A California school district took federal funds from a disease prevention grant and funneled them into student LGBT clubs focused on gender ideology and queer activism, according to documents obtained by the Daily Caller News Foundation.
The Genders & Sexualities Alliance (GSA) Network — which backs over 4,000 LGBT student groups in the U.S. — uses the clubs to engage kids on topics such as transgenderism, sexuality and queer activism, all while leaving parents in the dark, documents show. The Oakland Unified School District (OUSD) burned nearly $60,000 in HIV prevention grant funds from the Centers For Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) on the GSA clubs.
The CDC grant funds Healthy Oakland Teens, a school-based program with the goal of reducing HIV and STD’s among the district’s middle and high school student population.
OUSD’s 2018 grant application revealed it used part of the Healthy Oakland Teens funding to pay school staff members, called “LGBTQ Liasons,” to oversee middle and high school GSA clubs and help create a school climate that “affirms” LGBT students. A July 2023 award letter shows an additional $50,000 of grant funding paid elementary school staff to run similar LGBT programs for younger students.
OUSD describes its GSA clubs, which are student-led under the supervision of an adult staff member, as a place where students who identify as “LGBTQ+, Non-Binary, or as an ally” can meet weekly to “do activism.”
It’s unclear how funding school GSA clubs prevents HIV and STDs. The OUSD did not respond to requests for comment.
A slide describing GSA clubs from an Oakland Unified School District resource about gender identity and expression.
Across the county, GSA clubs serve as a student hub of gender ideology and queer activism.
OUSD’s 2018 application for the HIV and STD prevention grant lists decreasing LGBT bullying as a primary goal. Of the thousands the district carved out for LGBT programming, $20,000 went to hire an LGBT consultant to “help OUSD host its annual GSA day for all middle and high schools” and develop “materials and training to help teachers create welcoming classrooms for LGBTQ students.” More than $10,000 of grant funding was earmarked to cover the costs of GSA day, a full-day event with “workshops, student-led advocacy, and celebration” for LGBTQ students, according to the grant application.
From 2018 to 2023, OUSD received more than $3 million as part of the “Healthy Oakland Teens: Promoting Adolescent Sexual Health in Full Service Community Schools” grant from the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), according to the Department of Health and Human Services’ (HHS) grant database.
HHS and CDC didn’t respond to a request for comment.
Pages from the Oakland Unified School District gender support plan document used by school staff, which was obtained by the DCNF through a public records request.
‘Choose A More Accepting Family Member’
Through a public record request the DCNF obtained OUSD’s “gender support plan,” a document outlining how staff can “support” a student’s new gender identity by socially transitioning them to another sex at school, without notifying their parents.
The document directs staff to ask students to rate their parents’ support and list “go to adults” on campus they can contact. The gender support plan also recommends students be connected to their school GSA club and “LGBTQ Liason.”
Students are asked to list the name and pronouns they’d like to be called at school and which they’d like staff to use when contacting their parents or guardians. A disclaimer at the top of the form states that if parents do not affirm their child’s chosen identity, in order to “maintain privacy” the gender support plan should not be placed in the student’s file.
OUSD’s “behavioral health unit” offers a resource for “transgender” and “questioning students” which recommends students seek out “accepting adults” at school, particularly if their family is not supportive of their new identity.
“Get a sense of how your family feels about LGBTQNB people. Choose a more accepting family member to connect with first,” states the OUSD resource.
“If you think you won’t be safe if you tell your family, it is best to wait. Find accepting adults at schools and family members who are the most accepting to start with.”
Genders & Sexualities Alliance
The Gay-Straight Alliance Network, which originated in San Francisco in 1998 to provide peer support for gay teenagers, changed its name in 2016 to Genders & Sexualities Alliance Network as part of an effort to move beyond “the limits of a binary gender system,” according to its website. The organization, which includes more than 4,000 GSA clubs and 40 statewide organizations, now has a focus on mobilizing students for queer activism.
“GSAs have evolved beyond their traditional role to serve as safe spaces for LGBTQ+ youth in middle schools and high schools,” states the GSA Network website.
“GSA Network is a next-generation LGBTQ racial and gender justice organization that empowers and trains queer, trans and allied youth leaders to advocate, organize, and mobilize an intersectional movement for safer schools and healthier communities,” its website states.
The GSA Network did not respond to the DCNF’s requests for comment.
The GSA Network advisor handbook, a guidebook for GSA advisors, tells adult leaders to anticipate “possible resistance” from parents and to “be discreet” when contacting students noting “it might not be safe” to use the term “GSA Club.”
“When calling youth, it may not be safe to mention ‘GSA club’ or another trans or queer reference. Alternatively, club leaders can say they are from a student leadership program at (insert school name),” the GSA advisor handbook states.
The GSA clubs have not gone unnoticed among parents.
Erin Lee, executive director of Protect Kids Colorado, told the DCNF a teacher invited her middle school daughter to a GSA club disguised as an after-school art club, where she was taught about puberty blockers, transgenderism and LGBTQ identities, without parental consent.
“My child was lured into a confidential GSA club disguised as an Art Club in her 6th grade classroom. She was deceived by her ‘trusted adult’ teacher about what the club entailed, and parents were completely kept in the dark about what the club really was,” Lee said. “We were not prepared in any way for our little girl to be attending a secret gender and sexuality club.”
“They talked about sexual attraction, how being uncomfortable in your body actually means you are ‘trans,’ puberty blockers, polyamory, unsupportive parents, and suicide,” Lee told the DCNF.
After attending the GSA meeting, Lee’s daughter began identifying as transgender and wanted to transition to another sex. Her involvement with the GSA club “led to a months-long emotional decline of gender and sexuality confusion that required counseling and included suicidal thoughts,” according to a lawsuit the Lee’s filed against the Poudre School District, where her daughter attended school, in March 2023.
“They planted seeds of distrust towards parents; they manipulated her feelings; they violated her innocence; they lied to her. And they lied to us. They tried to keep it all a secret and persuade her to keep the secret, too,” Lee told the DCNF.
The district told the DCNF the lawsuit filed by the Lee’s was dismissed by the federal district court, and that decision was affirmed by the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals.
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