Elementary Ed Wood

Wherever he is, long-deceased underground filmmaker Ed Wood must feel vindicated. Back in the 1950s, when the fly-by-night producer made his sex-change drama Glen or Glenda, the movie flopped, despite the luster given it by the presence of has-been horror star Bela Lugosi.

Wood’s arena—transexualism—was considered outside the mainstream. Now, it is the mainstream, at least in public schools.

“In Madison, WI, nearly all the middle schools have homosexual clubs,” according to Mission America. “In New York, many middle schools recently observed the ‘Day of Silence’ in April and a January event called ‘No-Name Calling Week.”

“Both originated with GLSEN, the Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network.” But wait, there’s more.

It is the “T” in “LGBT”( Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender) that public school officials are desperately trying to cross. As Tony Bennett would say, the best is yet to come.

“In 2006, near Toms River, N. J., a substitute kindergarten teacher in his 70s who calls himself Lily McBeth came to school dressing as a woman,” Linda Harvey reports in the Mission America newsletter Choice 4 Truth. “Yet even after an outcry from parents, the school board refused to fire him.”

“He is still employed and still teaching.” Additionally, Harvey reveals that:

• “Last fall, a male high school teacher in Batavia, N Y began dressing as a woman. Some parents asked to have their kids transferred to another class. The request was denied and the teacher could not be fired, because ‘gender identity’ is protected as a disability under N Y law.

• “In 2001, a male middle school principal in Wilmette, IL, returned to school after summer vacation as a woman, having undergone sex change surgery. The school did not fire him but offered ‘counseling’ to children and parents to cope with the change.

• “A male art teacher in Eastchester, NY returned to school as a woman, and
• “A Northbrook, IL science teacher also had female-to-male sex change surgery before returning to her/his teaching post.

• “Cony High School in Augusta, Maine, adjourned at 8:30 am one morning a few months ago for a ‘Diversity Day,’ which included a workshop for freshman students called ‘Transgendering.’ It included a presentation by a former student who is now undergoing male hormone treatments and says she is a boy.”

“Such programs have been routine for about a decade in Massachusetts,” Harvey notes. “And this spring, in Fresno, CA, a girl ran for prom king.” There is probably a high school somewhere in the United States today where the prom king and queen are the same person.

Malcolm A. Kline is the executive director of Accuracy in Academia.