Is it really a ‘Safe Space’?

Your child’s classroom might soon have a sticker adorning the windows and doorways that says “Safe for All.”

But as a parent, I have to ask—is it really safe for all—including those from religious or socially conservative perspectives, and including young children whose parents might not feel it’s best for them to be prematurely pushed into sexual experimentation? 

Schools all over the state are adorning their classroom windows and doorways with stickers provided by the Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network (GLSEN) that say “Safe Space for All,” like the ones below. 

From liberal school districts like Fairfax, to Chesterfield, to what’s considered more conservative school divisions like Hanover, school personnel—many times out of pressure to appear ‘tolerant’-- are approving these stickers for classroom display.  

While at first glance the stickers seem to convey a fairly innocuous message - a Safe Space for All - the motivations and not-so-hidden agenda of the group behind the message are anything but safe for students. GLSEN wants students to think a teacher displaying this sticker will celebrate their LGBTQ lifestyle or help facilitate their “transition” away from their God-created biological sex to the opposite sex, regardless of the interests of the students’ parents.

One of the original LGBTQ provocateurs, GLSEN also provides policy materials to schools that encourage educators to declare children have a “right” to “be addressed by a name and pronoun that corresponds to [their] gender identity and to keep transgender status private at school.” In other words, don’t tell the parents!

This position might be familiar to you since it’s a suggested policy for local school divisions that’s included in the Virginia Department of Education’s “Model Policies for the Treatment of Transgender Students,” created by the Northam Administration. You may recall Loudoun County elementary school teacher Tanner Cross lost his job for refusing to use a student’s preferred pronouns (though he won his job back in court).

The ACLU has also teamed up with the National Education Association (NEA), Gender Spectrum, and the Human Rights Campaign to produce a document titled “Schools in Transition: Students in K-12 Schools” that is being incorporated into teacher training. In this training document, these groups argue that “[w]hile it is important to include a student's age and grade level as factors to consider in the planning process, it should never be used to justify delaying or denying a student’s gender transition.”

These groups are telling educators that a child’s gender is something that’s planned just like any other ordinary aspect of daily living - like choosing where to go for an anniversary dinner or planning a summer vacation. And now the ACLU is collaborating with the NEA to advocate for policies for absolutely no limits on student age when making life-long decisions involving puberty blockers and mutilating surgeries!

If you are a teacher, are you pleased to know your education association is advocating for these radical policies? (I recommend you check out the Virginia Professional Educators association who provide the same representation but without the partisan politics.)

Make no mistake: these groups see young kids as tools to advance their radical, unnatural beliefs about sex and sexuality, as evidenced by this insidious statement in the school training produced by the ACLU et. al.: “[i]n most cases younger students are much more flexible in their thinking.” In other words, if we get to them early - say kindergarten or first grade - then we can fill them with these false doctrines and pull them away from the sound teachings of their parents.

These groups have the ears of educators across the Commonwealth - even in some of the most conservative parts of the state. More than ever before, parents of students should be asking their kids what they are seeing and hearing at school. Do they see these stickers in windows? What other LGBTQ messages do they read and see?

Be on the look-out for classrooms with these stickers, and know the messages GLSEN and the other radical groups are promoting are anything but safe. Find out who is leading your child’s classroom and what messages they are conveying.

Take advantage of open house nights to visit your child’s elementary, middle, and high schools, and ask questions, because I can ensure you the radical LGBTQ groups are already there roaming the halls, talking to faculty, seeing who they can devour.