Teachers in an Ohio school district are wearing name badges that students can scan with their phones to access an "LGBTQ+ resource guide," which includes instructions on how to get abortions and "organize like a sex worker."
Hilliard City School District participates in the National Education Association's "I'm Here" program, which encourages teachers to wear the badge. The group says the program is supposed to educate teachers on how to respond to LGBT students. But a Washington Free Beacon review found that the QR code takes students to resources that describe abortion as the removal of "pregnancy tissue," encourage gender transitioning without parental consent, and promote sex work.
Public schools around the country are coming under fire for teaching age-inappropriate lessons to students. Parents in Idaho, for example, caught the state government this month offering "porn literacy" to students. A parent sued a Maine school district for offering books with "sexually graphic material, including descriptions of queer sex," the Free Beacon reported in July.
The teachers' badges have sparked outrage among parents in Hilliard City, ABC 6 reported earlier this month.
"The badge has a QR code that once scanned takes you to a website that has extremely inappropriate information, and as a parent that crosses the line," Hilliard City parent Lisa Chaffee said.
Hilliard City superintendent Dave Stewart said the badges only concern "adult learning," though the website from the QR code provides resources aimed at K-12 students. After backlash from parents, the district advised teachers to cover the QR code on the back of the badge, according to a statement from Stewart.
One link from the online guide encourages children to seek LGBT resources without their parents' approval.
"LGBTQIA+ students should be respected, affirmed, and protected in Texas schools, even if they do not have the full support of their parents or guardians," says "Free to Be Me: A Toolkit to Protect LGBTQIA+ Students' Rights."
Another link in the guide takes students to a post called "Organize Like a Sex Worker: Learning from Worker and Organizer Kate Adamo." The post says recognizing that "sex work is work" is "critical to ensuring the reproductive and sexual liberation of everyone." Kate Adamo, the "sex worker" interviewed in the post, compared "transphobia or homophobia, being anti-abortion, or anti-sex work" to eugenics.
Sex workers "face stigma, judgment, and pushback from both the Christian right, and sex work exclusionary feminists (SWERFs) on the left," Adamo said.
Another link promotes a project from Planned Parenthood Toronto with videos like "Are you queer enough to be here? Spoiler Alert: YES!" and "Sex acts that don't get enough play."
The National Education Association, which created the resource guide, offers a book list including elementary school recommendations such as A Tale of Two Daddies, My Princess Boy, and Jacob's New Dress, as well as a number of other recommendations about sex and gender identity like Morris Micklewhite and the Tangerine Dress, which is about a male child who wears a dress.
The resource guide also provides a handbook to help minors understand their gender identities, which says "sex assignment does not take into account one's true gender identity."
"Your true gender may be different than the gender that a doctor assigned you, which is perfectly normal, valid, and wonderful," the handbook reads.
The Hilliard City School District did not respond to a request for comment.