Introduction
Millions of children across the United States are being systematically indoctrinated by their schools into the regressive ideology that everyone has a “gender identity.” The indoctrination starts in the earliest school years. It’s happening in red and blue states, big city and small town schools. Children are inundated by gender identity ideology from all sides, over and over again, as though “gender identity” were real, and as though it is more important than the material reality of biological sex.
Women’s Declaration International USA’s FOIA Team has acquired this archive of materials from an array of American schools that provide a chilling glimpse into what is being taught to young impressionable minds. It includes materials collected through the efforts of numerous individuals including WDI USA volunteers who filed Freedom of Information (FOIA) requests with local school districts, as well as materials obtained through other research.
As alarming as this already is, things are rapidly getting worse. The Biden Administration has issued Executive Orders and memos that punish schools if they resist pushing gender identity ideology on children, teachers, and other staff. For example, the Department of Education threatens to withdraw funding from schools if they refuse to interpret sex to include “gender identity.” The Department of Agriculture threatens to withdraw funding for school lunch programs. Some states have also enacted legislation that enshrines “gender identity” in law at the state level.
Examples
Below are some examples of how children are being indoctrinated in the classroom, which have been drawn directly from the materials we obtained through our FOIA efforts:
- Books Read to Children: “Gender identity” picture books are being read to children from kindergarten onward. (They’re also read before kindergarten, a topic which needs to be investigated.) I Am Jazz tells children that some people are born in the wrong bodies. Introducing Teddy tells five-year-olds that it’s up to them to figure out what sex they are. It Feels Good to Be Yourself informs elementary-aged students that “being yourself” often entails rejecting the sexed reality of your body. It encourages them to spend time pondering what their true “gender identities” are. They She He Me. Free to Be Me! encourages children to try out different pronouns, and states that one must call a man “she” if he requests that.
- Official “Gender Identity” Lessons: “Gender identity” materials are being included in Sex Ed. Children are presented with lies as if they were facts. They’re told that everyone has a “gender identity,” and that people know this identity early in life. Children are compelled to accept circular definitions (for example, a woman is anyone who claims to be a woman). These units generally combine “gender identity” with sexual orientation, even though “gender identity” directly undermines gay and lesbian rights. Homosexuality is interpreted as same-gender attraction, rather than same-sex attraction. The kids are taught about scores of supposed “gender identities” and the names for each of them.
- Warped Lessons on Reproduction and Sexual Anatomy. In many districts, the schools are intentionally avoiding words like “male” and “female,” or “man” and “woman,” even in the context of lessons on anatomy and sexual reproduction. Children are shown diagrams of male or female anatomy that are not identified as male or female. The lessons use terms like “a person with a uterus” or “a person with testicles.” If pregnancy is discussed, it’s in terms of “a person finding out they’re pregnant” or “someone” wondering if they might be. Many schools tell children that having male anatomy doesn’t mean a person is male.
- “Gender Identity” Injected into Every Subject, including Science, Arts, and more. Many schools are striving to inject “gender identity” into as many subjects as possible. In Princeton, New Jersey public schools, science teachers teach children about gene expression and karyotypes. Then they veer into gender identity ideology, using the image of the Genderbread person. There are homework assignments sending children to “gender identity” organizations’ websites. There are after-school clubs they are encouraged to join. Children are persuaded to hyperfocus on their “gender identities,” and countless children are being led to medical harm.
- Gender and Sexuality Clubs. GSA used to stand for Gay Straight Alliance. These clubs fought discrimination against gays and lesbians. GSA now is said to stand for Gender Sexuality Alliance, and the primary focus is now on “gender identity.” Another common acronym for these clubs is SAGA, which stands for Sexuality and Gender Alliance. These trainings and materials promote GSAs/SAGAs, which push gender identity ideology at schools with events, trainings for teachers, posters, flags, and more.
- Teacher Trainings and Activist Teachers. Teachers are taking trainings offered by organizations and so-called experts that promote gender identity ideology. “Activist teachers” are becoming more common. Fresh from academia, and/or “gender identity” teacher trainings, they talk with their students about pronouns and share their own “identities,” often requiring students to use the wrong-sex title (Mr., Ms.) and pronouns.
- Mailings, Events, Flags, Posters and More, Promoting “Gender Identity” Ideology. The archive includes examples of mailings sent to families and teachers in an elementary school in Seattle. Already inundated with “gender identity” indoctrination, families and teachers are sent big piles of additional materials further imprinting that ideology in the homes of students. There are free lesson plans, links to articles, cover letters that drive home the idea that men who “identify as women” are women, and much more. At the same time, activist teachers, gender identity ideology-infused administrators, and GSA/SAGA clubs all work hard to put up flags, posters and other constant promotions of gender identity ideology in schools. This reaches fever pitch during Pride month, days of remembrance, and the like.
- School District Policies Mandating Affirmation and Keeping Secrets from Parents. Many school districts have adopted policies that require “affirmation” of trans and nonbinary identities. Teachers and other school staff are required to go along with a child’s stated identity, using the child’s preferred pronouns, and allowing boys in girl’s locker rooms/bathrooms, and vice versa. They are required to let boys play on girl’s sports teams. Making matters even worse, many schools explicitly state that parents who are “not supportive” of their children’s new identities can and should be kept in the dark about what’s happening at school.
Conclusion
Any given child is surrounded with “gender identity” propaganda throughout the school day. Kids are required to engage with the ideology by answering questions to successfully complete school units. Children walk through halls covered with “gender identity” symbols into classrooms where teachers push pronouns and identities, and where books are read about being born in the wrong body, and lessons treat lies and dogmas as scientific facts. They see males in female spaces and sports, and they see everyone going along with it. They understand that any objection will be met with social punishment. They see boys “affirmed” as girls, and vice versa, and others being “affirmed” as supposedly having no sex, or more than one. They see adults smile and nod approvingly as children’s healthy bodies are mutilated by “gender identity” medicalization.
This kind of miseducation produces adults who don’t understand basic biology, are deficient in critical thinking skills, and are not good at forming rational analyses. All of these children are being denied sex-based rights and science-based educations. They’re being taught that there is no such thing as material reality. They’re being encouraged to keep secrets from adults, including their parents, and to engage in activities that contradict fundamental safeguarding standards.
We urge parents and others to take action NOW to prevent children from being taught this politically regressive and unscientific ideology, which is being driven by an industry that seeks to profit from the indoctrination of children.
Appendix
Below are some examples of illustrations that appear throughout the materials that we received.
Chase Strangio: “A trans woman is a woman. She is not tricking anyone. All of her body parts are female body parts.” Speaking in a TeenVogue video shown to high school freshman biology students in Denver, Colorado.
From the book A House for Everyone, read in many different schools. By the way, Tom is probably at most 8 or 9, based on illustrations in the book, including one with him playing with toy dinosaurs. “When he grew up” means when he became a “big kid” as compared to a toddler.
I Am Jazz is read in many schools. Jazz is a boy who says he’s a girl. The book teaches children that some people are born in the wrong body.
Here are a few of the pronouns children are encouraged to try out in the book They She He Me, Free to Be! which is widely read in schools.
From Portland, Oregon curriculum for elementary school students.
From Portland, OR elementary school curriculum.
Above and below…..From the video What Makes A Baby (showing the book by the same name read by its author) used in K-2 classes in Austin, Texas.
Another screen shot from the What Makes A Baby video used in Austin, Texas elementary schools.
From It Feels Good to Be Yourself, read in many schools.
From Seattle Middle School script for a Reproductive Anatomy lesson. This is the only time the word “women” is used. Words like woman, man, female, male, girl and boy are all avoided. The anatomy diagrams are not labeled.
From Seattle, WA. At the time this slide was made, a few years ago, the school district still allowed use of words like woman, man, female and male in elementary school. But even then, a video was being shown in those schools about puberty that completely avoids those terms. It may well be that Seattle elementary schools have now fully joined middle schools in only allowing the anti-science language of “gender identity.”
Definition’s we will use as a school:
When you are born, babies can’t tell people what their gender is, so doctors and family members look at the baby’s body to determine their gender. What a baby’s body looks like can be a clue to their gender – but not always! Sometimes, the adults guess correctly just by looking. These people are usually called cisgender.
Sometimes, that gender label doesn’t match up with how they feel inside. When someone’s gender doesn’t match to what a doctor decided based on their body, they are transgender.
Only that person can tell what gender they are – it’s a feeling they know deep down within themselves. Whether you are transgender or cisgender (or neither/non-binary, or a mix of more than one gender), you alone can tell what your gender identity is.
Part of a letter emailed to all families and teachers at a Seattle elementary school in 2021. It provided lessons and activities, articles, resource lists, and more.
Above: the front and back cover of Introducing Teddy, read in many elementary schools in the U.S. Teddy decides he’s a she. As you can see from the back cover, the point children are being taught is that they can and should decide what sex they are.
A Princeton, New Jersey science class lesson proceeds along scientifically with information such as what is shown above, before suddenly veering into gender identity ideology, as shown below:
File your own school FOIA request to find out what’s being taught in your local school district! Check out our guide here.
