Teacher Who Promoted School ‘Transition Closet’ Is Part of LA Dodgers Honored Drag Group

• A California teacher who promoted the school having a “gender affirming wardrobe” is a member of The Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence (SPI), according to the teacher’s TikTok account.
• SPI describes itself as a “leading-edge Order of queer and trans nuns,” and was controversially honored at the Los Angeles Dodgers’ Pride Night.
• “I brought a group of trans and non-binary and gender exploratory youth from the Bay Area on an all expenses paid shopping spree where they met with drag kings, drag queens and a few drag quings, and went on a shopping trip out of the closet to buy all their back to school clothes so they could have clothes that fit the gender that they wish to express,” Martin-Edwards said via TikTok.

A California teacher who has previously promoted that the school has a “transition closet” students can use is a member of the drag queen group The Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence (SPI), according to the teacher’s TikTok account.

Thomas Martin-Edwards, a transgender Spanish teacher at Fremont High School, has promoted on TikTok that the school offers “gender support plans,” a “gender affirming wardrobe” and stocks chest binders for students. Martin-Edwards is also a member of SPI, the drag group that was controversially honored at the Los Angeles (LA) Dodgers’ Pride Night and describe themselves as a “leading-edge Order of queer and trans nuns,” according to Martin-Edwards’ TikTok account.

Martin-Edwards, who is also known under the drag queen name Sister Eva Lynn Goode, joined the drag group as an “initiate” on April 28, 2021, according to the organization’s website.

https://www.tiktok.com/@sister.eva.lynn.goode/video/7118410357894352174

Martin-Edwards explained in one TikTok video that it can take members between “a year and a half and two years” to become a full SPI member, and that they must complete a “novice project.” Martin-Edwards’s project was called “Eva’s Shop Til You Death Drop,” the video caption reads.

“I brought a group of trans and non-binary and gender exploratory youth from the Bay Area on an all expenses paid shopping spree where they met with drag kings, drag queens and a few drag quings, and went on a shopping trip out of the closet to buy all their back to school clothes so they could have clothes that fit the gender that they wish to express,” Martin-Edwards said in the TikTok video. “And all of this was with parent consent.”

The LA Dodgers faced backlash when the team agreed to honor SPI during its Pride Night, which resulted in the baseball team rescinding the invitation. The team later offered a second invitation to the drag queen group after “thoughtful feedback from our diverse communities,” the LA Dodgers said in a statement.

Martin-Edwards said to have started the “first school-based gender affirming wardrobe in K-12,” which provides students with clothing aligned with their self-identified gender identity, according to one TikTok video. The closet was approvedby the Fremont High School principal in February 2022, Martin-Edwards said in another video.

“The goal of the transition closet is for our students to wear the clothes that their parents approve of, come to school and then swap out into the clothes that fit who they truly are,” said Martin-Edwards, according to The Post Millennial. Martin-Edwards compared the clothes changing tactic to Clark Kent changing into Superman in a phone booth, the outlet reported.

Martin-Edwards has also expanded transitioning projects at other schools, including “outfitt[ing] three other high schools with gender affirming care,” and has offered to work for free with summer camps and schools to “get gender support plans through,” according to the teacher’s TikTok videos. Martin-Edwards also said to visit other schools to make sure they are using “gender support plans effectively,” including schools as young as middle school, according to the video.

“During my downtime I go to other schools and support them on how they support their trans and non-binary kids,” Martin-Edwards said in one TikTok video. “So today, it’s a middle school to make sure they’re using gender support plans effectively.”

Fremont High School, Martin-Edwards and SPI did not immediately respond to the Daily Caller News Foundation’s request for comment.

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