. Phineas and Ferb, dedicates his free time to speaking out against bullying and hate. His website says he will give a keynote address on diversity and inclusion.
In 2014, he was appointed by Barack Obama to the President’s Advisory Council on Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders, through which he co-founded the anti-bullying campaign #ActToChange.
Many people opposed the school board’s decision, including Trisha Comstock, a parent of a former student at the school. She launched a change.org petition asking the school board to reinstate the council.
“Being LGBTQ+ is not a little secret to protect our students. If someone with Maurik’s life experience would have been an inspiration to our students,” says the petition, which has almost reached its goal of 1,500 signatures. The book says:
Former student Tony Conte shared an open letter to Schaffner on Facebook, in which he also called for negotiations to continue.
Conte, who is gay, opened up about his struggles with bullying at school and wrote that talks like Pancholy’s would have meant the world to him when he was a child.
He added that he had written the letter for his “three young children” and that if he did not object to the “poor decision”, he would “have a positive approach to social participation to make them feel less alone”. “It will only hurt the children who desperately want to hear the message.” In this world”.
Schaffner claimed in an interview with today.com that he feared Pancholy would go off topic and talk about “politically motivated arguments,” which he said “belongs in the home, not the classroom.” .
