Heather Alberda found her calling by speaking bluntly about sex in conservative Ottawa County. Her career was no match for the nation’s culture wars.
Heather Alberda is a sexuality educator with the Ottawa County Department of Public Health. Washington Post photo by Bonnie Jo Mount.
Rhodea, one of eight self-described conservative Christians elected last November to the 11-person board, began by describing what she saw as the threat posed by LGBTQ+ groups and the Pride flag. In much of America, the rainbow banner represented the acceptance of gay, lesbian and transgender people.
Alberda had already endured months of scorn from the new commissioners, who had publicly accused her of promoting abortion and sexualizing children. What she’d been doing was her job, which required her to talk about birth control, sexually transmitted infections, abstinence and consent. She met with high school students, migrant farmworkers, teens in juvenile detention and people struggling with addiction.
Few felt the sting of this shift as acutely as Alberda. Her bosses had tried to protect her by scaling back her sex education work, but the change just felt like punishment. Her job, which she had described as her “passion,” was quickly becoming a source of mental anguish. Alberda's work has come under fire by conservative members of the Ottawa County Board of Commissioners. Washington Post photo by Bonnie Jo Mount.Alberda’s husband, Ryan, was watching the proceedings from the kitchen, where a buck’s head was mounted by the cupboard. He’d just returned from coaching the high school’s trap shooting team.
Public school teachers invited her to speak with their students. She developed sex-ed programs for women in drug rehabilitation and inmates in the county jail. She spoke to uterine and cervical cancer survivors who were seeking alternatives to vaginal sex. She didn’t realize that other forces were reshaping the way people in the county talked about sexual health and sin. The biggest driver was Ottawa Impact, a political group that formed in 2021 and pledged to field county board candidates who would govern according to conservative Christian principles.
Many of the group’s most ardent supporters were convinced that the nation was in the midst of a moral crisis so deep that it had precipitated a massive surge in child sex trafficking that had reached west Michigan. At county board meetings, they insisted that the media was conspiring with the state and federal government to hide the heinous problem. One of the area’s biggest churches was building a shelter for trafficking victims.
Her supervisors’ initial reaction was to take down a link she had posted on the health department’s sexual health page to a Washington, D.C.-based nonprofit group that offered birth control advice. The site had recently added an “abortion finder” tool to help women navigate rapidly changing state laws. Alberda said she hadn’t noticed the addition. Everyone assumed the controversy would quickly pass.
The information in the guide came from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Planned Parenthood and the American Academy of Pediatrics. None of that mattered. Soon, dozens of people on social media were calling for her to be fired and accusing her of being a pedophile and a groomer. Bonnema knew her name and what she did for the county. His questions, Alberda believed, were designed to single her out for more public scorn.Alberda wasn’t the only one feeling pressure from the county board. In April, Bonnema and the new board members toured the Children’s Advocacy Center, a nonprofit group that works with law enforcement to prosecute sex offenders and counsel their victims.
Fluharty told the commissioners that parents and their children turned to the center at one of the darkest moments in their lives. “If in some small way we can make it a little less horrible, it’s worth it,” she believed. The sticker sent a message to marginalized, sexually abused children that they were safe and would be accepted, Fluharty explained.
Bonnema, an insurance agent who was new to politics, didn’t approve of the Pride symbol. But he was growing increasingly uncomfortable with the way some Ottawa Impact commissioners viewed any compromise as betrayal - a view he had shared in interviews and at public board meetings. He exchanged text messages with Fluharty in an unsuccessful effort to find common ground. One alternative sticker he suggested featured the words “YOU ARE LOVED” in rainbow colors.
Some donors pulled their financial support for the center, Fluharty said. Her board of directors instructed her that any future sponsorships needed their approval. “When we have people in positions as high as our county commissioners that are making allegations that we are in some way associated with the grooming and oversexualizing of children, it is devastating,” Fluharty said.
Kate Leighton-Colburn, the director of Out on the Lakeshore, a community center for LGBTQ+ residents, also pleaded with her elected leaders: “If there’s even one of you tonight planning to vote yes who even a little bit questions the righteousness of that decision, please reach out to me.” Two holdovers from the previous board - a Democrat and a Republican - complained that the resolution’s broad language could be used to “trap” or retaliate against county workers such as Alberda.
“It feels like I don’t even exist anymore,” she said. “Twenty years of what I worked so hard to build literally was in one instant destroyed.” The commission’s chairman, Joe Moss, countered in a blog post that it was time to “rein in” the health department’s “out-of-control expenditures” and excessive “influence.”
The second session focused on preventing the spread of sexually transmitted infections. The women sat on couches as Alberda unpacked her props, a plastic vagina, a speculum and packages of condoms. She showed them photographs of untreated infections from gonorrhea, chlamydia and herpes, which she described as a “forever gift.
On a Sunday morning in early July, Alberda and her husband headed to church. Several years ago, the large, slightly run-down sanctuary was regularly packed with hundreds of worshipers. “Now you have a choice of any seat you want,” Alberda said, eyeing the three dozen people who remained.
Argentina Últimas Noticias, Argentina Titulares
Similar News:También puedes leer noticias similares a ésta que hemos recopilado de otras fuentes de noticias.
At least 5 killed in Michigan after series of tornadoes topple trees and power linesOfficials declared a state of emergency Friday in the state’s largest county, which includes Detroit, due to power outages, flooding, fallen trees and power lines and storm debris.
Leer más »
5 killed after tornadoes down trees and power lines in MichiganOfficials say at least four tornadoes touched down in Michigan as part of severe storms powered by strong winds that killed five people, while downing trees, tearing roofs off buildings and leaving hundreds of thousands of customers without power.
Leer más »
6 tornadoes confirmed as Michigan storms down trees and power lines; 5 people killedOfficials say at least six tornadoes touched down in Michigan as part of severe storms powered by strong winds that killed five people, while downing trees, tearing roofs off buildings and leaving hundreds of thousands of customers without power
Leer más »
6 tornadoes confirmed as Michigan storms down trees and power lines; 5 people killedOfficials say at least six tornadoes touched down in Michigan as part of severe storms powered by strong winds that killed five people, while downing trees, tearing roofs off buildings and leaving hundreds of thousands of customers without power
Leer más »
5 people killed as Michigan storms down trees and power linesThe storms featured lightning displays erupting across the night sky and dumped multiple inches of rain on communities across the lower portion of the state.
Leer más »
Beauty Genie dispenses Black hair care products at Michigan University of OlivetThe Michigan students said attending a predominantly white university just doesn't allow them to find supplies specific for their hair.
Leer más »