Stonewall Foundation board members attended the Elk Grove Unified School District board meeting on Feb. 5, with Vice Chair Dharia McGrew and former Treasurer Jeff Edwards speaking in support of adopting a new curriculum that includes LGBTQ…
EGUSD Curriculum Adoption
Please Join Us For Our Second Annual Fundraiser!
The Stonewall Foundation of the Greater Sacramento area would like to invite you to our Second Annual Fundraiser Event Building the Pipeline: LGBTQ+ Leadership, supporting the Laurie McBride Scholarship & Youth Leadership Development. Enjoy wine tasting &…
The Laurie McBride Scholarship now live!
The Laurie McBride Scholarship offers a full scholarship equal to $7,200 for the 2018-19 academic year to a qualified junior or senior with a declared major within SSIS. The scholarship is named for long-time LGBTQ…
Stonewall Foundation condemns threats to Sacramento LGBT Community Center
March 28, 2018 David Heitstuman, Executive Director Sacramento LGBT Community Center 1927 L Street Sacramento, CA 95811 Dear David, We write this letter in response to the LGBT Community Center’s recent receipt of…
The Stonewall Foundation of Greater Sacramento Introduction Reception
The Stonewall Foundation of Greater Sacramento introduced the new nonprofit organization at a reception on November 8, 2017 held at Uptown Studios. Planned to help fund the Laurie McBride Scholarship at Sacramento State University, it…
Administrative Recommendations Concerning Transgender Students
A transgender Rocklin Academy Charter School elementary student was harassed at school and the target of discriminatory policies proposed by parents and conservative groups in the area. This activity came as a result of the child transitioning over the course of a year and bringing the storybooks "I am Jazz" to school for the teacher to read at story time. The teacher read the stories and felt very proud of how well the children handled the discussion. There were false storylines portrayed online, but the school provided a fairly dispassionate statement of the facts. School officials have been very supportive of the teacher and protective of the privacy of the student and her parents in accordance with the law, but they were under attack by parents and conservative organizations, including the Capitol Resource Institute, Pacific Justice Institute, and the California Family Council. These groups were sending inflammatory emails propagating a false narrative of what happened at the school, generating a media frenzy, and pledged to turnout thousands of people for the Rocklin Academy school board meeting held in September.
The issue had been discussed by parents at four board meetings. On Sept. 18 the board considered policies that would 1) require parental notification if "controversial or scientifically dubious" topics are to be discussed at school, which include gender identity and sexual orientation as they equate the topics to HIV and sexual health education;2) prohibit discussion of sexual orientation and gender identity, even when a student is sharing their own story book;
3) require notification and segregate transgender children where a “physical privacy concern” may exist, allowing parents to opt-out their children.
Most importantly, the child, her family, and the school were supported at this meeting by many in our community who opposed these discriminatory proposals that sought to target transgender children. The proposed policies also violated the Fair Education Act and principles of inclusionary education and……DID NOT PREVAIL! A win for children, families and our community in general.
-Sacramento LGBT Community Center
Letter in Support of the Fair Act
Submitted to the California Department of Education’s Instructional Quality Commission in support of full implementation of the Fair, Accurate, Inclusive, and Respectful Education Act. The FAIR Act seeks to build knowledge and appreciation of our pluralistic society by including LGBTQ age-appropriate histories in K-8 public school social studies textbooks.
