Anti-transgender, racist hate mail sent to 92 year old School District 51 retiree; Local Republican political leaders may be contributing to undercurrent of hatred in Mesa County

“Citizens District 51 Defund Vote” sent hate mail postmarked Oct. 11, 2022 to a 92 year old School District 51 retiree in Grand Junction

My 92 year old neighbor, who worked for School District 51 over forty years ago, received this hate mail yesterday, with the following computer-printed in screaming all-caps, racist, anti-transgender hate letter glued to the back of the picture with the child at the chalkboard:

My neighbor is pretty tough, but the line that said “OL’ BITCH” really saddened her.

In addition to showing that racism and homophobia in Grand Junction are alive and thriving, this rude correspondence raises several questions:

— How did the sender get the address of this person?

— Why was this particular elderly person, who hadn’t worked in District 51 for decades, targeted with this letter?

— How many other people in Mesa County received have this same letter, and do they all have recent or distant affiliations with District 51?

— Is a list of District 51 retirees available somewhere?

And the biggest question of all, who or what is responsible for conflating this racist, anti-transgender hatred with District 51?

This disheartening attitude might be traceable to several District 51 School Board members and the current Republican Mesa County Commissioner candidate Bobbie Daniel.

Discussion of a transphobic post earlier this year by Andrea Haitz

Last May, School Board President Andrea Haitz was widely condemned after local citizens discovered she had posted several trans-phobic memes on her personal social media accounts.

Then, on August 29, the Colorado Times Recorder reported that Haitz and her fellow D-51 School Board member Angela Lema attended a right wing workshop on how to fight inclusive policies in public schools that are designed to help transgender students and students of different races feel more accepted in public school systems. And until last May, when Haitz’s anti-transgender sentiments burst into public view, Haitz belonged to a public Facebook group, “REBOOT 2022. Mesa County School District 51,” a right-wing group whose mission statement includes “Bring back Home Education,” and whose beliefs include the lie that “BLM [Black Lives Matter] and antifa have threatened physical violence in Mesa County” and they are “terrorist organizations.” According to the Daily Sentinel, REBOOT 2022’s moderator and administrator at that time was prominent Mesa County Republican and former House District 55 candidate Cindy Ficklin.

Another well-known member of REBOOT 2022 was current Republican candidate for Mesa County Commissioner, Bobbie Daniel:


The “About” description of REBOOT 2022 Mesa County District 51 includes the statement “Transgender is not an option,” and the lie that “BLM [Black Lives Matter” and antifa have threatened physical violence in Mesa County.” [Screen shot taken 10/14/2022]

Bobbie Daniel, a right wing election denier who is running for Mesa County Commissioner and who has been endorsed by the Daily Sentinel, was also member of REBOOT 2022 Mesa County District 51, and is a friend of Cindy Ficklin:

Screen shot taken May 14, 2022

Friends…

Left to Right: Right wing extremist Sherronna Bishop (who now lives in Texas), extremist House Rep. Lauren Boebert, right wing extremist Cindy Ficklin and election denier and current Republican County Commissioner candidate Bobbie Daniel. Ficklin and Daniel both belong to the anti-transgender group REBOOT 2022 Mesa County District 51.

Sherronna Bishop, Bobbie Daniel’s friend in the photo above, recently joined Nazi sympathizers and white supremacists in carrying out an anti-LGBT, anti-transgender, Jew hating protest at a Christian church in Katy, Texas that welcomes transgender teens.

  8 comments for “Anti-transgender, racist hate mail sent to 92 year old School District 51 retiree; Local Republican political leaders may be contributing to undercurrent of hatred in Mesa County

  1. Even if this is fake it isn’t wrong. Indoctrinating children with delusional marxist trash is child abuse. You are disgusting.

  2. Let’s see if we have this clear-

    a 10 year old kid who is raped, per the fake Christian, far right anti-choice cult, is mature enough to carry a fetus to term.

    But this same 10 year old is NOT old enough to question their gender identity, sexual orientation, etc?

    This same 10 year old IS old enough to be provided / given a firearm because of ‘2A’ but not mature enough to demand sane gun laws?

  3. My take-
    It is not fake. Someone spent a lot of time and effort to do this. Motivation- hard to pinpoint since the recipient is 92 and retired. What could possibly be accomplished by aiming at this individual? If it had been me, I might have just trashed it. Could it be someone she knows personally? Hard to tell. And finally, has anyone else received something similar?

  4. That’s funny. I was thinking we need to keep in mind this could be some kind of deception.

    And what do I find but the very first comment on the story is saying that it’s fake and then immediately attacking the source and the blog with the majority of their comment. Isn’t that convenient.

    It’s not hard to blame right wing bigotry in the Grand Valley given how shameless they’ve become, how desperate and delusional they’ve demonstrated they are, and how prolific that cult mindset continues to be. I’ve been hearing it first hand from them for years now.

    With that said, this seems pretty phony. This looks more like some kind of joke done in very poor taste, like someone doing a tik-tok challenge. Plus, attacking retirees just seems weirdly specific. That’s not really the mantra of the right wing cabal.

    I’d be curious to see if a public list of retirees exists that someone could have drawn from to send something like this out to at random. I’m also curious if the recipient recently made some kind of public statement not in line with someone’s right wing ideology, possibly unrelated to the school district, and this person is simply using their status as a retiree as the lowest hanging fruit to pounce on. I’d honestly bet on the latter over the former.

    Regardless, even if this letter is completely fake, it doesn’t change the fact that the right wing has devolved into a cult of bigotry and racist white nationalism, and we are best served by keeping them out of power as much as possible.

  5. Faaaaaaake. Come on Anne, this is beneath you. Did your neighbor report this to law enforcement? Probably not, because anyone with an iota of objective critical thinking would dismiss this outright.

    First you are telling your readers how to vote and now this? Has your blog devolved into a smear campaign to demonize anyyone who doesn’t fall in line with your personal political opinions? You are feeding into the ad hominem stereotypes that conservative troglodytes espouse about anyone who critiques them.

    You are better than this nonsense.

    • She did report it to law enforcement. They can’t do anything about it because it does not contain a “true threat,” e.g. a threat against her life, a threat to fire bomb her home or hurt her children, for example. But why should a 92-year-old woman who lives a quiet life and keeps to herself be subjected to this kind of hatred in our community?

      • It’s good that she reported it to law enforcement. Only a coward would do such a thing to an elderly person — and cowards are often dangerous.

        Given the religious demographics of Mesa County and the letter’s holier-than-though tone, it’s more likely than not that the sneaky creep who sent the letter claims to be a good Christian. If that’s so, they might want to revisit Jesus’s conversation with Nicodemus the Pharisee — about people who do wicked things in secret.
        (John 3)

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