(The Center Square) – An education group has uncovered that the second largest school district in California promotes 29 different youth sexual orientations and nine gender identities in its “Equity and Belonging” website’s resources, with the website also stating a commitment to “dismantling systems of oppression.”
Senior director of Strategic Initiatives at Defending Education Paul Runko told The Center Square that San Diego Unified School District “is telling families that Title IX mandates gender-identity policies, despite the Biden administration’s 2024 Title IX rewrite being vacated nationwide.”
Defending Education is an organization dedicated to restoring schools “at all levels from activists imposing harmful agendas” and recently exposed the San Diego Unified policy.
Paul Runko told The Center Square: “One of the concerns with introducing highly politicized materials in schools is that it can create the impression that there is only one acceptable way to think about complex and sensitive issues such as gender identity and race.”
“When students are presented with resources that implicitly or explicitly suggest dissenting viewpoints are ‘wrong,’ it can discourage open discussion and critical thinking,” Runko said.
“At best, this may chill students’ willingness to express their own thoughts,” Runko said.
“At worst, it can steer impressionable children toward a particular political worldview rather than equipping them to think for themselves,” Runko said.
Runko noted that “parents already have an important tool to protect their children from politicized content in schools.”
“In Mahmoud v. Taylor (2025), the Supreme Court affirmed that parents may opt their children out of instruction or materials that conflict with their sincerely held religious beliefs,” Runko said. “Families can and should exercise this right when schools present LGBTQ+ themed content.”
When contacted twice by email, the San Diego Unified School District did not respond.
In a statement obtained by The Center Square, investigative reporter for Defending Education Kendall Tietz said that “California’s second-largest school district has turned its ‘Equity & Belonging’ hub into an engine for ideology rather than education.”
“San Diego Unified is promoting 28 sexual orientations and 9 gender identities, declaring its mission to ‘dismantle systems of oppression and inequity’ and pushing these concepts into the minds of the youngest, most impressionable students,” Tietz said.
Indeed, the LGBTQIA+ Terminology-Student Panel Welcome slides resource presents gender identities such as “demigirl” and “third gender” as well as youth sexual orientations such as “homoflexible,” “gynedemisexual,” and “panromantic asexual” to students.
Tietz stated that “parents and community members who raise concerns [to gender-identity policies] are treated as ‘resistance’ to be managed, with guidance urging staff to ‘rip off the band-aid’ and forge ahead with their activist agenda.
“Staff are pressured to use preferred pronouns under threat of discipline, while classrooms are loaded with partisan materials from groups like Black Lives Matter, the Trevor Project, GLSEN and the Zinn Education Project,” Tietz said.
“This is not neutral education or simple kindness, but politicized programming imposed through the public school system,” Tietz said.
According to Defending Education’s news release on the issue, San Diego Unified’s “Equity and Belonging” website states that transgender students have the right to be treated as their gender identity, be called by names and pronouns that match their gender identity, and be allowed to use restrooms and locker rooms that match their gender identity.
Defending Education’s media relations told The Center Square that San Diego Unified’s “Equity and Belonging” resources’ curriculum guidance begins as early as third grade.
Senior director of communications for Defending Education Erika Sanzi said in a statement to The Center Square: “San Diego Unified is just another example of ideological capture in K-12 and while I suspect most parents and staff aren’t even aware of what’s on this page of their website, it has to be interpreted as the official position of the district.”
“Education is not compatible with a district that believes or even entertains the idea that there are 9 different gender identities and 28 sexual orientations,” Sanzi said. “This lunacy must end or trust will be lost forever.”
