Gavin Newsom’s wife’s films shown in schools contain explicit images, push gender ideology, boost his politics

Jennifer Siebel Newsom, the wife of Democratic California Gov. Gavin Newsom, founded The Representation Project nonprofit to fight “sexism through films education, research and activism.” Siebel Newsom writes and directs “gender identity” films produced through her for-profit operation, Girls Club Entertainment, that are then licensed by the nonprofit to public schools.

The films, which include “Miss Representation,” “The Mask You Live In,” “The Great American Lie” and “Fair Play,” are licensed to taxpayer-funded schools across every state and sometimes contain sexually explicit imagery and push students to feel “shame and sorrow” about American society split by privilege and oppression. They are paired with curricula that include discussion on Gov. Newsom’s comments within the films, urging them to gather their friends and vote for aligned politicians that support a “care economy” that “embraces universal human values.” 

“The Representation Project’s films and school curricula deserve scrutiny because taxpayers fund schools that license them,” said Open The Books founder Adam Andrzejewski, whose watchdog group discovered the materials and shared them with Fox News Digital.

“Newsom’s films and curricula are saturated with images lifted directly from pornographic websites, their URLs visible onscreen,” Andrzejewski added. “Minors are exposed to social commentaries about privilege and oppression, and one commentator says Americans need to ‘express shame and sorrow about who we are and what we’ve done’ as a society.” 

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Jennifer Siebel Newsom, Gavin Newsom’s wife, founded The Representation Project, which licenses films to schools.
(Tim Mosenfelder)

“When paired with calls to organize and spread the films more widely, it’s clear that Siebel Newsom seeks to activate students politically and in accordance with some radical ideologies about gender, identity, race and privilege,” Andrzejewski said.

Siebel Newsom’s films promote far-left notions of gender and sexuality and, at points, contain sexually explicit images. The content has led to objections from at least one parent. 

In 2019, a California resident filed a complaint after his 12-year-old daughter’s class at Creekside Middle School showed “The Mask You Live In,” which “follows boys and young men as they struggle to stay true to themselves while negotiating America’s narrow definition of masculinity.” It included sexually explicit images and violence against women in a portion of the movie dealing with Internet pornography.

“Some of the images, when slowed down, were not blurred, and even when they are blurred, it is obvious what is going on,” the father told The Sacramento Bee. “It is absolutely profane and disgusting.”

The school later found that the teacher had accidentally played the film’s full version for the class, not the edited version meant for younger children.

Additionally, Siebel Newsom’s films and the Representation Project’s lesson plans heavily push gender identity. In the curriculum that comes with “The Mask You Live In,” a “genderbread person” is introduced, which shows middle and high school students how biological sex, “gender expression,” “sexual attraction” and “gender identity” exist on a spectrum and can be mixed and matched.

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Source: Genderbread Person activities from "The Mask You Live" In curriculum for middle and high school students<i>.</i>  

Kindergartners do not receive the “genderbread person” material, but similar “gender identity” lessons are offered, which include gender introductions beyond “boy” and “girl.”

In the curriculum for “The Great American Lie,” which “examines the roots of systemic inequalities through a unique gender lens,” students are asked to do a “privilege walk” that includes revealing personal information to compare themselves to peers inside and outside the classroom. The “privileges” include being “a cisgender man,” “white,” “born in the United States,” “straight” and speaking English as a first language.

Source: Activity from "The Great American Lie" curriculum, The Representation Project for high school and college students.

“The Great American Lie” film features prominent journalists and lawyers speaking about oppression. Charles Blow, a New York Times op-ed writer and MSNBC political analyst, appears to tell viewers their “privilege” is built on his oppression. 

“We need to stop being blind to history, stop being blind to systems, understand that there are privileges and there are oppressions in society, and, in fact, they act like a see-saw. Your privilege is actually built on my oppression,” Blow says in the film. 

Bryan Stevenson, a lawyer who is the executive director of the Equal Justice Initiative, an Alabama-based group working to end mass incarceration, also makes a cameo and wants viewers to feel “shame and sorrow.” 

“We actually have to engage in truth telling. We’re going to have to express some shame and sorrow about who we are and what we’ve done. We’re going to have to find the will to reconcile ourselves to a different future,” Stevenson says.

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Jennifer Siebel Newsom’s films promote her husband and his politics.
(Kevork Djansezian)

Several of The Representation Project’s lesson plans also focus on pushing students into political and social activism. Two of Siebel Newsom’s films, “Miss Representation” and “The Great American Lie,” feature her husband.

“As Gavin Newsom’s national profile grows, he continues appearing in two of his wife’s films, first as the lieutenant governor of California and later as governor,” Andrzejewski told Fox News Digital. “While corporations with state contracts donate both to his campaigns and Siebel Newsom’s nonprofit, students are being directed to discuss his political philosophy and embrace politicians like him. Mind you, these films have been licensed by schools in all fifty states.”

Screenshot of Gavin Newsom in Miss Representation
(The Miss Representation film)

Within the films, Siebel Newsom casts her husband as a women’s rights champion. In “Miss Representation,” he speaks on his time as mayor of San Francisco, saying, “One of the first things I did when I came to San Francisco is I appointed a female police chief and appointed a female fire chief.” 

Students who use the curriculum discuss Gov. Newsom’s points and are urged to gather friends and vote for politicians “who show empathy through their support care policies.”

The Great American Lie curriculum for high school and college students in which they are asked to watch and discuss a clip of Gov. Gavin Newsom. 

The Representation Project’s curricula are used by more than 5,000 schools across 50 states, according to its impact report highlighting its work from 2011 to 2019. The nonprofit, a 501(c)3 educational group, said over 11,200 copies of the curricula had been distributed and reached more than 2.6 million students during that time.

The report also describes the nonprofit as the “nation’s leading gender watchdog organization” that embarks on “active social media campaigns that hold corporations, content creators, political leaders and others accountable.”

The Representation Project charges licensing fees ranging from $49 to $599, which have garnered nearly $1.5 million in revenue for the group since 2012, tax records show. However, it’s unclear how much of the payments came from the schools, as they also license materials to individuals and corporations. 

The Representation Project holds the licenses for “The Mask You Live In,” “The Great American Lie,” and “Fair Play,” while Siebel Newsom’s for-profit that produces the films, Girls Club Entertainment, holds the license for “Miss Representation.” The Representation Project pays Girls Club Entertainment for that movie’s distribution and public performance rights. 

The Representation Project, meanwhile, previously received scrutiny after The Sacramento Bee reported that several of its publicly disclosed donors were also trying to influence Gov. Newsom. 

The nonprofit also recently operated while out of compliance in California. While it’s unclear exactly when the nonprofit slipped into delinquency, a rejected filing in the state charitable database from nearly one year ago was the last to appear as of Jan. 11.

Delinquent nonprofits cannot operate or solicit funds as they remain out of good standing. Still, The Representation Project moved forward after its rejected annual filing and throughout 2022, including holding lavish fundraising events, Fox News Digital reported last week. 

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However, on Jan. 12, the day Fox News Digital published its report, The Representation Project scrambled to file paperwork to the attorney general’s office, which was immediately processed and pushed them back into good standing, filings show. Typically, the process can take days or even months. 

The Representation Project did not respond to a Fox News Digital request for comment.