Much drama and consternation erupted in a DeKalb County, Georgia home after a 12-year-old child skipped home from school lovingly brandishing an LGBTQ (and gender) vocabulary quiz.
The excitement began when the student’s mother, a certain Octavia Parks (pictured, below), found the quiz and immediately flew into a righteous passion.
“Why are they teaching that in school?” she screamed to God. “What does this have to do with life?”
As you can see above, test questions include “a person who identifies as a woman,” quickly followed by the curveball: “A person who identifies as a man.”
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(The answers are, respectively, “female” and “male.”)
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Ranting to WAGA-TV, she emphasized, “We’re talking about a sixth-grader who still watches Nickelodeon.”
“I’m not ready to explain what these words are, nor what they mean!”
Parks is determined to whisk her daughter out of the health class that assigned the surprise pop quiz, rife as it is with verbiage that strongly insinuates all sorts of homosexual leanings.
She will also be marching over to the board of education, bobby-pins flying, to “see what they have to say about it as well.”
The DeKalb County School District, for their part, is not taking the vocabulary quiz lying down.
“DCSD has been made aware of this alleged event,” the district says in a statement. “We will investigate this event and take action, as appropriate, once that investigation is completed.”
It is uncertain whether the homework assignment was part of a district-approved curriculum, or was instead part of some rogue curriculum gone gonzo right under the administration’s noses.
“I will be removing her from that class, and I’m also going to take it to the board of education to see what they have to say about it, as well,” Parks once again threatened, this time to FOX News.
In fact, multiple news outlets have picked up the story, perhaps hoping to stoke fury over common English words that every American knows by the time they’re ten. Even the dim ones.
The DeKalb County School District is reportedly working to verify the quiz’s “authenticity.”
However, Queerty will do no such thing, opting instead to gleefully publish this bit of nonsense before moving on with our lives.
Taiyoken
“What does this have to do with life?” If the quiz was about gay ghosts I could see her point.
Gays don’t exist in real life?
MikeE
Oh my god, this woman!
In grade 6 I KNEW most definitely that I was gay.
NateOcean
Grade 6? Hell, at AGE 6 I knew!
Kieran
Octavia should be furious at whoever did her hair and eyebrows.
Ummmm Yeah
There is no reason a 6th graded should be given these as vocabulary words. This type of garbage does nothing but harm gay rights. Stop messing with children.
Juanjo
Oh look another troll.
Ander
*yawn*
geb1966
It was in a health class; these words are related to human development.
mhoffman953
Not sure what the big deal is but it does seem like a pointless test
Heywood Jablowme
I’m surprised Danny595 isn’t here to complain about the word “queer”!
scotshot
How will mom explain to the kid how the baby got in her stomach
amigay
Why, God put it there of course!
Danny595
lol. The definitions for queer, male and female are incorrect. Queer includes heterosexuals who are transgender and/or who have unconventional sexual mores. Male and female refer to biological sex, not those who “identify” in any particular way.
Sam6969
True.
Bryan Batcher
I thought male and female also referred to gender.
Sam6969
Bryan Batcher: in many people’s mind, male and female refer implicitely to cisgender people, but they forget trans men and women in the equation. In fact, male and female refer only to biological sex, as Danny595 reminded us. Most transgender people are born males or females, but identify as women or men (gender).
He BGB
Gurl.Stop.
Brian
I guess the subject is appropriate for a health class, but it does have the feel of pushing the dreaded “gay agenda” onto these kids. It doesn’t help that it’s giving wrong information by not making any distinction between gender and sex. Unless you’re intersex, you are either a male or a female, no matter how you identify.
Mick406
Nice to see some logic, Brian.
While I didn’t pick up so much on the “pushing gay agenda” part, my instant instinct was this test was totally NOT NECESSARY! At that age, I’m sure it induced a lot of quirky looks, some giggling, and the cracking of jokes. While kids in the 6th grade may know these words, they are certainly not vital in ANY subject matter. You tell me what good it does to toss out this kind of ‘testing’? There was nothing to be gained by that test, other than maybe to make it easier for kids to say the words out loud in mixed company. The mother is NOT a fat, Black, troublemaker. She had every right to be incensed over this.
dwes09
In 6th grade, the kids are likely USING these words, some hurled as epithets. What is to be gained by this is putting the words in a context, and giving them proper definitions (except they got the male and female part wrong). They are, in fact, vital in and class that deals with interpersonal behavior, sex and biology, and ethics (which needs to be instilled early on). A parent’s desire to shelter kids from reality does not change their need to know about reality. A parent’s belief in a child’s innocence does not change the actuality of children’s cruelty to each other and fascination with sex and gender.
My parents had talked to me about sex and given me books about sex and sexuality (not great info about homosexuality of course as this was around 196) by the time I was 11. When my peers started talking crap, i was able to set them straight. And i came from a very religious home (but not Christian, thank God!!).
passingthru
I find it entertaining when some parents can’t keep up with things. The kid probably still has a flip phone.
Luna1979
As soon as I saw It, I thought oh great. Teach them more words to taunt each other. That’s all they ever do. One guy in middle school learned “douche” and kept asking eeeeveryone if they douched. Thought it was hilarious. He asked me every day until I had to threaten violence in the computer lab. He learned the word in health class. That’s all they cared about, learning taboo words to harass us with and laugh. I doubt any of them got anything else out of it.
mujerado
So because one kid was a jerk the word shouldn’t have been taught in the class? Middle school is entirely the appropriate time to teach those words. Kids enter puberty at that age. Personal hygiene is an important part of health classes.
Mick406
Yes, Luna. This created another opportunity, especially for boys, to make jokes, slurs, and wise-cracks about the words in the test. I know when I was in school, we would have had a field day laughing about all these ‘taboo’ words. This wasn’t appropriate for 6th graders. Probably not high schoolers either. They already know the words and what they mean, so what purpose does it serve to make them write it all down on a test paper?
jsmu
Aaaaand, yet another FAT, BLACK, HOMOPHOBIC MORON weighs in on the civil rights of others. B*tch, shut your worthless ass the f*ck up NOW.
jsmu
Homophobic c*nt Octavia: “BUT I HAVEN’T HAD TIME TO BRAINWASH MY OFFSPRING WITH HATE PROPAGANDA YET BECAUSE I’M A LAZY FAT COW!”
baggins435
By the 6th grade I was already crushing on my best friends, and this was in the early ’70s before anything LGBT was on the radar in the Deep South. I had never heard the words “gay” or “homosexual.” There were kids already starting puberty, too. You teach kids the facts before they need them, not after they have already started experimenting. This country is so screwed up about ANYTHING regarding sex it is unbelievable. Where I live a high school girl went on a rant in the local paper about a local museum displaying a copy of Michelangelo’s David, saying it was pornography, and people agreed with her. They also went after female mannequins with lingerie on display in a the windows of a store where “children could see the filth” until the store removed them.
malerntogo
EXACTLY! Baggins435 In the early 70’s I went on a multi-night camping trip with the entire 6th grade class. A few boys had already started puberty and I couldn’t keep my eyes off them. Being the good Mormon boy I was, I had no idea what any of those words meant, but I knew I wanted it!
atbfan101
The outrage people have over these things are totally unfounded. I wish i had this type of quiz when i was a kid. This quiz would have helped me understand who i was and it would have educated the kids around me so they would stop using slang and negative words for lgbt people. At least get it right if your gonna be rude right. This woman is living in the past.
amigay
“I’m not ready to explain what these words are, nor what they mean!”
Idiot, the test already did that for you.