Far Right Extremist Groups are on Tour Targeting Trans Children

Organized and Coordinated Attacks on School Board Meetings Across Illinois and the Nation

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Hate groups like Moms for Liberty and Awake Illinois are on a self-described tour of school board meetings in Illinois. They are targeting access for trans children to gendered facilities such as bathrooms and locker rooms and the ability for the school to support those students in their transition. They are using children as a way to target transgender people.

Deerfield, IL was our start in countering these extremists who are using children as a tool for their bigotry. It was a strange place to start given that the county elected Harris with a 20-point margin. Illinois is also a sanctuary state, with clear state protections against discrimination based on gender identity even in facilities such as restrooms, locker rooms, and changing rooms. Anyone who is uncomfortable, for any reason, has the right to request more private facilities for themselves, but cannot limit access to those facilities based on gender identity. Governor JB Pritzker has been a vocal ally and advocate for trans rights.

Deerfield School District 109 was doing all the right things. They allow access to facilities based on gender identity and have private stalls in their gym locker rooms for anyone uncomfortable changing in the main area.

Despite these options being available for her child, Nicole Georgas, a parent in the Deerfield school district, chose to target a transgender middle school girl in her daughter’s school simply for using the girl’s locker room to change for gym, as is required in their school. She began her attack on the school level, demanding that the transgender student be singled out and excluded from the locker room, then took her complaint to the school board before escalating to federal complaints, harassment, and a national media campaign.

On March 13th, Trans Up Front got the call to attend the school board meeting in Deerfield due to Georgas aligning herself with Moms For Liberty (designated as a hate group by Southern Poverty Law Center). You can read more about the meeting in our article: Anti-LGBT Parents Target Transgender Middle Schooler's Access to School Facilities. Georgas spoke at the meeting, using hate speech, repeating dangerous misinformation about transgender people, and citing Trump’s executive orders targeting trans youth.

Since that first meeting, Georgas has filed several federal complaints against the school district, Illinois State Board of Education, and Chicago Public Schools (despite CPS having no authority over the Deerfield School District). She alleged that they violated Title IX despite many interpretations of Title IX including protections based on gender identity. Several people also participated in an attempt to overwhelm the school district with FOIA requests. Georgas even went so low as to file a police report against the middle school child, which was luckily closed without incident.

Georgas went on a media tour as well, appearing on conservative podcasts and news. As time passed, her story grew more and more absurd. By the end, she was describing a fictional scenario where several school officials walked her daughter into the locker room and watched while they forced her to change her clothes in front of the trans student.

The scenario that Georgas described are demonstrably false, confirmed by both the school district and other parents whose children are in the same gym class. Due to continued harassment, the school board released a statement saying, “The Deerfield Public Schools District 109 Board of Education and administration strongly dispute the patently false allegations that students were forced to change in front of administrators or others.” The statement also described several changing stalls that had been installed in all middle schools in 2017 and condemned the targeting and threats against school board members and administrators.

At their next school board meeting on April 10th, Asher McMaher from Trans Up Front coordinated with the family of the targeted child and several other families of trans students in the same school district who had also become targets. McMaher and Trans Up Front worked to fill the room to capacity with support for the trans children in the district, with more people waiting outside. We coordinated speakers, prioritizing people within the school district, provided resources for those that were speaking, and connected those with written statements who were uncomfortable speaking at the meeting with supportive community members to read those statements.

The school board had a strict 2-minute time limit for speakers due to the high volume at the meeting and prioritized district residents, asking all other speakers to wait until the residents had been able to speak. While those supporting trans students were respectful of the boards rules, stopping on time and deferring to residents, those who attended with Moms for Liberty and other hate groups frequently tried to argue with board members, speak during the time reserved for residents by not including their address on the form, and going over their time limit. Although the second meeting had more anti-trans speakers than the first board meeting, there were still more people in attendance supporting the rights of trans children in school.

The Deerfield School District saga is only part of a larger societal shift driven by the Trump administration’s targeting of trans students. While the hate is certainly not new, it has been emboldened by deliberate misinformation and hateful rhetoric. Moms for Liberty and other similar groups often cite executive orders from Trump, despite active judicial injunctions.

Since the Deerfield school board meetings, Trans Up Front has been contacted about three more school board meetings occurring within the next week. We attended the school board meeting last night (Monday, April 14th) for Valley View School District 365U in Romeoville which was being targeted by Awake Illinois, another fringe organization like Moms for Liberty, and will be attending another tomorrow (Wednesday, April 16th) at Hononegah High School in Rockton.

Organizations like Moms for Liberty, Awake Illinois, Citizen’s Defending Freedom, and others, use language calling for freedom and parental rights while arguing for restrictions on freedom in schools and in society. They say parental rights while arguing against the ability for parents to make informed medical decisions for their children and providing gender affirming care. They say freedom while pushing to restrict access to books and curriculum about any topic that doesn’t align with their beliefs and attitudes. They attend meetings at public school districts and quote the bible when arguing to have their beliefs imposed on everyone in the school community.

Trans Up Front will continue to show up and provide support for communities as they defend trans students. We’ll continue to work with impacted kids and their families to advocate for their needs and rights both in school and outside of school.