The idea behind the workshop was to “disrupt problematic policies,” according to workshop host Angel Nathan.
QUICK FACTS:
- Thirty teachers from across the midwestern United States took part in a four-hour online workshop hosted by the Midwest and Plains Equity Assistance Center (MAP) and funded by the Department of Education (DOE).
- MAP operations are found across Illinois, Iowa, Kansas, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Dakota, and Wisconsin.
- Topics of discussion included helping transgender students hide their gender changes from their parents and reviewing Republican-backed laws on gender identity.
- Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) coordinator for Royal Oak Schools in Michigan Kimberly Martin discussed strategies for aiding trans students seeking to keep their gender change a secret from their parents.
- “We’re working with our record-keeping system so that certain screens can’t be seen by the parents … if there’s a nickname in there we’re trying to hide,” Martin said.
- A teacher from Iowa claimed her “own right code of ethics” does not “always go along with the law.”
- A trans educator from Ohio, Shea Martin, said during the workshop that “stakes are very high for trans youth,” adding, “I think that requires working subversively and quietly sometimes to make sure that trans kids have what they need.”
- Martin also cautioned fellow educators to be mindful of reinforcing “heterosexuality as the norm,” especially with children aged between 5 and 10 years old.
CONSERVATIVE ACTION TO PROTECT CHILDREN’S INNOCENCE:
- Republican states have introduced more than 20 bills to criminalize child sex changes.
- States that have banned “gender-affirming care” include Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Indiana, Iowa, Kentucky, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, North Dakota, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, and West Virginia.
- Dozens of other laws across the United States pertain to teachers informing parents of their child’s pronouns, transgender bathroom use, and the protection of girls’ sports.
- Parental rights groups have also fought for transgender book bans in school libraries and classrooms.
BACKGROUND:
- In March, House Republicans passed an education bill called the “Parents Bill of Rights” that discusses the “God-given right” of parents to “make decisions for their children.”
- Rep. Julia Letlow (R-LA, PhD), the bill’s sponsor, said during debate on the House floor that the bill “is not complex or complicated, nor should it be partisan or polarizing.”
- Rather, it “aims to bring more transparency and accountability to education, allowing parents to be informed and when they have questions and concerns to lawfully bring them to their local school boards.”
