The largest public school employee union in New Jersey is slated to host an event next week exploring and promoting the history of drag to interested educators.
The New Jersey Education Association (NJEA), a nonprofit that represents approximately 200,000 educators in the state and is affiliated with the National Education Association (NEA), will be hosting the 45-minute program titled “Drag is not a Crime: The Past, Present, and Future of Drag” on Nov. 7 during the two-day NJEA Convention in Atlantic City, according to its website.
The program will take place through the NJEA’s Consortium, which boasts of being “proudly supported by an NEA grant” and “on a mission to put diversity and representation at the forefront of curriculum development.”
The program “explores drag’s history, cultural significance, and future, showing how it serves as art, resistance and activism — challenging norms, advancing LGBTQ+ rights, and promoting social justice and community,” according to an advertisement for the event.
Other programs provided by the NJEA Consortium Area next week to promote an inclusive curriculum include “Unlocking your Future through Breathwork and Visioning,” “Cultivating Equity Centered Schools through Action” and “Reimagining Inclusion: Mindset Shifts for Equitable, Neurodiverse School Communities.”
Also included are programs on using AI to design “pluralistic instruction,” illuminating “New Jersey’s mandated narratives,” as well as a workshop focused on “Teaching Palestine.”
The NJEA Consortium did not immediately respond to The Christian Post’s request for comment.
The NJEA Consortium and its planned workshop are scheduled to take place just days after the 2025 New Jersey gubernatorial election, during which all seats in the Democrat-controlled New Jersey General Assembly will also be on the ballot. The NJEA Political Action Committee has endorsed Democrat Mikie Sherrill for governor as well as 58 Democrats and nine Republicans seeking seats in the General Assembly.
The NJEA Consortium has hosted similar pro-LGBT events in the past, such as a “Drag Queen Story Hour” at its NJEA Convention in 2022.
The event that year saw two drag queens named Astala Vista and Vinchelle make an appearance to read controversial pro-LGBTQ children’s books and “to answer questions from the audience, take photos, in all their dazzling iridescence,” according to the organization’s website.
Programs that year featured workshops emphasizing how best to implement LGBT-affirming materials in lesson plans, including one that focused on “healthy teen sexuality.”
Teachers unions promoting LGBT ideology have been a recurring theme in multiple countries in recent years.
In 2023, the Defense of Freedom Institute (DFI), founded by two former Trump administration Department of Education officials, released a report describing pro-LGBT topics promoted by the American Federation of Teachers and the National Education Association.
According to DFI, the unions sought “to train teachers to affirm every gender identity that conflicts with a student’s sex, ignore basic biological facts, hide the training from parents, and shape school policies to force others to do the same.”
That same year, the National Education Union in the United Kingdom passed a motion demanding school support for drag queen story time in a supposed effort to create safe spaces for LGBT students.
Jon Brown is a reporter for The Christian Post. Send news tips to jon.brown@christianpost.com
