Back in December 2015, an elementary school in Mount Horeb, Wisconsin, planned a reading of I Am Jazz, a picture book based on the real-life experience of Jazz Jennings. A transgender child, Jennings has become a spokesperson for trans kids across the country.
The reading was intended to support a first-grade trans- gender girl who was transitioning to express the gender she felt on the inside. But a national anti-LGBTQ+ hate group, the Liberty Counsel, had other plans in mind. The Florida-based group threatened the school with legal action. The reading was canceled.
What is going on here?
The student’s former kindergarten teacher, Kirk Nichols, knew something was amiss. “We read a wide array of stories all the time, and it’s never been an issue,” he says. “And so, here’s a student who is trying to see herself in a story, which we try to promote for all students...Why is that such a problem?”
In response to the cancellation, the community rallied in support of the first grader. High school students who belonged to their school’s Sexuality and Gender Alliance (SAGA) club organized a morning reading in front of their school. Some 200 people showed up. That evening, a local parent reserved the library to host a “small” community reading of I Am Jazz, which more than 600 community members attended to support the young girl and her family.
A national rallying cry
The events in Mount Horeb sparked outrage across the country. Now the Human Rights Campaign Foundation (HRCF), in partnership with NEA, hosts the annual “Jazz & Friends National Day of School and Community Readings” on February 25.
Through the HRCF’s Welcoming Schools program— which provides LGBTQ+ and gender-inclusive professional development, lesson plans, and booklists—hundreds of readings take place virtually or in schools, libraries, homes, bookstores, and places of worship across the country, reaching tens of thousands of people.
In addition to I Am Jazz, other popular books for the readings include: My Rainbow by DeShanna and Trinity Neal, illustrated by Art Twink; and When Aidan Became a Brother, by Kyle Lukoff, illustrated by Kaylani Juanita.
For Nichols, the incident at his school started many con- versations around the negative effects of a gender-binary system, which includes the phrase “boys and girls.”
“One of the biggest things for me was making people more aware that things don’t have to be gender-based,” says Nichols, who has been a teacher for 13 years. “Now they’re thinking, wait, I shouldn’t be saying that...I should be using a different phrase. I know a lot of people have flipped their mindset with that, which has been amazing.”
—Kirk Nichols, Kindergarten Teacher
