Target continues to get castigated over its ties to controversial LGBTQ organizations and partners. Many Americans have found Target’s partnerships so incendiary that there have been widespread boycotts of the big-box retail chain.
A Target boycott was organized after it was revealed that the retailer sells products from a designer promoting Satanism, LGBTQ onesies for babies, peddles “tuck-friendly” bathing suits, and drag queen books for young children.
As TheBlaze reported earlier this week, Target boasted of having a partnership with the Gay, Lesbian & Straight Education Network for over a decade.
“GLSEN leads the movement in creating affirming, accessible and anti-racist spaces for LGBTQIA+ students,” Target declared on its website. “We are proud of 10+ years of collaboration with GLSEN and continue to support their mission.”
Laysha Ward, executive vice president and chief corporate social responsibility officer for Target, said in 2015, “Target and GLSEN share a belief that all children deserve the opportunity to learn and thrive in a safe environment. The voices and stories of the students and educators in this documentary show how far we’ve come as a nation and give us hope that all students can reach their full potential and be proud of who they are.”
Fox News reported, “To date, the retail giant has donated at least $2.1 million to GLSEN, which offers districts and students guidance on how to hide gender transitions from parents.”
GLSEN proclaims that it has a mission of “creating affirming learning environments for LGBTQ youth,” providing “evidence-based solutions” for K-12 educators, and advising schools on policies “designed to protect LGBTQ students as well as students of marginalized identities.”
“GLSEN has also opposed efforts by legislators to ban LGBTQ books with sexually explicit themes,” according to the New York Post.
Fox News said, “GLSEN calls for gender ideology to be integrated into all classes, even math. It provides educators instructions on how they can make math ‘more inclusive of trans and non-binary identities’ by including ‘they/them’ pronouns in word problems.”
The GLSEN blog advises math teachers on its blog, “When students are creating their own surveys, if they want to include data for biological sex, teachers need to be sure they include both intersex and other as choices, and if the students want to include data for gender, a variety of choices need to be included, such as agender, genderfluid, female, male, nonbinary, transman, transwoman, and other.”
GLSEN demands that “mathematics teachers need to be respectful of students’ names and pronouns, they need to be sure their classes do not alienate any students, and they need to support LGBTQ activities such as Day of Silence, Trans Awareness Week, and Ally Week.”
The LGBTQ advocacy education group provided lesson plans from a transgender science teacher.
“It took me three years of teaching middle-school science before feeling comfortable enough to come out to my students as a trans man,” the GLSEN website reads. “We were starting a unit focused on how identity impacts the practice of science, including the ways that specific groups are marginalized by normative ideas about who does science and how that changes what science does.”
The transgender teacher shared personal experiences with the students of “being a trans person in science, including what it was like to teach science as someone perceived as female.”
The teacher taught students the “ways that trans people are often erased by the language used by scientists and medical professionals to describe bodies, patients, and health practices.”
GLSEN provides school districts with a “Model Local Education Agency Policy on Transgender and Nonbinary Students,” which it claims will “ultimately make schools safer, affirming, and more inclusive for transgender and nonbinary students, particularly those who are also black, brown, Latinx, indigenous, and/or people with disabilities, who should have the same access to a quality education as their peers.”
The LGBTQ organization prescribes that school staff should not reveal a student’s gender identity transition to anyone – even to their parents.
GLSEN advocates school districts to “ensure that all personally identifiable and medical information relating to transgender and nonbinary students is kept confidential in accordance with applicable state, local, and federal privacy laws͘.”
“Staff or educators shall not disclose any information that may reveal a student’s gender identity to others, including parents or guardians and other staff, unless the student has authorized such disclosure, the information is contained in school records requested by a parent or guardian, or there is another compelling need,” the website reads.
Following the reporting of the partnership between Target and the Gay, Lesbian & Straight Education Network, the LGBTQ org blamed “right-wing extremists.”
“GLSEN’s mission is to create safe, inclusive learning environments for K-12 students, and these recent attacks from right-wing extremists show how important and necessary the work that we do is,” said GLSEN Executive Director Melanie Willingham-Jaggers – who identifies with the pronouns they/she. “We are seeing the far right harass companies in an attempt to erase the LGBTQ+ community. We cannot let a violent, angry minority hold our democracy, our school system, or our community hostage. As GLSEN and LGBTQ+ people continue to face attacks, we’re committed to our mission and to the students that rely on us, and we’ll continue to fight to ensure that every single student can go to school free from fear.”
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