A person broke into, ransacked and vandalized Evanston/Skokie School District 65 board vice president Elisabeth “Biz” Lindsay-Ryan’s car over the weekend, leaving behind a card containing a homophobic slur. 

In an email from Lindsay-Ryan and D65 board president Anya Tanyavutti to the district Monday, Lindsay-Ryan, who is running for re-election to the D65 school board, said the hate crime was not a burglary, but rather an act with “intent to terrorize.” 

“While this experience was both heartbreaking and terrifying for my family, it is the result of white supremacy colluding with misogyny and homophobia to inflict the most harm possible,” she wrote. “While homophobia was utilized in an attempt to silence me, it is not working in isolation, it is part of a greater collaboration to derail my commitment to racial equity.” 

The email also said the attack joins a series of attempts to intimidate and derail D65 leaders who hold marginalized identities and advocate to remove structural barriers to education. Since August 2020, the email said, these attempts have escalated to “veiled death threats.” 

Confirmation of the attack comes after a White supremacist zoom-bomber hurled racial slurs and threats of violence at 5th ward aldermanic candidate Carolyn Murray last Sunday, and after pro-Trump rioters breached the U.S. Capitol carrying Confederate flags last Wednesday. 

D65 leaders remain committed to equity training, staff diversity, anti-racist curriculum-building and estabilishing an identity-affirming environment, the email said. 

“I ask everyone in our community to do their part to challenge all forms of resistance to our equity work,” Lindsay-Ryan said in a Facebook post Tuesday. “We will not be deterred from the vital work ahead.”

Email: [email protected] 

Twitter: @maia_spoto 

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