Durant did not want his daughter thinking that because her friends were grieving him that the things #Kirk had claimed were acceptable or right.

It was a difficult & heart-rending conversation, grappling with how his daughter’s classmates could admire a man who’d said such hurtful things. “I said it’s natural to be sad & I don’t want to change your opinion about being sad,” Durant recounted.

Durant continued, “But I am explaining to you that the gentleman who just got shot was under the impression that you, as a young #Black #woman, don’t have brain processing power. So I am explaining it to you to let you know what he said was wrong & not true.”

As a Christian, Durant also felt he had to address #Kirk’s version of #Christianity, which condemned & disparaged people who are #gay & #transgender.

#Kirk once posted, “The pride & trans movements have always been about grooming kids.” In another instance, he had pointed to a passage in the Bible that said men who lay with other men “shall be stoned to death,” saying it “affirms God’s perfect law when it comes to sexual matters.”

This #intolerance was not reflective of Durant’s own understanding of Jesus or the Gospel, nor the faith his family practiced. “I reminded her not to be a hypocritical Christian,” he said.

“I told her, You know, the Good Book, the Bible, says you judge a man as he lived, not as he died.”

Durant left the conversation about Kirk’s death grateful that it had prompted a father-daughter talk about his child’s #worth as a #Black #girl & about having empathy for those marginalized by society. He hoped that this moment of beatifying #Kirk had passed.

But a few days later, #Oklahoma’s superintendent of #schools, #RyanWalters, directed all the state’s schools to observe a moment of silence in honor of #Kirk. Durant felt a shock that quickly flamed into outrage.

People were free to mourn Kirk or not, he said, but the #state had no right to #order his #child & other #children to honor a man whose words had often denigrated them. “My initial thought was, Hell no — there’s no way.”