Target is funding GLSEN to train your kids to be queer activists in school

GLSEN also urges school districts to hide gender transitions from parents.

May 28, 2023

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In the last few days, a lot of parents have heard of GLSEN for the first time.

GLSEN is a far-left progressive group that has been pushing gender ideology and woke social justice activism into schools for a long time. After the latest controversy leading to a boycott of Target, it was revealed that the chain of stores was also making annual donations to GLSEN, donating at least $2.1 million:

Even Elon Musk raised an eyebrow:

Now, the news articles are correct: GLSEN supporters a variety of woke indoctrination in schools, from curriculum to policies hiding information from parents.

But there is something GLSEN is doing that’s not getting any coverage: They are literally sponsoring the groups training your kids to be queer activists as an afterschool activity - The Gender Sexuality Alliances (GSAs).

A brief introduction to GSAs

I remember learning what a GSA was in the 2000s when I was watching the Showtime show Queer As Folk. One of the main characters was in a GSA in his school.

Back then, it was called a Gay-Straight Alliance and was used as a way to combat prejudice against gay people. Things were different in the 2000s, when there were legitimate policies and attitudes in the country that kept gay people in a distinct class separate from their straight counterparts.

However, after gay marriage was legalized, things changed. The fight had been won. Gay people had the same legal rights as straight people. Sure, things weren’t perfect, but they were a lot better than they were.

Non-profits cease to exist when the problem they are fighting is solved. So, the Gay-Straight Alliance Network (the organization that started GSAs in the late 90s) changed its focus to a new problem, now moving beyond the gender binary.

They also changed their name to Genders & Sexualities Alliance to reflect this new focus:

And their focus became introducing your kids to Queer Marxism.

GLSEN is training your kids to be activists

One of GLSEN’s top four priorities is to support “All Things GSA.” It’s right on their homepage and in their resource section:

On their home page dedicated to GSAs, which has a ton of resources that you can take a look through, there is a video of a webinar they held in February 2023 with a panel of students discussing the work they were doing in their GSA, and how GLSEN was helping them (there’s a backup of the full presentation here, just in case GLSEN deletes it someday)

Let me show you a few clips from this presentation to illustrate what Target’s donations to GLSEN are funding and why this is just as important as the curriculum and the policies.

GLSEN is working with minor students in high schools

GLSEN hires a young staff, like Youth Programs Associate Onyx (they/them/theirs pronouns) to work with students.

In this presentation, Mary (she/her pronouns), Amanda (she/her pronouns), Ollie (they/them pronouns) are all seniors in high school and members of GLSEN’s national student council.

When students join a GSA, they are not doing so to become activists. They are doing so to find a social club, students like them that they can connect with.

There’s nothing wrong with that. They’re high school students, of course they’re looking to connect with people.

GLSEN Youth Programs Associate even admits that it was the search for a friendship that brought her to the GSA and that she wasn’t looking to become an activist:

Our first question is “How did you initially get involved in a GSA, and what made you want to join or start one?”
And for me, I knew that I was sort of coming out into my identity as a queer person figuring out who I was what labels resonated with me, and I really wanted some queer friends in my life.
I wasn't interested in activism yet when I was getting involved in a GSA, but I knew that I wanted a space to find other young LGBTQ plus people, and so I decided to start a GSA at my high school because I knew that GSAs were a great place to find social networks, but my high school didn't have one at the time when I was a freshman so the search for friendship was really what brought me to a GSA.

Ollie - the high school senior from Florida with they/them pronouns - says basically the same thing. They just wanted to make friends.

I definitely join because at my middle school we didn't have a GSA I was essentially in all my classes the only queer person so I wasn't anticipating any advocacy or activism at all.
I just joined because I was really excited that my high school had a GSA my middle school did not I just wanted to make more queer friends with similar perspectives and identities experiences to me.

And then, once they join the GSA, the activism training starts. GLSEN provides GSAs with specific resources to help them do activism within their schools.

Ollie from Florida explains the types of things they do, including protesting the “don’t say gay” bill and training teachers how to be better allies.

One might argue that the schools are getting around Ron DeSantis eliminating DEI programs by having the students do the training the DEI offices were doing before, with training provided by GLSEN and their GSAs.

…a lot of the advocacy work is about improving conditions specifically within the school. So we've had walkouts for the recent don't say gay bills, we've done a lot of negotiating with staff in terms of helping trans students with like name changes and such, being middlemen in order to improve the reporting system so that the students who are bullying queer students are being held accountable, teacher training for teachers to be better allies stuff like that.

Ollie also discusses participating in direct action. The things that Ollie is describing are not necessarily bad, but the point is that they are using the school club - which is supported by Target’s money - to teach them how to engage in activism. It’s like a gateway drug to becoming a queer activist:

Onyx: The next question is how do you engage with political issues in your GSA? Do you engage in direct action, send letters, provide a healing space, or something else?
Ollie: We do a lot of educational efforts. We've set up like booths, for example, for No Name Calling Week to educate the broader school public about the importance of respectful pronoun use, posters and stuff with a combination of direct action, negotiating directly with higher Administration protests as in blockouts.

In this video, a teacher advising a GSA named Kristy (pronouns she/hers) describes helping the kids to engage in political action. And again, none of the things she describes are necessarily bad. I just question why kids who came to get to know other kids like them are being put into activism school instead.

A couple of specific things we've done, my GSA members wrote a proposal to our principal regarding bathrooms, and I like that part about trying to find places for all of our students to have a role and that could look different for all of them.
Some students wanted to actually present the proposal and then others just wanted to be researchers or writers or people just that are preparing it and working together as a group, we have written proposals, we've gone through training on how to talk to our legislators, and how to write letters or emails, and then we're actually getting ready to take a group to our state capitol so that we can actually do meetings with them and then be part of that process so we we try and kind of provide those spaces for for any students who would like to join us.

Onyx asks the panelist a question about how they help GSA members get involved in fighting for queer issues:

Our next question comes from one of our registrants and they had asked “how do you get your GSA members involved in fighting for queer issues?” B ecause I think a lot of times it really can be kind of intimidating to go into activism you don't know how it's going to be perceived by other people you don't know if you might get bullied or ostracized because of it and so I'm curious about the ways that you create pathways to make it easier for members to be involved in fighting for these issues.

And guess what! When students excel at activism, GLSEN sends the GSAs swag to give them as a reward. Ollie from Florida explains:

We have a little prize box for when students do good we reward them because GLSEN, who is so wonderful and kind, has given me a bunch of GLSEN merch that I get to hand out to students.

Many organizations are funding that swag, Target being one of them.

See their list of sponsors here. They are paying for your kids to learn to be activists in school when all they wanted to do was make friends.

What do you think?

Are you ok with your kids learning to be activists in schools? Leave a comment and let me know what you think.

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