Newport-Mesa Unified School District curriculum includes ‘Genderbread Identity’ man

A district in California is using a curriculum that includes a “Genderbread Identity” man for sex education, Fox News Digital has learned. 

The “Genderbread Identity” was found by public records request in the Newport-Mesa Unified School District sex-ed curriculum it purchased called “Teen Talk,” which is used for middle and high school students. Teen Talk is taught to thousands of students throughout California. 

The “gender” section of the ‘Genderbread Identity’ man included a video on “what it’s like to be trans in high school” with two teens discussing transitioning. The heart of the ‘Genderbread’ man represented the various sexual orientations – pansexuality,  homosexuality, asexuality and heterosexuality. The rainbow brain of ‘Genderbread’ represented a person’s gender identity. 

Fox News Digital spoke with moms from the California district who said they were concerned about how the sexual curriculum could impact children.

“It’s horrifying,” said Haley Jenkins. “And they try to create the little ‘Genderbread’ man to make it seem like it’s more fun. And it’s for younger kids – it’s appealing –  but it’s confusing [for them].”

Jenkins currently homeschools her daughter. She said the curriculum can have a diffuse effect on children in the district even if they are not in public school. “They’re playing with all these kids [who are in the district’s schools… As they get older, they go to their friends to talk about things. They don’t come to their parents as much. So maybe my kids aren’t getting this specific curriculum, but most of their friends are.”

“They’re really starting so early to sexualize our children,” said Amy Peters, who put her kids through the Newport-Mesa school district. “We felt like it was our responsibility to teach our kids about what they needed that was age appropriate.”

The district responded to Fox News Digital’s request for comment stating, “The California Healthy Youth Act requires that students receive comprehensive sexual health education once in middle school and once in high school, starting in seventh grade.”

“We use a state-approved health curriculum with select modules that are appropriate for our students, taught by credentialed teachers. Parents can opt out their child from participating in comprehensive sex education. Parents also have the ability to review all curriculum taught in our schools so that they can be well-informed and make the best decisions for their child. We understand that there are varying viewpoints and beliefs and we follow California State Standards for curriculum, while also supporting parent choice.”

The curriculum shows graphic images of genitalia, including the differences between circumcised and uncircumcised penises. 

“Our children are sponges,” said Alicia Beget, a mom in the district who is also a school psychologist. “There’s an influence on our young children, and this is by very much by design [by] the progressive agenda to slowly [of the]… sexualization of our children. I worry about it every single day.”

“Rather than guiding them with an ethical and moral responsibility to access of mental health care, they are instead referring to resources to affirm their gender,” Beget said. 

Another mom said parts of the curriculum were anti-parent, and reminded her of the education system in her birth country. 

Henny Abraham said, “I was born and raised in Iran and I finished junior high in Iran. And my biggest concern with all of this… is that they are trying to tell our children to hide things from our parents… I remember when they will line us up first day of school and they said, ‘Don’t tell your parents, but let us know what you did over the weekend.’” 

If a child said there was alcohol in their house, a mixed-gender party, or if there was an American or European movie played, “somebody would show up at your house and interrogate your parents,” Abraham said.

Abraham noted that Teen Talk recommended children speak to and ask questions from a “trusted adult” who is over 18 about sex who may or may not be their parents. 

“So for someone like me who came, you know, I was 14 when I came here because of the greatness of this country. And to see resemblances are what has happened in countries like Iran that we fled from to come here for freedom creeping in into my child’s future is frightening,” she said. “My personal goal is to shed light because our children are not political – they are kids. They need to be protected…. And it is so wrong of our schools… and the school unions to try to demonize parents who are standing up for their kids by pointing fingers, just calling us bigots and all these kind of names just because we are trying to protect our kids.”

“I feel like under the guise of being an ally, they’re aiding in this confusion, and it’s creating havoc among the children,” Jenkins added.

Teen Talk has also caught the eye of watchdogs.

Sharon Slater from Family Watch International told Fox News Digital that “Teen Talk is typical of the many harmful Planned Parenthood-inspired [comprensive sexual education] programs that we have analyzed and scored 15 out of 15 for harmful CSE elements when analyzed using our 15 Harmful CSE Elements Analysis Tool.”

“It has the same manipulative ‘values clarification’ exercise designed to deconstruct children’s values under the guise of helping them clarify their values,” Slater said.

Another watchdog, Stop Comprehensive Sex Education, said their materials “Normalizes child sex or desensitizes children to sexual things. May give examples of children having sex or imply many of their peers are sexually active.”

The watchdog also lists stories in the curriculum of teens discussing sexual encounters in detail. 

“[Teen Talk] [n]ormalizes these high-risk sexual behaviors and may omit vital medical facts, such as the extremely high STI infection rates (i.e., HIV and HPV) and the oral and anal cancer rates of these high-risk sex acts.” 

Fox News Digital reached out to Teen Talk for comment but did not immediately receive a response. 

“We’ve come together to activate our community, to inform our community, because a lot of parents are in denial, which I understand that’s a more comfortable state… [than] feeling… a discomfort in the knowledge that we have seeing these the curriculum,” Beget said about her coalition of moms.

“I think educators, many of them who have progressed through to an administrative level, perhaps once had that passion and an interest of children and have forgotten it,” she added.