An 18-year-old who says he had to flee his own home after coming out as gay is now watching his mother campaign for election to the Queen Creek Unified School District governing board that oversees the schools he once attended. Shane Anderson says his mother, board member Kelli Anderson, isolated him, searched his belongings, and eventually told him he could leave with only the clothes on his back.
A Teenager's Account of Being Forced Out
According to Lookout News, Shane Anderson came out to his mother after she found a gay romance story on his phone, and he said she responded with a sexually explicit question. He has lived for five months with his longtime best friend, Sophia Stevens, whom he met in an eighth-grade science class at Eastmark Junior High, according to reporting from the Phoenix New Times. Shane told the paper that he and Stevens pretended to date for a time, a cover that gave him more freedom to leave the house, and that his mother had wanted the two of them to date for real.
Shane said his mother's reaction escalated after she found a photo of him wearing a dress at his senior prom, which he attended with friends, posted to a friend's public Instagram account. Per the New Times account, Kelli Anderson then threatened Stevens, who was 17 at the time and a student in the district her mother's rival now governs. Stevens' mother, Clarissa Cook, told the paper she knew the relationship between Shane and her daughter was a front and offered Shane a place to stay whenever he needed it.
Packed Bags, a Police Officer, and a Final Ultimatum
Shane told the New Times that his mother told him he could take only the clothes he was wearing and warned he would lose access to his car, bank account, and health insurance if he left. He said he prepared a second phone and an emergency bag in advance, and ultimately left with the help of a police officer. After leaving, he said he went to a nearby location.
He also said his mother accused Cook of being a groomer and a pedophile, and that in the weeks after he left, Kelli Anderson texted him every night until he blocked her number.
Homeschooling, Curriculum, and a Diploma on Hold
Shane said he felt miserable being homeschooled after his mother withdrew him and his two sisters from public school toward the end of his eighth-grade year in 2022, a decision he said followed his younger sister asking a question about transgender people. Kelli Anderson has said the family chose homeschooling because the children were underserved, according to the New Times report. Shane told Lookout News that all of his coursework except math revolved around the Bible, and he shared with the outlet a constitutional literacy curriculum he said he was taught at home.
That curriculum, per Lookout News, includes chapters on homosexuality and abortion, uses the Ku Klux Klan as an example to defend hate speech under the First Amendment, and describes the advancement of LGBTQ+ rights as an assault on freedom. One essay prompt asks students to discuss the threat to intellectual and religious freedom posed by what it calls the homosexual rights movement. Shane lives with Stevens.
From Appointment to a Second Campaign
Kelli Anderson, a first-term board member and Army veteran, was appointed to the Queen Creek Unified governing board in 2025 by Maricopa County Superintendent of Schools Shelli Boggs, who bypassed three district-recommended candidates in making the pick, per Lookout News. The timing of that appointment is disputed: Lookout News and other accounts describe it simply as occurring in 2025, while Phoenix New Times has reported Boggs tapped Anderson in March of that year. Separately, district records show the board received 11 applications for the vacancy and interviewed all of the applicants on February 5, 2025, ultimately recommending three other candidates, Christina Gust, John Kliethermes, and Sarah Purcell, to the county superintendent the following day, according to a Queen Creek Chamber update.
Boggs has said Anderson supports school choice and career and technical education and opposes DEI-driven policies, per the same New Times reporting. Kelli Anderson, who works for Turning Point USA, filed paperwork to seek election to the board about one month after Shane left home, the New Times reported. Cook told the paper she is concerned about Anderson's influence as a school board member and said she is uncomfortable with Anderson's political agenda.
Book Oversight and a Disputed History Curriculum
On the board, Anderson introduced a policy expanding oversight of classrooms and school library books, which the governing board approved unanimously, according to Lookout News. The district reportedly began enforcing that policy in January after the December vote, requiring book reviews, inventories, and parental access to book lists, per a report from AZ Free News. Anderson also supported the district's adoption of the Land of Hope history curriculum, a Goldwater Institute-backed program that presents a patriotic account of U.S. history and has drawn criticism for its treatment of slavery, racism, and other historical injustices, Lookout News reported. Queen Creek Unified and Peoria Unified were the first public school districts in Arizona to adopt the curriculum, according to the Goldwater Institute, which provides participating schools with textbooks, curricular support, and $3,000 teacher stipends.
Lookout News said it reached out to Kelli Anderson for comment on the allegations and was awaiting a response.
