A new watchdog report is shining a harsh spotlight on what critics say is yet another example of a public school district drifting away from academics and parental transparency and toward radical gender ideology. According to a report from Defending Education, the San Diego Unified School District (SDUSD) is promoting policies and materials that allow students to change their names and gender identities at school—potentially without parental knowledge—while inundating classrooms with activist-driven identity politics.
At the center of the controversy is SDUSD’s so-called “Equity and Belonging” website, which reads less like a school resource hub and more like a political manifesto. The site includes a “Name & Gender Change Form” that allows students to request changes to how they are identified in school records, including names and pronouns, while explicitly emphasizing a student’s “right to privacy” regarding their transgender status or gender nonconforming identity.
In plain English, critics argue, this means students can socially transition at school while parents are kept in the dark.
The form asks for a student’s legal name, district ID number, and legal sex, then invites the student to supply a new name, pronouns, and information about whether parents or guardians are “supportive.” From there, students are given two options: either limit the name and gender change to internal teacher and substitute rosters, or extend it to official documents such as report cards, school mailings, and even diplomas.
Defending Education and other parent advocacy groups say this raises serious red flags. Allowing minors to alter core identity markers in official school records without mandatory parental notification, they argue, undermines parental rights and common sense.
But the name-change form is just the beginning.
The district’s “Youth Advocacy” page features a slideshow titled “LGBTQIA+ Terminology,” which lists a staggering 28 sexual orientations and nine different gender identities. Among the identities promoted are “demigirl,” “demiboy,” “genderfluid,” “third gender,” and “agender.” These concepts are rooted in the belief that gender is not fixed, not binary, and not even whole—an idea many parents and taxpayers strongly reject.
The slideshow goes on to define a “third gender” as someone who identifies with a gender “completely different from the binary genders,” and lists sexual orientations such as “panromantic,” “graysexual,” and “biromantic homosexual.” Critics argue that this kind of content has little to do with math, reading, science, or preparing students for the real world—and everything to do with ideological indoctrination.
Even more troubling to many families is a document included on the site titled “Responding to Resistance (LGBT+ Guide).” The guide frames concerned parents as obstacles to be managed rather than partners in their children’s education. One example question reads: “It is against the religious beliefs of my family for my child to hear anything about gay people. Why are you teaching about the gay lifestyle?”
The district’s response makes clear where it stands. Teachers, the guide says, are simply doing their jobs by exposing students to various sexual identities. It concludes by stating that while educators are not tasked with changing religious beliefs, it *is* their job to “change how we respond to the most vulnerable populations.”
Translation: if your faith or values conflict with district ideology, the district will not accommodate you.
The guide further warns that teachers who refuse to use a student’s preferred name or pronouns would likely face disciplinary action. It cites district policy requiring compliance with an expansive definition of nondiscrimination that includes gender identity and gender expression alongside race, religion, and national origin.
Defending Education did not mince words in its assessment. A reporter for the organization told Fox News Digital that SDUSD’s Equity and Belonging hub “reads less like a resource for families and more like a political playbook,” adding that it prioritizes activist materials over core academic instruction.
Even more concerning, the group noted that the district claims Title IX requires these gender-identity policies—despite the Biden administration’s 2024 Title IX rewrite having been vacated nationwide. In other words, the district is advancing policies that do not currently reflect federal law.
Public schools, critics argue, should focus on educating students, not experimenting on them with radical social theories or sidelining parents in the process. As more families wake up to what’s happening inside their children’s classrooms, San Diego Unified may find that “resistance” is not a fringe problem—but a growing movement of parents demanding accountability, transparency, and a return to basics.
Once again, the question facing America’s public schools is simple: Who decides how children are raised—their parents, or bureaucrats armed with ideological checklists?
