The nation’s largest teacher’s union is holding a training entitled ‘Advancing LGBTQ+ Justice and Transgender Advocacy.’
The National Education Association (NEA) will host an “Advancing LGBTQ+ Justice and Transgender Advocacy” session that highlights race, class, and gender at its upcoming December training academy.
Internal materials uncovered by watchdog group Defending Education show that America’s largest teacher’s union intends to train teachers to dismantle “systems of privilege and oppression as it relates to LGBTQ+ educators and students” and “deepen skills and strategies to confront implicit bias, micro-aggressions and stereotypes.”
Pre-Attendance Assignments
Trainings begin with a series of pre-attendance assignments designed to help teachers “shift from the day-to-day cognitive load of work to the thinking you will use as a learner at the academy.”
Teachers are first asked to consider a list of community agreements, which include “awareness and self-knowledge,” which “allows the space to work on things about yourself that you are not happy with”; “Saying ‘I’ — tell your truth,” which requires participants to have “authentic and courageous conversations about race and other issues where experiences/perspectives may differ widely from yours”; and “reaching empathy,” which allows participants to “enter [circles] of human concern.” A “simple” form of empathy is “sharing, using, and respecting pronouns.”
Participants are also given a list of key terms to study before the training begins. The list includes terms like “agender” to describe a person who does not have a gender, “anti-bias anti-racist (ABAR),” a teaching methodology focused on identity, diversity, justice, and action, “Latinx,” a gender-neutral or non-binary alternative to Latino or Latina, “Two-Spirit,” a term used to describe Native people “who fulfill a traditional third-gender or gender-variant ceremonial and social role in their cultures,” among others.
The prep materials also include a handout of the Gender Unicorn, a visual guide to understanding how gender identity and expression, sex assigned at birth, and physical and emotional attraction work.
Gender-Focused Trainings
Several gender-focused trainings are included in the NEA’s “Advancing LGBTQ+ Justice and Transgender Advocacy” session.
The first, a guide on pronouns, tells teachers how to correctly use “she, he, they, and ze” pronouns. It is grammatically correct, the NEA notes, to “to use singular ‘they’ to refer a singular person of unknown gender or to a non-binary person who does not feel gendered pronouns work for them.” The NEA also advises teachers to share pronouns and practice social gender affirmation.
Another handout asks educators to describe how a list of scenarios “excludes” certain groups “based on our understanding of gender identity.” One scenario describes a school’s maternity leave policy, which supposedly misgenders pregnant people as “female.”
The session also features a Cornell University guide on how to transition and affirm genders in the workplace. It includes “tips for coming out at work” and tips for transitioning at work, which encourages teachers to consider “what do you need in order for the workplace to feel inclusive to you?” and “what bathroom will you need access to?”
Materials also advise educators on how to create “inclusive” classrooms in the wake of the Supreme Court’s recent Mahmoud v. Taylor decision, which held that parents have the right to opt their children out of storybooks that feature mature themes about transgenderism and more.
“In the current climate of relentless attacks and dehumanizing rhetoric toward transgender students, as well as the attempts to erase historical injustices and deny the realities of racism, it is more important than ever to support inclusive curriculum and policies that support and affirm all students and families,” the NEA says in its training. The NEA clarifies for teachers that the ruling “does not prohibit teachers from acknowledging LGBTQ+ identities or answering student questions,” and limits the opt-out right to “religious objections, and does not include political, ideological, or moral objections.”
The NEA also specifies that despite the ruling, there is “no clear rule” on how much notice teachers should give parents about LGBTQ+ curriculum. If parents submit opt-out requests that go beyond the limits of Mahmoud — religious objections — schools are under “no obligation to honor requests,” the NEA adds.
Social Justice-Based Trainings
NEA members also have the chance to learn a series of race- and social justice-based lessons at the training. One handout walks educators through “levels of oppression,” which are internalized, interpersonal, institutional, and structural.
Advancing justice for LGBTQ+ people must include a “durable multiracial coalition” that contextualizes trans issues “within the broader fight for racial, gender, and economic justice,” the NEA says.
In one handout, the NEA even condemns Republicans and “their arsenal of racist dog whistles . . . mobilizing their base with a potent mix of racist and transphobic tropes.”
“The right has exploited ignorance about transgender people and our lack of an affirmative, race-forward message to advance anti-trans attacks, further splinter and impugn the left, and sabotage progressives on a broad range of issues,” a section in the handout, titled “Messaging Guide / Transgender Youth and the Freedom to Be Ourselves / Building Our Choir with a Race Class Gender Narrative,” reads.
“Over the last ten years, Republicans in state legislatures have increasingly turned to anti-transgender rhetoric and legislation as a powerful complement to their arsenal of racist dog whistles used to whip up fear and consolidate power . . .” the handout continues. “Progressives cannot ignore these attacks hoping that simply sticking to economic issues alone will save us. Our appeals on any topic will always be filtered through the noise of this unrelenting fear-mongering and scapegoating on the right.”
Finally, the document includes an “Embrace/Replace” section which encourages educators to use certain inclusive terms.
Instead of “all of us,” teachers are told to say “whether we are Black, white or brown, Native or new-comer, transgender or not.”
Instead of saying “our opposition is racist/transphobic,” teachers are told to say, “Some people in power fuel divisions based on race and exploit our lack of familiarity with transgender people so they can deny our communities the resources, jobs, and healthcare we all need.”
Instead of describing individuals as “Transphobes/racists,” teachers are told to describe them as “Transphobes/racists who want to block us from joining together to demand what we all deserve” or “Transphobes/racists who want to pick and choose who counts.”
The NEA has 3 million members and affiliate organizations in every state.