NJ Mother Targeted by Military for Objecting to LGBT Poster Files Civil Rights Lawsuit

New Jersey mother Angela Reading, who was targeted by a high-ranking military officer for objecting to a pro-LGBT poster. Courtesy of Angela Reading

A New Jersey mother who found herself under investigation by the U.S. military, the Department of Homeland Security, and local police for social media posts objecting to an LGBT-themed poster displayed at her local elementary school has filed a federal civil rights lawsuit in the matter.

Angela Reading, the mother of two young children, names seven U.S. military officials in the suit, including the commander of the Joint Base McGuire–Dix–Lakehurst military facility near Reading’s home.

The base is the only tri-service (Air Force–Army–Navy) facility in the U.S. Department of Defense and is home to units of all six branches of the U.S. armed forces.

North Hanover Township School Superintendent Helen Payne and the township’s police chief, Robert Duff, are also named in the suit, which was filed on March 15 in the U.S. District Court for the District of New Jersey.

A poster displayed at Upper Elementary School in the North Hanover school district in New Jersey encourages children in fourth through sixth grades to accept sexual minority identities. Courtesy of Angela Reading

The suit claims that the military officials, together with Duff, Payne, and other town officials, conspired to harass and intimidate Reading in retaliation for comments she made in a private Facebook group that a poster made by fourth to sixth graders was inappropriate.

“For no reason other than that they detested her constitutionally protected expression of her point of view on an issue of public concern, defendants abused the power of governmental offices to censor Mrs. Reading’s speech and retaliate against her with a campaign of smears, lies, and referrals to assorted law enforcement agencies for investigation as a ’threat,' using the instrumentalities and tools of their official positions to create a public fury specifically directed against Mrs. Reading,” the lawsuit reads.

Officials at the Joint Base, Payne, and Duff didn’t respond to requests by The Epoch Times for comment about the allegations.

‘Keep the Pressure On’

Chris Ferrara, an attorney with the Thomas More Society, which is representing Reading in the civil rights suit, told The Epoch Times that a chain of emails and other internal documents and correspondence obtained for the lawsuit clearly show that Reading was targeted for what he referred to as an “innocuous” Facebook post.

Copies of the documents were provided to The Epoch Times.

One of them reads, “I think we need to keep the pressure on until her disruptive and dangerous actions cease, so please share any historical items to help us shape our messaging for those not aware and ones like myself that moved here recently.”

It was written by Maj. Chris Schilling, an Army Reserve officer at the joint base.

Schilling, who is named in Reading’s lawsuit, identified himself in his emails as a member of a group called No Place For Hate. He appears to have instigated the protest against Reading.

U.S. Air Force Lt. Colonel Megan Hall, also a deputy commander of the 87th Security Forces Squadron, calls Reading an “extremist” in one of her emails.

“Furthermore, Ms. Angela Reading encouraged people of like-mindedness to attend the monthly [board of education] meetings and express the same viewpoint,” she wrote.

Homeland Security, Police Involvement

“This really gets under my skin for sure,” Joseph Vazquez, a civilian employee of the U.S. Air Force, wrote in the exchange of emails. Hall and Vasquez also are named defendants in the lawsuit.

Vazquez also stated that he had referred Reading’s posts to the New Jersey Office of Homeland Security and Preparedness and the New Jersey State Police Regional Operations Intelligence Center, which he said “keep an eye on far right/hate groups.”

The documents show that Payne and Duff, originally only copied on the emails, began making their own comments against Reading.

In one of his emails, Duff stated that the North Hanover police were working with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and military officials “concerning Mrs. Reading.”

“We have a government that is surveilling law-abiding citizens because their opinions amount to what they consider to be thought crimes,” Ferrara said, also likening Reading’s case to “stochastic terrorism.”

The term, which refers to demonization of a person or group that eventually incites violence against that person or group, has been used mostly by the media referring to the Jan. 6, 2021, U.S. Capitol breach.

But Ferrara said that in reality, it’s the left practicing stochastic terrorism by using its influences to incite violence against conservatives such as Reading.

Behind-the-Scenes Support

“If you depart from any of the official narratives on any subject these days, the federal government will put you on a list to surveil you and take action against you,” he said, “that’s what’s happening.”

Reading’s post, which can be read on Change.org in its entirety on a petition in support of Reading, was posted to a private Facebook page made up of Christian conservative parents. In it, Reading says her 7-year-old daughter asked her what “polysexual” means after reading that on a poster hung at the local elementary school.

The post included a range of other LGBT terms, including pansexual, genderqueer, transgender, and gender fluid.

“Why are elementary schools promoting/allowing elementary kids to research topics of sexuality and create posters,” Reading wrote in the Facebook post. "This is not in the state elementary standards [law] nor in the BOE-approved curriculum.

“It’s perverse and should be illegal to expose my kids to sexual content.

“How can my young children be accepting of people who are sexually attracted to multiple genders? They don’t even know what sex is! Are adults talking about their sexual life with my kids and looking for affirmation?”

In a recent interview with The Epoch Times, Reading said that what she hopes to accomplish with the lawsuit is to help encourage parents who are feeling bullied into silence to speak out.

“I have so much support behind the scenes, but I’m riding into battle alone,” she said. “If we had a whole group of parents speaking out, I don’t think this would be happening.”