Last summer, right-wing extremists made headlines in Southern California for months of organized anti-LGBTQ+ attacks on school districts. While most school districts in Los Angeles have refused to concede to demands – extremists have called for the removal of LGBTQ+ teachers, inclusive curriculum, and Pride flags – a concerted campaign to remove protections for LGBTQ+ students, transgender students in particular, has continued in nearby districts. Parents and staff at Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) and Glendale Unified School District (GUSD) who successfully fended off the attacks last year are working with neighboring districts to recognize and adequately respond to anti-LGBTQ+ threats and policies. 

Parents at LAUSD and GUSD were shocked by the swift and violent reaction to LGBTQ+ inclusion. Daisy Gardner, a parent of an LGBTQ+ student at LAUSD, attended counterprotests at LAUSD and GUSD with other parents and pro-LGBTQ+ community members last summer. “None of us had ever seen anything like this before in our lives,” Gardner told Westside Voice. Men in paramilitary outfits called her and other pro-LGBTQ+ people “pedophiles” and “groomers.”  “There was nothing about it that said ‘organic outcry of local parental concern.’” 

Leave Our Kids Alone (LOKA), the most visible organization leading the anti-LGBTQ+ protests, was uncritically called “Concerned parents” by the majority of news outlets. Coverage typically framed the conflict as parents versus the district. Gardner blanched at that description – whose parents were they really? And where did they get the authority to speak for her? 

The Southern California Traveling Circus 

At Saticoy Elementary in North Hollywood, Gardner only recognized a few of the adults as district parents in the sea of LOKA t-shirts. She can still name the parents a year later, there were so few of them. In the months that followed, Gardner connected with parents in other districts across Southern California and compared notes. They learned that the same anti-LGBTQ+ groups they faced in Los Angeles had also surfaced in other districts. They saw the same faces laying claim to “our kids” at seven school districts in the region. And it wasn’t just LOKA – far-right groups like Moms for Liberty, Gays Against Groomers, and Proud Boys were mobilizing too. What Gardner and other community members called the “Southern California Traveling Circus” seemed less like a grassroots effort and more like one iteration of a national campaign with deep pockets.  

“What we discovered is that there’s a very densely networked group in Southern California, and the groups trace back to the Council for National Policy (CNP), an umbrella organization for the big money groups in the GOP, with the churches and the policy groups,” Gardner said. 

The Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) has reported on the proliferation of these anti-LGBTQ+ groups and their financial ties to big money right-wing funds like the Heritage Foundation. “Contrary to the common narrative, these are not small, local groups of parents and concerned citizens,” SPLC said. 

“If Proud Boys and J6ers are showing up to your school board, you can thank the Council for National Policy. They’re driving the violence on the ground,” Gardner said.

The LOKA contingent organized alongside other extremist groups under the banner of parental rights, a conservative talking point that has been trotted out nationwide to advance a host of right-wing goals. 

“Whoever devised the strategy at the larger national level really discovered that they can play into a parent’s fear and wish to protect their children,” Gardner said.

For these groups, transgender students are just the latest fixation. “They’re using transgender kids and their lives as a political wedge so that they can attack the school boards and either seize power at the local level or create so much chaos and distrust in public education that they can further their goal of destroying it,” Gardner said. 

In the press, so-called parental rights advocates at the helm of anti-LGBTQ+ actions in California have largely managed to avoid directly stating what appears to be their ultimate goal. Other groups in their coalition are more forthright with their aims. Groups with apparent links to on-the-ground extremists like Public School Exit and Informed Parents of California advocate for children to be removed from public schools. Homeschooling, they say, is the best alternative to public schooling that turns “Children away from God” and teaching unions that “Crush Freedom, Christianity, and Americanism.” 

Though the web of connections is disorienting, Gardner said, recognizing the structure is key to dismantling it. Gardner is the Outreach Director for Our Schools USA, an organization founded to provide quality public education to all students. Parents and researchers in LAUSD and GUSD have been combating disinformation in their communities and helping others recognize when these right-wing groups are organizing in their districts. 

A large district like LAUSD with a strong union like United Teachers Los Angeles (UTLA) was an ideal target for these groups. “It’s a dream for the far right to be able to take out one of the biggest unions in the biggest cities,” Gardner said. Los Angeles was their proving ground and they failed.

LAUSD has continued its LGBTQ+-inclusive programming. Following the protest of Saticoy Elementary, the Board unanimously passed a resolution “Affirming, celebrating, and taking pride in the LGBTQ+ students, parents, and staff in the LAUSD community.” Board President Jackie Goldberg, who is a lesbian, described “The terror outside of Saticoy” and the forces that conspired to mislead parents. “Fear is not our friend. Love is,” Goldberg said.

UTLA has defended its members and community from attack. “The 35,000+ members of UTLA are proud to be in solidarity with members of the LGBTQ+ community,” UTLA said. “The fight to ensure the safety and well-being of the LGBTQ+ community cannot be separated from who we are. An injury to one of our LGBTQ+ siblings is an injury to all of us.” 

Skye Tooley, a trans educator in LAUSD, was the target of anti-LGBTQ+ harassment last year. This year, they helped UTLA create an LGBTQIA task force. As the leader of the task force, Tooley hopes to proactively meet the needs of queer educators, making sure teachers are protected from harassment and retaliation. LAUSD has great policies, they said, but the district struggles to implement them. “There’s all these policies of affirming, but then there’s really no follow through with that, no affirming of educators in the classroom when they’re being targeted.” 

UTLA marched in the L.A. Pride Parade on Sunday. They also gave away 300 queer books at Dyke Day L.A. “I’m just riding on that joy right now,” Tooley said. Attendees beamed when they saw UTLA this weekend, reminding Tooley that UTLA’s support for the LGBTQ+ community made an impact beyond the schoolroom. 

“As teachers, we’re always in the classroom, always in front of the kids. We kind of forget that adults need to see that our very large union is on their side as well. Because for a lot of us, the one person that did care about us was a teacher.” 

Forced Outing Policies in Southern California

516 anti-LGBTQ+ bills have been introduced in states across the country in 2024. Many of the bills already passed in recent years target transgender youth, restricting their access to services and public spaces. Much of this legislation focuses on schools. In states with anti-LGBTQ+ legislation, hate crimes in schools have quadrupled.  

In the last year, anti-LGBTQ+ groups in California have promoted forced outing policies at school districts. These policies impel teachers and school officials to tell a student’s parent or guardian if they suspect a student is transgender. 

Eight states in the U.S. have passed laws that require schools to out transgender students to their families. Anti-LGBTQ+ groups in California have tried to introduce a similar forced outing bill to the state legislature. When that quickly failed, they tried to get a state measure on the ballot. Their signature-gathering effort fell short. 

But that hasn’t stopped them from putting their weight behind local campaigns. School boards with conservative majorities have passed forced outing policies in Chino Valley Unified, Temecula Valley Unified, Murrieta Valley Unified, Rocklin Unified, Anderson Union, and Orange Unified. The state constitution prohibits discrimination based on sexual identity, gender identity, and gender expression. A child’s right to privacy is protected by the U.S. Constitution. 

In Chino Valley, the “Charged, weaponized atmosphere” brought about by the policy had an immediate and devastating effect on students, Gardner said. 

Rainbow Youth Project created a crisis hotline last year specifically for California students in districts with forced outing policies. Since last August, their crisis hotline has received 1,794 calls from Chino Valley alone. They received 5,075 calls from the entire state during that time. Rainbow Youth founder Lance Preston said their hotline has heard from students in acute distress – some reported self-harm, some reported thoughts of suicide. The majority of callers said that political rhetoric was contributing to their distress.

“Forced outing has drastic consequences,” Preston told Westside Voice. When young people choose to come out is their prerogative, Preston said. “Some families are accepting and some aren’t. A kid knows their home environment better than anyone.” 

According to The Trevor Project, LGBTQ+ youth reported that schools were more affirming environments than their homes. LGBTQ+ youth are more likely to come out to their friends before they come out to their families and they’re often not out to some or all of their family members. 

“School officials may think they’re doing the right thing, but revealing a student’s sexual orientation or gender identity to their parents not only violates the student’s privacy rights, but can open an LGBT child to hostility, rejection, and even violence from their parents,” said the ACLU. 

LGBTQ+ youth are overrepresented among young people experiencing homelessness, housing instability, and foster care. Young people are forced out of their homes when they come out to homophobic or transphobic parents. 

Gardner said the same groups advocating for forced outings under the guise of protecting children refuse to acknowledge the reality of their policies. “They never want to talk about harm to the child, or the kid getting abused or kicked out or put out on the street, which puts them at risk for trafficking, which is the thing that these people supposedly care so much about.”

In response to forced outing policies across the state, California Assemblymember Chris Ward and the California LGBTQ+ caucus have introduced AB 1955, the Support Academic Futures and Educators for Today’s Youth Act (SAFETY Act). The bill would “Prohibit school districts from implementing forced outing policies, provide resources for parents and students to navigate conversations around gender and identity on their own terms, and ensure teachers or school staff are not retaliated against for refusing to forcibly out a student.” 

“Teachers should not be the gender police and violate the trust and safety of the students in their classrooms,” Ward said. “​​Parents should be talking to their children, and the decision for a student to come out to their family members should be on their own terms.” More than 100 organizations have signed on in support, including the California Federation of Teachers, the SoCal ACLU, and the L.A. County Office of Education. 

California would be the first state in the country to prohibit forced outing policies in schools. The bill is currently making its way through the State Assembly and the State Senate. It was passed by the Senate Appropriations Committee yesterday.

Photo of UTLA’s L.A. Pride Float courtesy of UTLA.