Pinned
Resisting Project 2025's Attacks Queer and Trans Students
What is Project 2025? Project 2025 is a document produced by The Heritage Foundation, an American right-wing think tank, outlining a conservative political plan they hope to see implemented by the next Republican president (now President-Elect Donald Trump).
What does Project 2025 say about education broadly? Project 2025 suggests a wide variety of extreme measures to be taken against progressive values in public schools from promoting "school choice" (policies that, in reality, do not improve student outcomes and make education into a competitive market rather than a public good) to rolling back nondiscrimination regulations to dissolving the Department of Education entirely. Many of Project 2025's proposed policies would leave minoritized students more vulnerable to discrimination in schools and some policies support discrimination against them outright (see below).
What does Project 2025 say about queer and trans rights in school? Project 2025 makes a few proposals and claims regarding gender and sexuality:
- Schools should "[reject] gender ideology" in the name of "safeguarding civil rights" (page 322)
- Title IX protections (which are in place to prevent discrimination on the basis of sex in educational environments) should be rolled back (page 331)
- The attempt to add a "non-binary" option when collecting school data should be rescinded (page 322)
- "Sex" under Title IX should be defined to mean "only biological sex recognized at birth" (page 333)
- There is "no scientific basis" for the idea that sex should be "redefin[ed]" as "sexual orientation and gender identity," a claim which they don't even attempt to cite a source for (page 333)
- Being trans is a "social contagion" that causes young AFAB people to want to mutilate their bodies (pages 345-346)
- Schools should forbid public education employees from using their students' preferred names and pronouns without parental consent (page 346)
We might expect to see some sources cited for these bold claims and proposals, but for all forty-five pages of the "Department of Education" section of this document, there are only 19 footnotes.
Project 2025 is an under-researched, ultra-conservative playbook that lays out the groundwork for how we can best discriminate against the most vulnerable members of our communities.
Now that Trump has been elected, what can we do to prepare for and resist Project 2025's proposals for education?
- Understand what we're up against: Reading through the document itself is a disheartening process, but if you're in a place to do so, it's worth a try. The authors of Project 2025 tend to be pretty mask-off---they'll tell you all about the harm they intend to do. If you'd prefer not to waste hours of your life reading a document that periodically drops phrases so cringy they might make your soul leave your body (see: "woke diversicrats"), you can just read a summary. The ACLU has a good one that can be accessed here.
- Teachers, get active in your union: Project 2025 is explicitly anti-union. It even accuses two of the US's biggest teachers' unions of "promot[ing] radical racial and gender ideologies in schools" (page 342). Working class solidarity is how we achieve the collective power we'll need to fight these policies in our schools. (Here is how the Chicago Teacher's Union is practicing resistance---a case study!)
- Build community and support networks: This could mean making a point to talk to a few new people while you're attending a protest, attending school meetings with a group of fellow progressives, breaking up capitalist markets by planning/attending a mutual aid fair, or just chatting and laughing with some friends. The goal of fascism is to make us feel isolated. Don't let them succeed.
- Take care of yourself: Project 2025's proposals are scary, especially for people whose very identities are being targeted. Don't let anyone tell you that you're "failing at activism" if you need to take a step back.
- Teachers (and parents of minoritized students), assure your students and kids that you are on their side: If you're able, hang up a pride flag in your classroom/house, include an optional question about students' preferred pronouns on your introduction survey, and/or include minoritized authors and history in your classes. Have your students learn about Stonewall, read some short stories by James Baldwin, analyze Audre Lorde's poems, and/or introduce them to your favorite queer/BIPOC/disabled/immigrant authors and thinkers. Representation matters!
- Sign the ACLU's petition to stop Project 2025: It's important to show lawmakers that Project 2025's radical and dangerous ideas do not represent what we want for our country.
- Donate: The Southern Poverty Law Center, ACLU, and lots of other civil rights organizations are fighting hard against Project 2025 and the Trump Administration's policy proposals. Consider sending a donation to an organization that aligns with your values.
No matter how hard Trump and his cronies fight, LGBTQ+ people will always exist in our schools. They will never get rid of us and they will never drown out our voices. We will always demand to be safe, accepted, and included and we will win.