A public school district in Oregon is defending its decision to teach "woke" gender identity curriculum to children in kindergarten through second grade.
The curriculum given to the students at Portland Public Schools reportedly told kids that people of “any gender” can have “any type of body,” further pushing the agenda that gender and sex are not the same (via The Washington Times):
The school district is using a grade-by-grade curriculum to teach children starting at age 5 about transgender ideology, sexual orientation and the role of “white colonizers” in marginalizing LGBTQ people, according to presentation slides that conservative Manhattan Institute fellow Christopher Rufo posted on Twitter last week.
In one PowerPoint slide for kindergartners, the curriculum labels a cartoon image of male and female genitalia as “person with a penis” and “person with a vulva,” instead of “boy” and “girl.”
“Any kid can have any type of body,” the presentation states, adding that boys can have vulvas and girls can have penises.
A spokesperson for Portland Public Schools told The Washington Times in an emailed statement that the district’s health education, gender and sexuality curricula “are aligned and consistent with anti-bias education and Oregon law.”
“We make certain that our curriculum is LGBTQ+ inclusive for students who identify as transgender, gender non-conforming, gender-queer, and queer to create a safe and inclusive environment for all of our students,” the spokesperson wrote, adding that families have the legal right to “opt-out” of any part of a sex education class.
In a piece for City Journal, Rufo noted that the curriculum teaches children that “gender is something adults came up with to sort people into groups.”
Earlier this year, Florida enacted the Parental Rights in Education bill to prohibit the instruction of sexual education and gender identity to children younger than 8 years old.
GOP Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis doubled down on his stance after signing the bill.
“Parents’ rights have been increasingly under assault around the nation, but in Florida we stand up for the rights of parents and the fundamental role they play in the education of their children,” DeSantis said in a statement. “Parents have every right to be informed about services offered to their child at school, and should be protected from schools using classroom instruction to sexualize their kids as young as 5 years old.”