The National Education Association (NEA) teachers’ union is facing backlash over an upcoming training session designed to instruct its members on how to go through a gender transition at work.
The NEA posted a document on its website announcing a session titled “Advancing LGBTQ+ Justice” for December. The union will also host an “Advancing Racial Justice through Union Work” session in January.
The training is intended to establish “common understandings about the identities under the LGBTQ+ community umbrella,” and to develop a “shared understanding of the anti LGBTQ+ policy landscape and how to develop counter narratives of inclusion and equity.”
“Understanding this community and their issues are critical to providing support and guidance that is not only inclusive but liberating,” the NEA said about the session.
According to Fox News, the education watchdog Defending Education obtained two packets that train union members for the session, “Advancing LGBTQ+ Justice and Transgender Advocacy.” The documents include a guide for members who will potentially transition their gender and how to go through it, taken from the Cornell University “Transgender Guide To Transitioning & Gender Affirmation.”
The material also highlights the “debate” about men in girls’ sports and states that “our opposition wins the debate on trans youth in sports against any and all arguments we have tried for our side.”
“Our base and persuadables want to support transgender student athletes, but are extremely susceptible to our opposition’s argument that excluding trans youth is necessary to protect the fairness of women’s sports,” the NEA said.
The packets further include multiple pages explaining the importance of using preferred pronouns to refer to others, stating, “Over the last few years, the transgender community has asked allies to help normalize offering pronouns during introductions, in education, and the workplace to indicate an understanding of trans identities and show that they are a safe person.”
“As gender identity and gender expression do not always align, offering pronouns is a way to create a space where people do not need to rely on assumptions of others’ gender.”
In a statement to Fox News, Kendall Tietz, investigative reporter at Defending Education, argued that the NEA is sending incorrect messaging to educators and students.
“Every time we get a look behind the curtain at the National Education Association, its priorities are unmistakable: a race-based, gender-ideology-driven model of activist education,” Tietz explained.
