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| Jocelyn Foye, Executive Director of The Womxn Project |
“I want to bring to the Commission’s attention that Rhode Island is consistently on the radar of the Moms for Liberty hate group organizing that’s going on across the country,” said Jocelyn Foye, Executive Director of The Womxn Project, speaking before Thursday’s meeting of the Rhode Island Commission on Prejudice and Bias.
“While every nonprofit has the opportunity to do whatever they want with their messaging and the way they behave, I’d like to draw attention to some extremely prejudicial behavior that’s now being specifically targeted at trans students in North Kingstown and South Kingstown.”
Specifically, Executive Director Foye was there in response
to a complaint
filed by America
First Legal Foundation with the U.S. Department of Justice and
the U.S. Department of Education, “calling for a federal investigation
into Rhode Island’s South Kingstown School District, alleging that its
policies directing staff to facilitate students’ ‘gender transitions’ without
parental notification are unlawful.” The America First Legal Foundation
is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit far-right public interest organization founded in 2021
by white nationalist Stephen
Miller, President Donald Trump’s Deputy Chief of Staff for
Policy.
This complaint follows a similar
complaint the group made against the North Kingstown School District
on July 22. Both complaints allege that the current school district policies
regarding transgender and gender-expansive students violate the law, when in
fact the policies comply with local, state, and federal law, as
determined by the Rhode Island Department of Education and the Rhode
Island District Attorney’s Office.
EDITOR'S NOTE: Moms for Liberty leader Jasmine Roy (R) is running against local state Representative Megan Cotter for House District 39 covering Richmond, Hopkinton and Exeter. Roy is supported by the ultra-rightwing League of RI Businesses that also supported Rep. Tina Spears' opponent, sex crimes defense lawyer Leah Boisclair. - Will Collette
“While we, as an organization that has been tracking this
work for the last two and a half years, don’t put much merit on the local hate
group organizing or think that there is a lot of gusto or behavior behind their
emails and alert systems, there is a complaint filed by an organization called
America First Legal,” continued Executive Director Foye. “While some people
discredit America First Legal for its wins and losses, it is still important to
name it. They’re going after trans students in Rhode Island, and while it’s a
small population in our state, it is one of many groups being targeted and
continuing to be severely harassed.”
Executive Director Foye continued:
“The Womxn Project, along with many others, is building a
robust grassroots movement across the state to show up when school committees
go beyond the status quo and make up fake policies to challenge and break what
the Rhode Island Department of Education has on the books. [See: here
and here.]
And, while there’s not a lot of gusto behind the work this small group is
doing, it is regular and consistent, and the affected students and families are
scared. They’re not sure where to go. We, as a state, are one of the most
protective of this community, but this threat is not going away.
“From a symbolic point of view, there’s an opportunity for
this body to put out a statement specifically to the school committee members
that speaks to this movement, saying, ‘We’re noticing this happening, we’re
noticing these threats, and we take the status quo position of the Rhode Island
Department of Policy that’s protecting gender diverse students seriously.’ I
would say this: Before everybody goes into holiday recess, which usually starts
in early December, it would be very helpful because we are watching the work
that’s being done by a small population of what we’ll call bad actors. And it’s
multiplying.”
Executive Director Foye’s comments have been edited for clarity. Consider supporting The Womxn Project’s efforts here. Here’s the video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I2x0LskzEds
