Gay rights takes spotlight in Louisiana school board leadership

NEW ORLEANS — A New Orleans school board member has withdrawn from consideration for the board presidency amid a flurry of criticism over her record of resistance to protections for LGBT students.

When the debate was over Thursday night, Leslie Ellison kept her position as the board’s vice president — elected in an unexpectedly narrow 4-3 vote after close to two dozen speakers, including gay and transgender students and adults, voiced their displeasure.

Immediately before the debate, the seven-member board made an apparent attempt to defuse the rancor by unanimously voting to suspend its rules and allow the current president, John Brown, and vice president, Ellison, to remain in their current posts for another year.