How a Group of Michigan Parents Defeated Anti-Trans MAGA Activists

In the wake of all this turmoil, the district was also due for its review of its sex ed curriculum, resulting in more online tumult. Sex isn’t a school’s responsibility, some argued. Others pleaded for tolerance and decency. Moeggenberg showed up in the comments: “No surprise this takes place in MPPS. They breed groomers there and set our kids up to be groomed.”

On her own page, Moeggenberg posted an eggplant and peach emoji with a warning: “Want GENDER IDEOLOGY, anal sex, blow jobs, abortions, lube, pleasure, sex changes?” She encouraged locals to look into the sex ed curriculum and offered an alternative. If parents wanted to “help introduce sex education to your very young ones at home before they enter sexual indoctrination buildings,” they should order her book.

In the meantime, progressive parents have stayed active—which has helped keep right-wing activists like Moeggenberg at bay. They now have infrastructure to mobilize also: the Indivisible group, help from two local social justice–oriented churches, and All In for Isabella County (a collective whose website is hosted by Red, Wine & Blue, and for which Jernigan writes a newsletter). Hearings on the sex ed curriculum were scheduled—the sort of meeting that in many towns gets listed on an agenda and no one attends. Instead, 27 people showed up in a small lecture room. The group was handed an example from the fourth-grade curriculum, “Respecting Our Friends: Gender.” There were definitions of cisgender, transgender, and sex assigned at birth. Kids would learn respectful words and tone of voice when talking to their peers.