The Maine Department of Education (DOE) pulled an educational video from its website following a Republican Party advertisement targeting Democratic Gov. Janet Mills that focused on the video’s discussion of sexuality and gender with young children.
Titled “Freedom Holidays,” the video—one of hundreds created during the pandemic for remote teaching—was created for kindergartners and addressed freedoms achieved by the people of the United States, including the LGBT community.
After a brief introduction about holidays in the United States celebrating freedom, such as Independence Day and Juneteenth, the elementary school teacher presenting the lesson goes on to say that not everyone in the United States is free, specifically “LGBT+” people.
“A transgender person is someone the doctors made a mistake about when they were born,“ the teacher said. ”When a baby is born, the doctors will tell the parents what gender they think that baby is. They‘ll say, ‘We think your child is a female’ or ‘We think your child is a male.’ But some people, when they get a little bit older, realize what the doctor said was not right.”
The ad claims Democratic Gov. Janet Mills used nearly $2.8 million of public funds to create the online teaching videos, with the narrator asking whether the content is appropriate for kindergartners.
As of the afternoon of May 20, the ad had garnered about 4,000 views and over 100 comments. Former Republican Gov. Paul LePage is running to unseat Mills in November.
In an email to The Associated Press, Mills’ spokeswoman Lindsay Crete said the governor “was not aware of the lesson, but she understands the concerns expressed about the age appropriateness, and agrees with the Department of Education’s decision to remove the lesson.”
“Freedom Holidays” goes on to talk about individuals transitioning to the gender with which they identify, and about people who “want to love in a different way than the world says they’re allowed to.”
The lesson concludes by telling students to watch three more videos about LGBT activists, followed by a required writing assignment.
Maine DOE spokesman Marcus Mrowka said in an emailed statement to The Epoch Times that the video should have been reviewed further by a specialist overseeing the kindergarten team before being posted online.
“A review of the video led the Department to conclude that the lesson is not something we would recommend including as part of kindergarten instruction, and, as such, has been removed from the site,” Mrowka said.
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