School boards are new battlegrounds for trans rights

Yesterday afternoon, my phone started blowing up with texts from friends and colleagues letting me know that a local school board made a last-minute amendment to that night’s meeting agenda: adding a vote for their anti-trans bathroom policy.

Upon closer reading, the agenda also included the introduction of two garbage-dump policies related to instructional and library materials including everything from prohibiting any material “adopting, supporting, or promoting gender fluidity” to giving parents access to their child’s library check-out history.

I scrambled to write public comment opposing all three policies and raced across town to sign in before the meeting began that evening.

Most people commenting were more concerned with the vote on the proposed closure of five schools in the district than with the anti-trans policies, but about six or seven people voiced their concern with this blatant attempt at erasing transgender kids from their school community. I don’t think it was a coincidence that the bathroom policy was snuck in under the shadow of a much bigger issue affecting the district.

I’m glad I was able to go, and I’m extra-glad that I had friends to sit with (as we scrambled again to cut our comments to a minute and a half). I even made the local evening news!

The full board meeting video will be available soon here. Public comments are at the beginning of the meeting, and I’m probably 15 minutes in.

But Houston’s not the only place this is happening.

At school board meetings across the country, queer and trans students are being made to fight for the right to be who they are at school.

Three issues affecting trans kids seem to be forefront, all of which were reflected in the board meeting I attended last night:

• Restricting students from using bathrooms that align with their gender identity

• Removing any “gender ideology” materials, displays, etc.

• Content of school library books

Some school boards are also proposing to inform parents when students ask to go by a different name or pronouns (like another Houston-area school board meeting I spoke at a few months ago), so basically outing kids to their parents.

School boards have become pawns in a broader political game of our country’s culture wars. Conservative parents’ rights groups have seen that they can fund and be very strategic about advancing candidates, often running on single hot-button issues like book censorship or bathroom restrictions. The groups and candidates use this kind of strong emotional appeal to energize their base and create the myth of a moral emergency where there is none.

If you want to learn more about the rise of school boards as the new front in America’s culture wars, I highly recommend two exceptional podcasts by NBC News:

Southlake (2021): Hosted by NBC News national reporter Mike Hixenbaugh and NBC News correspondent Antonia Hylton, Southlake tells the story of how the fight over proposed school district diversity plans and arguments over diversity, education, and critical race theory became the test case for a new political strategy with national repercussions. 

Grapevine (2023): Also hosted by Hixenbaugh and Hylton, this time focusing on trans and LGBTQ issues, Grapevine outlines the rise of a fringe religious movement wielding newfound power and the revival of evangelicals’ efforts to remake American education based on their version of biblical values.

Grapevine in particular was riveting for me. I appreciated learning the background behind the right-wing political machines Patriot Mobile and Moms for Liberty and their connection to Christian dominionism (a new and terrifying term to me!). Some parts were difficult to hear, especially about this year’s Texas legislative session. I was present at many of the committee hearings and rallies featured in the show, and I was surprised that hearing about them again brought up some pretty intense feelings.

So, if the battle isn’t already in your school district, it’s coming.

Stay informed, gather some friends, and speak up at board meetings. Reach out to LGBTQ equality groups in your area to see if they’re already organizing efforts to resist these anti-trans policies.

You have a voice. You have power. Love will win.