• A conservative group called the Great Schools Initiative (GSI) launched a plan called “Operation Opt-Out” to exploit a Michigan statute that allows parents to opt their children out of sex education in order to erase LGBTQ people from public schools.
• GSI created its own opt-out form to target anything during the school day that acknowledges the existence of LGBTQ people, such as a teacher wearing a rainbow pin or any book with LGBTQ characters.
• GSI has partnered with the Thomas More Society, a far-right legal organization, to enforce the GSI opt-out forms with aggressive legal action.
• The Michigan Department of Education has pushed back against GSI’s plot, stating that parents are not legally entitled to opt children out of programs, practices, and resources outside of sexual education.
• Two Michigan school districts — Rochester and Troy — have already said they will not accept GSI’s form.
• GSI’s organizers are not ready to give up and are planning to challenge the Michigan Department of Education’s memo.
• A Michigan Senate committee is considering legislation to add sexual orientation and gender identity or expression to the state’s anti-discrimination law.
Published February 6, 2023
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