San Francisco Unified School District, which serves over 50,000 students, reportedly released guidelines for teachers to carry out secret gender identity transitions for students and allow them to use preferred pronouns unbeknownst to their parents.
Christopher Rufo, who obtained documents from the school district, reported that the school used a guidebook and other documents to promote “gender-neutral” pronouns to the students, which included going by “it” (via City Journal):
According to documents obtained from a whistleblower, in 2021 the district celebrated “International Pronouns Day,” teaching students that they can adopt a wide range of genders and sexual identities. In elementary school, the district tells students that they may not “feel like a boy OR a girl” and can identify as “non-binary” and use “they” pronouns. For secondary students, the district teaches that they can be part of the “bisexual umbrella” and identify as “fluid,” “pansexual,” “omnisexual,” “hetero-, homo-, lesbi-curious,” “hetero-, homo-, lesbi-flexible,” and “queer.”
The district also released a guide on students who use “it” pronouns, explaining to teachers that “we are increasingly seeing students using the pronoun ‘it’” at school. The guidebook explains that using “it” as a pronoun “has a long history being used as a slur to dehumanize trans and gender non-conforming folks” but functions as a gender-identity version of the “n-word,” which was “reclaimed” by African-Americans. The guidebook recommends that teachers discuss “it” pronoun usage with their students but ultimately recommends that teachers “affirm their right to use whatever pronoun feels right to them.”
To assist in this process, the district published a worksheet called “Elementary Name and Pronoun Information Sheet,” which teachers can use to facilitate gender transitions for their K-5 students. The document tells children that they may choose a different name and set of pronouns than the ones they use at home, and that this new identity will be kept secret from their parents. The sheet asks: “What is your official name?”; “What name would you like me to call you in class?”; “What name would you like me to use with your grown-ups?”; “Would you like me to call you a boy, a girl, or something else?”
This week, Virginia GOP Gov. Glenn Youngkin appeared in an interview with CNN’s Jake Tapper. In the interview, Youngkin defended new Virginia Department of Education guidance that requires schools to require transgender students to use bathroom, locker rooms and participate in sports teams that align with their biological sex instead of their gender identity.
Townhall covered how the guidance also protects parental involvement in their children’s education. School districts are instructed against any type of sexual orientation and gender identity curriculum and informed that staffers cannot “conceal” information about trans students from their parents.
"Let me begin with these basic principles, which is first, parents have a fundamental right to be engaged in their children's lives. And oh, by the way, children have a right to have parents engaged in their lives,” Youngkin said in an interview with CNN’s Jake Tapper during “State of the Union” on Sunday.
“We needed to fix a wrong,” the Governor continued. “The previous administration had had a policy that excluded parents and in fact, particularly didn't require the involvement of parents. And let's be clear, parents have this right and children don't belong to the state, they belong to families.”
Youngkin pointed out that Virginia parents have been “empowered” to make decisions previously about their children masking in schools and over curriculum in schools
"This is not controversial."
— CNN (@CNN) October 9, 2022
Republican @GovernorVA Glenn Youngkin defends a new Virginia school policy requiring students to use bathrooms or join sports teams based on biological sex and not gender identity. @CNNSotu #CNNSOTU pic.twitter.com/TOYOd00bcp
After these policies came out, students in the state, especially in northern Virginia near Washington D.C., staged walkouts to protest the guidance. As Rebecca noted, some Virginia school districts outside of Washington, D.C. do not plan to comply with the policies, based on letters from the schools sent to parents obtained by Townhall.
Crowds of students have begun to walk out of Northern Virginia schools in protest of Gov. Youngkin’s proposed restrictions on transgender students’ rights. WATCH LIVE: https://t.co/UosIhKGAgC pic.twitter.com/nwKTQVVTS2
— NBC4 Washington (@nbcwashington) September 27, 2022
South Carolina Sen. Tim Scott (SC) introduced legislation, the Parental Rights Over the Education and Care of Their (PROTECT) Kids Act, last month. If signed into law, the bill would withhold federal funding from any elementary or middle school that allows students to change their “preferred pronouns,” gender markers and sex-based accomodations, such as restrooms and locker rooms.
“The law in the United States has long recognized the importance of parental rights. A parent’s right to oversee the care education of their child is guaranteed by the Fourteenth Amendment,” the bill reads. “Parents have a fundamental, constitutionally guaranteed right to raise and educate their children in the way they choose.”
“Public schools across the country are violating these fundamental parental and familial rights by deliberately hiding information about gender transitioning from their parents,” it continued.
“Schools exist to educate children — not indoctrinate them. And a quality education requires input from those who know children best: their parents,” Scott said in a press release. “Sadly, radical and secretive gender policies have shut parents out of the conversation and broken their trust. My bill will safeguard parental rights, improve the crucial relationship between parents and schools, and ensure that children can learn in an environment free from activist ideology.”
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