A teacher and a school principal at a Department of Education (DOE) webinar encouraged teachers to use gender-neutral language when referring to students and to don Pride gear at school in an effort to support LGBT individuals.
The DOE held a presentation, titled “Creating Inclusive and Nondiscriminatory School Environments for LGBTQI+ Students,” on June 21, which included a panel made up of teachers from across the country discussing how to make their classrooms a more “inclusive” environment for LGBTQ students, according to a video taken by Higher Ground, a parental rights group, and provided to the DCNF. Teachers on the panel advised educators to avoid using terms such as “girls and boys” because students might feel as if they “aren’t being seen” if gendered language is used. (RELATED: ‘I Just Started Estrogen’: Little-Noticed Biden Admin Webinar Featured Trans Eighth Grader, LGBTQ Student Activists)
“I encourage educators to kind of move away from using expressions that maybe they’ve grown up with like ‘boys and girls’ or ‘ladies and gentlemen,'” Bill Farmer, a science teacher in Evanston, Illinois, said. “These gendered ways to address students may make some students feel uncomfortable because they don’t feel they’re being seen or that they’re being excluded. It’s easy to replace those types of expressions with gender-neutral or gender-inclusive terms such as ‘class’ or ‘students’ or ‘fifth graders.'”
Officials from the DOE, the Department of Justice and the Department of Health and Human Services spoke at the webinar, according to an archived version of the webinar’s website. The event, which was closed to the press, was for teachers, staff and school leaders looking to create “supportive school environments for LGBTQI+ students and all students.”
Farmer encouraged teachers to introduce themselves with their pronouns and give students a chance to ask questions if they aren’t familiar with the practice.
“It is also really important, I found, to allow them to share with me if they have a different name or pronouns that they would like me to use when I communicate with their family members that may differ to the name and pronouns that they would like to use in the classroom,” Farmer said.
Chuck Puga, a retired principal in Colorado, discussed how his district implemented policies that allowed educators to call students by their preferred pronouns after a family asked what practices were in place to “support transgender students.” Puga noted that the school district uses an LGBTQ toolkit that was drafted by the Human Rights Campaign, an LGBTQ activist group.
“I really used [the parent of a transgender student’s] expertise and she helped me and us as a school set up so many different opportunities
for LGBTQ+ students which continues at Smoky Hill High School,” Puga said. “That was huge. Also what that did allow was that all of our teachers are able to use proper pronouns for our LGBTQ students on the first day of class.”
Title IX is being weaponized against students and used to punish wrong speak that doesn’t conform to the LGBTQ agenda
The Feds are empowering LGBTQ kids to bully and snitch on kids who won’t affirm the insanity
Schools are toast, you can’t get out fast enough https://t.co/yS9EnT0vqD pic.twitter.com/GughiRDcb0
— Higher Ground (@highergroundUT) June 22, 2023
Throughout the country, school districts and teachers are pushing gender ideology and sexual orientation initiatives on students; in Colorado, a school district encouraged its physical education teachers to sport LGBTQ pride gear in an effort to display their support for the LGBTQ community. A California school district unanimously voted to adopt a resolution, encouraging schools to adopt lessons on gender identity and sexual orientation, just days after parents spoke out against the lessons.
“Along those visibility lines there are lots of things you can do,” Farmer said. “There are ‘safe space student’ stickers, Pride flags, bulletin boards where you can promote diversity, equity and inclusion, LGBTQ+ pins or buttons that you can put on your staff lanyards and then the next level of that would be looking at ways to examine your curriculum and how you can make sure there is inclusivity in your curriculum.”
The DOE, Puga and Farmer did not immediately respond to the Daily Caller News Foundation’s request for comment.
Brandon Poulter contributed to this report.
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