Far-right realtor complains she was “cancelled” after “bigoted diatribe” at school district meeting

A California real estate agent is claiming she was fired for her “bigoted diatribe” against her local school district’s new LGBTQ+ inclusive sex-ed curriculum after someone suggested that her viewpoints could “affect a marginalized person’s ability to purchase a home.”

In a video posted to her website, BeniciaFreedom.org, Janet Roberson claims that after she voiced her opposition to the new curriculum at the Benicia Unified School District’s April 20 board meeting, she was “targeted and cancelled.”

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Video of the April 20 meeting posted on YouTube by the school district shows Roberson addressing her concerns about the curriculum, which was unanimously approved by the board earlier this year, during the meeting’s public comment period. She took issue with children being asked to specify their pronouns and claimed that 10-year-olds would be taught “that they can receive puberty blockers to prevent their body from going through changes that make them uncomfortable.” She also claimed that gender identity would be discussed in math classes and that “the new curriculum encourages gender confusion.” She further claimed that under the new curriculum, 12-year-olds would be taught about oral and anal sex.

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“Teaching kids that there isn’t any standard or truth and that you can believe anything you want to believe is not scientifically accurate or medically correct,” she said. “For example, the notion that a girl can decide to be a boy or a boy can decide to be a girl is not true and should not be taught.”

Of the curriculum’s inclusive language around gender diversity, she said, “It’s nonsense. It’s not a choice. People are not gender fluid.”

In a letter published in the Vallejo Times-Herald on April 27, retired public schoolteacher Billy Innes described Roberson’s comments as a “bigoted diatribe” and her website as featuring “a plethora of racist, homophobic, transphobic, anti-COVID safety, and anti-COVID vaccine writings.”

Roberson’s website, which she says she launched last year to oppose school masking requirements, features right-wing talking points and misinformation about everything from “Critical Race Theory” to drag queen story hour events.

In his letter, Innes also suggested that in her role as a real estate agent with Compass Real Estate, Roberson’s “unapologetic bigotry might well affect a marginalized person’s ability to purchase a home, contingent upon whether or not that buyer passes Janet Roberson’s racial/sexual purity test.”

In her video, which was reposted this week by anti-LGBTQ+ activist Chaya Raichik’s LibsofTikTok account, Roberson claims that “members” of the Progressive Democrats of Benicia “campaigned” to have her fired. The video shows portions of what appears to be a letter from Progressive Democrats of Benicia treasurer Nathalie Christian to Compass demanding the company respond to Roberson’s anti-trans comments.

Roberson says she was fired by Compass on May 1.

However, according to Newsweek, a spokesperson for Compass said that Roberson was “not an employee of Compass—she was an independent contractor who worked on an agent team—and the decision to disassociate her license was made at the request of her team’s owner in April 2023.” The Compass spokesperson added that the company does not take agents’ personal, political, or social beliefs into account when making decisions about their affiliation with the company.

On Wednesday, after Twitter owner Elon Musk responded to Raichik’s post asking whether Compass really fired Robersons because of her comments, the company’s responded to Raichik’s post with a statement similar to the one it gave Newsweek.

Progressive Democrats of Benicia chair Kathy Kerridge disputed Roberson’s claim that the organization had anything to do with her firing, explaining that Christian wrote to Compass under her own auspices and not as a representative of the organization.

“Put simply: we did not fire this person, her employer did, using their own internal guidelines, which we did not seek to influence, nor do we even have access to,” Kerridge said.