On August 18, 2026, the Wake County School Board in North Carolina met to discuss budget cuts, teacher pay raises, and the start of the school year the following week. However, that's not why the majority of people showed up. Instead, the board was flooded with community members galvanized by one thing: posts from far-right activists such as Libs of TikTok and anti-trans elected officials in the state objecting to the mere presence of a transgender teacher in a local elementary school. The meeting, which stretched on for hours, featured wild proposals, demands that parents be allowed to pull their kids from the classroom, and threats that the school could be sued merely for employing the transgender teacher. But the district and the teacher had many who showed up in her defense, and the meeting finally closed with no capitulation to any of the anti-trans activists in the room.
The controversy began in late July, when Erin Paré, a Republican state representative whose southern Wake County district is rated a toss-up got onto Facebook to post about a transgender music teacher hired at a local elementary school. "I've received your emails and phone calls about the hiring of a transgender biological male, who dresses as a woman, music teacher, in one of our local elementary schools. I have brought your concerns to the attention of the Wake County Public School System leadership," Paré said, before floating gendered dress codes for teachers, a blatantly unconstitutional proposal: "I'll keep you updated. May be time to introduce a bill requiring gender-appropriate professional attire for public school employees, as WCPSS does not have a policy addressing this issue - as far as I can tell. It is important that WCPSS policies regarding employee dress and appearance should protect children from being exposed to more complex and mature gender-identity questions and concepts at too young of an age."
Immediately, that post blew up into a conservative firestorm. Libs of TikTok took to the internet, siccing her audience of millions against the teacher, posting: "OMG. This is apparently a new 'nonbinary' teacher at Middle Creek Elementary School in NC. Students reportedly have to call him Ms." Other groups then also got involved, such as Moms for Liberty and Aaron Driver, a local anti-transgender activist. Those posts then culminated in a series of school board meetings, the largest of which was yesterday, as demands from national anti-trans activists and local far-right parents have continued to escalate, targeting the school and the teacher for merely having a transgender employee.
Watch the full board meeting here:
“I don’t subscribe to gender theory. I’m a Christian and a faithful believer in Jesus Christ and in fact I claim religious exemption from it for myself and for my family. I reject critical theory, postmodern progressivism,” said Driver, who leads a group called Middle Creek Parental Rights, at the meeting. He continued: “I’m not surrendering the formation of my children to people who think my family, our traditions and moral convictions are something they’re obligated to disrupt. God entrusted their upbringing to us, not overeducated administrators with late-stage luxury beliefs. And that’s not hatred. That’s fatherhood.” Others followed, such as Becky Lew-Hobbs, the Wake County chapter chair of Moms for Liberty, who claimed the teacher’s mere presence violated the state’s “Don’t Say Gay” law. Yet another speaker, invoking her credentials as a “certified child forensic interviewer,” declared that she understood “the grooming nature behind this conversation.”
The transgender teacher had many people who stood up for her, though. “I’ve often heard the term ‘parental rights’ thrown around by organizations and individuals who have been supporting a gender dress code. And I often wonder: where were these organizations and individuals when the board proposed to cut $18 million from the budget? Why were they not fighting for parents’ rights to a fully funded school?” said one community member. Another speaker, Kelli Wilhelm, president of the Raleigh-Apex NAACP, stated: “Tonight I’m speaking in support of an educator—a young teacher who was in her first job out of college, teaching music to elementary school children. She chose education. She chose to serve children. She chose to bring the arts, creativity, and learning to the classroom. And instead of finding encouragement, she has become the target of political attacks because of how she wants to show up in the world. Let me be clear: no teacher should be targeted, harassed, or publicly vilified because of their gender identity.”
"Don't Say Gay" laws have been used to target trans and queer teachers before. When Florida enacted its 2023 law barring school employees from using titles or pronouns that don't match their sex assigned at birth, administrators told a trans woman teacher she would have to go by "Mr." or simply "Teacher." Similar events happened to gay teachers in other states for mentioning their spouses or having a picture of them on their desk. Now a North Carolina legislator wants one policing their clothes. But North Carolina is a purple state, one with a Democratic governor, and the arrival of these attacks here is alarming for local transgender people. In the meantime, Wake Forest appears unmoved by conservative threats: the meeting was adjourned with no action taken.
Thank you for the reporting, Erin.
I suppose we know how this script goes, but I do hope this time it goes our way.
"But the district and the teacher had many who showed up in her defense, and the meeting finally closed with no capitulation to any of the anti-trans activists in the room." <-- Very, very good to hear!
Ahh yes, the policing of our bodies and how we dress and bring out the old and tired right-wing religious tropes, whipped up by the flames of people not even in the school district (even national anti- activists piled on as Erin pointed out). Stay strong Wake County School Board!!