Transgender substitute teacher hired – no audience comment

APP.com – By Tristan J. Schweiger – Manahawkin Bureau

Little Egg Harbor – There was no public outcry this time.

Lily McBeth was one of several substitute teachers the Pinelands Regional Board of Education voted to hire Thursday night. None of the handful of local residents who attended the meeting spoke on the hiring of the 72-year-old transgender Little Egg Harbor woman.

It was a marked contrast to the scene at an Eagleswood Board of Education meeting last winter, where dozens of residents, both supporters and opponents of McBeth working in the district, turned out to speak after she was hired as a substitute there. The Eagleswood board did not back down from its decision to rehire McBeth, who had substituted at the elementary district before having a sex-change operation more than a year ago.