Maryland School District Touts Elementary School Gender and Sexuality Alliance Clubs

Maryland’s largest school district recently issued a memo praising itself for operating LGBT clubs open to students in kindergarten through third grade at five of its elementary schools. 

Montgomery County Public School students are invited to virtual “Rainbow Club” meetings monthly to play games, attend picture book readings, and discuss identity, diversity, and inclusivity, according to the district. The meetings provide “safe and supportive places for LGBTQ+ students and allies to connect and build community,” according to one school’s club flyer. 

MCPS does not require permission slips for students to attend club activities during school hours, an MCPS teacher said during an April 2022 panel discussion sponsored by the LGBT education group Pride and Less Prejudice.

MCPS did not respond to a request for more information about what takes place during Rainbow Club meetings. However, a “Rainbow Club Activity Guide” produced by the Los Angeles Unified School District asks students to read books about different gender identities, celebrate transgender, nonbinary, queer, intersex, ace, and two spirit identities, and have discussions about drag queen activists.

Rainbow Clubs are extensions of Gay Straight Alliance clubs, which are active in all MCPS high schools and middle schools. Created by the Gay, Lesbian, and Straight Education Network, GSAs are “student-run clubs, typically in a high school or middle school, which provide a safe place for students to meet, support each other, talk about issues related to sexual orientation and gender identity and expression, and work to end homophobia and transphobia,” according to the network’s website.

MCPS also hosts the Montgomery County Pride Student Association to “coalesce lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer and ally voices.” The GSA network identifies its clubs as safe spaces and “vehicles for deep social change related to racial, gender, and educational justice.” 

GSA chapters exist nationwide. One chapter in Indiana raised money for a transgender student to leave her household without her parent’s knowledge and another in Arizona pushed a district to accept a “deadname” policy, which allowed students to change their names without parental consent. The chapter in Arizona won “GSA of the year” in 2021 for establishing the policy.

MCPS has for a long time prided itself on its support of LGBTQ students, even implementing a Gender Support Plan that requires staff to address students by preferred pronouns and encourages students to fill out an “Intake Form.” The form, administered by school counselors, surveys students on their identified names and genders without parental consent. Based on data collected from the forms, MCPS determined a 582 percent increase in the number of students who identify as gender nonconforming in just two years.