Polyamory, ‘Genderqueers,’ and Pagans ‘Oppressed’ in U.S., Public School Teachers Instructed

Public school officials in a conservative, Bible Belt state had teachers attend a training session insisting that United States policy oppressed “nonbinary, genderqueer,” “polyamorous,” and “pagan” people and favored white, heterosexual Christians. Participants were expected to share their ideology with their students, underscoring how badly America’s children need “the joy and the hope that comes from a Christian worldview,” an expert analyst of U.S. public education declared.

Teachers in Tennessee’s Clarksville-Montgomery County School System learned that the U.S. operates as a “system of oppression” at the 2023 “Engage” professional learning conference, according to documents obtained by Parents Defending Education (PDE). U.S. laws allegedly confer “privilege status” on “white,” “able-bodied,” “men, cisgendered,” “heterosexual,” “Christian” Americans. Those purportedly suffering under an “oppression status” include “person of color”; “woman, trans, nonbinary, genderqueer,” “LGBQ+, polyamorous”; as well as all non-Christians religions, including “pagan.” The sheet also included “children and adolescents” among the oppressed — associating students with polyamorous genderqueers against their Christian parents.

Participants were told “The World Needs More Purple People,” who are “everyday superhero[es]” who use “DEI (Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion) to connect” with others, presumably including their students.

The district emphasized that “triggering phrases,” such as asking “how did you celebrate Christmas?” can inflict “trauma from language.” The slide presentation also quoted Mother Teresa in service of the “purple” agenda.

The guidelines from Clarksville — a mid-sized Tennessee town where 55% of voters supported Donald Trump in 2020 — “encourage teachers and administrators to discriminate” against students and their families, said Nicki Neily, co-founder of Parents Defending Education, on “Washington Watch” Wednesday. The ideologically polarized standards “break students into two groups, oppressors and oppressed.”

“I resent the fact that we have school administrators and public officials who are trying to put people into buckets to make sure that they are considered members of identity groups and not seen as individuals,” Neily told guest host and former Congressman Jody Hice. “They are not only trying to pit people against each other, but also trying to normalize some questionable behavior.”

Although less than one-in-four Americans believes polygamy is a moral behavior, America’s most prominent jurists have warned it could be the next domino to fall in the redefinition of marriage that began with same-sex couples.

In his dissent to the Supreme Court’s controversial 2015 Obergefell v. Hodges opinion, Chief Justice John Roberts noted the 5-4 decision has no basis in the Constitution and “offers no reason at all why the two-person element of the core definition of marriage may be preserved while the man-woman element may not. It is striking how much of the majority’s reasoning would apply with equal force to the claim of a fundamental right to plural marriage.”

“If not having the opportunity to marry serves to disrespect and subordinate gay and lesbian couples, why wouldn’t the same imposition of this disability … serve to disrespect and subordinate people who find fulfillment in polyamorous relationships?” asked Roberts.

Last September, New York City Civil Court Judge Karen May Bacdayan quoted his words as she declared “the time has arrived” to legalize polyamory via judicial fiat. After citing Obergefell seven times, Bacdayan said “the problem with [previous same-sex marriage rulings] is that they recognize only two-person relationships.”

Seven years after Obergefell, the original draft of the so-called Respect for Marriage Act did not limit marriage to two people. One of the bill’s co-sponsors chalked this up to a “drafting error.” But legal expert Roger Severino of The Heritage Foundation concluded the final version which President Joe Biden signed into law “leaves open the possibility that one person can be in multiple two-person marriages at the same time.”

Over time, the legal theory wed critical theory, which presents all social interactions as a forms of oppression so pervasive-yet-subtle that it can be observed only by those who accept the Marxist-inspired theory.

If it weren’t “so sinister, it would be comical that K-12 teachers are being taught that polyamorous people are oppressed,” Neily’s colleague, PDE Director of Outreach Erika Sanz, told Fox News. “This is all based on critical theory, and it has no place in our schools.”

“That’s what you get when you have atheism being pushed as a state-sponsored religion,” said Hice. “They don’t want to give up their power and they want to keep pushing atheism.”

The state of Oklahoma felt the brunt of organized atheism after approving the first Christian charter school, St. Isidore of Seville Catholic Virtual Charter School, on June 5. Americans United for Separation of Church and State, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), Education Law Center, and the Freedom From Religion Foundation promptly sued, claiming the school would “discriminate” against LGBTQ-identifying students.

The “Engage” materials also included a transgender component, encouraging attendees to read “Safe Space Kit: Guide to Being an Ally to LGBT Students” from GLSEN (Gay, Lesbian, & Straight Education Network), an LGBT activist group that has encouraged teachers to insert transgender ideology into math problems.

While Tennessee’s taxpayers must underwrite “the glorification of all kinds of degeneracy. … [Oklahoma’s atheists] don’t even want this beautiful, faithful option for parents,” Meg Kilgannon, senior fellow for Education Studies at the Family Research Council, told Hice on Wednesday. “I’m very glad that Oklahoma is laying down this marker and attempting to set the standard to make this an option. But we have to remember also that we can't tolerate this nonsense that we have in the schools right now because it is literally deforming the minds of generations of children.”

Clarksville-Montgomery County Schools officials emphasized that teachers did not have to attend the event and otherwise deflected responsibility. “Since this presentation was developed independently by educators and not developed or delivered by the District, I do not have any additional information on the presentation,” said a school spokesperson.

While the school district remains unrepentant, Neilly said PDE made their actions known to “a number of state officials.” While politicians may be slow to respond to parents’ concerns due to the August recess, “we’re going to be following up with them when they get back in September.”

Until legislation changes, parents have to act as the last line of defense against morality-warping lessons, said Kilgannon.

“You really need to be as engaged as you can possibly be. Check the backpacks. Read the textbooks. Get their passwords for their online accounts — don’t just accept the parent password that the school issues you; make your kid give you their password. And look at what they’re doing in their classes, if they have an online component, which most do now.”

“You really have to go the extra mile to be engaged as a parent these days, because the education our children are being given now bears very little to no resemblance to the one that we received, maybe even in the very same school building,” lamented Kilgannon.

“If you can get your kids out of public schools, that’s probably the best thing to do, unfortunately, right now,” she continued. “But we can’t just remove our own kids. We need to insert ourselves into the system that’s so desperately needs the love and the joy and the hope that comes from a Christian worldview.”

“We all have to pray for families, for kids in school.”