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In Private Texts, NY Ed Council Reps, Congressional Candidate Demean LGBTQ Kids
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IN PRIVATE TEXTS, NY ED COUNCIL REPS, CONGRESSIONAL CANDIDATE DEMEAN LGBTQ KIDS


OFFICIALS CALL TO REMOVE ELECTED PARENT LEADERS FOR REMARKS LIKE 'THERE IS NO
SUCH THING AS TRANS KIDS.' NYC DEPT. OF ED CALLS COMMENTS 'DESPICABLE.'

By Marianna McMurdock | December 14, 2023
By Marianna McMurdock December 14, 2023

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Update: At a December 20 Panel for Education Policy meeting, after condemning
recent anti-LGBTQ remarks by two District 2 Community Education Council members,
Chancellor David Banks criticized panel members Maud Maron and Danyela Egorov
for not acting as “adults,” adding he was “prepared … to take action because it
is not acceptable to me, for that level of behavior, to continue to play out.
Our children deserve better.” He also condemned Islamophobic and antisemitic
attacks seen throughout the school system in recent months.

At the concurrent District 2 CEC meeting, teachers, parents and community
members called for Maron and Egorov’s removal, citing the Chancellor’s promise,
loss of “trust,” and high risk of suicide among LGBTQ youth. Maron was not
present.

An elected member of a prominent New York City education council said “there is
no such thing as trans kids,” while another claimed the social justice movement
is “destroying the country,” in a private parent group chat.  

In the same set of exchanges dating back to June 2022, Andrew Gutmann, a former
New York City parent and current Florida congressional candidate, accused LGBTQ
people and social justice advocates of being “anti-children,” and trans and
nonbinary kids as “indoctrinated” in a “really dangerous cult.” 

Responding to one Brooklyn parent’s concern about the number of LGBTQ children
in her child’s school, Manhattan District 2 Community Education Council member
Maud Maron responded “the social contagion is undeniable” and called hormone
blocking drugs “an abomination.” 

On the same day in another exchange about LGBTQ kids, Maron said, “There is no
such thing as trans kids [because] there is no such thing as transition i.e.
changing your sex.” 



The “social contagion” phrase, equating an aspect of a child’s identity to
disease, was used by a northern California school board member earlier this year
who now faces a recall. 

In a statement, a NYC Department of Education spokesperson called the remarks
“despicable and not in line with our values.”    

In WhatsApp logs obtained by The 74, an additional parent leader made crude
remarks levied at a state senator, while another shared a worksheet that defined
hate speech as “usually constitutionally protected” and an “expression of
opinion.” 

Maron also falsely claimed hormone therapy causes permanent, harmful effects for
teens taking the drugs. “Some of these kids never develop adult genitalia and
will never have full sexual function. It’s an abomination,” she wrote on
November 11, 2022. 



When asked for comment on the remarks, Maron asserted her position by stating,
“Radical trans ideology as taught in our public schools is regressive,
homophobic and often deeply misogynistic.” She added telling gender expansive
kids they need to be “fixed” by transitioning “leads to grave, irreversible harm
for so many young people.” 

The American Medical Association has supported access to hormone therapy, as
have all leading medical associations in the country, according to the AMA’s
CEO, who also cited research that gender affirming care improves
long-term physical and mental health, and reduces suicidal ideation.

Local leaders and advocates have called for Maron and fellow CEC member Danyela
Souza Egorov to resign or be removed by NYC Schools Chancellor David Banks.
Elected members, serving two-year terms, advise education officials on 32 CECs
throughout the city. 

“If they’re not going to be removed, they have to engage in training … There has
to be a level of accountability when grownups are the ones that are harming
children,” said Panel for Education Policy member Kaliris Salas-Ramirez, a CUNY
school of medicine neurology professor appointed by Manhattan Borough President
Mark Levine. “My heart breaks.”

In addition to calling the comments “despicable,” a DOE spokesperson said the
department “does not condone the opinions expressed” in the log and added “all
children deserve protection, including LGBTQ+ children.”

“Our educators work every day to make New York City public schools safe and
supportive environments for LGBTQ+ youth,” the DOE spokesperson said.

Chancellor’s regulation D-210 prohibits discrimination or harassment based on
gender and other protected classes, stating “the DOE does not tolerate
disrespect towards children.” The regulation also states that, after an
investigation, the chancellor may remove or suspend members if conduct poses a
“danger to the safety or welfare of students” or “is contrary to the best
interest” of the district. 

The department receives complaints against CEC members who are thought to be in
violation of the chancellor’s regulations by email. 

Manhattan City Councilmember Erik Bottcher, who represents families and children
in School District 2, also denounced the remarks and encouraged disciplinary
action. 

“It is deeply troubling that CEC members are engaging in demeaning, transphobic
smears that are reminiscent of playground bullies rather than responsible adults
tasked with advocating for the well-being of our kids,” Bottcher said. “Our
students deserve better.” 

The chat also revealed some members believe hate speech, racism, white supremacy
and other “social justice” jargon are fraught terms used to “discriminate
against” white and Asian people. “The anti-racists are so racist,” said Maron.

That parents with these views have gained power locally is unsurprising to
scholars who study conservative parent rights movements like Moms for Liberty.
The groups and rhetoric are most frequently found in politically purple or
liberal areas where parents feel their voices are sidelined for more liberal
agendas. 

Pushing back on diversity trainings they find divisive, for example, one parent
asked: “So you can pay to become a racist?” in reference to a canceled,
voluntary workshop hosted by the teacher’s union entitled, “Holding the Weight
of Whiteness.”

Maron replied: “For the bargain price of $25.” 

In an exchange critiquing the United Federation of Teachers training on power
dynamics in the classroom, Egorov said “this is poisonous and it is destroying
the country.” She did not respond to requests for comment. 

Experts who study civil rights and freedom of speech in the U.S. have witnessed
rhetoric throughout the country, but say there’s a key distinction at play
here. 

“I think the most dangerous thing about these messages is who they’re coming
from,” said Maya Henson Carey, a researcher with the Southern Poverty Law
Center, “because these people have power to make change.”  

On November 20, 2022, Egorov sent the WhatsApp group an explainer to help push
back on social justice terms. The one pager defined diversity as “an attack on
merit and a form of soft bigotry,” adding that accountability is “bullying” and
“mob rule.” A parent immediately responded, “this is good.”

The Responding to Social Justice Rhetoric sheet was created in 2021 by a group
of academics with the Oregon Association of Scholars, a chapter of the National
Association of Scholars, known as a conservative group that has lobbied against
diversity policies.

This is the version of “Responding to Social Justice Rhetoric” that was shared
in the parent WhatsApp group. It has since been updated in recent years.

The worksheet serves as a “translation guide,” for anyone “hoodwinked by
language” said Peter Boghossian, one of its authors. 

The guide also defined inclusion as “restricted speech and justification for
purges,” and a way to make “people feel welcomed by banning anything they find
offensive.”

But inclusion for LGBTQ students is top of mind for many educators and families
nationwide as the youth mental health crisis worsens. Queer kids, often
ostracized from their homes or communities, are overrepresented in New York’s
homeless population and foster care. They are also four times as likely than
their peers to contemplate suicide, according to The Trevor Project.

New York recently passed a safe haven law legally protecting trans students and
their doctors introduced by state Sen. Brad Hoylman-Sigal. 

In the WhatsApp chat, both the law and Hoylman-Sigal were subject to explicit
vitriol by prominent parent leaders. 



Chien Kwok, former District 2 CEC member and president of local nonprofit Parent
Leaders for Accelerated Curriculum and Education, wrote, “I would imagine
Hoylman would have cut off his penis to transition if he was allowed to run away
from his home state of West Virginia to NY. Do you think Hoylman or his husband
would have regretted Hoylman being a eunuch?”

Kwok responded to requests for comment by reiterating his question for the state
senator and adding “the radical transgender ideologies that [Hoylman-Sigal]
supports and turned into law have harmed countless children and teens in the US
and around the world.” 

A few hours after Kwok’s original comment, Gutmann, a former NYC private school
parent who denounced his child’s school’s focus on racism, chimed in: what LGBTQ
people and social justice “ideologues” have in common is “not wanting children,
which has made them anti-children (hence anti-family).” 



Gutmann later told The 74 that while the private messages were written “quickly”
and “in a casual tone,” he stands by “everything I have written in this and any
other private chat group in which I have participated.” 

Hoylman-Sigal said the “cruel and frankly outrageous” chat history makes clear
that, locally, the CEC members are not able “to safeguard learning for students.
The disrespect and intolerance that is evident in these chats shows just the
opposite. To them, LGBTQ kids, specifically transgender children, are second
class.” 

The logs are a “call to action,” he added, for CEC leaders, Banks, and parents
to vote them out of office. 

Though the outcomes of recent school board elections nationwide show many
parents disagree with conservative parent leaders’ emphasis on limiting
classroom discussion of sex and gender, parent leaders like Gutmann, Kwok, Maron
and Egorov have been hoping to expand their reach. 

“We need to organize ourselves to recruit CEC candidates so we can expand our
influence and keep it where we have [a] majority,” Egorov wrote to the group on
January 1, 2022. 

They came close.  

Forty percent of Community Education Council members endorsed by PLACE, the
conservative parent advocacy group co-founded by Maron and Kwok, won in June’s
elections.

Lawmakers and experts at local LGBTQ nonprofit The Center are advocating for a
new bill, sponsored by Hoylman-Sigal, requiring that all New York school
districts establish policies to protect nonbinary and transgender students.

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Newsletter

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Marianna McMurdock is a staff reporter at The 74.

@marimcmurdock marianna@the74million.org

 * civil rights
 * community education councils
 * education
 * hate speech
 * k-12
 * LGBTQ Students
 * New York City
 * nyc
 * NYC City Council
 * Southern Poverty Law Center
 * trans students

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<h1>In Private Texts, NY Ed Council Reps, Congressional Candidate Demean LGBTQ
Kids</h1> <h2>Officials call to remove elected parent leaders for remarks like
'there is no such thing as trans kids.' NYC Dept. of Ed calls comments
'despicable.'</h2> <p class="sans">By <a rel="author"
href="https://www.the74million.org/contributor/573353/">Marianna
McMurdock</a></p> <img
src="https://www.the74million.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/nyc-parents-officials-texts.jpg">
<p>This story first appeared at <a href="https://www.the74million.org">The
74</a>, a nonprofit news site covering education. <a
href="https://www.the74million.org/about/newsletters/?utm_source=republish-button&utm_medium=website&utm_campaign=republish">Sign
up for free newsletters from The 74</a> to get more like this in your inbox.</p>
<p><em>Update: At a December 20 Panel for Education Policy meeting, after
condemning recent anti-LGBTQ remarks by two District 2 Community Education
Council members, Chancellor David Banks criticized panel members Maud Maron and
Danyela Egorov for not acting as “adults,” adding he was “prepared … to take
action because it is not acceptable to me, for that level of behavior, to
continue to play out. Our children deserve better.”</em> <em>He also condemned
Islamophobic and antisemitic attacks seen throughout the school system in recent
months.</em></p> <p><em>At the concurrent </em><a
href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fEgeeVzyDNM"><em>District 2 CEC
meeting</em></a><em>, teachers, parents and community members called for Maron
and Egorov’s removal, citing the Chancellor’s promise, loss of “trust,” and high
risk of suicide among LGBTQ youth. Maron was not present.</em></p> <p>An elected
member of a prominent New York City education council said “there is no such
thing as trans kids,” while another claimed the social justice movement is
“destroying the country,” in a private parent group chat.  </p> <p>In the same
set of exchanges dating back to June 2022, Andrew Gutmann, a former New York
City parent and current Florida congressional candidate, accused LGBTQ people
and social justice advocates of being “anti-children,” and trans and nonbinary
kids as “indoctrinated” in a “really dangerous cult.” </p> <p>Responding to one
Brooklyn parent’s concern about the number of LGBTQ children in her child’s
school, Manhattan District 2 Community Education Council member Maud Maron
responded “the social contagion is undeniable” and called hormone blocking drugs
“an abomination.” </p> <p>On the same day in another exchange about LGBTQ kids,
Maron said, “There is no such thing as trans kids [because] there is no such
thing as transition i.e. changing your sex.” </p> <div class="wp-block-image">
<figure class="aligncenter size-full"><img decoding="async" loading="lazy"
width="816" height="277"
src="https://www.the74million.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/Maron-redacted.jpg"
alt="" class="wp-image-719319"
srcset="https://www.the74million.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/Maron-redacted.jpg
816w,
https://www.the74million.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/Maron-redacted-300x102.jpg
300w,
https://www.the74million.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/Maron-redacted-215x73.jpg
215w,
https://www.the74million.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/Maron-redacted-768x261.jpg
768w" sizes="(max-width: 816px) 100vw, 816px" /></figure></div> <p>The “social
contagion” phrase, equating an aspect of a child’s identity to disease, was used
by a northern California school board member earlier this year who <a
href="https://news.yahoo.com/petitioned-filed-recall-woodland-school-043212338.html">now
faces a recall</a>. </p> <p>In a statement, a NYC Department of Education
spokesperson called the remarks “despicable and not in line with our
values.”    </p> <p>In WhatsApp logs obtained by The 74, an additional parent
leader made crude remarks levied at a state senator, while another shared a
worksheet that defined hate speech as “usually constitutionally protected” and
an “expression of opinion.” </p> <p>Maron also <a
href="https://publications.aap.org/pediatrics/article/142/4/e20182162/37381/Ensuring-Comprehensive-Care-and-Support-for?autologincheck=redirected">falsely
claimed</a><strong> </strong>hormone therapy causes permanent, harmful effects
for teens taking the drugs. “Some of these kids never develop adult genitalia
and will never have full sexual function. It’s an abomination,” she wrote on
November 11, 2022. </p> <div class="wp-block-image"> <figure class="aligncenter
size-full"><img decoding="async" loading="lazy" width="814" height="274"
src="https://www.the74million.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/Maron-2-redacted.jpg"
alt="" class="wp-image-719321"
srcset="https://www.the74million.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/Maron-2-redacted.jpg
814w,
https://www.the74million.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/Maron-2-redacted-300x101.jpg
300w,
https://www.the74million.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/Maron-2-redacted-215x72.jpg
215w,
https://www.the74million.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/Maron-2-redacted-768x259.jpg
768w" sizes="(max-width: 814px) 100vw, 814px" /></figure></div> <p>When asked
for comment on the remarks, Maron asserted her position by stating, “Radical
trans ideology as taught in our public schools is regressive, homophobic and
often deeply misogynistic.” She added telling gender expansive kids they need to
be “fixed” by transitioning “leads to grave, irreversible harm for so many young
people.” </p> <p>The <a rel="noreferrer noopener"
href="https://www.endocrine.org/news-and-advocacy/news-room/2023/ama-gender-affirming-care"
target="_blank">American Medical Association</a> has supported access to <a
rel="noreferrer noopener"
href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/26244548_Hormonal_therapy_and_sex_reassignment_A_systematic_review_and_meta-analysis_of_quality_of_life_and_psychosocial_outcomes"
target="_blank">hormone therapy</a>, as have all leading medical associations in
the country, according to the <a rel="noreferrer noopener"
href="https://www.ama-assn.org/press-center/press-releases/ama-states-stop-interfering-health-care-transgender-children"
target="_blank">AMA’s CEO</a>, who also cited research that <a rel="noreferrer
noopener"
href="https://19thnews.org/2023/06/everything-to-know-about-gender-affirming-care/"
target="_blank">gender affirming care</a> improves long-term physical and mental
health, and reduces suicidal ideation.</p> <p>Local leaders and advocates have
called for Maron and fellow CEC member Danyela Souza Egorov to resign or be
removed<strong> </strong>by NYC Schools Chancellor David Banks. Elected members,
serving two-year terms, advise education officials on 32 CECs throughout the
city. </p> <p>“If they’re not going to be removed, they have to engage in
training … There has to be a level of accountability when grownups are the ones
that are harming children,” said Panel for Education Policy member Kaliris
Salas-Ramirez, a CUNY school of medicine neurology professor appointed by
Manhattan Borough President Mark Levine. “My heart breaks.”</p> <p>In addition
to calling the comments “despicable,” a DOE spokesperson said the department
“does not condone the opinions expressed” in the log and added “all children
deserve protection, including LGBTQ+ children.”</p> <p>“Our educators work every
day to make New York City public schools safe and supportive environments for
LGBTQ+ youth,” the DOE spokesperson said.</p> <p>Chancellor’s regulation <a
href="https://www.schools.nyc.gov/docs/default-source/default-document-library/d-210#:~:text=This%20regulation%20sets%20forth%20the,complaints%20of%20violation%20of%20this">D-210</a>
prohibits discrimination or harassment based on gender and other protected
classes, stating “the DOE does not tolerate disrespect towards children.” The
regulation also states that, after an investigation, the chancellor may remove
or suspend members if conduct poses a “danger to the safety or welfare of
students” or “is contrary to the best interest” of the district. </p> <p>The
department receives complaints against CEC members who are thought to be in
violation of the chancellor’s regulations <a href="mailto:
d210intake@schools.nyc.gov">by email</a>. </p> <p>Manhattan City Councilmember
Erik Bottcher, who represents families and children in School District 2, also
denounced the remarks and encouraged disciplinary action. </p> <p>“It is deeply
troubling that CEC members are engaging in demeaning, transphobic smears that
are reminiscent of playground bullies rather than responsible adults tasked with
advocating for the well-being of our kids,” Bottcher said. “Our students deserve
better.” </p> <p>The chat also revealed some members believe hate speech,
racism, white supremacy and other “social justice” jargon are fraught terms used
to “discriminate against” white and Asian people. “The anti-racists are so
racist,” said Maron.</p> <p>That parents with these views have gained power
locally is <a
href="https://www.the74million.org/article/moms-for-liberty-new-york-city-queens-biggest-school-district/">unsurprising
to scholars who study conservative parent rights movements like Moms for
Liberty</a>. The groups and rhetoric are most frequently found in politically
purple or liberal areas where parents feel their voices are sidelined for more
liberal agendas. </p> <p>Pushing back on diversity trainings they find divisive,
for example, one parent asked: “So you can pay to become a racist?” in reference
to a <a
href="https://nypost.com/2023/03/27/uft-whiteness-workshop-canceled-after-influx-of-hate/">canceled</a>,
voluntary workshop hosted by the teacher’s union entitled, “Holding the Weight
of Whiteness.”</p> <p>Maron replied: “For the bargain price of $25.” </p> <p>In
an exchange critiquing the United Federation of Teachers training on power
dynamics in the classroom, Egorov said “this is poisonous and it is destroying
the country.” She did not respond to requests for comment. </p> <figure
class="wp-block-image size-full"><a
href="https://www.the74million.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/redacted-egorgov-text.jpg"><img
decoding="async" loading="lazy" width="999" height="227"
src="https://www.the74million.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/redacted-egorgov-text.jpg"
alt="" class="wp-image-719338"
srcset="https://www.the74million.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/redacted-egorgov-text.jpg
999w,
https://www.the74million.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/redacted-egorgov-text-300x68.jpg
300w,
https://www.the74million.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/redacted-egorgov-text-825x187.jpg
825w,
https://www.the74million.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/redacted-egorgov-text-215x49.jpg
215w,
https://www.the74million.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/redacted-egorgov-text-768x175.jpg
768w" sizes="(max-width: 999px) 100vw, 999px" /></a></figure> <p>Experts who
study civil rights and freedom of speech in the U.S. have witnessed rhetoric
throughout the country, but say there’s a key distinction at play here. </p>
<p>“I think the most dangerous thing about these messages is who they’re coming
from,” said Maya Henson Carey, a researcher with the Southern Poverty Law
Center, “because these people have power to make change.”  </p> <p>On November
20, 2022, Egorov sent the WhatsApp group an explainer to help push back on
social justice terms. The one pager defined diversity as “an attack on merit and
a form of soft bigotry,” adding that accountability is “bullying” and “mob
rule.” A parent immediately responded, “this is good.”</p> <p>The <em>Responding
to Social Justice Rhetoric </em>sheet was created in 2021 by a group of
academics with the Oregon Association of Scholars, a chapter of the National
Association of Scholars, known as a conservative group that has lobbied against
diversity policies.</p> <div class="wp-block-image"> <figure class="aligncenter
size-full"><img decoding="async" loading="lazy" width="1324" height="2046"
src="https://www.the74million.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/00001437-PHOTO-2022-11-20-08-58-38.jpg"
alt="" class="wp-image-719303"
srcset="https://www.the74million.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/00001437-PHOTO-2022-11-20-08-58-38.jpg
1324w,
https://www.the74million.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/00001437-PHOTO-2022-11-20-08-58-38-194x300.jpg
194w,
https://www.the74million.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/00001437-PHOTO-2022-11-20-08-58-38-324x500.jpg
324w,
https://www.the74million.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/00001437-PHOTO-2022-11-20-08-58-38-83x129.jpg
83w,
https://www.the74million.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/00001437-PHOTO-2022-11-20-08-58-38-768x1187.jpg
768w,
https://www.the74million.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/00001437-PHOTO-2022-11-20-08-58-38-994x1536.jpg
994w" sizes="(max-width: 1324px) 100vw, 1324px" /><figcaption
class="wp-element-caption">This is the version of “Responding to Social Justice
Rhetoric” that was shared in the parent WhatsApp group. It has since been
updated in recent years.</figcaption></figure></div> <p>The worksheet serves as
a “translation guide,” for anyone “hoodwinked by language” said Peter
Boghossian, one of its authors. </p> <p>The guide also defined inclusion as
“restricted speech and justification for purges,” and a way to make “people feel
welcomed by banning anything they find offensive.”</p> <p>But inclusion for
LGBTQ students is top of mind for many educators and families nationwide as the
youth mental health crisis worsens. Queer kids, often ostracized from their
homes or communities, are <a
href="https://ocfs.ny.gov/programs/youth/LGBTQ/research.php?TSPD_101_R0=084c043756ab200078499845635f31e9b012b8647bec472db3949bf0885273343bbbad1145880b0108ce51cea31430003d62f5ff6f9106abc310509c8cebe4362c1cc264005f827e074d1e455a69d6e0e5e428df9851a919baf7c356dbdb2962">overrepresented
in New York’s homeless population</a> and foster care<strong>. </strong>They are
also four times as likely than their peers to contemplate suicide, according to
<a
href="https://www.thetrevorproject.org/research-briefs/bullying-and-suicide-risk-among-lgbtq-youth/">The
Trevor Project</a>.</p> <p>New York recently passed a safe haven law legally
protecting trans students and their doctors introduced by state Sen. Brad
Hoylman-Sigal. </p> <p>In the WhatsApp chat, both the law and Hoylman-Sigal were
subject to explicit vitriol by prominent parent leaders. </p> <div
class="wp-block-image"> <figure class="aligncenter size-full"><img
decoding="async" loading="lazy" width="805" height="1328"
src="https://www.the74million.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/Kwok-1.jpg" alt=""
class="wp-image-719307"
srcset="https://www.the74million.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/Kwok-1.jpg 805w,
https://www.the74million.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/Kwok-1-182x300.jpg 182w,
https://www.the74million.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/Kwok-1-303x500.jpg 303w,
https://www.the74million.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/Kwok-1-78x129.jpg 78w,
https://www.the74million.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/Kwok-1-768x1267.jpg
768w" sizes="(max-width: 805px) 100vw, 805px" /></figure></div> <p>Chien Kwok,
former District 2 CEC member and president of local nonprofit Parent Leaders for
Accelerated Curriculum and Education, wrote, “I would imagine Hoylman would have
cut off his penis to transition if he was allowed to run away from his home
state of West Virginia to NY. Do you think Hoylman or his husband would have
regretted Hoylman being a eunuch?”</p> <p>Kwok responded to requests for comment
by reiterating his question for the state senator and adding “the radical
transgender ideologies that [Hoylman-Sigal] supports and turned into law have
harmed countless children and teens in the US and around the world.” </p> <p>A
few hours after Kwok’s original comment, Gutmann, a former NYC private school
parent who denounced his <a
href="https://www.newsweek.com/what-andrew-gutman-letter-brearley-school-decrying-anti-racism-policies-said-1584918">child’s
school’s focus on racism</a>, chimed in: what LGBTQ people and social justice
“ideologues” have in common is “not wanting children, which has made them
anti-children (hence anti-family).” </p> <div class="wp-block-image"> <figure
class="aligncenter size-full"><img decoding="async" loading="lazy" width="640"
height="680"
src="https://www.the74million.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/gutmann-redacted-.jpg"
alt="" class="wp-image-719326"
srcset="https://www.the74million.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/gutmann-redacted-.jpg
640w,
https://www.the74million.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/gutmann-redacted--282x300.jpg
282w,
https://www.the74million.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/gutmann-redacted--471x500.jpg
471w,
https://www.the74million.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/gutmann-redacted--121x129.jpg
121w" sizes="(max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px" /></figure></div> <p>Gutmann later
told The 74 that while the private messages were written “quickly” and “in a
casual tone,” he stands by “everything I have written in this and any other
private chat group in which I have participated.” </p> <p>Hoylman-Sigal said the
“cruel and frankly outrageous” chat history makes clear that, locally, the CEC
members are not able “to safeguard learning for students. The disrespect and
intolerance that is evident in these chats shows just the opposite. To them,
LGBTQ kids, specifically transgender children, are second class.” </p> <p>The
logs are a “call to action,” he added, for CEC leaders, Banks, and parents to
vote them out of office. </p> <p>Though the outcomes of recent school board
elections nationwide show many parents disagree with conservative parent
leaders’ emphasis on limiting classroom discussion of sex and gender, parent
leaders like Gutmann, Kwok, Maron and Egorov have been hoping to expand their
reach. </p> <p>“We need to organize ourselves to recruit CEC candidates so we
can expand our influence and keep it where we have [a] majority,” Egorov wrote
to the group on January 1, 2022. </p> <p>They came close.  </p> <p>Forty percent
of Community Education Council members endorsed by PLACE, the conservative
parent advocacy group co-founded by Maron and Kwok, <a
href="https://www.thecity.nyc/2023/06/20/place-candidates-community-education-councils/">won
in June’s elections</a>.</p> <p>Lawmakers and experts at local LGBTQ nonprofit
<a href="https://gaycenter.org/">The Center</a> are advocating for a new <a
href="https://www.nysenate.gov/legislation/bills/2021/S369">bill</a>, sponsored
by Hoylman-Sigal, requiring that all New York school districts establish
policies to protect nonbinary and transgender students.</p>
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