{"id":35952,"date":"2023-02-03T13:20:09","date_gmt":"2023-02-03T20:20:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/colorado-teachers-union-backs-lgbtq-inclusion-in-public-schools\/"},"modified":"2026-03-31T08:28:15","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T08:28:15","slug":"colorado-teachers-union-backs-lgbtq-inclusion-in-public-schools","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/colorado-teachers-union-backs-lgbtq-inclusion-in-public-schools\/","title":{"rendered":"Colorado teachers union backs LGBTQ+ inclusion in public schools"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><figure class=\"wp-block-image naviga-inline-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/imengine.public.prod.dur.navigacloud.com\/?uuid=9ffa0a68-3e51-5038-ac5d-1cd2d6af82b7&amp;function=cover&amp;type=preview&amp;source=false&amp;width=2000\" width=\"1007\" height=\"482\" alt=\"Dave Lockley, one of the Colorado Education Association presenters on Jan. 24, is a social studies teacher in Westminster. (Colorado Education Association\u2019s YouTube)\" class=\"naviga-image\" loading=\"lazy\"><figcaption><span class=\"caption\">Dave Lockley, one of the Colorado Education Association presenters on Jan. 24, is a social studies teacher in Westminster. (Colorado Education Association\u2019s YouTube)<\/span><span class=\"credit\">Bailey M. Duran<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>\n<p>The Colorado Education Association, the state\u2019s largest teachers union, on Jan. 24 discussed its 2023 report and initiatives for the year, including increased inclusion and systems geared toward LGBTQ+ educators and students.<\/p>\n<p>The announcement of CEA\u2019s new initiative was met with mixed feelings and an unenthusiastic response from Cortez school leaders, though they didn\u2019t expressly state their opinion.<\/p>\n<p>Others, like U.S. Rep. Lauren Boebert from District 3 slammed the initiative, saying that teachers should focus solely on educating students rather than have inappropriate sexual conversations with minors.<\/p>\n<p>CEA President Amie Baca-Oehlert led the Zoom meeting by discussing the report, which continued discussion points on school safety and teacher shortages and salaries. The question of LGBTQ+ educators in school came up repeatedly as a hot topic for presenters.<\/p>\n<p>Discussing the report\u2019s new segment, titled \u201cProactive inclusion for LGBTQ+ educators and students, \u201d the group noted that one of the top three factors that most negatively affected educators in Colorado was a lack of LGBTQ+ acceptance and inclusion.<\/p>\n<div class=\"naviga-pdf-embed\"><iframe class=\"article-pdf\" src=\"https:\/\/dur-prod-public-pdfs.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com\/EpBJrngavHCv54_kSJniA1g5_YU.pdf\" style=\"width:100%;height:500px;border:1px solid #ddd\" loading=\"lazy\">\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/dur-prod-public-pdfs.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com\/EpBJrngavHCv54_kSJniA1g5_YU.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">CEA_SOE_2023.pdf (Download PDF)<\/a><\/p>\n<p><\/p><\/iframe>\n<p class=\"naviga-pdf-link\"><a href=\"https:\/\/dur-prod-public-pdfs.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com\/EpBJrngavHCv54_kSJniA1g5_YU.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">CEA_SOE_2023.pdf<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>\u201cEighty-five percent of our LGBTQ+ educators are not \u2018out\u2019 at school or in their workplace,\u201d Baca-Oehlert said. \u201cLess than half of transgender, nonbinary, gay, lesbian and bisexual Colorado youth felt that they belonged at their schools. The same goes for LGBTQ+ educators.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Kasey Ellis, a middle school science teacher and president of the Cherry Creek Education Association, said LGBTQ+ educators are targeted and left derogatory notes and other means of harassment by students and other faculty who don\u2019t accept their life choices.<\/p>\n<p>She said the CEA is working with the Social Justice Council to create training for teachers and students to teach them to be more inclusive and accepting.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe need to accept people for who they are, what they\u2019re all about, and help these numbers change,\u201d Ellis said.<\/p>\n<p>The group said change would be best accomplished locally through school board and district resolutions rather than with a statewide approach.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe really want to work with our local school boards and districts around creating more inclusive and safe policies for our educators, and it goes from things like having inclusive bathroom spaces to having protections in place for people to feel like they can be who they are in their workplace,\u201d Baca-Oehlert said.<\/p>\n<p>Dave Lockley, a middle school social studies teacher and president of the District 12 Educators Association in Westminster, said a lack of protections leads to repercussions when \u201ctransgendered staff tried to come out and live their true selves.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Ellis added that \u201cmean and uncool\u201d parents who went to school board meetings seeking to ban LGBTQ+-themed literature in the schools were exacerbating the issue.<\/p>\n<p>According to the LGBTQ+ portion of the report compiled by CEA, a survey in 2022 showed that the \u201cmajority of LGBTQ+ educators work in school environments where they feel neither safe nor supported.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The statistics they gathered showed that 85% of LGBTQ+ educators are not \u201cout\u201d at school and 80% work without \u201cgender-inclusive restrooms.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIn order for our students to thrive, it\u2019s critical that proactive inclusion policies are enacted,\u201d the report stated.<\/p>\n<p>An LGBTQ+ teacher who was surveyed and anonymously quoted in the report said, \u201cI am misgendered all the time. I don\u2019t think my admin is well-equipped to be allies.\u201d<\/p>\n<div class=\"naviga-element naviga-subheadline1\">Local leaders weigh in<\/div>\n<p>The union\u2019s LGBTQ+ initiative met mixed response in Montezuma County and in Montezuma-Cortez School District Re-1.<\/p>\n<p>Rep. Lauren Boebert told <em id=\"emphasis-5e18e640ed07f58f1c7e5ab897edb476\">The<\/em> <em id=\"emphasis-79c97c8eccdc478da4f676fc4a53065d\">Journal <\/em>that schools should focus on education.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cTeachers should be focused on teaching, not on strategies for how to come out as LGBTQ to their students. Students go to school to learn about math and reading \u2013 not their teachers\u2019 sexual preferences. There is no excuse for a teacher to ever talk about explicit sexual topics with minor students.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><em id=\"emphasis-67814499770406070e3fe6135a79a541\">The Journal<\/em> was unable to reach state Rep. Marc Catlin, a Republican from District 58.<\/p>\n<p>Montezuma-Cortez has representatives from CEA in each school in the district who meet to discuss improving the schools and work on CEA\u2019s initiatives.<\/p>\n<p>Roxanne Stephens, the CEA representative for Mesa Elementary where she teaches second grade, declined to comment about CEA\u2019s LGBTQ+ segment of their 2023 report. However, she said she doesn\u2019t like seeing those kinds of debates take place in the schools.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI don\u2019t like seeing those debates in the building because it affects our children. And that\u2019s why I\u2019m there,\u201d Stephens said.<\/p>\n<p>Montezuma-Cortez Superintendent Tom Burris said his focus is on student education, improving test scores and making sure students get the education that allows them to go to any college they want.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cMy focus has been on improving language arts, math, science, social studies and getting kids ready for college,\u201d Burris said. \u201cI have friends who are exactly who you\u2019re talking about, and it\u2019s fine and it\u2019s just that they are what they are. I\u2019m going to focus on state standards of education and raising our scores, which will in turn, make Cortez a better and more attractive place to live. Which in turn, gets people like doctors and lawyers and professionals to move to Cortez.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cMy priorities are that we have great classroom education, that kids will do well on the state tests and that they are able to get it into any college if they want,\u201d Burris said.<\/p>\n<p>While they didn\u2019t directly weigh in on CEA stance, the school board last year <a href=\"https:\/\/www.the-journal.com\/articles\/cortez-school-board-hears-improvement-needed-in-all-schools\/\" id=\"link-98b0091996509d419720617b6cb291a9\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">decided<\/a> not to allow students to have club meetings during lunch or while on school property, and that included the high school\u2019s LGBTQ+ club.<\/p>\n<p>Many from the Fellowship of Christian Athletes club urged the board members to change their decision at a meeting in October.<\/p>\n<p>CEA was founded in 1875. According to its website, the union works to \u201cprovide the best public education for every student.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>CEA represents more than 39,000 K-12 teachers in the state. They are also a branch of the National Education Association, which is America\u2019s oldest and largest organization \u201cdedicated to advancing the cause of public education.\u201d CEA has affiliates in all 50 states and have over 3 million members from preschool to university professionals.<\/p>\n<p>The 2023 CEA report can be viewed online at <a href=\"https:\/\/bit.ly\/CEAinitiative\" id=\"link-c665caa4361a61f536583de4c2806c3d\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">https:\/\/bit.ly\/CEAinitiative<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>initiative comes after report says 85% of educators are not \u2018out\u2019 at school <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":35953,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[21,155,28,1765,216,29,445,367],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-35952","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-cortez","tag-education","tag-headlines","tag-lgbt","tag-montezuma-cortez-school-district-re-1","tag-newsletter","tag-newsletter-lead","tag-u-s-rep-lauren-boebert"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35952","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=35952"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35952\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":83180,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35952\/revisions\/83180"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/35953"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=35952"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=35952"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=35952"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=35952"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}