The Biden administration handed out millions to researchers running an experimental program that pulls kids out of class for training on becoming LGBTQ activists.
Under the $2.5 million National Institute for Health (NIH)-funded program, a dozen schools are tasked with recruiting students to participate in a paid 10-week long “intervention” designed to help LGBTQ-identifying youth “cope with the effects of minority stress,” according to the grant description.
Sample sessions in the intervention, titled Proud & Empowered (P&E), feature topics like “Coming Out, Disclosure And Decision Making” and “Families Of Origin And The Families We Create,” according to the program flier.
One sample lesson listed on the website asks students to read articles “that display LGBTQ+ youth leadership in their local community,” such as high schoolers leading classroom walk-outs and marches.
Another session includes LGBTQ+ history video and a “queer history” jeopardy game.
Students do not appear to need parental permission to participate. Researchers requested a waiver for the parental permission requirement, which they worried could “put some sexual minority youth at risk regarding disclosure of their sexual orientation to their parents,” according to the study protocol document.
“This may then place these youth at risk for parental harassment, abuse, or expulsion from the parental home,” the document continues.
A Michigan group received federal funds for a “family therapy” program that instructs parents to affirm their child’s gender confusion — and enlists public school districts in the effort. pic.twitter.com/WeCJNvNDxq
— Katelynn Richardson (@katesrichardson) December 9, 2024
Financial incentives are available to program participants, according to the P&E website. Students can receive a $75 gift card, school staff can receive $1,000 and schools can receive a $4,000 honorarium, which P&E hopes will go towards “improving LGBTQ+ programming and support.”
In total, 24 high schools in the Los Angeles area will participate in the study, with half receiving the intervention and the other half making up a control group that will not receive it, according to the grant announcement. Students as young as 12 and old as 20 may participate, according to the eligibility criteria.
“The primary role of the school involves recruiting 8-12 LGBTQ+ students to participate in the intervention once a week for 10 weeks,” the P&E website explains. “Intervention sessions may take place during periods throughout the day, in a homeroom period, or a lunch break.”
The researchers previously received a federal grant in 2019 for a smaller scale test of the intervention at four schools. The latest grant was awarded in 2022, with a project end date set for 2026.
“When schools lack SGM [sexual and gender minority] bullying policies, SGM students are more likely to report suicidality than peers in schools with protective policies,” the grant description explains. “Studies also indicate that SGM victimization is more common in schools that lack protective policies and resources such as gender and sexuality alliances (GSAs), SGM-specific antibullying guidelines, teacher and staff training, and openly supportive allies.”
Researchers expect the intervention to “a) reduce minority stress; b) improve behavioral health and coping along SGM; and c) create sustainable change in school climate to improve the health of this high need population of youth.”
Washington University professor Jeremy Goldbach, who is leading the study and launched P&E in 2010, said that the intervention “is quite literally the culmination of thousands of kids’ input.”
“Looking back at all the youth who gave us their time, let us interview them, took our surveys and helped us learn, it is humbling,” he said after the grant was announced in 2022.
Goldbach’s work, which focuses on “minority stress and discrimination among LGBTQ+ children and adolescents,” has been “continuously funded” by several federal agencies since 2012, according to his profile.
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