WASHINGTON — America’s largest teachers’ union accused Republicans of promoting “racist and transphobic troupes” in teaching materials for an upcoming training program, according to documents obtained by a conservative activist group.
The National Education Association is hosting a training from Dec. 2-4 at an undisclosed location called “Advancing LGBTQ+ Justice and Transgender Advocacy” aimed at dismantling “strategic racism and transphobia,” the group Defending Education uncovered.
The group released information on the training that is targeted for union staff and teams as part of the NEA UniServ and Organizing Training Program 2025–2026.
Sessions will be aimed at “dismantling systems of privilege and oppression as it relates to LGBTQ+ educators and students” and “deepen[ing] skills and strategies to confront implicit bias, micro-aggressions and stereotypes,” according to the materials.
Republicans are characterized as using an “arsenal of racist dog whistles,’ according to training materials. Participants are instructed how to evoke a “Race Class Gender Narrative” to push back.
“Over the last ten years, Republicans in state legislatures have increasingly turned to anti-transgender rhetoric and legislation as a powerful complement to their arsenal of racist dog whistles used to whip up fear and consolidate power,” the NEA training packet of materials state, adding “they have paired these attacks with fear-mongering about Critical Race Theory, mobilizing their base with a potent mix of racist and transphobic tropes.”
Some documents instruct teachers to explicitly “pluralize” gender by referring to “our genders” or “genders,” promote the use of preferred pronouns in their workplaces and even purchase “pronoun pins” to put on their school ID badges.
The materials also includes gender-transition guides for educators, complete with transition plans within schools and sample email templates announcing one’s intent to transition.
“The NEA is the largest teachers’ union in the country, and they have decided to vilify half the country in an upcoming training,” said Erika Sanzi, senior director of communications for Defending Education.
“As far as they are concerned, the only reasons anyone could oppose their preferred ideologies are racism and transphobia and they name Republicans as villains, in writing!”
Sanzi added: “Their federal charter was granted because they promised to ‘elevate the character and advance the interests of the profession of teaching; and to promote the cause of education in the United States.’”
“Seeing as their leadership—and by extension, the organization itself—has morphed into a far-left insane asylum that is actively destroying the cause of education, that charter is no longer defensible,” she also said.
NEA members may contribute individually to political campaigns, though not with their union dues and the organization condones political activism so long as it’s not in service of any event deemed “outrageous and offensive,” according to its website.
The NEA and the American Federation of Teachers (AFT) contributed more than $43 million from 2022 to 2024 on left-wing political advocacy, according to an earlier Defending Education report based largely on union disclosures to the Department of Labor.
It also voted to cut all ties with the Anti-Defamation League earlier this year, in a move which was seen as “profoundly disturbing” by the ADL amid record-high anti-semitic attacks nationwide.
Reps for the NEA did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
