Woodland school board member facing recall over comments about ‘transgenderism’ resigns

Woodland Joint Unified High School District board member Emily MacDonald resigned from her position earlier this week, according to school board president Rogelio Villagrana.

“The reason Trustee MacDonald is not here is actually because she submitted her resignation to the superintendent of the county two days ago,” said Villagrana on Wednesday night’s school board meeting. “So that’s the reason she’s not here, in case people were wondering.”

MacDonald is currently is losing a recall election that Woodland parents organized against her last fall, because of comments that she made about trans people, as well as her stance on ethnic studies.

Trouble for MacDonald started last summer when she voted against the district’s proposed PRIDE Resolution, for which she was the sole dissenting vote.

“While I share with everyone here tremendous respect for the achievements and contributions of Americans who are lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender, this coalition forces acceptance of every aspect of transgenderism in order to be considered an ally of the others, and that is wrong,” she said at the June meeting.

She encouraged the board to “act with great caution in order to protect the increasing numbers of children who are experiencing transgender procedures as a result of social contagion without sacrificing the tiny number of individuals who would identify as transgender even without social contagion, education campaigns, and the social cache attached to a transgender identity in the present.”

Local parents and community members asked her to step down after the meeting, calling her comments “devastating” and in opposition to the beliefs of most of her constituents. She did not resign then, and they promised a recall effort if she didn’t.

She had the support of local Moms for Liberty members, but a majority of voters — 61.87% — supported her losing her seat.