National Education Association webinar “defending LGBTQ+ civil rights in public schools” starts with land acknowledgement and encourages teachers to be activists; speaker bemoans his white privilege

On January 15, 2025, the National Education Association (NEA) held a webinar for educators on the topic of “Preparing for a Second Trump Administration.” The NEA held another webinar on the topic on January 16 titled “Defending LGBTQ+ Civil Rights in Public Schools.” Similar to the previous webinar, this one also started with a land acknowledgment from an individual who is a board director for the NEA’s “Aspiring Educators Program.” He accused the United States of “colonialism” and encouraged teachers to be “activists.”

The main speaker of the evening was announced as an NEA senior policy analyst and program specialist “who works in NEA’s human and civil rights department in the Center for Racial and Social Justice.” This speaker notably claimed he had white privilege:

I come to you presenting as a white male that has privilege and to be able to have this conversation. I have brown hair, light skin, blue eyes, facial hair for those that may be visually impaired. As I said, Anthony Brisson coming to you as a white male working at the NEA headquarters in our human and civil rights department leading on our LGBTQ issues.

The speaker said that the ways to fight for LGBTQ issues dealing with schools are “legislation, litigation, and community organizing.” He talked about how the NEA fights against laws and policies banning LGBTQ materials in schools in states like Florida through litigation.

He then discusses how activists can fight to ensure rainbow pride flags remain in classrooms through pushing for school board policies. The speaker explains that the “power of storytelling can really help change hearts and minds when we’re doing this work.” He then states that there is power in numbers and that organizing people is important.

The speaker then encourages teachers to run for office in local school boards and in positions at the state level. He brags that NEA candidates have defeated Moms for Liberty candidates and flipped their seats. He then calls Moms for Liberty “a-holes with casseroles.” He states:

We have flipped school board positions. We have beat Moms for Liberty who we call the a-holes with casseroles and kept them out of our buildings.

The speaker then states that staff can provide representation by wearing LGBTQ pins. He encourages bus drivers to have LGBTQ magnets on the inside of their school buses as an example. He said even custodians and cafeteria staff can show LGBTQ representation. He also suggests removing language such as renaming a “father-daughter dance” as a “family dance.”

The transgender individual who provided a land acknowledgment on the January 15 NEA webinar had teachers in this webinar answer the question: “What threats to LGBTQ+ students and educators are you concerned about right now?” Notable answers from teachers included “flags in schools,” “transgirls in sports,” “bathrooms,” “not being allowed to honor students’ chosen pronouns,” “in Kentucky, teachers are required to have permission slips signed two weeks prior to teaching a lesson related to gender identity and/or sexual orientation,” “Moms for Liberty still have a stronghold in conservative NorCal school boards,” “parent’s bill of rights, bans on supportive displays, bans of books, having to out trans students,” and “parent permission slips for clubs so they know what clubs students are joining.”