California school district pays trans organization thousands to provide resources, staff training for students

(Daily Caller) – A California school district has been paying a non-profit transgender family organization to provide staff training and resources to students, according to documents obtained by the Daily Caller News Foundation.

Since the 2020-2021 school year, Poway Unified School District (PUSD) in Poway, California, has paid $3,000 per year to Transfamily Support Services (TFSS), a nonprofit organization focused on “shaping a gender affirming and accepting community,” to provide staff training at every school within the district, according to documents obtained by the DCNF. Under the Memorandum of Understanding that concludes after the 2022-2023 school year, TFSS staff must serve as an advisor and resource for the school district’s Gay Straight Alliance clubs.

“TFSS has had a long working relationship with PUSD, which has not been brought to public scrutiny for lack of accountability and transparency on the part of the school district,” Wenyuan Wu, executive director of Californians for Equal Rights Foundation, a group that focuses on equal rights in education, told the DCNF.

TFSS training and education services include training workforces in “gender competency,” the organization website stated. The school specific services aim to train educators to affirm trans youth at school.

“TFSS and PUSD have benefitted from a strong informal partnership in the past and have collaborated on many efforts to ensure an inclusive setting for all students,” the Memorandum of Understanding obtained by the DCNF read. “TFSS has made mini presentations to principals, counselors, student services specialists and a few school sites as well as assist in the formation and support of Gay Straight Alliance clubs on campus and as a resource for parents and students.”

TFSS is set to provide 90-minute trainings at every school within the district until the contract finishes in June 2023, the documents obtained by the DCNF stated. TFSS staff is to be a resource to students, staff and parents until the contract concludes.

TFSS has a “Gender Junk Program” which helps provide “transgender youth” with gender affirming items such as chest binders, packers and bras, the organization’s website showed.

As a part of the contract, PUSD is responsible for helping TFSS obtain necessary funding in order to “continue and expand collaborative services” with the school, the contract showed.

In September, parents within the PUSD created a database documenting all sexually explicit books offered within the school district. Books in the district libraries included “Fun Home,” a graphic memoir about a girl who discovers she is a lesbian in college and “Gender Queer: A Memoir,” a graphic memoir which includes illustrations of characters masturbating and giving oral sex.

“The collusion between PUSD and TFSS is tantamount to child grooming,” Wu told the DCNF. “It erodes the fundamental right of parents to direct their child’s upbringing. It is also a snapshot of the corrosive politicization in our public education.”

TFSS and PUSD did not immediately respond to the DCNF’s request for comment.