Teachers union webinars: land acknowledgments, white privilege, gay pride flags in classes
College Fix Staff •January 18, 2025 * The College fix
‘Where do you stand on settler-colonialism? And what are you gonna do about it?’
The National Education Association, apparently still reeling from Donald Trump’s victory in November, recently held a pair of virtual workshops on battling the Trump agenda and defending LGBTQ+ rights in schools.
According to Parents Defending Education, both workshops began with Native American land acknowledgments by members of the union’s Aspiring Educators Program.
Both speakers accused the United States of “colonialism,” with transgender Student Washington Education Association Board Director Caitlin Ehlers, donned in a keffiyeh, claiming Trump was “threatening to annex Kalaallit Nunaat, AKA, Greenland,” and that “his coalition is directly responsible for land grabs and eco-savage from the Great Plains to the Amazon.”
Ehlers added “Whose land are you on? Where do you stand on settler-colonialism? And what are you gonna do about it?”
The second (LGBTQ+-themed) workshop’s Matthew Yuro, vice president of New Jersey Aspiring Educators, noted colonialism is “a process that continues to contribute to injustices within American society and the broader world.”
Ehlers appeared in this webinar as well, asking teachers “What threats to LGBTQ+ students and educators are you concerned about right now?”
According to the PDE report, responses included “flags in schools,” “transgirls in sports,” “bathrooms,” “not being allowed to honor students’ chosen pronouns,” and “in Kentucky, teachers are required to have permission slips signed two weeks prior to teaching a lesson related to gender identity and/or sexual orientation.”
Others complained about the group Moms for Liberty, book “bans,” and “parents’ bill of rights.”
MORE: Free speech groups defend professor, ‘parody’ land acknowledgement
NEA Senior Program/Policy Analyst Anthony Brisson, the “main speaker” for the LGBTQ+ workshop, began his talk by emphasizing his white privilege: “I come to you presenting as a white male that has privilege and to be able to have this conversation. I have brown hair, light skin, blue eyes, facial hair for those that may be visually impaired.”
Brisson, who is gay, referred to Moms for Liberty as “the a-holes with casseroles,” and said the way to fight for LGBTQ+ issues in schools is through “legislation, litigation, and community organizing.”
He noted being able to hang gay pride flags in classrooms can be done via school boards: “The power of storytelling can really help change hearts and minds when we’re doing this work.”
Brisson added that school staff, including custodians and cafeteria workers, can “provide representation” by wearing LGBTQ+ pins, bus drivers can put up LGBTQ+ magnets on their buses, and schools can alter language such as “family dance” instead of “father-daughter dance.”
In the Trump agenda workshop, middle school teacher and ACLU equity officer Chelsie Acosta said “I’m here to tell you the pride flag’s going to be in my classroom. I don’t care what anyone says. The pride flag’s going to be there. So is the trans flag. So is the Black Lives Matter flag. They’re going to be in my room.”
Parents Defending Education’s Erika Sanzi said in a press release “The NEA talks more about the need for teachers to be LGBTQ activists than about the need for teaching children to read. It’s not just hyper-political—they are so far left, they don’t even represent their members anymore.
“Does mocking parents, obsessing over PRIDE flags and organizing to resist the incoming administration support teaching and learning? I’d prefer they just admit that they don’t care at all about educating children.”
MORE: LGBTQ+ librarians weary of ‘attacks’ on queer-themed books, claim physical assaults
IMAGE: National Education Association/X
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