Parents: This LGBT curricula is nothing new

By Michael Brown, Op-ed Contributor Wednesday, July 27, 2022

Across the country, parents are reacting with shock and outrage as they discover what their kids are learning in school. These children are being indoctrinated by an aggressive, one-sided, radical LGBTQ+ curriculum, causing many parents to push back aggressively. What surprises me, though, is not that the parents are upset. What surprises me is that many are just finding out about this now, since this indoctrination has been going on for many years.

For example, it was back in 2006 that the New York Timesreported, 

“As their children head into adolescence, some parents are choosing to block puberty medically to buy time for them to figure out who they are, raising a host of ethical questions.”

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Not surprisingly, 

“some schools are engaged in a steep learning curve to dismantle gender stereotypes.”

What exactly does this mean? 

“At the Park Day School in Oakland, teachers are taught a gender-neutral vocabulary and are urged to line up students by sneaker color rather than by gender. ‘We are careful not to create a situation where students are being boxed in,’ said Tom Little, the school’s director. ‘We allow them to move back and forth until something feels right.’”

Yes, this was in 2006, and Park Day School is an elementary school, albeit a private school.

Should we be shocked today to learn that this gender-confused ideology has spread to schools throughout the country?

Already in 2011, when A Queer Thing Happened to America was published, I could cite this 

“Official Policy of the San Francisco Unified School District School Board” (SFUSD): “Restroom Accessibility: Students shall have access to the restroom that corresponds to their gender identity exclusively and consistently at school.”

I also cited this, from the Los Angeles Unified School District Reference Guide:

“‘Gender identity’ refers to one’s understanding, interests, outlook, and feelings about whether one is female or male, or both, or neither, regardless of one’s biological sex.”

Note those last words carefully: “regardless of one’s biological sex.” This radical agenda is hardly new.

Already in 2011, I could write that, 

“Children in elementary schools will be exposed to the rightness and complete normality of homosexuality, bisexuality, and transgender expression – witness highly-praised academic books such as The Queering of Elementary Education – and opposing views will be branded as dangerous and homophobic, to be silenced and excluded from the classroom.”

And get this: Queering Elementary Education came out in 1999. Yes, 1999! Chew on that for a moment. (The subtitle of the book was Advancing the Dialogue about Sexualities and Schooling, and it was part of the series Curriculum, Cultures, and [Homo]Sexualities Series.)

I also wrote that, “Middle schools, high schools, and colleges will go out of their way to encourage both the celebration of homosexuality and deep solidarity with gay activism,” referencing things like Queer Study Programs in our universities.

Much of this was rampant on our campuses long before your 18-year-old, college-bound child was born. Why are we so surprised today?

Already in 2005, Kevin Jennings, the founder of GLSEN (originally the Gay, Lesbian, and Straight Education Network, founded in 1990) could boast, 

“Nearly 3,000 schools have GSA’s [Gay Student Alliances] or other student clubs that deal with LGBT issues. Over fifty national education and social justice organizations, including the National Education Association (NEA) have joined GLSEN in its work to create safe schools for our nation’s children through projects like ‘No Name-Calling Week’.”

And 2005, in terms of the growth of LGBTQ+ activism, was a very long time ago. (In case you didn’t know, in 2009, President Obama appointed Jennings, himself a gay educator, to serve as Assistant Deputy Secretary for the Office of Safe & Drug Free Schools.)

GLSEN has long been active in providing educational tools for teachers and schools, including their famous GLSEN Lunchbox.

I purchased the second edition of this tool (called GLSEN Lunchbox 2) shortly after it was released in 2007.

It was described as 

“a comprehensive training program aimed at providing educators and community members with the background knowledge, skills, and tools necessary to make schools safer and more affirming places for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) students.”

Some of the activities included “North American History Game Cards,” listing 28 North Americans, most of whom are fairly well known and all of whom, according to GLSEN, are (or were) gay or transgender. (Among the better-known names were Sara Josephine Baker, James Baldwin, Leonard Bernstein, George Washington Carver, Babe Didrickson, Allen Ginsberg, Barbara Jordan, Margaret Mead, Harvey Milk, Bayard Rustin, Renee Richards, Andy Warhol, Walt Whitman, and Tennessee Williams.)

A similar game card activity was provided for World History, listing luminaries such as  Alexander the Great, Hans Christian Anderson, Pope John XII, King Edward II, Noel Coward, Hadrian, Dag Hammserskjold, Joan of Arc, Elton John, Juvenal, Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo, Rudolph Nureyev, Pyotr Tchaikovsky, and Oscar Wilde. According to GLSEN, all of them were gay (or bisexual).

There was even an activity called “Getting in Touch with Your Inner Trannie,” meaning your inner transgender identity. (I’m not making this up!)

Its stated purpose was, 

“To help participants better understand and personally relate to the breadth of issues around gender identity and expression,” asking the children questions such as: “Have you ever been told, ‘Act like a lady/woman/girl,’ or ‘Act like a man?’ What was the situation? How did it make you feel and why?” And, “If you see someone on the street whose gender is unclear to you, how do you react – both internally and externally?”

And this was directed at elementary school students as early as 2007, with every word of it documented in A Queer Thing Happened to America. In fact, this was just the tiniest tip of a massive iceberg, even back then.

Today, some of this material seems quite tame and even understated. The slope has been slippery indeed.

From the perspective of LGBTQ+ educators and their allies, this is great news, since, in their minds, they are helping children accept who they really are, creating an atmosphere of acceptance.

From the perspective of social sanity and educational propriety, this is insidious indoctrination that must be opposed.

So, I urge every parent, as busy as you might be and as many things as you might have on your plates: Please, please, please find out what your kids are learning in school (not to mention taking in on social media). The stakes are unimaginably high.