EXCLUSIVE: ‘Genderqueer Shapeshifter’ Provided School District’s Professional Development Training For Teachers

A “genderqueer shapeshifter” gave a professional development training session to educators within a Colorado school district detailing the “do’s & don’ts with language around trans identity” and “the importance of pronouns,” according to a public records request by Parents Defending Education (PDE), a parental rights organization.

In 2021, Silen Wellington, a self-described “genderqueer shapeshifter” and “artist of people,” presented at the Thompson School District’s virtual K-12 counselor meeting, on the basics of the “LGBTQ community,” according to the PDE public records request obtained by the Daily Caller News Foundation. The training taught educators how to “be a better ally” and the difference between sex assigned at birth, gender identity and gender expression. (RELATED: EXCLUSIVE: School Official Instructs Teachers On Hiding Students’ Trans Identities From Parents In Memo Featuring Gender-Bending ‘Harry Potter’ Characters)

“Teachers and staff are responsible for preparing students for academic success in their core subjects,” Caroline Moore, vice president of PDE, told the DCNF. “Meanwhile, administrators force them to prioritize social and emotional staff trainings above all else. This training in Thompson School District is just another example of the social and political influence that administrators, activists and consultants have in their classrooms.”

Educators were taught to define gender dysphoria, gender euphoria, deadnames, transitioning, intersex, asexual, aromantic, two-spirit, queer and nonbinary, the training agenda showed. Wellington explained “they/them pronouns” and neopronouns, a word to serve as a pronoun that does not express gender.

The training detailed “gender dysphoria as a diagnosis” and “why language matters,” the documents stated.

Wellington also hosted a series of professional development trainings at Poudre School District in Colorado, through the 2021-2022 school year including the “ABCs of LGBTQIA” where educators were taught to promote “school culture equity practices.” The school district offered another Wellington training session on “culturally sustaining pedagogy” which told teachers to confront “interpersonal, institutional, cultural and structural racism and other forms of oppression.”

Wellington hosts other workshops for clubs, workplaces and conferences on topics such as “queering your activism,” “LGBTQIA+ 101” and “queer & trans identity,” Wellington’s website showed.

Wellington and Thompson School District did not immediately respond to the DCNF’s request for comment.

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