The largest teachers' union in New Jersey has sparked controversy over sex education with a recent advertisement targeting extremist parents.

The New Jersey Education Association uploaded a thirty second clip ahead of the campaign for the Seventh Congressional District in the upcoming midterm elections. The advertisement emphasizes the importance of educational standards, while decrying activists and parents who “only want to fight and argue to score political points.” The clip showed what it referred to as "extremists" from school board meetings, screaming and pointing fingers.

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In New Jersey's Seventh District, Democrat Tom Malinowski is currently running for reelection against Republican Tom Kean Jr. Kean lost by less than one percentage point in the 2020 primary election, and the district has since been redrawn to include more Republican aligned households. According to The New York Times, the race between the two is considered the most competitive in the state.

Ahead of Kean's loss in 2020, the New Jersey Board of Education drafted their revised sex education standards, which will be implemented for the first time this year. The new policy allows for second graders to learn about gender roles and stereotypes, only breaching the topics of sexual development and hormones by fifth grade. Information defining vaginal, anal and oral sex does not come until eighth grade, which will ideally help students to make healthy and informed sexual choices.

The union released their video to signal they would not back down over the debate of teaching race, gender and sexuality. Director of professional development for the NJEA, Dr. Chrissi Miles, defended the advertisement, saying, “It’s a turning point in our country’s trajectory. And we intend to focus on the importance of what teaching the truth is.”

Many Republicans took issue with the use of the word "extremists" in the clip. Representatives in the State Senate held an online “Sex Education, State Curriculum Mandates and Parental Rights” panel in response, releasing a parody ad days later. Their video has since been taken down for copyright violations.

Kean and Malinowski have both responded to the issue, with Kean speaking out against educators who “know it is wrong” for “young children to be taught sex education which focuses on gender-identity instruction and normalizing pornography.” Malinowski shot back, calling out New Jersey Republicans for “trying to divide us over made-up cultural nonsense.”

Malinowski continued, “There is a fringe movement that has descended on our school boards, that is targeting our educators and drowning out the voice of parents — Democratic and Republican — who just want their kids to have a quality education.”

Steven Baker, spokesman for the NJEA, also responded to the controversy ignited by the ad. He reiterated that the video explicitly values parents as “important partners in creating great schools.” Still, after last year's debate on mask and vaccine mandates -- which proved to be a key voting issue in the state gubernatorial race -- the union wanted to make their positions known.

He stated: “We are very concerned by the small but very loud group of people who are doing dishonest and dangerous things, like calling educators pedophiles and racists."