Illinois School District to Teach Preschoolers About ‘Sexual Orientation’ and ‘Gender Identity’

An Illinois school district will require schools to teach preschoolers about “sexual orientation” and “gender identity.”

The Evanston/Skokie School District 65 (D65) is providing specific curriculum to help indoctrinators (er … teachers) teach the equity lessons as a part of its LGBTQ+ Equity Month during the month of April.

The district also has a “Latinx Heritage Month” from September 15 to October 15 as well as “Black Lives Matter at School Week of Action” during the month of February.

For preschoolers, D65’s curriculum states that they must learn about “the purpose of the flags and will learn about the Pride Flag.” Students are encouraged to participate in “Rainbow day” and wear the “color of the day.”

The lesson plan for preschoolers states that they must be able to “recognize the Rainbow flag and know who it represents” and understand the following vocabulary: “Flag, gay, lesbian, non-binary, queer, community.”

Teachers were provided a link to an online read aloud of the book, Pride: The Story of Harvey Milk and the Rainbow Flag.

Milk was the first openly gay-identified elected official in California, a member of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors. The reading is produced by Brightly Storytime, a YouTube channel that was launched in partnership with Penguin Random House.

Here is the online reading:

After showing students the video, teachers are given the following as a suggested script:

Boys can love boys, girls can love girls, people can love people. When a boy loves another boy they can be called gay and when a girl loves another girl they can be called a lesbian or Lesbians. When a boy loves a girl, they are called straight. When someone is not a boy or a girl, maybe they feel both, they are non-binary or queer (emphasis in original).

Again, this is all for preschoolers.

What the preschoolers aren’t told about is Milk’s predilection for underage teen boys or his own introduction to homosexuality as an 11-year-old boy growing up in New York, as reported by Randy Shilts in The Mayor of Castro Street: The Life and Times of Harvey Milk.

The curriculum requires kindergarteners to be able to explain “the importance of the rainbow flag and trans flag for respecting and including people who identify with the letters LGBTQ.”

According to the lesson plan, teachers should instruct kindergarteners as follows: “If you have two mommies, they can be called lesbians. That means that they are two women who love each other. If you have two daddies, we can say they are gay. That means they are two men who love each other.”

Then, the lesson plan has teachers show their students an online read aloud of the book, Heather Has Two Mommies: A Read Through.

Here is the online reading:

After that, teachers are supposed to instruct kindergarteners about “gender identity.”

Teachers are prompted to show their students an online read aloud of the book, I am Jazz. The book is about Jazz Jennings, a boy who believe he is a girl, and explains to children that Jazz has “a girl brain but a boy body.”

Teachers should then tell students the following:

When we show whether we feel like a boy or a girl or some of each, we are expressing our GENDER IDENTITY … There are also children who feel like a girl AND a boy; or like neither a boy OR a girl. We can call these children TRANSGENDER.

In another lesson plan, teachers are instructed to teach kindergarteners about the “transgender flag” and teach kids the following:

People who identify as TRANSGENDER have their own ways of dressing, playing & acting that might not be what you expect. They might look to you like a boy, but dress and act like a girl. Or you might think a person looks like a girl, but that person knows he is actually a boy. Some TRANSGENDER people do not feel completely like a boy or a girl.

Again, this is for kindergarteners.

Moving on to 1st grade, students will learn “how to introduce themselves using their name and pronouns and will practice using others’ names and pronouns.”

In the slide presentation for the lesson, students “learn” that there are many different kinds of pronouns: “she, tree, they, he, her, him, them, ze, zir, hir.”

“Tree” is not a typo. It really is a suggest pronoun.

The lesson plan states in a note to teachers: “If students get confused about gender expression (how somebody looks) and pronoun (sic), let students know that some people use their bodies to know their gender, but some people use their hearts. Sometimes the gender in your heart is the same as the gender your body is. Sometimes it is different. We want to call people by the gender they have in their heart.”

“Many people feel like they aren’t really a boy or a girl and that’s great too,” the teachers are informed.

The lesson plan states that the “student friendly objectives” of the lesson include:

I can introduce myself using a pronoun I want to be called.
I can call others the pronouns that they want to be called.

Again, this is for 1st graders.

According to Fox News, the district explained the curriculum to families in an announcement.

“Throughout the month, educators and prek-8th grade students will broaden their understanding of identity of self and others, allyship, family structures, vocabulary, gender expression, stereotypes, colors on the intersectional pride flag, and the historical contributions of LGBTQ+ people,” the district told parents. “Each grade level engages in a selection of these topics.”

The Daily Citizen reached out to the school district, asking why D65 believes preschoolers and kindergartners should be taught age-inappropriate sexual material, and whether parents are able to opt their children out from the curriculum.

We did not receive a response.

Since D65 will spend the month of April on LGBTQ+ Equity Month, perhaps it’s not surprising that, according to D65’s Illinois Report Card, the district is receiving failing grades in educating their students.

Only 44% of students in D65 in preschool through 8th grade are proficient in English, while just 45% are proficient in math and 62% are proficient in science.

This story demonstrates why it is so important for parents to be intensely involved in their children’s education and to be aware of what their children are learning in school.

If you’re worried about what your child is being taught in school, check out the following new resource from Focus on the Family: Back to School for Parents: A Busy parent’s guide to what’s happening in your children’s classrooms and practical steps you can take to protect them.

Related articles and resources:

New Jersey to Require 1st Graders to Learn About Gender Identity Starting This Fall

Chicago Public Schools Eliminating All Sex-Specific Restrooms. Because ‘Equity.’

Bill that Teaches ‘Gender Identity’ to Kindergarteners Signed into Law by Illinois Governor

Photo from YouTube.