SCHOOL A-GENDER
‘Trans’ ideology eyed for charter It’s horrifying. No charter school that’s aimed at gender ideology indoctrination should ever be approved for children this young.
A proposed “trans” and “queer” issues Brooklyn charter school — which promises to let kids as young as 9 years old “explore their gender” identity — is drawing outrage from critics who are blasting it for “indoctrinating” children.
The Miss Major Middle Charter School in the trendy Prospect Heights area of school District 13 says it would create a “genderful environment” for kids to “embrace their own identity, and decide how they will authentically walk, through the world.”
But the plan to instruct students in grades 5 through 9 about such sensitive issues is leaving some parents and activists terrified.
“It’s horrifying. No charter school that’s aimed at gender ideology indoctrination should ever be approved for children this young,” said Maud Maron, a parents rights activist and Community Education Council member in Manhattan. “In the most charitable light, there might be people who think they’re doing good. But this is a situation in which activists want to use and abuse children to promote their ideology.”
Maron, a former Democratic candidate for a Brooklyn congressional seat, claimed the school “rewards and encourages gender dysphoria,” adding that indoctrination leads to “physical harm — to puberty blockers and surgeries, which are irreversibly damaging to children’s bodies.”
‘Genderful’
Miss Major Middle founder Joji Florence, a “proud” nonbinary parent of three and Dartmouth College graduate, however, painted a rosy picture of the school in a recent piece for Chalkbeat.
“More of our children want to explore, learn about, challenge, change, or move inside and outside the bounds of masculinity and femininity,” Florence wrote. “Many kids seem to get that with increased access to an evolving gender spectrum, more people can experience more joy. In the trans community, I’ve heard this idea described as ‘genderful.’ ”
But some parents are sounding the alarm.
“I was shocked to hear about this school,” said Helen Qiu, a city mom with a middle-school-aged son and a candidate for the state Assembly in the 65th District in lower Manhattan.
“There’s a push in schools to normalize the transgender movement, to make it younger and younger in age, and to exclude parents from knowing about their children’s transgender inclination. These three things combined equals child abuse.”
‘Regressive’
The conservative vows to fight against schools with this tarmission geted if elected. “We need to elect people to oppose it,” she said. Colin Wright, an evolutionary biologist and Manhattan Institute fellow, said such a school may sound good, but is actually a “sinister” trap.
“If you’re a parent who doesn’t know much about gender ideology and you hear that a kid can be themselves, not judged, it looks so progressive and fantastic,” he told The Post. “These parents probably think the school is about just being yourself, free to be you and me, but it’s absolutely not what’s happening. They’re saying you can’t just be an effeminate boy and masculine girl. It’s saying, ‘If you’re an effeminate boy, you’re actually a girl.’ ”
Self-styled “progressive” parents are really embracing regressive ideas, said Wright.
“It’s all about stereotypes of what makes a boy a boy and a girl a girl. I would keep my kids so far from this school, it’s not even funny,” he said.
According to Manhattan Institute fellow Leor Sapir, “The 2022 Olson study, which contradicts the findings of decades of research on desistance, is a good piece of evidence that social transition ‘locks in’ gender incongruence that otherwise would very likely abate. Trans activists cite it as evidence that ‘trans kids know who they are.’ It’s the perfect Rorschach test.”
So far, the future of the school is uncertain. It is among numerous applicants for just nine charters that have been set aside for New York City starting in fall 2025.
Applications were due on Feb. 8, and the approval decision will come down from SUNY in June.
Reps for the school did not return requests for comment.
The school — whose “founding team” includes 10 members of the “Trans+ / Queer Advisory Council” — is named after Miss Major Griffin-Gracy, a black transgender activist who played a pivotal role in the Stonewall uprising.
— Maud Maron, a parents rights activist and city Community Education Council member