Teacher receives backlash over ‘Gender Unicorn’ handout at middle school

A California school district is stopping a science teacher from handing out a gender sheet explaining sexual preferences.

The controversy at Denair Middle School surrounds this graphic– called the gender unicorn.

The graphic– which can be found on the website for trans student educational resources– is meant to educate people about gender identity.

It was distributed by a science teacher to roughly 50 students this week on the first day of the school.

Terry Metzger is the superintendent for the Denair unified school district.

” It was not an assignment kids were not asked to fill it out. He really was using it as a reference point, ” said Metzger .

Metzger says the seventh and eighth-grade science teacher handed out copies of the infographic to help explain why he doesn’t use the pronoun mister, instead using m-x pronounced ‘mixed.’-a title which doesn’t imply a gender.

Metzger says the schools principal happened to be in the class at the time and told the teacher to stop handing out copies of the gender unicorn.

Katalina Zombrano is the gender spectrum coordinator for the Central Valley Pride Center.

Zombrano says she uses the gender unicorn graph for educational purposes for her job.

“There is going to be a lot of people who just don’t get it, we understand that we respect that, but maybe a little more planning next time, a little bit more finesse,” said Zombrano .

The superintendent declined to say whether the teacher faced disciplinary action.