Jason Bucklin is a recently hired LGBT Education Specialist for the Minnesota Department of Education. Critics found a public lecture from 2019 in which Bucklin discusses the need for preschool teachers to teach their young students about nonbinary identities.
Bucklin, who is involved in LGBT activism, called for children to learn about orientation, gender, and nonbinary identities as young as pre-school and recommended projects for older students to learn that gender is a social construct. His new position will give him a major role in creating curriculums for Minnesota's school districts.
“A couple assumptions that get sometimes made when I’m talking about Out4Good, people might assume it’s a relatively new program and that the work is primarily for high schoolers. We really see the work as starting as early as pre-K,” he said at a 2019 EDTalks lecture.
This talk was part of an ongoing series based on "inclusive classrooms" and was sponsored by a group called Achieve Twin Cities, a local educational organization.
At the time, Bucklin was the LGBTQ program director for Minneapolis Public Schools (MPS), according to his LinkedIn, a role that was tied to Out4Good, a program run by MPS to support LGBT students, staff, and families.
Before Bucklin took the position, there was a job listing for an LGBT Education Specialist starting at $99,000, which would involve “helping schools create LGBTQ school inclusion policies and practices using a racial equity lens to create a safer and more affirming learning environment for LGBTQ students.”
The position also takes direction from the activist group, the Gay, Lesbian, and Straight Education Network (GLSEN), including “comprehensive policy, educator support, student-led clubs, and inclusive curriculum.”
During his lecture, Bucklin promoted many LGBT-themed children's books, including some featuring characters who identify as nonbinary.
“We’ve been having questions about how do we explain nonbinary identities to our preschoolers? If a teacher doesn’t identify as a boy or a girl, how do we explain that to preschoolers who are just learning that there’s only boys and girls,” he said, claiming that children’s books about the topic could be a solution.
He also complained that because children aren't taught about LGBT issues, they miss the chance to address children who use the word "gay" in a derogatory manner.
“I find it interesting that we wrap someone’s performance of masculinity to their orientation … and we start doing that, I’ve heard reports in the schools as early as kindergarten and pre-school,” he said. “Sometimes as adults and educators, we get afraid to actually intervene and talk about what that word means. So what the result is, is for six years, until we think it’s developmentally appropriate to talk about it in a certain way, for six years they get to develop a negative connotation between the word ‘gay’ meaning something bad. And then in sixth grade we’re supposed to untangle that … we’ve let them for six years learn a negative connotation between gay and something bad unless we interject.”
Bucklin also called for middle and high schoolers to have to complete a project that would teach them that gender is a social construct.
“I think about in middle school grades or high school grades what a fun project it would be to have people research and explore different social constructions of gender across the world and throughout time, ’cause you would see so many examples that don’t look like how we structure it here in America. Some cultures have 13 words for gender. Here in America, we’ve had two for a really long time and we’re just now starting to tease that apart. So, what a great way to normalize the idea that societies construct gender in their own way.”
Bucklin is currently the chair of the Queer Equity Institute, an organization that helps LGBT people participate in civic and social engagement and political candidacy, according to the group’s website.
The group’s executive director, Leigh Finke, is a transgender state legislator who proposed a bill to make the state a “refuge” for transgender minors seeking gender-affirming care that may be banned in their home states, thanks to a trend of anti-LGBT laws across the nation.
Do you believe that schools need an LGBT Education Specialist? How would you make sure that LGBT students don't face discrimination? Leave a comment below. Thanks for reading!
you gotta be f****ing kidding. let kids be kids. they want to have their own questions answer when they actually know the damn difference
Maria Gulledge
2023-07-08
This is the left minority trying to push their agenda on a majority that doesn't agree with them. leave children alone. Sex education is a parent' job. It is not a function of a public school teacher. The salary of almost $100,000 could hire three or four assistants in the elementary schools. The parents of these Minnesota school district need to speak out to school district and state education offices. I think the federal education department should be eliminated. State departments of education need to be limited to textbook, and monetary dispersal, and certification functions. no wonder so many teachers are getting out.
Get updates delivered to you daily. Free and customizable.
It’s essential to note our commitment to transparency:
Our Terms of Use acknowledge that our services may not always be error-free, and our Community Standards emphasize our discretion in enforcing policies. As a platform hosting over 100,000 pieces of content published daily, we cannot pre-vet content, but we strive to foster a dynamic environment for free expression and robust discourse through safety guardrails of human and AI moderation.
Local News
