California mandates LGBT ‘sensitivity’ for teachers, even when they disagree

Apparently, it's not enough that schools are indoctrinating students — they want to brainwash teachers too! In California's public schools, where the districts have their hands full just raising test scores, it looks like the faculties will have to take time out from actual educating to master a new subject: LGBT sensitivity.

Under a new bill just approved by the state assembly, every junior high and high school teacher would be ordered to undergo training on how to support kids who identify as LGBTQ. That includes everything from referring students to activist organizations to launching school-wide efforts aimed at encouraging confusion like transgenderism. The legislation, AB 243, passed unanimously — 61-0, with virtually every Republican refusing to vote.

Our friends at California Family Council are horrified that anyone would force teachers to promote an agenda that the American College of Pediatricians calls "child abuse." 

"This mandated training," CFC's Greg Burt warns, "will put Christian public school teachers in the position of promoting and approving beliefs that clash with their biblical values. This conflict is already happening. According to information the California Family Council recently received from concerned Christian elementary school teachers, LGBTQ teacher training is already being used to shame teachers into promoting gender and sexual orientation beliefs they disagree with."

Amazingly, the idea of these annual in-services is so radical that when it passed in the last legislative session, even former Governor Jerry Brown, a liberal, vetoed it. As far as he was concerned, there were plenty of laws already in place to stop discrimination in California schools. "If local schools find that more training or resources on this topic are needed, they have the flexibility to use their resources as they see best," he said in September.

But unfortunately, California's extreme wing isn't easily deterred. The proposal is headed to the Senate Education Committee, where leaders will hopefully hear some of the horrifying accounts of teachers who've already been exposed to similar training for even younger grades. 

"One school teacher from a school district just north of San Diego described how the LGBT training she received last January ridiculed her Christian upbringing and forced teachers to raise their hands to expose their beliefs on gender in order to shame them... Teachers who admitted their parents had a binary/biblical view of gender were told how wrong and backward those views were."

"Teachers also received instructions on keeping secrets from parents. 'It was shared with us that when a child tells us they are transgender, gay, or want to be the opposite sex we are not allowed to share it with their parents,' the teacher explained. The preferred name and pronoun of the student should be used, but 'it should be kept private until the child is ready to share it with the parents.'"

In handouts, elementary school staff were encouraged "to help little children transition away from their sex assigned at birth' to their 'affirmed gender.'" And that was on top of asking those same districts to do away with gender-specific sports, restrooms, and locker rooms.

The bill's sponsors say they want to end bullying — which is ironic since this training would be institutionalizing it! Either way, the threat is real. If you or someone you know lives in California, make sure they take the time to contact their state senators. For contact information or to identify specific members of the Senate Education Committee, follow this link. To make sure you're prepared when an idea like this hits your home state, check out FRC's publication, "A Parents' Guide to the Transgender Movement in Education."

Published with permission from the Family Research Council.