SEATTLE (LifeSiteNews) — Seattle Public Schools officials bought items meant to help a gender-confused child look like the opposite sex, according to documents obtained by a parental rights group.
Defending Education published records earlier this week detailing how school officials bought “chest binders,” “tucking underwear,” and “nipple guards,” to put in a “locker” for gender-confused students at Garfield High School. Officials also procured “TransTape,” which is an alternative to binders.
The “Community Health Lockers” were a joint project between school officials and Seattle Children’s Hospital. The communications are from March 2025. The “grant-funded project” was briefly paused when Trump came into office, but appears to have subsequently continued.
The lockers would also include hair ties and make up kits, presumably so gender-confused males could cross dress and look like girls.
The lockers were reportedly available to middle school and high school students, according to Defending Education. It reviewed a LinkedIn post by a student who posted about their (name and sex redacted by Defending Education) experience as a “community health locker advocate.”
Seattle Public Schools did not return a request for comment on Thursday morning from LifeSiteNews.
“Due to staffing limitations, responses to media requests will be delayed,” an automated response email stated on Thursday. “We appreciate your patience and understanding during this time.” No one answered the phone or returned a voicemail left on Thursday afternoon that asked the reason behind the lockers, if the school district informs parents when children have gender confusion, and for any additional context.
However, a pro-family group criticized the lockers in emailed comments to LifeSiteNews.
“Our nation’s public schools continue to cross a line, and this time it seems that Seattle’s Garfield High School didn’t just cross it but leapt way over it,” American Life League National Director Katie Xavios told LifeSiteNews.
“No school should ever force LGBTQ ideologies on students,” Xavios stated. “If a student approaches a teacher and expresses confusion about identity, the correct response is to alert the student’s parents. An adult involving themselves in distributing perverse trans paraphernalia to a child is both disturbing and highly inappropriate.”
She said parents need to stay involved in their local school board meetings and speak out, saying that others will likely join them.
“Parents need to band together and raise their concerns to the school board, and if the school board won’t listen, one of those parents should run for a seat on the board,” Xavios told LifeSiteNews. “Taking action for our children is the only way to stop this nonsense. We have to be vocal, and we have to be persistent.”
Other conservatives also criticized the school district.
The emails showed “no mention of parental involvement or medical oversight,” Seattle radio host Jason Rantz wrote in his own commentary.
He also pointed out the serious medical issues with the district handing out the items, saying:
Distributing binders and tucking garments blurs the line between education and medicine. These are products that alter the body, sometimes with health risks when used incorrectly (or even correctly). Yet Seattle Public Schools seems determined to act as both counselor and clinician, without medical licenses or parental consent.
The lockers, he said, were “about advancing a political agenda under the banner of inclusion.”
Defending Education also criticized the school district.
“We’ve definitely crossed the Rubicon when the concept of school supplies includes chest binders, nipple guards, tucking underwear and ‘TransTape,’ provided by the school district,” Erika Sanzi, senior director of communications, said according to National Review. “This is evidence of a district that has been captured by gender ideology and is complicit in harming other people’s kids.”
Two Seattle public schools have previously been caught by Defending Education, formerly Parents Defending Education, facilitating so-called “gender transitions” for confused kids at a middle school and high school. The interventions, which can be permanently damaging, were facilitated through “School-Based Health Centers.”
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“Among the services the clinics provide for patients are hormone injections of estrogen, testosterone, and androgen blockers, referrals for procedures such as a vaginoplasty and breast removal, and assistance with obtaining mental-health letters of support for these medical interventions, as well as therapy,” National Review reported in 2023.
The “health centers” would help with referrals, National Review reported.
