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IUSD’s policy of concealing information from parents, in collaboration with LGBTQ+ groups and medical centers, undermines parental rights and guides minors towards irreversible harm.
A California Public Records Act (CPRA) request made to Irvine Unified School District (IUSD) revealed that the school district currently provides 110 “gender support plans” for students who do not identify with their sex assigned at birth. Of this total, 14 students are in elementary school.
Furthermore, IUSD has a policy of encouraging district employees to lie to parents about their child’s gender identity at school, as well as the child’s usage of restrooms and locker rooms of the opposite sex. If a gender support plan has been created for the student, IUSD employees are asked to “continue to use [normal pronouns] in communication with the family” and to “not mention a gender support plan.”
Many parents are not aware of the relationship that local school districts have with LGBTQ+ non-profits which effectively act as sales reps to promote their partners in health care—namely Research Hospitals who receive taxpayer-funded grants to implement pediatric gender diversity programs and conduct sex change procedures. The Research Hospitals then partner with LGBTQ centers across the state to identify pediatric patients as young as 12 for sex change operations.
For example, a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization called the LGBTQ Center Orange County currently works in collaboration with the University of California, Irvine, to make medical referrals to “trans-affirming doctors.”
Another example would be UCLA’s Gender Health Program, which provides resources for “young people” to obtain pubertal blockers and “gender-affirming surgical procedures.” Their site further acknowledges the devastating effects that these procedures have on one’s fertility and reproductive health, stating that “if pubertal blockers are started in early puberty, you may never be able to make fertile sperm or eggs.”
In California, children 12 years of age or older not only have the ability to pursue these medical procedures without parental consent, but public schools are also required to let the students excuse themselves for the appointments, use the locker room or bathroom of their choosing, access birth control and abortion services, and obtain free menstrual products as early as third grade. California law also forbids health insurers from disclosing medical abortion records or similar “sensitive services,” even if the minor is a beneficiary on their parents’ health insurance plan.
Questionnaires like the California Healthy Kids Survey, which was administered in Capistrano Unified School District classrooms, ask students about their sexuality and gender identity. Survey reports are then made available at the district, county, and statewide levels. LGBTQ+ organizations can then make inroads at regional school boards, working with select trustees and agency employees to recruit students and staff, often in collaboration with political activists and influencers, to organize events and “mental health trainings.”
These coalitions also attend school board meetings, both to speak on behalf of their advocacy efforts and to drown out any opposition. When Capistrano Unified School District’s Board of Directors was set to consider a common sense parental notification policy at their October 18, 2023 meeting, leaders within the Gay Straight Alliance and the LGBTQ Center Orange County organized an effort to block the public from participating in the discussion by monopolizing a majority of allotted public comment time. The plan was explicitly outlined in emails, slideshows, Zoom trainings, in-person meetups, and Google sign up sheets sent to district employees throughout the County.
Email exchanges between Capistrano Unified Board President Krista Castellanos and CUSD English Teacher Kelsey Torres, who also leads the Gay Straight Alliance, could indicate a potential violation of the Brown Act, which, broadly speaking, bars government officials from holding secret meetings that are not in compliance with advance public notice requirements.
“Not sure how much you can advise me on this, since you’re president of the board, but I have my GSA and NPFH kids chomping at the bit to do something about the forced outing policy being discussed on the 18th. We are already coordinating with other schools and with the LGBTQ Center in Santa Ana to show up in force and pack the room with kids who care about this issue,” said Torres in an email to Castellanos. “We were wondering if you had any advice for how to best ensure that kids and staff are packing the room instead of opposition leaders.”
All of this serves to illustrate just one recent example of how these groups coordinate with local school boards in a way most parents would not expect. The more important question is this: why do centers and schools believe it is their place to conspire in the dark and not inform parents about the mental health and medical information of their own children?
The relationship between LGBTQ+ groups, Research Hospitals, and public schools is akin to that of a patient mill. Students are asked personal questions at a time when they are undergoing hormonal imbalances and dramatic bodily changes as a result of puberty—a time at which they are also highly susceptible to suggestion and too young to make medical decisions on their own. They are then enticed to attend events and seminars with free pizza and fun games—events which are run by political activists. The students are encouraged to explore alternative sexual lifestyles while being shielded by progressive legislation from having to disclose information to their parents, being guided down a path which may lead to irrevocable and irreversible damage by strangers who are not the childrens’ caretakers.
Those same individuals have fought every opportunity to instill a greater sense of transparency or accountability. They lump concerned parents in with hate groups. They block the public out of their meetings. Unfortunately, that is not an overbroad generalization.