Nation’s Biggest Teachers Union ‘Coached’ Teachers To Inject Gender Identity Into Curricula, Report Says

America’s largest teachers union “coached” teachers on how to expose students to gender identity in the curriculum, according to a new report.

The American Federation of Teachers (AFT) “coached its members on how to inject gender identity politics into classroom teaching,” said the report published Wednesday by the conservative Defense of Freedom Institute.

The report describes the ATF’s Together Educating America’s Children (TEACH) conference in July. Two of the sessions at the conference were titled “Affirming LGBTQIA+ Identities in and out of the Classroom” and “The TGNCNB [transgender, gender nonconforming, nonbinary] Inclusive School and Classroom,” the report said.

“Both session descriptions offered attendees ideas and action items to take back to their schools,” reads the report. “The unions’ mission is clear: train teachers to affirm every gender identity that conflicts with a student’s sex, ignore basic biological facts, hide the training from parents, and shape school policies to force others to do the same.”

The AFT along with the nation’s second largest union, the National Education Association (NEA), are both wholly committed to pushing radical gender ideology in schools, the report says.

Together, the two largest teachers unions represent nearly five million public school teachers across the country.

Just before the union’s July conference, the ATF also adopted an LGBT resolution that promotes “age-appropriate and inclusive policies” on trans-identifying students sharing bathrooms and locker rooms with the opposite sex.

The ATF’s resolution also commits the union to working with LGBT activist groups, one of which has a model policy advising school districts to use a student’s new pronouns without notifying parents.

Both unions have “vehemently” opposed legislation meant to protect students from sexually graphic content and gender ideology.

Meanwhile, the NEA called Florida’s parental rights law “extremist” at its “Freedom to Learn” rally during the union’s Representative Assembly.

Last year, Republican Governor Ron DeSantis signed the Parental Rights in Education law, which prohibits classroom instruction about sexual orientation and gender identity through grade three.

The NEA also issued guidance last month on how to place “inclusive symbols” in classrooms and encouraged teachers to buck policies banning Pride flags and Black Lives Matter symbols.

The unions see the parental rights movement as “an existential threat to their power over public education,” the Defense of Freedom Institute’s report says.

“The average rank and file teacher got into that field because they care about learning and they care about students,” said one of the report’s authors, Angela Morabito.

“And it is not lost on them that teachers unions are actively working against those goals … The teachers unions are very clearly on the wrong side of not just what’s good for students and families, but what’s good for their own membership,” Morabito told Crisis in the Classroom.

Gender and sexual content in school curricula and libraries has become a hot button issue for parents in recent years. Parents have shown up to school board meetings to vehemently express their concerns about the content their children have access to through their public schools, in some cases even reading sexually explicit passages from school library books to get their point across.

About 74% of voters say they think schools should have to obtain parental consent before helping a child change their gender identity including using new pronouns, according to a March poll from Parents Defending Education.

About the same number, 75% of voters support laws that would require schools to get that parental consent, according to the poll.

Conservatives Have Mixed Reactions To Trump Refusing To Debate

Former President Donald Trump faced mixed reactions from conservatives after announcing over the weekend that he will not participate in the Republican Party’s primary debates.

Trump cited a CBS News poll on Sunday that showed him at 62%, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis at 16%, and everyone else in the low single digits to explain why he did not plan to make a showing at the debates.

He added that he believes that voters already know who he is and concluded by stating: “I WILL THEREFORE NOT BE DOING THE DEBATES!”

The same poll found that 73% of “likely Republican primary voters” say that Trump “should” show up and debate the competition.

The 77-year-old former president faced criticism from his rivals for opting out of the debates.

“Everybody should debate. Everybody has a responsibility to earn people’s votes,” said Florida Governor Ron DeSantis. “Nobody is entitled to anything in this world, less of all the Republican nomination for president. I’m going to be there. I’m going to be making the case, and this is really a great opportunity because I don’t think very many people over the summer have been following that closely.”

“This is going to be the first time that candidates are going to be able to speak unfiltered to a large number of Americans, and so I’m going to make the case that under Joe Biden, this country is in decline,” he continued. “We need to send Biden back to his basement in Delaware and reverse the country’s decline, and I’m the guy that can do it. We have proven it in the state of Florida, and I won’t let people down as the next president.”

DeSantis on Trump being too afraid to debate: “Everybody has a responsibility to earn people’s votes. NOBODY is entitled to anything in this world, less of all the Republican nomination for president.” pic.twitter.com/RYCNM9Hram

— DeSantis War Room 🐊 (@DeSantisWarRoom) August 21, 2023

Former New Jersey Governor Chris Christie hit Trump late last week over the rumors that he was not going to debate before Trump made his decision official.

“If you qualify for the stage, which Trump has, not showing up is completely disrespectful to the Republican Party, who made you their nominee twice, and to the Republican voters, whose support you’re asking for again,” Christie said Friday.

“By Wednesday night, the front-runner for our party’s nomination is going to be out on bail in four different jurisdictions,” he later added. “When are we going to stop pretending that this is normal?”

Some of Trump’s supporters defended online Trump’s decision to not debate.

Political commentator Jack Posobiec wrote: “Trump should challenge Biden to a debate.”

“Official Announcement: Trump will NOT debate JV Squad!” Fox News contributor Leo Terrell wrote on X, formerly known as Twitter.

However, he took heat from many conservatives, including from those that have supported him, like political commentator Tomi Lahren.

“Cop out. He has to answer for his handling of Covid, anointing Lord Fauci and pushing vax,” she said. “He had a phenomenal presidency but the last 7 months of it are still up for questioning…”

Cop out. He has to answer for his handling of Covid, anointing Lord Fauci and pushing vax. He had a phenomenal presidency but the last 7 months of it are still up for questioning… https://t.co/5jZnJs9Nco

— Tomi Lahren (@TomiLahren) August 20, 2023

Influential Iowa media personality Steve Deace responded: “Is it possible Trump’s lawyers are telling him not to debate? These are live events, not recorded interviews, and with multiple candidates on stage tougher to contain the discussion. Which unfortunately could expand the legal jeopardy he’s facing depending on what he says.”

Fox Business reporter Charles Gasparino called Trump’s decision “interesting and somewhat risky.”

“Gives the entire field a chance to remind voters also how Trump never built the wall, how he kept Fauci until the end, and how he spent like Joe Biden,” Gasparino added.

“Going to be amazing when Biden’s advisors tell him to skip POTUS debates next fall and Trump+followers scream about how he’s scared,” said political commentator Stephen L. Miller, later adding: “Of course he’s not going to a primary debate. He wouldn’t even debate Anthony Fauci.”

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