A transgender high school science teacher — during a video conference that included a U.S. Department of Education senior adviser — declared that students should be taught that “not all egg producers are women” along with other gender-inclusive principles.
What are the details?
In a Twitter video posted by Libs of TikTok, the teacher in question — Sam Long — tells other conference participants — including Christian Rhodes, senior adviser to the secretary at the Department of Education — that it’s necessary to be a “stickler for inclusive language” in the classroom.
Rhodes — who previously served as chief of staff for the DOE’s Office of Elementary and Secondary Education — is seen nodding as Long speaks about inclusivity.
Long adds that “I mostly taught biology,” which is about “life and living things” — and that “we need to be clear that we’re including all living things, including all people …”
Long then says when teaching about “cell division or reproduction, a lot of textbooks, a lot of existing teaching will say, ‘Women produce eggs; males are more likely to be colorblind; the mother carries the fetus for this many months.’” Long then says “some ways we can show our support for trans and non-binary students is to clean up that language … we can be more accurate and be more inclusive.”
The teacher then declares, “I would say, ‘No, it’s not women that produce eggs; it’s ovaries that produce eggs.’ That’s accurate. That’s precise. We’re acknowledging that not all women produce eggs, and not all egg producers are women, for example. And we’re teaching students that language matters.”
Long — the only individual heard speaking in the video — is in the bottom-left square in the following screenshot; Rhodes is in the bottom-right square:
Image source: Twitter video screenshot via @libsoftiktok
The date and purpose of the video conference aren’t clear, although Libs of TikTok said in the text accompanying the video that the Department of Education “held a training for teachers to learn how to be inclusive” toward “tran[s] and non-binary K-12 students.” Libs of TikTok also said the USDE is “promoting” the ideas the teacher espoused in the clip:
The Dept of Education held a training for teachers to learn how to be inclusive of tran and non-binary K-12 students. \n\nThis trans teacher says he teaches inclusive language like not everyone who produces eggs is a woman. \n\nThe official U.S. Dept of Ed is promoting these ideas.pic.twitter.com/V7aEYIlirz— Libs of TikTok (@Libs of TikTok)
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The Department of Education on Wednesday didn’t immediately reply to TheBlaze’s request for comment regarding its position on gender-inclusive language — such as “not all egg producers are women” — or the video conference’s purpose.
Anything else?
In the video, Long mentions a website — Gender-Inclusive Biology — that Long founded with “two other trans-identified high school teachers” as well as the site’s “language guide” that helped inform Long’s inclusive-language push stated in the clip.
Long wrote last month in a National Education Association member spotlight that “when students learn biology, they are entitled to see their lives reflected in this so-called study of life. I grew up learning that a baby is made when a sperm cell from the dad meets the [egg cell] from the mom and that’s not good enough. For today, that language doesn’t represent our diverse genders, sexualities, and families in our schools. So, I created genderinclusivebiology.com, a growing collection of resources and training on how to teach accurate inclusive and future-ready biology, and I look forward to continuing the work of creating classrooms where every student belongs.” The essay’s bio states, “Sam Long is a Science Teacher in Denver, Colorado.”
This content was originally published here.