West Cook News

A self-described "bisexual" River Forest trustee is commending teachers at an elementary school in the village for starting a club to instruct 7-10 year old students on varieties of homosexuality.

Erika Bachner told members of the River Forest District 90 School Board that she was proud of Willard School for starting the so-called "Rainbow Club" earlier this year, and that she wished they had done so sooner.

"I am here tonight to thank the Willard School— Ms. (Victoria) Bynum and Ms. (Karen) Kraska— on their work pulling together a Rainbow Club at Willard School," she said, addressing the board during the public comment period. "It’s an amazing resource and space that I could only have wished for as a child."

Bachner, 44, who is married to a man, Jeffrey Bachner, said she has a homosexual child who attended Willard and didn't get the benefit of a Rainbow Club.

"The Rainbow Club… normalizes being gay, non binary or trans or queer or bisexual or lesbian," she said. "It has wonderful activities. (Students) learn in an age-appropriate way what those letters mean."

Bachner told the board that she knew she was gay at age 5 but felt "scared" because there weren't books about being gay.

"There were stories on TV about people who were gay and were killed because of it. This made me even more fearful of what I was," she said. "There were kids who were mean and bullied me and damaged by property and called me and my best friend derogatory names."

Last spring, Bachner spearheaded a "Gay Pride" flag-raising by District 90 elementary school students at River Forest Village Hall.

In June 2021, Bachner started the village "Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Advisory Group," charged with rooting out racism in River Forest. The group voted against leading its meetings with the Pledge of Allegiance, calling it an "empty gesture" that introduced "magic into the equation" by referencing God.

Bachner was first elected to the River Forest Village Board in 2019. She works as a secretary in the admissions department at Adler University, a "social justice institution" in Chicago's Loop.