On January 8, 2024, the Dallas Express reported that the Dallas Independent School District “published a resource guide that advises how to transition genders, recommends specific transgender clinics, directs schools to provide students access to restrooms that do not necessarily correspond to their sex at birth, and lists books for elementary students about children who identify as transgender.” The news outlet explained that the district told them the document is only accessible at the request of adults. However, the Dallas Express reported that “the document was previously made public and was openly touted by the school system” and that it “has been shared on social media by the district.”
The document promotes several resources for children who may identify as transgender, including from the Trevor Project, Gender Spectrum, and Human Rights Campaign. One resource is Q Chat Space which offers online chatrooms for children identifying as LGBTQ. Another resource offered is an article that states “the gender spectrum is an understanding that gender is not binary, but rather a spectrum of biological, mental and emotional traits that exist along a continuum.” The document also has an entire section dedicated to resources for “pronouns” and using “they/them.”
Additional resources in the document are for “chest binders” with one resource being a program that “provides free chest binders (specially-designed chest compression garments) to any trans person who needs one and cannot afford or safely obtain one.” Another section of resources is labeled “Medical and Health” which provides links to clinics that provide “hormone therapy, puberty suppression, menstruation suppression, social work support, and mental health services” to children.
Further resources include books that push transgender issues for children in elementary schools. Books include Julian is a Mermaid, When Aidan Became a Brother, Who Are You? The Kid’s Guide to Gender Identity, They, She, He easy as ABC, and My Princess Boy. Books for older students include Being Jazz: My Life as a (Transgender) Teen, Trans Mission: My Quest to Grow a Beard, and If I Was Your Girl.
