Dupage Policy Journal

A Wheaton elementary school is instructing its kindergarten students-- ages six and seven-- in the concept of transvestism.

Wiesbrook Elementary students are reading Jack not Jackie, a “heartwarming picture book” in which “a big sister realizes that her little sister, Jackie, doesn't like dresses or fairies-she likes ties and bugs! Will she and her family be able to accept that Jackie identifies more as ‘Jack?’”

The book, self-described “cisgender lesbian” author Erica Silverman says, was intended to give cross-dressing children “a safe space.”

“For the picture book age child, I didn’t think it would be productive to show parents who were rejecting - even though unfortunately, that happens more often than it should with devastating consequences,” Silverman said in an interview.

Silverman said she wrote the book because “as a cisgender lesbian, I wanted to support my transgender sisters and brothers.”

"I hope (readers) see that it’s possible for people around them to change," she said.

Erica Loiacono, Director Of Communications with Community Unit School District 200, confirmed to DuPage Policy Journal that the book is in Wiesbrook Elementary’s library.

The book is the second produced in a partnership between the “the world’s largest LGBTQ media advocacy organization” GLAAD and Bonnier Publishing USA. It “aims to integrate and elevate positive LGBTQ representation throughout children's literature.”

The partnership expects to publish “at least four titles annually" targeting children 14 and under.

Writer and commentator Matt Walsh's new book, Johnny the Walrus, is about a little boy who pretends to be different imaginary things-- a dinosaur, a knight, and a puppy, when "internet people" find out and "he’s forced to make a decision between the little boy he is and the things he pretends to be — and he’s not allowed to change his mind."

Around 450 students attend Wiesbrook Elementary. The K-5 school employees 27 teachers.  

Wiesbrook Elementary Principal Dr. Brian Turyna did not respond to a phone call from DuPage Policy Journal requesting comment. His salary in 2017 was $135,696 per year.