Dear Friend,

A school board is on the verge of forcing teachers to out their students
to their parents if a student begins going by a different name or
pronoun.(1)

You’d think this school board is in Texas or Florida, but no. It’s Orange
Unified School District in California.

Extremist policies targeting LGBTQ+ and BIPOC communities are gaining
ground in California, driven by hate groups like Moms for Liberty, but
there has not been a unified progressive effort to push back. That changes
now. Courage California is leading the fight to stop them, and we’re
launching a brand new initiative to call out these hate groups for the
harm they do to our children.

[ [link removed] ]Will you donate to Courage California and stop the extremist takeover
of our schools?

[ [link removed] ]DONATE

Moms for Liberty was designated as a hate group by the Southern Poverty
Law Center for its extremist vitriol.(2) Their playbook includes banning
books that discuss LGBTQ+ or BIPOC issues, blocking trans athletes from
playing sports, and preventing everything from sex ed to the history of
slavery from being taught in classrooms.

Moms for Liberty is funded by a handful of right-wing political families,
but its reach is growing every day. California has more than two dozen
chapters, including in Los Angeles and San Diego.(3)

And slowly but surely, these extremists are making gains in our state:(4)

* In Inland Empire, the Chino Valley school board was California’s first
to start forcibly outing trans students to parents.
* Orange Unified School District’s new Republican-majority board fired
the superintendent without cause and is now pushing an anti-LGBTQ+
“parents’ rights” agenda.
* Temecula’s school board rejected a curriculum that named LGBTQ+ icon
Harvey Milk as a hero and also banned any curricula that discussed
systemic racism.

Forceable outings literally put lives at risk, considering that 80% of
trans kids are abused or neglected by a family member.(5) As one student
in San Ramon Unified School District said, “I hear ignorant adults telling
me that I don’t know what I’m talking about when I talk about my own
feelings. It might not seem like it hurts us, but it does. It hurts us
badly.”(6)

So far, the right wing has been lockstep in their extremism, but
progressives haven’t had a cohesive plan to stop them. That’s why Courage
California is convening groups from across the state this week to hear
from school boards who have fought back these attacks on LGBTQ+ and BIPOC
students so we can get on the same page about stopping them. And we are
devoting significant resources to educating the public about the harms
Moms for Liberty and groups like it are doing, as well as helping to
organize people to stop them in their own districts.

[ [link removed] ]We must act now to stop these extremists. Will you donate today?

Thank you for standing with us!

–Irene, along with Angela, Annie, Isidra, Jen, Sheena, and Lindsay (the
Courage team) 

[ [link removed] ]DONATE

PS: Courage California is fighting for equity and justice across the state
and country. [ [link removed] ]Will you become a monthly donor and help sustain our work?

Donations go to support all of Courage California's work for a more
progressive California and country. Follow us now on [ [link removed] ]Facebook or
[ [link removed] ]Twitter!

Footnotes:
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Courage California (formerly Courage Campaign) makes sure our democracy works for ALL of us by fighting corruption in California politics. We believe the solution lies in exposing and solving systemic problems through strategic organizing, enhancing coordination between progressive organizations, and mobilizing civic engagement from our communities, particularly voters of color, young voters, and self-identified progressives.

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