Drag Race UK stars back trans teacher’s campaign for major education role
Kacey DeGroot would be the first trans person in the role (Supplied)
Kacey DeGroot would be the first trans person in the role (Supplied)
RuPaul’s Drag Race UK stars and the great and good of LGBTQ+ activism have signed an open letter endorsing a secondary school teacher to be the first trans person elected as deputy general secretary of Europe’s largest teaching union.
Kacey DeGroot, a drama teacher from Coventry who served five years as the LGBTQ+ seat holder for the National Education Union (NEU) executive, is seeking to be elected to the second-in-command role at the union which represents around 500,000 members working across the education sector.
DeGroot, who wants to fight against anti-LGBTQ+ rhetoric in schools, is up against Sarah Kilpatrick, an art teacher, for the position.
DeGroot describes herself as a “candidate for all educators” and she is keen to build equality and representation across the union and speak truth to power to “rebuild the profession, social justice, and an equitable and diverse education system for students”.
Whilst only NEU members can vote in the deputy general election, with postal ballots needing to be received by 30 September, DeGroot has been endorsed in an open letter by a raft of notable queer names including activists, influencers and Drag Race UK stars.
“As LGBT+ people we know and understand the powerful impact places of education can have on LGBT+ young people,” the open letter reads.
“This impact can be empowering, affirming, and liberating. Or it can be debilitating, humiliating and crushing. It can be the difference between life and death.”
Signatories state DeGroot is “not only perfectly placed to take on this role as a proven change maker, but that it’s vital that a trans woman of her experience and stature not only have a voice but a leading place at the table”, adding: “With trans-denial in new RSE guidance, the recent Supreme Court ruling and impending guidance on trans students from the EHRC code of practice review, it is not only critical we have a strong LGBT+ voice at the table, it’s life-saving.”
The open letter goes on to outline LGBTQ+ people need someone who can “help lead the educators of the NEU through these turbulent post Section 28 times”, who “understands the union from the ground up”, is “a day-to-day educator” and who “advocates not just for the voices of all NEU educators; teachers, support staff, supply staff, Welsh members and the Equalities sections, but also for the youth of today facing turbulent and uncertain times”.
“Kacey is exactly what this union and all of us needs,” it concludes.
Signatories include drag icons Baga Chipz, Bimini, Divina De Campo, Kitty Scott-Claus, Drag Queen Story Hour founder Aida H Dee, former Stonewall boss Nancy Kelley, UK Black Pride founder Phyll Opoku-Gymah and I Kissed a Girl star Amy Spalding, amongst many others.
On DeGroot’s campaign website, she explained she is standing for the role because the time feels right and with around ten years left until retirement she wants to dedicate at least five years of that time to the NEU to “improve and change the state of education in this country, for all educators, and every student, for the better”
She added her lived experience as a trans woman drove the work she undertook as the executive’s LGBTQ+ seat holder.
“I’m a fifty something trans woman who transitioned as a forty-something in the same Coventry secondary school,” she wrote. “Back in 2017 I was accepted and welcomed by my school community. I’ve watched the reality for trans people shift, largely through right-wing-driven and funded ‘culture wars’. My workplace has changed dramatically because of this.
“My lived experience and understanding of oppression has driven my work as LGBT+ executive member. I speak up and I speak out. Not only for trans and LGBT+ rights but also for Black members and students, Disabled people, and women. I’ve grown LGBT+ members under my leadership. From 14,000 to 20,000 since my last election. They are also overrepresented as reps, officers, and district secretaries.”
She continued: “I believe that, in these times, a trans woman as part of the leadership of the NEU will be groundbreaking and narrative shifting. I will use the platform for all of our members and workplaces.”
