Teachers union considers replacing word 'mother' with 'birthing parent'

CHICAGO (TND) — Leaked documents from an assembly convened this week by the nation’s largest teachers union allege to show the National Education Association (NEA) is debating a proposal to begin pushing the use of “LGBTQIA+ inclusive” language, like “birthing parent” instead of “mother” and “non-birthing parent” instead of “father," in formal language used by state and local educational entities.

“NEA will inform states and locals of the following sample language that may be put in contracts that is LGBTQIA+ inclusive,” an alleged NEA proposal for a resolution titled NBI 63 reads. “’Parental leave’ instead of ‘maternity leave,’ ‘parent’ instead of ‘mother’ or ‘father,’ ‘birthing parent’ instead of ‘mother,’ and ‘non-birthing parent’ instead of ‘father,’” the proposal, which asks for $5,000 to be implemented, points out.

According to the NEA’s alleged proposal, using such language would relieve members of their anxiety over “how a Board of Education/solicitor defines ‘maternity leave,’ ‘mother,’ and/or ‘father,’” and is a reflection of “how LGBTQIA+ members build their families.”

An NEA spokesperson acknowledged to The National Desk (TND) that “Every year, NEA members submit New Business Items concerning a wide range of issues.”

“Some are intimately tied to NEA operations, and others reflect policy positions delegates would like the organization and its state-level affiliates to take,” they added, saying the group “is committed to democratic processes and open debate,” values of which the spokesperson noted are “fundamental not just to NEA’s vision as a union but to our functioning as a multiracial democracy.”

However, the NEA spokesperson denied the inclusive language resolution was debated this week at its annual “Representative Assembly” held this week in Chicago.

“NBI 63 was not considered by the 2022 NEA RA,” the spokesperson told TND.

Terry Stoops, director of the conservative John Locke Foundation’s Center for Effective Education, posted the images of various proposals the NEA was debating at its conference.

Stoops was later temporarily banned from Twitter because one of the images he posted contained a proposal displaying an NEA Foundation board member’s name and email.

Among the other eyebrow-raising proposals allegedly discussed at NEA’s annual assembly this week, according to Stoops, was a resolution to support national mandatory masking and COVID-19 vaccine policies.

Another alleged proposal discussed at the assembly included a pledge to “take all necessary steps to defeat and overturn the ‘Don’t Say Gay’ law in Florida and other homophobic and anti-transgender laws and attacks throughout the country.”

A key component of Florida's parental rights law, dubbed by left-wing activists as the 'Don't Say Gay' bill, enjoys considerable support from the majority of the American public, according to a March POLITICO/Morning Consult poll.

READ MORE | Wide margin of voters support key element of Florida sex education bill, poll finds

The alleged proposal says the NEA will demonstrate this via support and participation in “mass actions for LGBT rights and Pride.”

Stoops’s leaked images also show discussions from the event included debating on publicly posting members of Congress and their positions on gun control, as well as one discussing the development of “strategies for placing the intersectionality of climate justice and environmental racism at the center of all relevant conversations and business.”