Controversial gender-focused program 'Gender Spectrum' ceases direct service programming

WASHINGTON (TND) — A controversial national transgender nonprofit announced this week it will stop all direct service programming.

Gender Spectrum operated in 48 states and reportedly provided thousands of schools with training and materials on how to secretly transition students.

Parents Defending Education Director of Outreach Erika Sanzi joined The National Desk’s Jan Jeffcoat to discuss the issue.

“It was definitely a strange announcement in the sense that the announcement came out on September 25th, posted to Instagram and also came in people's emails. It was saying that within two days, they were shutting down all of their direct services programming but without any explanation as to why. So this was very abrupt. “

Sanzi says it's hard to overstate what a big deal this is because Gender Spectrum was so embedded into the K-12 school system in the U.S. The nonprofit was cited as a source for many transgender student policies.

“One other thing is that they just worked so closely with a lot of national associations have educators so school counselor associations, principals, superintendents, and so this is a big deal. We don't have a ton of information, but certainly something must have happened that made them realize that they needed to to shut down.”