Anti-LGBTQ+ parents form ‘breakaway’ classroom after trans student outed to school
Israeli LGBTQ+ activists protest during event. (Getty)
The Israel Education Ministry has condemned a ridiculous “breakaway” classroom organised by parents to keep children away from a trans student.
The classroom in Givat Shmuel was formed after a trans student was forcibly outed to the parents of school children.
The anonymous student’s ordeal was made public in an August 2022 edition of the Hebrew newspaper B’Sheva.
It reported that after parents discovered his trans identity, a furore erupted. Several accused administration staff who had respected the student’s privacy of abandoning their own children by simply letting them stay in a classroom with a non-cisgender participant.
Since then, those parents have tried fruitlessly to distance their own children from the individual by attempting to move schools.
After attempts failed, the group planned to create a breakaway classroom to exclude the trans student.
According to Israel National News, parents were joined by Rabbi Eliyahu in a collective video call prior to the Hanukkah break, where he said: “You are the spearhead to this very important battle and we must all mobilise and stand behind you.”
Parents have made baseless claims that the existence of the trans student was creating “many psychological issues”, that he had disrupted a once well-behaved class and that, ridiculously, their mere presence had caused children to have violent outbursts and nightmares.
One mother went as far as to claim that a child had started to “wet his bed”.
“We have nothing against the child concerned,” the anti-trans parent said. “And we feel very sorry for [him]… We, as religious parents, chose to send our children to a state-religious school that educates them toward certain values.”
The Israel Education Ministry said it is “vehemently opposed to any boycott or calls for a boycott which primarily harm the student concerned”.
“The Ministry will not sanction the opening of a class which does not follow Ministry guidelines.”
A statement added that the education system in the country is “required to provide educational solutions for all students in an inclusive and equality-based manner.”
I said it was attempting to deal with the matter “professionally and with sensitivity,” but that it could not elaborate because of “privacy concerns.”
The debacle comes after the appointment of a new Israeli government which has raised concerns about the future of LGBTQ+ rights.
Prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud party has formed a new coalition with hardline parties including the anti-LGBTQ+ Noam party. Its leader Avi Maoz, now serving as a deputy minister within the Israeli office, has already expressed his condemnation towards newly appointed gay speaker Amir Ohama during his first speech.
Orit Strock, a member of the far-right Religious Zionism Party and the incoming national missions minister, has already implied doctors will soon have the ability to refuse to treat people, including LGBTQ+ patients, on religious grounds.
