Some Massachusetts elementary schools are observing “Transgender Awareness Week” in a district that bars parents from opting their children out of lessons about gender identity and sexuality.
“November 13th through November 19th is Transgender Awareness Week,” Angiers Elementary Principal Orla Higgins Averill said in an email obtained by The Daily Signal. “This week helps raise the visibility about transgender people and address issues members of the community face.”
The link provided takes parents to the website of GLAAD, a radical LGBTQ activist group that claims so-called gender-affirming care is lifesaving for young people who believe they are transgender.
Angiers Elementary teaches kindergarten through fifth grade as part of Newton Public Schools in Newton, Massachusetts, a predominantly liberal area north of Boston.
Parents whose children are enrolled in Newton Public Schools can’t opt them out of lessons on sexual orientation or gender identity, according to guidance approved in October by the district’s school board, called the Newton School Committee.
“While parents/guardians/caregivers may opt out of the health curriculum specifically related to sexual
reproduction, our commitment to gender and sexuality education remains firm,” the document says. “Our curriculum aligns with state guidelines to promote understanding and inclusion of diverse identities and
orientations.”
A footnote clarifies that parents and guardians legally may exempt their kids from sex education lessons, but this doesn’t include lessons where themes of “sexuality, gender identity, or sexual orientation” are “embedded in the course material or instructional lesson but not the course’s primary subject.”
Newton Public Schools told The Daily Signal the guidance on gender identity is not a policy. The district did not immediately respond to a follow-up question about why that distinction matters.
“Regarding district policy related to sexual education,” the communications office said, “parents have the option to exempt their student from any portion of the curriculum that primarily involves human sexual education or human sexuality issue.” The district did not address the “gender identity” portion of the policy.
Massachusetts’ 2023 standards for health include lessons on “Gender, Sexual Orientation, and Sexual Health” beginning in kindergarten, from which Newton parents are not allowed to pull their children.
In third grade, students learn to “describe the differences between biological sex and gender identity, and explain how one’s outward behavior or appearance does not define one’s gender identity or sexual orientation.”
The standards say 8-year-olds in Massachusetts should be able to describe “a range of ways people may express their gender and that some people’s gender identity (how they think about themselves) matches others’ expectations about what their bodies look like on the outside and others do not.” Also, children should be able to explain “how gender identity and sexual orientation can vary in each individual,” according to the standards.
Under the state standards, Newton Public Schools “integrate LGBTQ+ inclusive content across all grade levels (PK-12) and subjects in age-appropriate practices, and provide ongoing professional development for educators,” according to the gender identity guidelines.
An individual claiming to be a Newton parent posted anonymously in a “Newton Community” Facebook group claiming that she asked her child’s principal for permission to opt her child out of lessons about Transgender Awareness Week, but the principal declined her request.
The parent didn’t specify which school her child attends. However, the moderator of the Facebook group confirmed that she is a parent.
Anna Nolin, Newton’s school superintendent, responded to the anonymous parent by saying that Transgender Awareness Week doesn’t include lessons at school. Rather, she wrote, parents are encouraged to use recommended resources to discuss transgenderism with their elementary schoolers at home.
The anonymous parent said her child’s principal didn’t inform her that there were no specific lesson plans, but that her child’s teacher told her the class wouldn’t learn about transgenderism.
Newton Public Schools’ communications office told The Daily Signal that the information posted on the Facebook group “was not accurate, as the district does not have curriculum on the topic of Transgender Awareness Week.”
“Transgender Awareness Week is recognized by the Human Rights Campaign as a time to acknowledge transgender people in our society,” the school district said in an emailed statement. “Newton Public Schools did not create this awareness week, and any mention of it was meant for informational purposes only.”
Critics say that the Human Rights Campaign, a major LGBTQ rights group, supports irreversible transgender medical interventions for children and peddles the lie that children are less likely to commit suicide if they “transition” to the opposite sex.
Another parent shared a screenshot of an email from the principal of Bowen Elementary School informing parents of Transgender Awareness Week.
The week aims to “raise the visibility about transgender people” to children in kindergarten through fifth grade, according to a screenshot of the email.
Recommended library books include “I am Jazz,” “Julian is a Mermaid,” “When Aidan Became a Mermaid,” and “They She He Me: Free to Be!,” all controversial titles that teach children they could have been born in the wrong body.
In June, someone dressed as Bowen Elementary’s mascot waved a “pride” flag before an assembly of students to celebrate Pride Month, according to footage obtained by the Massachusetts Family Institute.
Sam Whiting, general counsel at the Massachusetts Family Institute, said he believes sexuality and gender identity lessons should be included under the umbrella of human sexuality lessons, which parents are allowed to exempt their kids from.
The district’s legal counsel did not immediately respond to The Daily Signal’s question about Whiting’s statements. This article will be updated if a response is received.
“When you’re talking about what we’ve seen many times, which is something framed as an anti-bullying presentation, but it’s really just indoctrinating kids into however many genders there are, and how great it is to celebrate LGBT and all that, we think that definitely falls under the sex-ed opt-out law because it’s a human sexuality issue,” Whiting told The Daily Signal.
The Massachusetts Family Institute’s legal wing is looking for a plaintiff to bring a lawsuit against school districts with guidelines like Newton’s.
The mom of an elementary schooler in Newton Public Schools who asked to remain anonymous told The Daily Signal that schools shouldn’t teach young children about transgenderism.
“They suggest that if a child feels they are not a boy but a girl, then they can become a girl solely based on those feelings,” the mother said. “This approach is concerning.”
“We are responsible for our children, and I and many parents don’t want our children to be taught in a way like ‘If you want to be a girl, I will support you,'” she said. “Kids are kids, they live in another world, they believe in Santa Claus, they can believe anything an adult says, if this adult is someone very close to that child.”
It is “emotional manipulation” and “legalized abuse” for parents to transition a son because he likes to play with dolls, the mother told The Daily Signal.
“Children often live in a world of imagination—they may pretend to be animals, or boys might play with dolls while girls play with cars,” she said. “There’s nothing unusual about this; they’re simply exploring and having fun.”