A California school district is facing backlash after a teacher allegedly forced students to role-play in an LGBT “coming out” exercise inspired by a nationally recognized activist group.
Attorneys for parents in the Vista Unified School District (VUSD) in San Diego say the district violated their legal rights in a gender ideology activity during a freshman class at Rancho Buena Vista High School (RBVHS), where students were reportedly required to participate in a role-playing exercise called "Coming Out Stars."
The activity, adapted from the LGBT activist group The Trevor Project, instructed students to imagine “each of you is now gay or lesbian, and you are about to begin your coming out process.”
According to attorney Dean Broyles with the National Center for Law & Policy (NCLP), some students refused to participate and walked out of the classroom, citing religious objections.
In addition to the role-playing activity, it was revealed that RBVHS had incorporated the "Gender Unicorn" diagram, a tool that promotes gender identity education, into a separate classroom setting.
Broyles and NCLP allege that VUSD failed to notify parents about the lessons, pursuant to the California Healthy Youth Act (CHYA), which requires districts to provide parents with advance notice and the ability to opt their children out of sexual education courses.
The school district allegedly implemented a workaround for CHYA requirements by embedding radical gender ideology into non-sex education courses, thereby preventing parents from keeping their children out of the classroom.
“Parents have the right to know exactly what their children are being taught in school about human sexuality, especially when that teaching contradicts their family’s sincerely held and constitutionally protected religious beliefs,” Broyles said in a statement.
NCLP submitted a demand letter to VUSD on Jan. 23 calling out the “Coming Out Stars” exercise created by The Trevor Project, which pushes research briefs that correlate religious beliefs with higher rates of suicide among LGBT-identified people, a claim that has been frequently challenged.
According to NCLP, the exercise’s alleged purpose is to “examine our judgments of others in a safe and productive way and to explore the importance of self-identification” by considering the responses of people and groups — including a “religious community” — to LGBT-identified people.
Calling the Trevor Project’s “transparent ‘oppressor-oppressed’” a “tired trope of cultural Marxism,” Broyles’ letter noted that it excluded “any understanding [of] empathy or compassion, whatsoever, for religious persons with divergent viewpoints and worldviews.”
The letter noted that the father of a student, referred to as “D.M.,” who attended the “coming out” lesson, wasn't informed “that his Christian daughter would be asked to role play being a lesbian “coming out” from concealing her fabricated sexual orientation.”
“If he had been so informed, he would have definitely opted her out of this religiously offensive simulation,” the letter added.
In response to the letter, NCLP is calling on the district to issue a formal apology to parents and students involved in the role-playing activity and to implement immediate reforms to ensure that VUSD curriculum complies with parental notification and opt-out state laws.
CP reached out to VUSD for comment on Tuesday. This article will be updated if a response is received.
Following a surge in support from some of the biggest brands in the U.S. leading up to the coronavirus pandemic, The Trevor Project recently acknowledged a “decline in corporate giving in the last couple of years.”
In January, the group — whose advocacy efforts have been cited by a variety of institutions from the Austin ISD to drag performance troupes — announced it will undergo a “transformation” involving layoffs and corporate restructuring.
