The U.S. Naval Academy is offering a voluntary “Transgender 101” workshop for faculty, staff and cadets this Friday.
Annapolis will host two one-and-a-half-hour sessions conducted by “transgender trainers” Kevin Perry and Marnie Florin. Participants are invited to register online at the academy’s Center for Teaching and Learning (CTL) website. The first session is for faculty and staff and the second is reserved for midshipmen, or cadets. The CTL is paying for the training that is expected to attract over 120 students and staff in total.
According to an email released from Annapolis last Friday and obtained by the Washington Free Beacon, those successfully completing the seminar will have the opportunity to publicly display their support for the “trans community.”
“On Friday, December 9, the Center for Teaching & Leaning welcomes Kevin Perry and Marnie Florin who will be presenting Transgender 101: Gender Identity in the Workplace,” the email said. “Marnie and Kevin have given this workshop at Google offices around the globe to more than 2,500 employees.”
“Kevin and Marnie teamed out to create the Trans 101 session with the hope that it would create more supportive and inclusive workplaces by helping people better understand the trans experience and what it means to be an ally to the trans community.”
“Attendees will receive door cards, which they may display if they wish, to indicate that they are allies,” the email promised.
According to Florin’s website, the diversity instructor “identifies as gender neutral and goes by the pronouns ‘ze’ or ‘they.'”
Florin’s first attempt at “LGBTQ training” occurred when she was a volunteer for the U.S. Peace Corps in West Africa. After working for the Los Angeles Gay & Lesbian Center, “ze organized and canvassed for gay marriage.”
Florin created her Transgender 101 training “after coming out as gender neutral at Columbia Business School” and realizing that her “peers were a bit confused and had a lot of questions.” “Ze” told the New York Times, “I was really disappointed to find that the L.G.B.T. community at Columbia Business School consisted of so many white, cisgender men” (those comfortable in the sex assigned at birth). Few were transgender or lesbian.”
The training now occurs every year at Columbia, where Florin succeeded in creating “a gender neutral bathroom” and “an option other than male and female” for the admissions application form. While working for Google, she and colleague Kevin Perry developed “Transgender @Google,” which has also been presented to staff at YouTube and Twitter.
The United States Navy fully supports the transgender training. In a news release of Nov. 7, 2016, the chief of naval personnel public affairs announced: “To remain the finest seagoing fighting force the world has ever known, the Navy needs men and women who are the right fit for the right job regardless of race, gender, sexual orientation, creed, or gender identity.”
Annapolis spokeswoman Dr. Karyn Sproles did not respond to queries from The Daily Caller for comment.