12 Comments
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Anon232's avatar

Outrageous that you couldn't get any of those news organizations to feature this, even if slated as an opinion piece. What's their excuse? Was it too, two sided for them? Are too many parents who claim they have trans kids running these news machines? Just absolutely sickening that trans groups can come to schools and push this insanity on kids, teachers and admins but reason, fairness and facts cannot even get a foothold.

Melissa R.'s avatar

Yes, timely.

Per usual, the media creates polarization--framing this as entirely a religious right versus left issue.

NYT:

"Supreme Court Sides With Religious Parents, Blocking California’s Trans Student Policy

Christian teachers and parents challenged the state’s policies, which they say require schools to hide students’ transgender status from their parents."

Associated Press:

"Supreme Court blocks law against schools outing transgender students to their parents in California"

San Francisco Chronicle:

"California must let schools out transgender students to parents, U.S. Supreme Court rules"

National Review:

"Supreme Court Prevents California Schools from Hiding Kids’ Gender Confusion from Parents"

I agree with the National Review headline. Does that make me a conservative?

TrackerNeil's avatar

Gender ideologues like to compare trans kids to gay kids, but, as usual, the comparison falls apart upon scrutiny. There is a long tradition of teachers knowing that X or Y student is gay, and quietly supporting that student in the face of hostility from parents, fellow students etc. It's a great thing! However, hiding a student's new name or pronouns is actively deceptive, requiring teachers to evade or recharacterize the truth and, sometimes, to outright lie to parents.

Example: If a parent asks a teacher "Do you know if my son is gay?" that teacher can truthfully and with full ethical surety reply, "It's not my job to place myself between parent and child. This is a conversation you should have with your son." Easy-peasy. However, if that same parent asks, "Is my son going by a female name or pronoun at school?" the teacher is in a much more difficult position. She must then choose between violating district policy by telling the truth, or risking her relationship with the parent by outright lying. It's a Scylla-and-Charybdis moment, to be sure.

I think the only trans-gay similarity here is this: It's one thing for someone to live in the closet, and quite another to pull others in with you. If I am asking others to lie about me, I'm forcing them into the closet as well, and I have no right to do that. No one does.

Susan Scheid's avatar

Mind-boggling that not one of the outlets you list picked up this story: NYT, Washington Post, Time, Common Sense, FAIR, The Bulwark, NY Mag, USA Today, The Atlantic, CNN, WSJ, Unherd, Tablet. Not even Unherd? Just mind-boggling. Thanks for reposting. Definitely directly pertinent to the SCOTUS ruling. The book you are working on so hard is going to be a barnstormer.

Keilani Ludlow's avatar

It isn’t permanent, they ruled that California has inform parents while the ongoing litigation continues, but it’s a start. And at least it indicates the direction they would go if the ruling in California goes wrong and then has to proceed to the Supreme Court.

Cassandra anonymous's avatar

All based on the pernicious distortion that homosexuality and transgenderism are fundamentally similar. Homosexuality: concrete, objective and observable, vs “trans,” inchoate, subjective and non-falsifiable.

Mark M Breza's avatar

Great writing you finally dumped the first person pronoun 'I'

HD's avatar

Unbelievable that these entities maintained such a cowardly stance. Did you try the Guardian, by any chance?

It boggles my mind that concretizing a secretive and triangulated relationship between school, parents and children makes any sense. Is there any thought about the larger structural consequences of driving this wedge between child and parents? I am so weary of this era of parental vilification. As a lefty swimming in these waters for almost 5 years now I have witnessed, with little exception, love and pain and worry for their children from parents *across the entirety of the political spectrum*. Parents who *know* their children, and have watched with horror and helplessness as our larger culture claims the right to make metamorphic decisions about them without having any intimate understanding of each individual's strengths and struggles.

As always, thank you for your tireless work. You do what I am currently unable to without risking estrangement. I can't express strongly enough how much I look forward to your book.

Ollie Parks's avatar

The Guardian? In my experience, The Guardian tends to lean in the direction we'd call progressive in the States. So, very likely there would be no objective reporting there.

HD's avatar

Actually I have regularly found more nuance there than expected.

Ollie Parks's avatar

Point taken. A Guardian headline on the Cass Report read: "The Cass review of gender identity services marks a return to reason and evidence – it must be defended."

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2024/apr/26/cass-review-gender-identity-services-report

Abh's avatar

death to nazis