One thing I would say is that for everything there is a time and a place, so it is inappropriate to inject one topic into another topic. In the first draft of the CA model math curriculum there were several examples of this.
One was an arithmetic problem involving kids toys, something like how many toy cars does a young boy have. The problem itself was fine, but then it went further, advising the teacher to question the students about if boys can only play with cars; why aren't there math problems about boys playing with dolls? My issue with this isn't that boys shouldn't play with dolls, my issue is that math outcomes are awful in this country, and yet we're spending time allocated for math to talk about gender norms.
In another case the students (somewhere around 2nd to 4th grade) were reading "George" (now retitled to "Melissa"), a book about a transgender girl, and in the math portion of the class problems were being chosen based on the book. First off, it's one thing to have books that contain transgender characters. That can be used as a way to promote activism, but it's also the case that transgender people exist, so I don't immediately have an issue with books that contain transgender characters. In this case, though, transgenderism is the POINT of the book. I'm really not sure why kids in those grades need to learn about this. My kids are within that age range and they have no interest in learning about that. Then they tie the math lesson to it, effectively double dipping.
What both of the above cases illustrate (in my opinion) is an attempt to shoehorn controversial topics into a benign topic. That is inappropriate. Now, some make the point that students will be more interested in math if we make it "relevant" to the students. Yeah, probably. But you know what's going to be relevant to a higher percentage of the given 3rd grade math class? Virtually anything else. The teachers could easily choose something that isn't controversial, for example animals. My kids love learning facts about animals. Make math examples about that.
So, in summary, I think it's important for controversial topics not to trespass into the stuff they're actually supposed to be teaching, such as math. Math can be made interesting by incorporating less controversial real-life topics.
As far as what gender stuff should be covered in school? In the early grades, the less the better. The other big point is that the vast majority of these teachers have no special training in "social work", so what gives them the idea they are qualified to talk about any of these controversial issues effectively? They're barely qualified to teach the subject they were hired for, in many cases.
"...it's also the case that transgender people exist, so I don't immediately have an issue with books that contain transgender characters" NO. No one is "transgender". Human beings CANNOT change their sex. People with gender dysphoria do exist. They need psychiatric help, not surgery. And they sure as hell are not qualified or entitled to form school policies supporting their delusions!
There are certainly people who choose to live as if they were the opposite sex, adopting names, pronouns, clothing and other grooming norms that have traditionally been associated with the opposite sex. So in that sense, transgender people exist. While you may disagree with the choices of these people, I’m sure we can all agree that people are entitled to their own beliefs, even if we disagree with them, and that people who live by beliefs that are different from ours still deserve respect and safety.
I 100% agree with you that people can not be born transgender. The belief that they can is akin to a religious belief and must not be taught to children as fact.
Playacting as someone of the opposite sex doesn't make someone transgender, any more than putting on a cowboy hat makes me a rancher. People who cosplay ugly stereotypes of women while usurping our sports and making us unsafe in places that are supposed to be single-sex are not REMOTELY entitled to respect or anything else. This "be kind" crap is what put convicted rapists in the same cells with women. There is no need to validate the delusions of mentally ill people. It is the JOB and duty of mental healthcare professionals to help these people manage their dysphoria and delusions, and it is the responsibility of the patient to accept that help. I don't owe it to christians to pray with them, and I don't owe it to porn-sick male predators to pretend they're sweet little anime catgirls.
I’d argue that the actual definition of transgender is someone who is playacting as the opposite sex. It seems you believe the word has an implication that it’s an inborn characteristic, but I did not intend to imply that. IMO they are all playacting. There is no such thing as being born in the wrong body.
One of these delusional people happens to be my child. While I vehemently disagree with her choices and her belief that she’s a boy, and I do not affirm this belief, I do actually believe she’s still deserving of respect and love and safety in spite of her maladaptive coping mechanisms (which I have to still hope she may leave behind as she matures).
I do not believe that it is possible for a human to change their sex. It should not be possible legally, and in matters of privacy, safety, fairness, and medicine, physical sex matters. Other than that, if a man wants to wear a dress and call himself “she”, I may think he’s a bit odd but he’s still entitled to not be assaulted. In social situations where physical sex is immaterial I’ll even call him what he wants, although I do understand why others may choose not to and I reserve the right to internally roll my eyes.
It doesn’t make sense to me that we’d advocate for denying that such people exist, especially when they may be present in the school or in kids’ families. We can acknowledge that people have different beliefs about this topic, but obviously they exist regardless of what you call them. And I still believe that kids should be taught to respect people who hold different beliefs than them. (And by “respect” I do NOT mean “let them in your locker room”. Physical sex matters in privacy situations. But I do mean don’t call them names or shout insults at them.)
Many school employees may have misgivings and are not well educated on the facts about this topic. I think we’re likely to make a lot more headway treating it like a religious belief that we have to respect others’ right to hold, while expecting them to also respect our views, than launching a scorched earth campaign.
Believe me when I say no one has more of a right to be angry with these predators than someone whose child has been stolen by the cult.
The PEOPLE exist- as confused individuals with gender dysphoria. No one CAN be transgender because the transition to another sex is impossible. Transgenderism MUST be called out as an anti-science hoax in order to restore 100% of women's rights, restore 100% of child safeguarding, reestablish single-sex spaces, and put an end to these horrific surgeries for EVERYONE, not just minors. Every time we make any kind of exception, it leaves the door open for predatory men to claim they are part of the "true trans" group for which special permissions are granted. Every single trans-identified person thinks they are THAT special case that is deserving of an all-access pass to women's spaces. We save the children by KILLING the ideology stone cold dead. It's the only way.
I understand and don’t disagree with your anger, but it’s impossible to control other people’s beliefs. They have a right to beliefs I find to be nonsensical. However, I demand they also extend that freedom of speech and beliefs to me, so I can argue against their nonsensical beliefs.
I'd be careful to avoid making the same mistakes others make in conflating sex with gender. The fact that human beings cannot change their sex does not mean they cannot change their gender.
If it's word definitions you have an issue with, that's fine. In my opinion "gender" is a made-up term that fits reality poorly and does more harm than good. However, our disagreement over what terms are used or how they are used won't make them go away. I could rephrase my statement to say that "gender dysphoric people exist, so there's no reason books including gender dysphoric people wouldn't exist also". Would you find that more reasonable?
I would rephrase to "gender non-conforming children exist". So books with children presenting in non-traditional ways could be ok, if not promoting the idea that they are actually the opposite sex.
I did NOT conflate sex with gender. Gender is the social construct of expression based on stereotypes of the traditional roles, expressions, and expectations society places on people per their SEX. No, people cannot "change their gender" because no one HAS a gender. People have a SEX, and it's either male or female. How they express that sex per the characteristics that people PERCEIVE to be either masculine or feminine doesn't change who they are as human beings. Putting on a hat doesn't make a woman a man. Putting on a wig and a dress doesn't make a man a woman.
If you say "transgender people exist", you are signing on to the whole ideology, and that is the CORE of the problem. It's a FACT that no one is transgender. It's a FACT that human beings cannot change their SEX. Gender critical people believe that the way to liberate kids from sex-based restrictions is to abolish gender roles. Trans activists tell children they need to change their BODIES to fit the gender role they want to perform. We want to let boys play with dolls. TRAs say if you want to play with dolls, it means you're a girl.
As to your last statement, "Trans activists tell children they need to change their BODIES to fit the gender role they want to perform. We want to let boys play with dolls. TRAs say if you want to play with dolls, it means you're a girl." The TRAs are doing exactly what anti-gay/transphobic Christian groups did or still do; CONVERSION therapy.
Yes, Maura, that is EXACTLY it. The irony of progressives passing laws against conversion therapy while promoting the most EGREGIOUS homophobic conversion therapy ever attempted is the absolute paragon of hypocrisy. It's baffling that this treachery isn't obvious to everyone.
I disagree. I said that transgender people exist. As a response, you said "human beings CANNOT change their sex". You responded to my comment about gender by making a comment about sex. Not sure how that can be interpreted in any way other than conflating the two.
As far as whether transgender people exist, it really depends on what level you're arguing. To pick a similar example, I would argue that there's no such thing as race. But if we were having a conversation about race and you referred to "black people" as a group, would it be productive for me to jump in and declare that "race doesn't exist, and by using racial terms you're signing on to the whole ideology"? I personally believe that "gender" is a similarly artificial construct, but I'd really rather not get bogged down by some fight over linguistics.
I think you struggle to differentiate between "conflating" and "comparing and contrasting". My comments were clearly comparing sex and gender to demonstrate they are NOT the same. As for "getting bogged down by some fight over linguistics" you must be asleep at the wheel, because linguistics IS 100% of the fight. Rhys McKinnon, the male cyclist who started the invasion of men into women's sports, made a point of studying linguistics in college precisely for creating arguments that would allow him to compete as a woman by redefining words and deliberately confusing people.
With regard to the mantra "transgender people exist", that is the constant soundbyte uttered by trans activists, who like to pretend we are trying to wipe them off the Earth, as if refusing to believe them is actual genocide. Gender dysphoric people exist. They are not transgender. No one IS trans because the so-called TRANSITION is IMPOSSIBLE.
If it makes it easier for you, call the men who think they are women "trans-identified males" (TIMS) and the women who think they are men "trans-identified females" (TIFS). Yes they hate it, because it's entirely accurate.
Sex is biological reality. Gender is a social construct. Race is more complicated.
Human beings have no trouble identifying who is male or female, based on the many cues our binary sexed bodies provide. The basic biological differences between men and women don't require anyone to perform femininity or masculinity. Our senses are reliable when it comes to sex. Men deciding to use their brute strength to oppress women is a choice, as evidenced by the differences and degrees of oppression from one society to the next.
When it comes to race, our recognition of certain features and skin colors that tend to be associated with people of particular geographical places is in itself harmless. The decision of human beings to categorize these differences as "race" and use those differences to oppress and discriminate between groups of people is not hard-wired into us, it is a conscious choice. "Othering" groups of people has historically been done in the context of competition between groups of people over resources. Resentment, greed, vengeance, and fear have all been motivators in the development of racism. Yes, race is another artificial construct, but to say that there are no physical differences between people of various races when our eyes DO see very obvious differences, is a pointless exercise in virtue signaling. Why not simply say that one race is not superior to any other? Eventually it will be a moot point, when intermarriage has finally blended features and skin colors beyond racial distinctions.
Your last point is the simplest and clearest, imo - for sex ed & other health topics for older students, we have specially qualified "health teachers", or at least teachers who have taken some kind of certification program to teach these sensitive subjects. None of these elementary school teachers have any such qualifications.
I've seen many examples of them unwittingly going well beyond proper genderist orthodoxy on these subjects as well - usually in directly implying that all feminine boys are "really women" which isn't technically supposed to be true in genderism (which says that boys can be feminine boys but they can also be girls if they "feel like girls" which is in some way different from feeling merely "feminine", don't ask me but that's supposed to be the rules). And of course the "boys = GI Joe" and "girls = barbie" type educational materials they're using don't help them with this.
Lost in the discussion of whether or not kids can understand these rather subtle theoretical differences is - can teachers, or most people for that matter, grasp the subtle purported difference between "feminine boy" and "trans girl"?
I think most education administrators' heads would spin if you tried to rope them into an in-depth discussion of these subjects, which should be evidence enough that - even if children were theoretically capable of understanding these theories - very few adults understand them well enough to speak about them cogently in adult company, let alone break them down in ways children can understand.
I think it would be incredibly helpful to have a website or document where you could check parental rights laws and education laws for each state - or at least where to look for them or how to find them since often policies are different from district to district. For example, can a school counselor talk to your child even when you explicitly state “I do not consent?” (We were told by our private school that we had no choice and the counselor, who had zero experience and was in her first job after school, would talk to our child with very complex mental health issues (who already had her own private therapist and psychiatrist) despite us saying we did not consent and we wanted it stop. They refused and the outcome was not good). What are the laws in each state about seeing curriculum, opting out, socially transitioning without parental knowledge or consent? Locker room, overnight sleeping arrangements, sports, and bathroom policies? Maybe even a list of suggested questions yo ask would be really helpful.
Yes! And please, if possible, include laws in Canadian provinces and territories! We really have no one doing this kind of work (the Canadian Gender Report is the only organization I know that reports on trans issues in schools, but it only does that - report). Canada needs help!
Sorry if you think this is tangential to the topic, but for some perspective, compare Eastern and Western contexts. I live in Hong Kong, and have a kid in primary school at a British-oriented private school that follows a pre-IB curriculum, with English as the primary language of instruction. About half of the students are Hong Kongers or mainland Chinese, and the other half are a diverse mix of nationalities and ethnicities, with other East Asians, South Asians, and Caucasians from various countries heavily represented. The teachers and administrators are predominantly British, and the other school staff are predominantly Hong Kongers. The parents' professions are quite varied, but middle-to-high income people in finance, business, and higher education are heavily represented.
So, there are lots of highly educated elite Westerners running the show, with a lot of highly educated elite Westerners among the parents. In the current climate, if such a school were in a big city in Europe, North America, Australia, etc., we would probably expect it to be a breeding ground for gender ideology, social contagion of transgender identities, etc. Do you know how many "trans kids" we have? Zero. I certainly cannot speak for everyone, but among my child's friend group, the kids generally have no clue what "gender identity" or "transgender" or any number of other terms from gender ideology even mean. And if children are picking this stuff up at home, it does not get reinforced at school or in the broader culture. As far as I am aware, they are getting relatively normal, age-appropriate sex and relationship education. The school says that its curriculum on these topics is informed by organizations like the WHO, UNESCO, etc., and the guidance documents from these organizations do indeed make some cringe-worthy statements from the playbook of transgender activism. But the school gave the parents a preview and overview of the curriculum, and these controversial points do not really come through, at least at the young ages.
I cannot get into the heads of those who develop and implement the curriculum, but my hot take is that gender ideology is not taught because there is an understanding that the parents, as a whole, would not stand for it. When I speak to my non-Western friends and colleagues about some of the more extreme things happening in the West with respect to putting gender ideology into practice, they are generally in utter disbelief. And if they do believe me, they are horrified. Many of these people have extensive experience in the US or UK, but if it was more than five or so years ago, they cannot fully comprehend how rapidly things have changed.
So that's it. If you don't teach or practice gender ideology at school, shockingly, most kids will have no idea what it is, and the ones who learn about it elsewhere will not have it reinforced. And the result is no "trans kids." It's kind of like the before times.
This spring my son's high school had a guest speaker in the "wellness" class who threw down with "gender is a spectrum but so is sex, and here's why: intersex conditions!"
It's a very small progressive school, and we love it for many reasons, but the identity crap they've been pushing has been something that we've just been putting up with. (My son and many of his friends, once staunch social justice warriors, are weary of it as well, which I find encouraging!) But this speaker, along with some borderline conspiracy theory level stuff from a Black History Month guest, pushed me to email the head of school and set up a meeting.
I told him that while I didn't have a problem with students being exposed to points of view I disagreed with, I felt it was irresponsible to have speakers presenting their opinions in a class setting as facts. I mentioned the conflation of DSD's and trans-ness as being particularly unscientific (as well as offensive to many with DSD's) and emphasized how important it was that we tread very carefully when speaking to young people about gender.
For the head of a school with social justice in its mission statement, he's a very thoughtful, grounded person and I was relieved to hear him voice some caution around medicalization and parental notification. I followed up our meeting by sending him Jamie Reed's Free Press article which I thought might give him a better sense of where uncritical acceptance of this ideology is leading us. I left feeling glad I'd spoken up and I do have hope that he'll give more scrutiny to these kinds of messages in the future.
Do not blindly trust that he is going to do anything. People in his positiion are VERY GOOD at getting everyone to go away from a meeting feeling good. That is, in fact, often their primary talent, the one that got them the job in the first place.
In my experience this is too low of a bar. The school changed my daughter's name and pronouns in all school records, except for those that would be on a legal document (i.e., the transcript). I'm guessing most schools aren't changing the name on anything legal. But every time a teacher consults the school database, for attendance, grades, etc, it say she's a boy and lists the new name.
Take the heat off teachers!! Between pandemics and school shootings and rising assaults and disrespect, we've been through enough! I've taught in K-12 public schools in 3 blue states and what strikes me about the debate is that few adults understand that curriculum is based on state standards developed by state depts of ed, heavily influenced by ultra woke university schools of ed. Individual teachers have no right to teach anything not related to state standards unless so directed by administrators. The culprits for extremism are sometimes rouge activist teachers but more often STATE-LEVEL DIRECTIVES. Chris Rufo understands this better than most but I don't love his approach to ban topics and books which is causing a backlash. Most Americans would actually agree on what should be taught. Find that consensus and hold leaders accountable!
That said, teacher unions have a strong voice and they should be speaking up, especially where elementary children are being taught sex education effectively far earlier than any state curriculum standards call for.
True except teachers unions are totally captured by extremist ideologies. Chicago Teachers Union is seen as the model of activist unionism, and I see no hope for change within NEA or AFT at this point. Teachers who want to speak out against gender or racial extremism have no backing from their unions. NEA published BLM centerfolds in their magazine to put up in classrooms and they offer pds on pronoun use. Too far gone. Teachers not on board need to opt out so our hard earned money doesn't go towards propaganda.
Brigid: Can individual school districts require curriculum that goes beyond, or differs from, state standards? Are there any places where one can research the specific policies that pertain on a state-by-state level?
I don't believe public schools can legally go rouge by deviating from state standards but they might try. Could be excellent grounds for a lawsuit by parents. The DOE, US dept of education, is the federal authority and should have some policy information on their website.
While districts have a number of guidelines, mandated by the state, that they must follow, they can absolutely go beyond what the state requires. I’ve sat on several textbook adoption committees in mg district.
Really? take heat off teachers? sorry no can do. everyone is responsible to protect kids from harm, especially those paid to supervise kids. i understand being a teacher is difficult. i understand that gov employees must do as their told by management and that their skills dont translate to the private sector. but some teachers have swallowed this fraud, are promoting it and even preying on kids. teachers know who are the vulnerable kids and which ones have parents who wont push back. just like any predator. they need to be accountable like anyone else.
I was referring to curricular decisions not protecting kids from harm. Teachers are mandated reporters and must absolutely report any suspicious activity involving kids. I disagree with teaching extremist gender or racial ideology in schools, but I'm not jumping on any bandwagon that paints all gay or transgender teachers as predators. We should all know by now the most likely predators are clergy and coaches. Speaking of protecting kids from harm, who remembers the teachers that took bullets protecting kids this year? Eva Mireles and Irma Garcia, Jean Kuczka, Katherine Koonce to name just a few. We die protecting kids.
thanks for your comment. but the harm im talking about is the promotion of wrong information. for example, schools and teachers that teach kids that puberty is optional while omitting that 98% of kids who take puberty blockers for gender dysphoria go onto hormones that cause permanent loss of sexual function, permanant sterility and tons of other life long health problems. these teachers are duping kids into a health hazard. this and a 1000 other harmful lies are being promoted and communicated by teachers. i dont care if a teachers gay or trans. why would you imply that i do? im just talking about kids. in 2021, 42000 kids aged 7 to 17 in the US were diagnosed with gender dysphoria. since all of these kids are in the US they are in danger of being subjected to gender affirming care, a process that every country in the world that has done a systematic review has determined harms kids. amsterdam says long term people on this "care " die early 2X more than ave and commit suicide 20X more than ave. they dont start out that way tho. most grow out of dysphoria with puberty, as long as they dont take these harmful meds. last year 1600 kids were killed by gun violence. much much less were victims of abuse by clergy. so really its teachers communicating the harmful fraud of gender ideology that is harming kids 10x more kids than all else harms combined. count me as one of those who admire and highly value teachers. i used to think highly of bill cosby, before he was accused of raping womem. my view of harvey milk has changed perhaps less so after learning he was dating a 16 year old while he was in his 30s. teachers are being paid by the local tax payer and have a duty to them, not their corrupt bosses and clueless administrators. a narcissist is someone who doesnt have empathy. and a person who cant think shouldnt be a teacher
Teachers aren't in charge of curriculum, i.e. the information and ideas taught in schools. I keep saying that but you're too determined to blame teachers to listen. Misunderstanding the root of the problem doesn't lead to solutions. Pressure the leadership, school boards, superintendents and state officials, for change and curriculum will follow.
Brigid, I hear you. Having been a teacher years ago, I know that while teachers do have some space to make decisions with regards to what they teach and how they teach, the curriculum is restrictive. It's meant to be, and it should be, so that students all learn (approximately) the same things and have a similar level of education when they graduate (let's omit for a second the fact that this is definitely aspirational). And in today's climate, you may well have activist students and parents who will go for your throat if you dare to say something that doesn't align with their idea of what's right. Unfortunately, as we know in Ontario, the government will always be on the side of the "progressives".
Teachers can and should protest and try to bring about change whenever they can, but let's not be flippant about how difficult it actually is when your superiors (aka those who hold the money) are ideologically captured.
the Uvalde massacre = one shooter, 376 gov employee police and security , 77 minutes . no one did anything. just like teachers are doing with gender ideology. except in this case teachers arent on the side of the protectors.
teachers arent the only ones to blame. there are others. but teachers are among the people who are implementing this harmful fraud and are among main groups responsible. theres no way they can claim their not responsible. some teachers are even preying on kids, seeking out troubled kids and leading kids to harm in a very deliberate and intentional way. you cant claim those teachers are just "doing as their told". they are harming kids in a pre meditated and deliberate fashion.
heres a copy of another reply i made to this same article which i wrote the exact words you claim i "dont get".
"Individual schools and school employees may have little authority to change policy set by school boards/school districts.
Whats really needed is government to issue policy and guidance based on evidence as theyve done in UK that specifically states that child social transition is harmful, letting males in womens restrooms violates rights of others, affirming care does more harm than good, etc.
In lieu of this parents should vote out school board members implementing this fraud, enroll kids in schools that arent engaged in this (i live in southern California and guarantee there are many schools and school districts that pay as little attn as possible to gender ideology) and educate your own kids that gender ideology is a religion/cult that harms kids and get kids a Gabb phone that doesnt allow apps and monitor their Internet use. I realise this maybe too little too late. i do appreciate the question. but people also need to be realistic about what could be accomplished by speaking with people who have no power and no desire to assist in measures that go against school policy."
Well said. I clearly saw the straw man argument of trying to suggest you objected to gay or trans teachers. You did no such thing. This teacher just wants to pawn off their responsibility on someone else. I feel a slight bit of sympathy for someone who finds themselves suddenly on the front line of an ugly battle, but the reality is that teachers have a DUTY to protect kids, no matter what it costs them. They CAN and MUST refuse to teach gender bullshit to children. If enough teachers refused, it would be gone overnight!
Employees of the Tavistock Clinic walked out in protest of their own employer performing medical experiments on children. THEY obviously didn't get another paycheck from the clinic. They knew they faced hardships for taking that action- yet they did it, because it was the right thing to do. This is why teachers and doctors MUST refuse to participate in spreading the destructive lies of trans ideology.
Destroying the lives of kids for a paycheck is unforgivable.
Yes, you have been through a lot, but teachers are the ones directly interacting with students. Your unions are supposed to REPRESENT you, not dictate terms to you. Get some other teachers together and overhaul your union or form a new one. "I was just following orders" doesn't cut it in 2023. Like it or not, you are going to have to put in some work to fight this. Parents don't have the same access as you do to school administrators and union leaders.
No one in the world could persuade me to lie to children and lead them down the horrific path of toxic drugs and mutilating surgeries. YES I WOULD sacrifice my job to stand up for kids. Everyone who uses the excuse they were just "following orders" in 2023 is culpable for medical atrocities because there is no gun to your head! All you stand to lose is a JOB. I tell doctors the same thing- if all you care about is protecting your paycheck, you are fully accountable for ACTING on the horrible policies that are being set by politicians. Do you think we haven't TRIED to explain the problems with trans ideology to our representatives? I wouldn't ask you to do anything I wouldn't do myself. Nothing changes the fact that cowardice is at the core of this movement- cowardice to push back, cowardice to refuse to promote harm, cowardice to be "canceled", cowardice to take on the system when you find yourself holding the safety of children in your own hands. If you tell a child they can pick their gender, or that humans can change their sex, you're accountable for the outcome. Parents and teachers have a moral and ethical obligation to push back. You're either part of the problem or part of the solution. I've risked many jobs for a hell of a lot less, when I've observed some bad things happening. It's up to you.
Wow such a brave speech. Are you supporting the women who have spoken up and gotten death threats and had lives ruined? JK Rowling is rich enough to weather the blowback but most aren't. Pontificating and finger pointing won't stop this train and neither will individuals falling on swords. Organizing might. This post is about how to make change: Teachers for Parent's Rights?
Your comments are saturated in guilt. It's clear that you ARE teaching trans ideology to kids. The problem is that the ball is in YOUR court, and you don't have the guts to say no. I know what the post is about. My position is clear- the people being tasked with spreading this ideology have a moral and ethical obligation to refuse. It's the only way to stop it.
That's slander and exactly the reason teachers feel caught in the crossfire. Thank you for proving my point. Keep typing and stay away from the real world. You're the problem.
I would like to remind policymakers that "trans ___ are ___" is a gnostic faith statement, that "nonbinary/boggogender/demi/ace/aro identities are valid" is an Hermeticist faith statement, and that in the United States it is considered gauche to force my particpation in either a gnostic woo cult or a pagan magic ritual cult, or to bend the apparatus of government to either end. I would like my religious freedom back.
Individual schools and school employees may have little authority to change policy set by school boards/school districts.
Whats really needed is government to issue policy and guidance based on evidence as theyve done in UK that specifically states that child social transition is harmful, letting males in womens restrooms violates rights of others, affirming care does more harm than good, etc.
In lieu of this parents should vote out school board members implementing this fraud, enroll kids in schools that arent engaged in this (i live in southern California and guarantee there are many schools and school districts that pay as little attn as possible to gender ideology) and educate your own kids that gender ideology is a religion/cult that harms kids and get kids a Gabb phone that doesnt allow apps and monitor their Internet use. I realise this maybe too little too late. i do appreciate the question. but people also need to be realistic about what could be accomplished by speaking with people who have no power and no desire to assist in measures that go against school policy. Employees of some schools are trained in gender ideology propaganda and also how to "deal" with parents who dont go along with this fraud. In some parts of the country it will soon be illegal for parents to voice objection.
speaking only for myself i would pull the child out of school, even if it means renting across town to get into a differnt school and start speaking with child about how they will support themselves via a job. just as its useless to talk with some school employees its also useless to talk to some kids. but parents also dont have to enable this harm, even if the State is compelling this in some areas. 75% of people affected by this are supported by their parents, many as adults. parents themselves often dont have the ability to affect reality to offspring. but the spector of employment might. my empathy to anyone dealing with this.
It really is very local in terms of how far districts are going with this. My area is majority immigrant and my count for progress pride flags sighted so far this *year* is literally one, on one single car. Nothing near schools, nothing on the street, nothing at local businesses (even local branches of nationwide chains) and nothing in the libraries. This area votes over 80% Democratic but only a little over a quarter of residents are white. Really it's less that schools "don't dare" and more that the teachers & staff of the schools (and other businesses & local governments) are likely to reflect the makeup of the community.
Simply put, no school with a significant of Muslim students is even going to try this, because the parents would riot. Same for schools with conservative Jewish students. So if you're looking for somewhere safe to send your kids for the time being, it doesn't even have to be a private school, just a public school in a district where the parent body wouldn't tolerate this. And if you need a personal break from seeing certain flags & slogans, take a drive and spend a day in any immigrant neighborhood near you, have breakfast by yourself, take a look around and compare what their local schools, chains & churches have on the billboards to what yours do.
This is so true. The heavily minority and immigrant areas have less of the racial and gender extremism in my blue area as well. So ironic that the social justice & gender warriors so often presume to speak for communities that want nothing to do with their ideologies.
The government has indicated they are going to ignore the protests of parents and teachers. I've been calling, emailing, texting, etc. to no avail. I have yet to receive a single response from ANY Democrat politician regarding my concerns about trans ideology. The ONLY way to stop it is with a grassroots protest by teachers and parents. Pull the kids out of school. Teachers call in sick. Just REFUSE to teach this crap.
one of the main goals of this effort has been to prevent parents from the right to protect kids from this fraud. if it feels like parents are being targeted: they are.
unraveling this wont be easy. communicating correct information is part of the solution. but so is push back against this fraud.
That anything other than biological sex is dishonest and that by insisting on the absurdity of chosen pronouns, even uttering “non-binary,” or “gender fluid” is teaching children to lie and reject biology, science, etc.
I’d be happy to share what our school is teaching in elementary. The leadership is extremely committed. Many of the families are too. The state (NY) protects them all, under the guise of being progressive. The most helpful thing would be a way to remind schools that this is super controversial and they cannot assume everyone agrees. Several parents have been considering pushing for this to be opt-in, with full lesson plans provided in advance (right now they won’t email them out, will only go through on the phone with you) and parents required to sign a permission slip as for a field trip. The school instead is asking for religious exemption forms to opt out. Any legal support on this front would be welcome. It’s crazy out here! Thanks for asking about this.
Thank you Lisa! This is really needed... I posted the note I sent my school in another thread. For me, I believe in an attempt to “be kind” our school just added confusion on gender identity. (This was a few years ago, i I only realized in hindsight what was happening so not truly sure on the details. Our school partners with Welcoming Schools (part of HRC) and there is a lot problematic there (though probably a fair amount that is good too). The whole concept of a gender identity can be very very confusing but it is pushed front and center! Here is one particular lesson
Also, Stella and Sasha mentioned tackling schools more in their Gender A Wider Lens podcast so they might have good resources. And their recent guest Kate Parker was very very interesting on this topic.
One basic policy or law is that parents should have an immediate access to all student work on computers. In the before times, papers came home, now it’s hit or miss with online/cloud access.
Happy to report, though, that the top three reader picks are these:
EB
NYC
12h ago
Can we please be more specific with our language? Laws regulating irreversible childhood transition surgeries are not "anti-LGBTQ", this acronym encompasses many different demographics that have nothing to do with this issue, this is a trans issue. I get the feeling that activists are intentionally conflating these issues because we have mainstream support for same sex marriage, but not for controversial issues like child sterilization, so they're trying to merge them to increase support for the latter.
I'm a lesbian with a lot of gay, trans, and bisexual friends (all of whom happen to be staunch democrats). Almost none of them support child medical transition. The trans women I know are happy that they didn't go on puberty blockers at age 10, because that would have rendered them infertile and unable to experience orgasm for the rest of their lives. I also know more than one detransitioner. It's too bad that our country is so politically polarized that we seem to be having a knee jerk reaction against anything republicans are doing. Please remember that the most liberal, nordic European countries have pumped the breaks on child medical transitioning after looking at the data that the benefits weren't significant enough to justify the substantial risks.
Elizabeth Ashworth
Greenwich, CT
11h ago
So by the logic of this article, elected representatives cannot debate issues regarding minor gender transitions or fairness in girls' sport because it may make Trans people uncomfortable? These are serious issues, and unlike what people on the far left believe, it is not settled science. In many western European liberal countries like Finland and Sweden, gender affirming care for minors is being scaled back. The side effects of hormone therapy and puberty blockers affect bone density and fertility issues in their adult lives.
Many teen girls have body issues, we tell them to accept themselves and not encourage them to cosmetic surgeries. Trans kids can get gender affirming care as adults and it is not being banned in Florida or state. Secondly, women won their rights to have separate spaces, sports as it is impossible biologically to compete with men in track and field, swimming, tennis and many other sports. Here in Connecticut, 2 trans kids when they competed in the boys team were ranked about 200th in the state after competing in girl's team have blown out competition and dominated in every track and field competition. The trans kids now have offers from Harvard and WestPoint to run track and field in NCAA. No doubt they will blow out the competition in college too. This is beyond parody now. I support people to live their lives as they wish but this is not that.
Mike
Alaska
12h ago
There is no such thing as an LGBTQ person. It is impossible for one person to fit all of those identities, and lumping every non-straight individual into a common protected class is a non-sequitur.
My contribution was to "second" EB:
Susan S
New York, New York
2m ago
@EB I am also a lesbian and a progressive Democrat. You speak for me, absolutely. Unlike other progressive Democrats, including Mr. Blow, I have done my homework on these issues--and continue to do it. At a minimum, every single person on my side of the aisle should read Hannah Barnes's book, "Time to Think: The Inside Story of the Collapse of the Tavistock's Gender Service for Children" before even thinking of weighing in on the topic of pediatric gender-related medical interventions.
So, “interesting twist”: EB’s comment has disappeared, which seemed to me very reasonable, along with all the replies under it (they went both ways). I tried again, this time without replying to anyone, so reframed a bit, and this got published (at least for now):
I may be wrong, but it doesn't appear to me that Mr. Blow has done the homework he needs to before writing this opinion piece. First, I would recommend to Mr. Blow and anyone else here who has not read it, to read BBC investigative reporter Hannah Barnes's excellent, thoroughly researched, and fair-minded book,"Time to Think: The Inside Story of the Collapse of the Tavistock's Gender Service for Children" before weighing in on the topic of pediatric gender-related medical interventions. Allied with that, the Cass Report is out in the UK, and provides an intelligent, evidence-based approach to such pediatric interventions. This is what we need in the US: let's get the states out of the middle of family-health care professional decisions and get a sound science-based, rather than advocacy-base, care model in place for such professionals to follow. I want to note too (and I speak as a Democrat myself), that it is not only places like Florida that are interfering in family-physician decision-making, but also places like California, with, as one example, AB-957.
One thing to emphasize is that this topic has religious implications, and therefore teaching as fact the people have an inborn gender identity, or that sex is a spectrum, or that it’s possible for humans to actually change physical sex, or that some gender or sexual identities are oppressed and therefore in need of special rights or celebration or are morally superior to the “oppressors” is violating families’ religious rights and could open up the school or district to legal actions. Social transition of students or facilitating medical transition without the parents’ consent also violates families’ rights.
This needs to be balanced with a statement of what you are NOT trying to do - deny the existence of gay people or remove any of their rights, deny the existence of people who present themselves as the opposite sex, or advocate for discrimination or harassment of anyone for their personal beliefs or expression. Of course it is appropriate to teach young children factual, age appropriate information, such as the fact that some children may have two same-sex parents (especially if that is actually the situation in a particular class) or that some people may choose to present themselves as one sex even though they are born as the other (especially if that’s the situation for someone in the school).
I also think that some data showing a few key, easy to understand points such as the increase in trans-identified teens and the demographic shift from males to females, the fact that suicide rates don’t decrease after transition, and rates of medical complications, along with explanations of why the oft-cited suicide studies are inaccurate and biased, would be helpful.
As far as who to target this information to (teachers? Admins? School boards? District admins? State government?) and how to initiate the conversation I don’t know but I hope some of the teachers and other educators here can give some advice on that.
In blue states these ideologies are being promoted, even required, at the state level. The state superintendent (aka commissioner or director) of public instruction is ultimately responsible. DEI trainings and ideologically biased professional development sessions are often tied to grants or other funds.
It's important to understand how quickly this has happened in schools during a tumultuous post-pandemic return and how bewildering it is for most people. Those promoting "trans rights" are just as passionate that theirs is the only true path towards the salvation of children. If that sounds religious, it's apt.
Somewhat related, but putting this to simply share a news story that came across my feed. To me it exemplifies that girls *aren’t* allowed or recognized as girls if they don’t appear stereotypical (not new to you, Lisa). This is the first story of this kinds I’ve seen. It also makes me think there will have to be a verification process at very young levels...maybe?
I think this incident is more a reflection of the fact that parents in Canada nowadays can't trust that their children will be competing with others of the same sex. I saw a photo of the girl in question, and she really does look very boyish. Not a problem, of course, and I would imagine that 20 years ago people would just assume she's a girl because no boys ever competed with the girls. Now you really never know. It's really quite awful that the girl was embroiled in this, the adults have to figure this out amongst themselves without involving the children.
yeah. i guess. or an example of how people who arent around kids much or dont have kids really dont know anything about kids, which is how we got into this mess where the ivory tower thinks kids should have more say than their parents
Thanks so much for letting me review the sex education curriculum for the 6th and 8th graders in XXXX Unified School District. It has equipped me with the information I need to have ongoing conversations with my kids on these often complex and nuanced topics.
In that spirit, I am asking that:
• All parents in the district have access to the detailed sex ed curriculum – not just those who, like me, are privileged enough to have the time and resources to come into the district during office hours to read it in person.
• That XUSD consider either more nuanced teaching related to the issues I highlight in this letter or seek out a new curriculum that is more nuanced and discerns between science and theory/ideas.
My primary focus, as I mentioned when I initially contacted you, were the sections of the curriculum on “identity development and inclusion”. Some background: Prior to staying home to raise a family, I was a social worker for three pediatric hospital systems – two in Los Angeles and one in Salt Lake City – with a special focus on adolescents. I am a life-long progressive and have always operated with a framework of progressive values and through a lens of social justice. While in practice in the early 2000’s - first as an MSW and then an LCSW – the “Affirmative” model/approach to gender variant or gender questioning clients entered the lexicon of my field. I was wholly supportive both intuitively, sociologically and from within a medical setting based on the “research-based” wisdom passed down to me through the ‘chain of trust’ in the medical settings where I worked.
Cut to 2-3 years ago, when my oldest child (now 14) was approaching adolescence along with the cohort of kids who he grew up with in XXXX and an increasing number of these kids’ parents (who had become my friends) reported their kids were suddenly declaring trans identities. These have been most often girls, most often without any histories of gender nonconformance or gender dysphoria, and most often in groups of friends. These parents were all progressive, usually surprised, and committed to supporting their children but with questions about how to best to do so. Based on my previous clinical experiences with adolescents, mental health, and medicine, I decided to check in on the current Standards of Care for gender dysphoric minors.
This one little decision turned out to be the equivalent of opening a Pandora’s Box of confusing conflict about the research and medical applications and extreme derision about the politics. As a result, I have spent the last two years trying to do due diligence on this topic; reading and re-reading the science, the critiques of the science, the critiques of the critiques etc. I have listened to hundreds of hours of research and testimony from the experts in the field of psychology, medicine and sociology, people suffering from gender dysphoria, and people receiving transition care. I have also learned a lot about the parallel socio-political evolution regarding how Western society has come to define (or argue over) sex and gender. I could draft a thesis for you, but I will not.
What I will say is there are a few areas of the curriculum being taught that are not based on science. Specifically:
• That sex is an “limitless spectrum”
• That gender identity is a characteristic that exists in every individual's brain and is the “inner sense of who you are (boy, girl, nonbinary/genderqueer, agender)”.
“Teach your students that sex is different from gender! Neither are binary and both exist on a limitless spectrum.” (From the page on Intersex students)
The notion that sex exists on a limitless spectrum is not scientifically sound or settled. Gender expression is (and should be embraced as) an infinite spectrum that needs to be accepted in our culture because feminine men and masculine women are still the targets of judgement and abuse and this is not ok. But biological sex is observed (not assigned) at birth and does not change in critical material ways even if gender presentation and gender expression do. It is a biological reality that the most feminine men are male and the most masculine women are female and that material reality should not be obfuscated in science class.
DSD’s impact males and female pathways of development in a very small number of people who physicians can overwhelmingly determine to be male with a DSD or female with a DSD. I worked for a long time in the Pediatric Endocrinology Department, where we saw kids with DSDs. I saw kids who had been surgically altered (given vaginoplasties) as infants because of anatomical ambiguity (not function) and were sent home with their parents being told “raise them as a girl and don’t mention anything.” My understanding of the history of DSD activism, is that is has be focused on determining and honoring the biological truth of the sex of people with DSDs. The section of the curriculum that talks about (and overrepresents) people with DSDs justifies itself based on principles of inclusion and making all kids comfortable. There is an argument to be made that obscuring biological reality does not actually serve most children with DSDs and that the percentage of conditions that functionally obscures sex (kids who need more specific information, not from general sex ed, but from their medical care team about their specific biology) is .018% or 1.62 kids in a school district of 9000 children.
It is certainly true that “sex” is no longer as important in many areas of life as it once was – particularly in liberal and secular areas like XXXX where we acknowledge and teach most of our kids that gender stereotypes are not binding or limiting in terms of their clothing, behavior, interests or friends. But scientifically speaking, biological sex exists and still has enormous implications in other areas (reproductive functioning, disease management, and risk of forced birth (and other health outcomes resulting from restricted access to abortion) and sexual and domestic violence – things that disproportionally effect girls and women throughout their lifespan because of their sex at birth. Why not teach accurate science and discuss social realities of sex and what it means and what it doesn’t mean for our kids?
“Gender Identity” as a characteristic in/of the brain.
The concept of “Gender Identity”, which is used in the curriculum alongside 3 other categories – “sex” “gender presentation” and “sexuality” (genderbread person) – is just one theory or idea or metaphor that has be used to explain a number of different (sometimes conflicting) phenomena including: sex-based stereotypes and expectations within cultures, gender non-conformance, gender dysphoria and/or transgender identity. Unlike sex, gender presentation and sexuality, which are all quantifiable parts of people identities and/or biological and social realities, there is no scientific evidence that “gender identity” (an internal sense of being “male” or “female” or “nonbinary” or “genderqueer” or “agender”) exists in the brain. Certainly “gender identity” is part of the cultural zeitgeist and our kids’ ever-growing lexicons and its pervasive use in our culture justifies having discussions with our kids; particular during the period in their lives where they are figuring out who they are or aren’t and who they want to be but teaching “gender identity” as a scientific principle and brain-based component of identity is not accurate.
Personally, I believe in giving kids more information vs less so I am not considering opting out of this or any portion of the sex ed curriculum because of these two inaccurate points but I am committed to the belief that all parents in XUSD should know and understand exactly what the teaching on “identity development and inclusion” means, so they can also have deeper conversations with their kids about this complicated area of life and culture. XUSD may also want to investigate more science-based options for sex education curriculum. This is not my area of expertise, but I will leave you with one resource in the UK that is working on more accurate and nuanced methodology, language, and materials:
As a last point, I know from friends whose kids are declaring trans identities, there are material concerns (and fear) about the ways in which curriculum can codify the idea of “gender identity” for this very vulnerable population and further obscure the bigger picture and ultimate safe resolution of what their children are struggling with. Please consider those families.
I look forward to hearing about the steps XUSD will take to address my two requests.
One thing I would say is that for everything there is a time and a place, so it is inappropriate to inject one topic into another topic. In the first draft of the CA model math curriculum there were several examples of this.
One was an arithmetic problem involving kids toys, something like how many toy cars does a young boy have. The problem itself was fine, but then it went further, advising the teacher to question the students about if boys can only play with cars; why aren't there math problems about boys playing with dolls? My issue with this isn't that boys shouldn't play with dolls, my issue is that math outcomes are awful in this country, and yet we're spending time allocated for math to talk about gender norms.
In another case the students (somewhere around 2nd to 4th grade) were reading "George" (now retitled to "Melissa"), a book about a transgender girl, and in the math portion of the class problems were being chosen based on the book. First off, it's one thing to have books that contain transgender characters. That can be used as a way to promote activism, but it's also the case that transgender people exist, so I don't immediately have an issue with books that contain transgender characters. In this case, though, transgenderism is the POINT of the book. I'm really not sure why kids in those grades need to learn about this. My kids are within that age range and they have no interest in learning about that. Then they tie the math lesson to it, effectively double dipping.
What both of the above cases illustrate (in my opinion) is an attempt to shoehorn controversial topics into a benign topic. That is inappropriate. Now, some make the point that students will be more interested in math if we make it "relevant" to the students. Yeah, probably. But you know what's going to be relevant to a higher percentage of the given 3rd grade math class? Virtually anything else. The teachers could easily choose something that isn't controversial, for example animals. My kids love learning facts about animals. Make math examples about that.
So, in summary, I think it's important for controversial topics not to trespass into the stuff they're actually supposed to be teaching, such as math. Math can be made interesting by incorporating less controversial real-life topics.
As far as what gender stuff should be covered in school? In the early grades, the less the better. The other big point is that the vast majority of these teachers have no special training in "social work", so what gives them the idea they are qualified to talk about any of these controversial issues effectively? They're barely qualified to teach the subject they were hired for, in many cases.
"...it's also the case that transgender people exist, so I don't immediately have an issue with books that contain transgender characters" NO. No one is "transgender". Human beings CANNOT change their sex. People with gender dysphoria do exist. They need psychiatric help, not surgery. And they sure as hell are not qualified or entitled to form school policies supporting their delusions!
There are certainly people who choose to live as if they were the opposite sex, adopting names, pronouns, clothing and other grooming norms that have traditionally been associated with the opposite sex. So in that sense, transgender people exist. While you may disagree with the choices of these people, I’m sure we can all agree that people are entitled to their own beliefs, even if we disagree with them, and that people who live by beliefs that are different from ours still deserve respect and safety.
I 100% agree with you that people can not be born transgender. The belief that they can is akin to a religious belief and must not be taught to children as fact.
Playacting as someone of the opposite sex doesn't make someone transgender, any more than putting on a cowboy hat makes me a rancher. People who cosplay ugly stereotypes of women while usurping our sports and making us unsafe in places that are supposed to be single-sex are not REMOTELY entitled to respect or anything else. This "be kind" crap is what put convicted rapists in the same cells with women. There is no need to validate the delusions of mentally ill people. It is the JOB and duty of mental healthcare professionals to help these people manage their dysphoria and delusions, and it is the responsibility of the patient to accept that help. I don't owe it to christians to pray with them, and I don't owe it to porn-sick male predators to pretend they're sweet little anime catgirls.
I’d argue that the actual definition of transgender is someone who is playacting as the opposite sex. It seems you believe the word has an implication that it’s an inborn characteristic, but I did not intend to imply that. IMO they are all playacting. There is no such thing as being born in the wrong body.
One of these delusional people happens to be my child. While I vehemently disagree with her choices and her belief that she’s a boy, and I do not affirm this belief, I do actually believe she’s still deserving of respect and love and safety in spite of her maladaptive coping mechanisms (which I have to still hope she may leave behind as she matures).
I do not believe that it is possible for a human to change their sex. It should not be possible legally, and in matters of privacy, safety, fairness, and medicine, physical sex matters. Other than that, if a man wants to wear a dress and call himself “she”, I may think he’s a bit odd but he’s still entitled to not be assaulted. In social situations where physical sex is immaterial I’ll even call him what he wants, although I do understand why others may choose not to and I reserve the right to internally roll my eyes.
It doesn’t make sense to me that we’d advocate for denying that such people exist, especially when they may be present in the school or in kids’ families. We can acknowledge that people have different beliefs about this topic, but obviously they exist regardless of what you call them. And I still believe that kids should be taught to respect people who hold different beliefs than them. (And by “respect” I do NOT mean “let them in your locker room”. Physical sex matters in privacy situations. But I do mean don’t call them names or shout insults at them.)
Many school employees may have misgivings and are not well educated on the facts about this topic. I think we’re likely to make a lot more headway treating it like a religious belief that we have to respect others’ right to hold, while expecting them to also respect our views, than launching a scorched earth campaign.
Believe me when I say no one has more of a right to be angry with these predators than someone whose child has been stolen by the cult.
The PEOPLE exist- as confused individuals with gender dysphoria. No one CAN be transgender because the transition to another sex is impossible. Transgenderism MUST be called out as an anti-science hoax in order to restore 100% of women's rights, restore 100% of child safeguarding, reestablish single-sex spaces, and put an end to these horrific surgeries for EVERYONE, not just minors. Every time we make any kind of exception, it leaves the door open for predatory men to claim they are part of the "true trans" group for which special permissions are granted. Every single trans-identified person thinks they are THAT special case that is deserving of an all-access pass to women's spaces. We save the children by KILLING the ideology stone cold dead. It's the only way.
I understand and don’t disagree with your anger, but it’s impossible to control other people’s beliefs. They have a right to beliefs I find to be nonsensical. However, I demand they also extend that freedom of speech and beliefs to me, so I can argue against their nonsensical beliefs.
I'd be careful to avoid making the same mistakes others make in conflating sex with gender. The fact that human beings cannot change their sex does not mean they cannot change their gender.
If it's word definitions you have an issue with, that's fine. In my opinion "gender" is a made-up term that fits reality poorly and does more harm than good. However, our disagreement over what terms are used or how they are used won't make them go away. I could rephrase my statement to say that "gender dysphoric people exist, so there's no reason books including gender dysphoric people wouldn't exist also". Would you find that more reasonable?
I would rephrase to "gender non-conforming children exist". So books with children presenting in non-traditional ways could be ok, if not promoting the idea that they are actually the opposite sex.
I did NOT conflate sex with gender. Gender is the social construct of expression based on stereotypes of the traditional roles, expressions, and expectations society places on people per their SEX. No, people cannot "change their gender" because no one HAS a gender. People have a SEX, and it's either male or female. How they express that sex per the characteristics that people PERCEIVE to be either masculine or feminine doesn't change who they are as human beings. Putting on a hat doesn't make a woman a man. Putting on a wig and a dress doesn't make a man a woman.
If you say "transgender people exist", you are signing on to the whole ideology, and that is the CORE of the problem. It's a FACT that no one is transgender. It's a FACT that human beings cannot change their SEX. Gender critical people believe that the way to liberate kids from sex-based restrictions is to abolish gender roles. Trans activists tell children they need to change their BODIES to fit the gender role they want to perform. We want to let boys play with dolls. TRAs say if you want to play with dolls, it means you're a girl.
As to your last statement, "Trans activists tell children they need to change their BODIES to fit the gender role they want to perform. We want to let boys play with dolls. TRAs say if you want to play with dolls, it means you're a girl." The TRAs are doing exactly what anti-gay/transphobic Christian groups did or still do; CONVERSION therapy.
Yes, Maura, that is EXACTLY it. The irony of progressives passing laws against conversion therapy while promoting the most EGREGIOUS homophobic conversion therapy ever attempted is the absolute paragon of hypocrisy. It's baffling that this treachery isn't obvious to everyone.
Right? Admittedly, I didn't connect the dots until I read about the conversion hypocrisy but it was an immediate lightbulb moment when I did.
I disagree. I said that transgender people exist. As a response, you said "human beings CANNOT change their sex". You responded to my comment about gender by making a comment about sex. Not sure how that can be interpreted in any way other than conflating the two.
As far as whether transgender people exist, it really depends on what level you're arguing. To pick a similar example, I would argue that there's no such thing as race. But if we were having a conversation about race and you referred to "black people" as a group, would it be productive for me to jump in and declare that "race doesn't exist, and by using racial terms you're signing on to the whole ideology"? I personally believe that "gender" is a similarly artificial construct, but I'd really rather not get bogged down by some fight over linguistics.
I think you struggle to differentiate between "conflating" and "comparing and contrasting". My comments were clearly comparing sex and gender to demonstrate they are NOT the same. As for "getting bogged down by some fight over linguistics" you must be asleep at the wheel, because linguistics IS 100% of the fight. Rhys McKinnon, the male cyclist who started the invasion of men into women's sports, made a point of studying linguistics in college precisely for creating arguments that would allow him to compete as a woman by redefining words and deliberately confusing people.
With regard to the mantra "transgender people exist", that is the constant soundbyte uttered by trans activists, who like to pretend we are trying to wipe them off the Earth, as if refusing to believe them is actual genocide. Gender dysphoric people exist. They are not transgender. No one IS trans because the so-called TRANSITION is IMPOSSIBLE.
If it makes it easier for you, call the men who think they are women "trans-identified males" (TIMS) and the women who think they are men "trans-identified females" (TIFS). Yes they hate it, because it's entirely accurate.
Sex is biological reality. Gender is a social construct. Race is more complicated.
Human beings have no trouble identifying who is male or female, based on the many cues our binary sexed bodies provide. The basic biological differences between men and women don't require anyone to perform femininity or masculinity. Our senses are reliable when it comes to sex. Men deciding to use their brute strength to oppress women is a choice, as evidenced by the differences and degrees of oppression from one society to the next.
When it comes to race, our recognition of certain features and skin colors that tend to be associated with people of particular geographical places is in itself harmless. The decision of human beings to categorize these differences as "race" and use those differences to oppress and discriminate between groups of people is not hard-wired into us, it is a conscious choice. "Othering" groups of people has historically been done in the context of competition between groups of people over resources. Resentment, greed, vengeance, and fear have all been motivators in the development of racism. Yes, race is another artificial construct, but to say that there are no physical differences between people of various races when our eyes DO see very obvious differences, is a pointless exercise in virtue signaling. Why not simply say that one race is not superior to any other? Eventually it will be a moot point, when intermarriage has finally blended features and skin colors beyond racial distinctions.
Your last point is the simplest and clearest, imo - for sex ed & other health topics for older students, we have specially qualified "health teachers", or at least teachers who have taken some kind of certification program to teach these sensitive subjects. None of these elementary school teachers have any such qualifications.
I've seen many examples of them unwittingly going well beyond proper genderist orthodoxy on these subjects as well - usually in directly implying that all feminine boys are "really women" which isn't technically supposed to be true in genderism (which says that boys can be feminine boys but they can also be girls if they "feel like girls" which is in some way different from feeling merely "feminine", don't ask me but that's supposed to be the rules). And of course the "boys = GI Joe" and "girls = barbie" type educational materials they're using don't help them with this.
Lost in the discussion of whether or not kids can understand these rather subtle theoretical differences is - can teachers, or most people for that matter, grasp the subtle purported difference between "feminine boy" and "trans girl"?
I think most education administrators' heads would spin if you tried to rope them into an in-depth discussion of these subjects, which should be evidence enough that - even if children were theoretically capable of understanding these theories - very few adults understand them well enough to speak about them cogently in adult company, let alone break them down in ways children can understand.
I think it would be incredibly helpful to have a website or document where you could check parental rights laws and education laws for each state - or at least where to look for them or how to find them since often policies are different from district to district. For example, can a school counselor talk to your child even when you explicitly state “I do not consent?” (We were told by our private school that we had no choice and the counselor, who had zero experience and was in her first job after school, would talk to our child with very complex mental health issues (who already had her own private therapist and psychiatrist) despite us saying we did not consent and we wanted it stop. They refused and the outcome was not good). What are the laws in each state about seeing curriculum, opting out, socially transitioning without parental knowledge or consent? Locker room, overnight sleeping arrangements, sports, and bathroom policies? Maybe even a list of suggested questions yo ask would be really helpful.
Yes! And please, if possible, include laws in Canadian provinces and territories! We really have no one doing this kind of work (the Canadian Gender Report is the only organization I know that reports on trans issues in schools, but it only does that - report). Canada needs help!
Sorry if you think this is tangential to the topic, but for some perspective, compare Eastern and Western contexts. I live in Hong Kong, and have a kid in primary school at a British-oriented private school that follows a pre-IB curriculum, with English as the primary language of instruction. About half of the students are Hong Kongers or mainland Chinese, and the other half are a diverse mix of nationalities and ethnicities, with other East Asians, South Asians, and Caucasians from various countries heavily represented. The teachers and administrators are predominantly British, and the other school staff are predominantly Hong Kongers. The parents' professions are quite varied, but middle-to-high income people in finance, business, and higher education are heavily represented.
So, there are lots of highly educated elite Westerners running the show, with a lot of highly educated elite Westerners among the parents. In the current climate, if such a school were in a big city in Europe, North America, Australia, etc., we would probably expect it to be a breeding ground for gender ideology, social contagion of transgender identities, etc. Do you know how many "trans kids" we have? Zero. I certainly cannot speak for everyone, but among my child's friend group, the kids generally have no clue what "gender identity" or "transgender" or any number of other terms from gender ideology even mean. And if children are picking this stuff up at home, it does not get reinforced at school or in the broader culture. As far as I am aware, they are getting relatively normal, age-appropriate sex and relationship education. The school says that its curriculum on these topics is informed by organizations like the WHO, UNESCO, etc., and the guidance documents from these organizations do indeed make some cringe-worthy statements from the playbook of transgender activism. But the school gave the parents a preview and overview of the curriculum, and these controversial points do not really come through, at least at the young ages.
I cannot get into the heads of those who develop and implement the curriculum, but my hot take is that gender ideology is not taught because there is an understanding that the parents, as a whole, would not stand for it. When I speak to my non-Western friends and colleagues about some of the more extreme things happening in the West with respect to putting gender ideology into practice, they are generally in utter disbelief. And if they do believe me, they are horrified. Many of these people have extensive experience in the US or UK, but if it was more than five or so years ago, they cannot fully comprehend how rapidly things have changed.
So that's it. If you don't teach or practice gender ideology at school, shockingly, most kids will have no idea what it is, and the ones who learn about it elsewhere will not have it reinforced. And the result is no "trans kids." It's kind of like the before times.
This spring my son's high school had a guest speaker in the "wellness" class who threw down with "gender is a spectrum but so is sex, and here's why: intersex conditions!"
It's a very small progressive school, and we love it for many reasons, but the identity crap they've been pushing has been something that we've just been putting up with. (My son and many of his friends, once staunch social justice warriors, are weary of it as well, which I find encouraging!) But this speaker, along with some borderline conspiracy theory level stuff from a Black History Month guest, pushed me to email the head of school and set up a meeting.
I told him that while I didn't have a problem with students being exposed to points of view I disagreed with, I felt it was irresponsible to have speakers presenting their opinions in a class setting as facts. I mentioned the conflation of DSD's and trans-ness as being particularly unscientific (as well as offensive to many with DSD's) and emphasized how important it was that we tread very carefully when speaking to young people about gender.
For the head of a school with social justice in its mission statement, he's a very thoughtful, grounded person and I was relieved to hear him voice some caution around medicalization and parental notification. I followed up our meeting by sending him Jamie Reed's Free Press article which I thought might give him a better sense of where uncritical acceptance of this ideology is leading us. I left feeling glad I'd spoken up and I do have hope that he'll give more scrutiny to these kinds of messages in the future.
Do not blindly trust that he is going to do anything. People in his positiion are VERY GOOD at getting everyone to go away from a meeting feeling good. That is, in fact, often their primary talent, the one that got them the job in the first place.
Legal names should not disappear from school records. As long as the name has not been changed legally, school records and diploma should say it.
In my experience this is too low of a bar. The school changed my daughter's name and pronouns in all school records, except for those that would be on a legal document (i.e., the transcript). I'm guessing most schools aren't changing the name on anything legal. But every time a teacher consults the school database, for attendance, grades, etc, it say she's a boy and lists the new name.
The only place my daughter’s name remained was the nurse’s office.
Take the heat off teachers!! Between pandemics and school shootings and rising assaults and disrespect, we've been through enough! I've taught in K-12 public schools in 3 blue states and what strikes me about the debate is that few adults understand that curriculum is based on state standards developed by state depts of ed, heavily influenced by ultra woke university schools of ed. Individual teachers have no right to teach anything not related to state standards unless so directed by administrators. The culprits for extremism are sometimes rouge activist teachers but more often STATE-LEVEL DIRECTIVES. Chris Rufo understands this better than most but I don't love his approach to ban topics and books which is causing a backlash. Most Americans would actually agree on what should be taught. Find that consensus and hold leaders accountable!
That said, teacher unions have a strong voice and they should be speaking up, especially where elementary children are being taught sex education effectively far earlier than any state curriculum standards call for.
True except teachers unions are totally captured by extremist ideologies. Chicago Teachers Union is seen as the model of activist unionism, and I see no hope for change within NEA or AFT at this point. Teachers who want to speak out against gender or racial extremism have no backing from their unions. NEA published BLM centerfolds in their magazine to put up in classrooms and they offer pds on pronoun use. Too far gone. Teachers not on board need to opt out so our hard earned money doesn't go towards propaganda.
It is certainly hard to object from within, which exactly what we are all finding very hard - and slow.
Brigid: Can individual school districts require curriculum that goes beyond, or differs from, state standards? Are there any places where one can research the specific policies that pertain on a state-by-state level?
I don't believe public schools can legally go rouge by deviating from state standards but they might try. Could be excellent grounds for a lawsuit by parents. The DOE, US dept of education, is the federal authority and should have some policy information on their website.
While districts have a number of guidelines, mandated by the state, that they must follow, they can absolutely go beyond what the state requires. I’ve sat on several textbook adoption committees in mg district.
Really? take heat off teachers? sorry no can do. everyone is responsible to protect kids from harm, especially those paid to supervise kids. i understand being a teacher is difficult. i understand that gov employees must do as their told by management and that their skills dont translate to the private sector. but some teachers have swallowed this fraud, are promoting it and even preying on kids. teachers know who are the vulnerable kids and which ones have parents who wont push back. just like any predator. they need to be accountable like anyone else.
I was referring to curricular decisions not protecting kids from harm. Teachers are mandated reporters and must absolutely report any suspicious activity involving kids. I disagree with teaching extremist gender or racial ideology in schools, but I'm not jumping on any bandwagon that paints all gay or transgender teachers as predators. We should all know by now the most likely predators are clergy and coaches. Speaking of protecting kids from harm, who remembers the teachers that took bullets protecting kids this year? Eva Mireles and Irma Garcia, Jean Kuczka, Katherine Koonce to name just a few. We die protecting kids.
thanks for your comment. but the harm im talking about is the promotion of wrong information. for example, schools and teachers that teach kids that puberty is optional while omitting that 98% of kids who take puberty blockers for gender dysphoria go onto hormones that cause permanent loss of sexual function, permanant sterility and tons of other life long health problems. these teachers are duping kids into a health hazard. this and a 1000 other harmful lies are being promoted and communicated by teachers. i dont care if a teachers gay or trans. why would you imply that i do? im just talking about kids. in 2021, 42000 kids aged 7 to 17 in the US were diagnosed with gender dysphoria. since all of these kids are in the US they are in danger of being subjected to gender affirming care, a process that every country in the world that has done a systematic review has determined harms kids. amsterdam says long term people on this "care " die early 2X more than ave and commit suicide 20X more than ave. they dont start out that way tho. most grow out of dysphoria with puberty, as long as they dont take these harmful meds. last year 1600 kids were killed by gun violence. much much less were victims of abuse by clergy. so really its teachers communicating the harmful fraud of gender ideology that is harming kids 10x more kids than all else harms combined. count me as one of those who admire and highly value teachers. i used to think highly of bill cosby, before he was accused of raping womem. my view of harvey milk has changed perhaps less so after learning he was dating a 16 year old while he was in his 30s. teachers are being paid by the local tax payer and have a duty to them, not their corrupt bosses and clueless administrators. a narcissist is someone who doesnt have empathy. and a person who cant think shouldnt be a teacher
Teachers aren't in charge of curriculum, i.e. the information and ideas taught in schools. I keep saying that but you're too determined to blame teachers to listen. Misunderstanding the root of the problem doesn't lead to solutions. Pressure the leadership, school boards, superintendents and state officials, for change and curriculum will follow.
Brigid, I hear you. Having been a teacher years ago, I know that while teachers do have some space to make decisions with regards to what they teach and how they teach, the curriculum is restrictive. It's meant to be, and it should be, so that students all learn (approximately) the same things and have a similar level of education when they graduate (let's omit for a second the fact that this is definitely aspirational). And in today's climate, you may well have activist students and parents who will go for your throat if you dare to say something that doesn't align with their idea of what's right. Unfortunately, as we know in Ontario, the government will always be on the side of the "progressives".
Teachers can and should protest and try to bring about change whenever they can, but let's not be flippant about how difficult it actually is when your superiors (aka those who hold the money) are ideologically captured.
the Uvalde massacre = one shooter, 376 gov employee police and security , 77 minutes . no one did anything. just like teachers are doing with gender ideology. except in this case teachers arent on the side of the protectors.
https://www.cnn.com/interactive/2023/05/us/timeline-uvalde-school-shooting/
teachers arent the only ones to blame. there are others. but teachers are among the people who are implementing this harmful fraud and are among main groups responsible. theres no way they can claim their not responsible. some teachers are even preying on kids, seeking out troubled kids and leading kids to harm in a very deliberate and intentional way. you cant claim those teachers are just "doing as their told". they are harming kids in a pre meditated and deliberate fashion.
heres a copy of another reply i made to this same article which i wrote the exact words you claim i "dont get".
"Individual schools and school employees may have little authority to change policy set by school boards/school districts.
Whats really needed is government to issue policy and guidance based on evidence as theyve done in UK that specifically states that child social transition is harmful, letting males in womens restrooms violates rights of others, affirming care does more harm than good, etc.
In lieu of this parents should vote out school board members implementing this fraud, enroll kids in schools that arent engaged in this (i live in southern California and guarantee there are many schools and school districts that pay as little attn as possible to gender ideology) and educate your own kids that gender ideology is a religion/cult that harms kids and get kids a Gabb phone that doesnt allow apps and monitor their Internet use. I realise this maybe too little too late. i do appreciate the question. but people also need to be realistic about what could be accomplished by speaking with people who have no power and no desire to assist in measures that go against school policy."
Well said. I clearly saw the straw man argument of trying to suggest you objected to gay or trans teachers. You did no such thing. This teacher just wants to pawn off their responsibility on someone else. I feel a slight bit of sympathy for someone who finds themselves suddenly on the front line of an ugly battle, but the reality is that teachers have a DUTY to protect kids, no matter what it costs them. They CAN and MUST refuse to teach gender bullshit to children. If enough teachers refused, it would be gone overnight!
Employees of the Tavistock Clinic walked out in protest of their own employer performing medical experiments on children. THEY obviously didn't get another paycheck from the clinic. They knew they faced hardships for taking that action- yet they did it, because it was the right thing to do. This is why teachers and doctors MUST refuse to participate in spreading the destructive lies of trans ideology.
Destroying the lives of kids for a paycheck is unforgivable.
Yes, you have been through a lot, but teachers are the ones directly interacting with students. Your unions are supposed to REPRESENT you, not dictate terms to you. Get some other teachers together and overhaul your union or form a new one. "I was just following orders" doesn't cut it in 2023. Like it or not, you are going to have to put in some work to fight this. Parents don't have the same access as you do to school administrators and union leaders.
These are political decisions made at the state and national level. Pressure politicians instead of scapegoating teachers.
No one in the world could persuade me to lie to children and lead them down the horrific path of toxic drugs and mutilating surgeries. YES I WOULD sacrifice my job to stand up for kids. Everyone who uses the excuse they were just "following orders" in 2023 is culpable for medical atrocities because there is no gun to your head! All you stand to lose is a JOB. I tell doctors the same thing- if all you care about is protecting your paycheck, you are fully accountable for ACTING on the horrible policies that are being set by politicians. Do you think we haven't TRIED to explain the problems with trans ideology to our representatives? I wouldn't ask you to do anything I wouldn't do myself. Nothing changes the fact that cowardice is at the core of this movement- cowardice to push back, cowardice to refuse to promote harm, cowardice to be "canceled", cowardice to take on the system when you find yourself holding the safety of children in your own hands. If you tell a child they can pick their gender, or that humans can change their sex, you're accountable for the outcome. Parents and teachers have a moral and ethical obligation to push back. You're either part of the problem or part of the solution. I've risked many jobs for a hell of a lot less, when I've observed some bad things happening. It's up to you.
Wow such a brave speech. Are you supporting the women who have spoken up and gotten death threats and had lives ruined? JK Rowling is rich enough to weather the blowback but most aren't. Pontificating and finger pointing won't stop this train and neither will individuals falling on swords. Organizing might. This post is about how to make change: Teachers for Parent's Rights?
Your comments are saturated in guilt. It's clear that you ARE teaching trans ideology to kids. The problem is that the ball is in YOUR court, and you don't have the guts to say no. I know what the post is about. My position is clear- the people being tasked with spreading this ideology have a moral and ethical obligation to refuse. It's the only way to stop it.
That's slander and exactly the reason teachers feel caught in the crossfire. Thank you for proving my point. Keep typing and stay away from the real world. You're the problem.
I would like to remind policymakers that "trans ___ are ___" is a gnostic faith statement, that "nonbinary/boggogender/demi/ace/aro identities are valid" is an Hermeticist faith statement, and that in the United States it is considered gauche to force my particpation in either a gnostic woo cult or a pagan magic ritual cult, or to bend the apparatus of government to either end. I would like my religious freedom back.
"The foregoing has been a paid political announcement. We now return you to your regular scheduled programming." .... 🙄
Individual schools and school employees may have little authority to change policy set by school boards/school districts.
Whats really needed is government to issue policy and guidance based on evidence as theyve done in UK that specifically states that child social transition is harmful, letting males in womens restrooms violates rights of others, affirming care does more harm than good, etc.
In lieu of this parents should vote out school board members implementing this fraud, enroll kids in schools that arent engaged in this (i live in southern California and guarantee there are many schools and school districts that pay as little attn as possible to gender ideology) and educate your own kids that gender ideology is a religion/cult that harms kids and get kids a Gabb phone that doesnt allow apps and monitor their Internet use. I realise this maybe too little too late. i do appreciate the question. but people also need to be realistic about what could be accomplished by speaking with people who have no power and no desire to assist in measures that go against school policy. Employees of some schools are trained in gender ideology propaganda and also how to "deal" with parents who dont go along with this fraud. In some parts of the country it will soon be illegal for parents to voice objection.
speaking only for myself i would pull the child out of school, even if it means renting across town to get into a differnt school and start speaking with child about how they will support themselves via a job. just as its useless to talk with some school employees its also useless to talk to some kids. but parents also dont have to enable this harm, even if the State is compelling this in some areas. 75% of people affected by this are supported by their parents, many as adults. parents themselves often dont have the ability to affect reality to offspring. but the spector of employment might. my empathy to anyone dealing with this.
It really is very local in terms of how far districts are going with this. My area is majority immigrant and my count for progress pride flags sighted so far this *year* is literally one, on one single car. Nothing near schools, nothing on the street, nothing at local businesses (even local branches of nationwide chains) and nothing in the libraries. This area votes over 80% Democratic but only a little over a quarter of residents are white. Really it's less that schools "don't dare" and more that the teachers & staff of the schools (and other businesses & local governments) are likely to reflect the makeup of the community.
Simply put, no school with a significant of Muslim students is even going to try this, because the parents would riot. Same for schools with conservative Jewish students. So if you're looking for somewhere safe to send your kids for the time being, it doesn't even have to be a private school, just a public school in a district where the parent body wouldn't tolerate this. And if you need a personal break from seeing certain flags & slogans, take a drive and spend a day in any immigrant neighborhood near you, have breakfast by yourself, take a look around and compare what their local schools, chains & churches have on the billboards to what yours do.
This is so true. The heavily minority and immigrant areas have less of the racial and gender extremism in my blue area as well. So ironic that the social justice & gender warriors so often presume to speak for communities that want nothing to do with their ideologies.
The government has indicated they are going to ignore the protests of parents and teachers. I've been calling, emailing, texting, etc. to no avail. I have yet to receive a single response from ANY Democrat politician regarding my concerns about trans ideology. The ONLY way to stop it is with a grassroots protest by teachers and parents. Pull the kids out of school. Teachers call in sick. Just REFUSE to teach this crap.
i agree 100%. its important to remember this didnt occur overnight. its been more than 20 years of a massively financed and super well organized PR and lobby campaign. this is partly described in the 2019 spectator article https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/the-document-that-reveals-the-remarkable-tactics-of-trans-lobbyists/
one of the main goals of this effort has been to prevent parents from the right to protect kids from this fraud. if it feels like parents are being targeted: they are.
unraveling this wont be easy. communicating correct information is part of the solution. but so is push back against this fraud.
That anything other than biological sex is dishonest and that by insisting on the absurdity of chosen pronouns, even uttering “non-binary,” or “gender fluid” is teaching children to lie and reject biology, science, etc.
This is confusing kids! It is also causing mental illness.
I’d be happy to share what our school is teaching in elementary. The leadership is extremely committed. Many of the families are too. The state (NY) protects them all, under the guise of being progressive. The most helpful thing would be a way to remind schools that this is super controversial and they cannot assume everyone agrees. Several parents have been considering pushing for this to be opt-in, with full lesson plans provided in advance (right now they won’t email them out, will only go through on the phone with you) and parents required to sign a permission slip as for a field trip. The school instead is asking for religious exemption forms to opt out. Any legal support on this front would be welcome. It’s crazy out here! Thanks for asking about this.
Thank you Lisa! This is really needed... I posted the note I sent my school in another thread. For me, I believe in an attempt to “be kind” our school just added confusion on gender identity. (This was a few years ago, i I only realized in hindsight what was happening so not truly sure on the details. Our school partners with Welcoming Schools (part of HRC) and there is a lot problematic there (though probably a fair amount that is good too). The whole concept of a gender identity can be very very confusing but it is pushed front and center! Here is one particular lesson
https://hrc-prod-requests.s3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com/welcoming-schools/documents/WS-Lesson-Gender-Snowperson.pdf?mtime=20210509204029&focal=none
There is a ton more on their website (including the false fact that intersex represents 2% of the population!).
https://welcomingschools.org
Also, Stella and Sasha mentioned tackling schools more in their Gender A Wider Lens podcast so they might have good resources. And their recent guest Kate Parker was very very interesting on this topic.
One basic policy or law is that parents should have an immediate access to all student work on computers. In the before times, papers came home, now it’s hit or miss with online/cloud access.
Time to pile on, once again, in response to a truly ignorant op-ed in the Times, by Charles Blow:https://www.nytimes.com/2023/06/14/opinion/transgender-florida.html
Happy to report, though, that the top three reader picks are these:
EB
NYC
12h ago
Can we please be more specific with our language? Laws regulating irreversible childhood transition surgeries are not "anti-LGBTQ", this acronym encompasses many different demographics that have nothing to do with this issue, this is a trans issue. I get the feeling that activists are intentionally conflating these issues because we have mainstream support for same sex marriage, but not for controversial issues like child sterilization, so they're trying to merge them to increase support for the latter.
I'm a lesbian with a lot of gay, trans, and bisexual friends (all of whom happen to be staunch democrats). Almost none of them support child medical transition. The trans women I know are happy that they didn't go on puberty blockers at age 10, because that would have rendered them infertile and unable to experience orgasm for the rest of their lives. I also know more than one detransitioner. It's too bad that our country is so politically polarized that we seem to be having a knee jerk reaction against anything republicans are doing. Please remember that the most liberal, nordic European countries have pumped the breaks on child medical transitioning after looking at the data that the benefits weren't significant enough to justify the substantial risks.
Elizabeth Ashworth
Greenwich, CT
11h ago
So by the logic of this article, elected representatives cannot debate issues regarding minor gender transitions or fairness in girls' sport because it may make Trans people uncomfortable? These are serious issues, and unlike what people on the far left believe, it is not settled science. In many western European liberal countries like Finland and Sweden, gender affirming care for minors is being scaled back. The side effects of hormone therapy and puberty blockers affect bone density and fertility issues in their adult lives.
Many teen girls have body issues, we tell them to accept themselves and not encourage them to cosmetic surgeries. Trans kids can get gender affirming care as adults and it is not being banned in Florida or state. Secondly, women won their rights to have separate spaces, sports as it is impossible biologically to compete with men in track and field, swimming, tennis and many other sports. Here in Connecticut, 2 trans kids when they competed in the boys team were ranked about 200th in the state after competing in girl's team have blown out competition and dominated in every track and field competition. The trans kids now have offers from Harvard and WestPoint to run track and field in NCAA. No doubt they will blow out the competition in college too. This is beyond parody now. I support people to live their lives as they wish but this is not that.
Mike
Alaska
12h ago
There is no such thing as an LGBTQ person. It is impossible for one person to fit all of those identities, and lumping every non-straight individual into a common protected class is a non-sequitur.
My contribution was to "second" EB:
Susan S
New York, New York
2m ago
@EB I am also a lesbian and a progressive Democrat. You speak for me, absolutely. Unlike other progressive Democrats, including Mr. Blow, I have done my homework on these issues--and continue to do it. At a minimum, every single person on my side of the aisle should read Hannah Barnes's book, "Time to Think: The Inside Story of the Collapse of the Tavistock's Gender Service for Children" before even thinking of weighing in on the topic of pediatric gender-related medical interventions.
So, “interesting twist”: EB’s comment has disappeared, which seemed to me very reasonable, along with all the replies under it (they went both ways). I tried again, this time without replying to anyone, so reframed a bit, and this got published (at least for now):
I may be wrong, but it doesn't appear to me that Mr. Blow has done the homework he needs to before writing this opinion piece. First, I would recommend to Mr. Blow and anyone else here who has not read it, to read BBC investigative reporter Hannah Barnes's excellent, thoroughly researched, and fair-minded book,"Time to Think: The Inside Story of the Collapse of the Tavistock's Gender Service for Children" before weighing in on the topic of pediatric gender-related medical interventions. Allied with that, the Cass Report is out in the UK, and provides an intelligent, evidence-based approach to such pediatric interventions. This is what we need in the US: let's get the states out of the middle of family-health care professional decisions and get a sound science-based, rather than advocacy-base, care model in place for such professionals to follow. I want to note too (and I speak as a Democrat myself), that it is not only places like Florida that are interfering in family-physician decision-making, but also places like California, with, as one example, AB-957.
One thing to emphasize is that this topic has religious implications, and therefore teaching as fact the people have an inborn gender identity, or that sex is a spectrum, or that it’s possible for humans to actually change physical sex, or that some gender or sexual identities are oppressed and therefore in need of special rights or celebration or are morally superior to the “oppressors” is violating families’ religious rights and could open up the school or district to legal actions. Social transition of students or facilitating medical transition without the parents’ consent also violates families’ rights.
This needs to be balanced with a statement of what you are NOT trying to do - deny the existence of gay people or remove any of their rights, deny the existence of people who present themselves as the opposite sex, or advocate for discrimination or harassment of anyone for their personal beliefs or expression. Of course it is appropriate to teach young children factual, age appropriate information, such as the fact that some children may have two same-sex parents (especially if that is actually the situation in a particular class) or that some people may choose to present themselves as one sex even though they are born as the other (especially if that’s the situation for someone in the school).
I also think that some data showing a few key, easy to understand points such as the increase in trans-identified teens and the demographic shift from males to females, the fact that suicide rates don’t decrease after transition, and rates of medical complications, along with explanations of why the oft-cited suicide studies are inaccurate and biased, would be helpful.
As far as who to target this information to (teachers? Admins? School boards? District admins? State government?) and how to initiate the conversation I don’t know but I hope some of the teachers and other educators here can give some advice on that.
In blue states these ideologies are being promoted, even required, at the state level. The state superintendent (aka commissioner or director) of public instruction is ultimately responsible. DEI trainings and ideologically biased professional development sessions are often tied to grants or other funds.
It's important to understand how quickly this has happened in schools during a tumultuous post-pandemic return and how bewildering it is for most people. Those promoting "trans rights" are just as passionate that theirs is the only true path towards the salvation of children. If that sounds religious, it's apt.
Somewhat related, but putting this to simply share a news story that came across my feed. To me it exemplifies that girls *aren’t* allowed or recognized as girls if they don’t appear stereotypical (not new to you, Lisa). This is the first story of this kinds I’ve seen. It also makes me think there will have to be a verification process at very young levels...maybe?
https://www.castanet.net/news/Kelowna/431740/-I-never-yelled-towards-the-girl-Kelowna-man-accused-of-accosting-child-at-track-meet-denies-allegations
I think this incident is more a reflection of the fact that parents in Canada nowadays can't trust that their children will be competing with others of the same sex. I saw a photo of the girl in question, and she really does look very boyish. Not a problem, of course, and I would imagine that 20 years ago people would just assume she's a girl because no boys ever competed with the girls. Now you really never know. It's really quite awful that the girl was embroiled in this, the adults have to figure this out amongst themselves without involving the children.
yeah. i guess. or an example of how people who arent around kids much or dont have kids really dont know anything about kids, which is how we got into this mess where the ivory tower thinks kids should have more say than their parents
So true, if I had to guess, academics have few if any children.
Thanks so much for letting me review the sex education curriculum for the 6th and 8th graders in XXXX Unified School District. It has equipped me with the information I need to have ongoing conversations with my kids on these often complex and nuanced topics.
In that spirit, I am asking that:
• All parents in the district have access to the detailed sex ed curriculum – not just those who, like me, are privileged enough to have the time and resources to come into the district during office hours to read it in person.
• That XUSD consider either more nuanced teaching related to the issues I highlight in this letter or seek out a new curriculum that is more nuanced and discerns between science and theory/ideas.
My primary focus, as I mentioned when I initially contacted you, were the sections of the curriculum on “identity development and inclusion”. Some background: Prior to staying home to raise a family, I was a social worker for three pediatric hospital systems – two in Los Angeles and one in Salt Lake City – with a special focus on adolescents. I am a life-long progressive and have always operated with a framework of progressive values and through a lens of social justice. While in practice in the early 2000’s - first as an MSW and then an LCSW – the “Affirmative” model/approach to gender variant or gender questioning clients entered the lexicon of my field. I was wholly supportive both intuitively, sociologically and from within a medical setting based on the “research-based” wisdom passed down to me through the ‘chain of trust’ in the medical settings where I worked.
Cut to 2-3 years ago, when my oldest child (now 14) was approaching adolescence along with the cohort of kids who he grew up with in XXXX and an increasing number of these kids’ parents (who had become my friends) reported their kids were suddenly declaring trans identities. These have been most often girls, most often without any histories of gender nonconformance or gender dysphoria, and most often in groups of friends. These parents were all progressive, usually surprised, and committed to supporting their children but with questions about how to best to do so. Based on my previous clinical experiences with adolescents, mental health, and medicine, I decided to check in on the current Standards of Care for gender dysphoric minors.
This one little decision turned out to be the equivalent of opening a Pandora’s Box of confusing conflict about the research and medical applications and extreme derision about the politics. As a result, I have spent the last two years trying to do due diligence on this topic; reading and re-reading the science, the critiques of the science, the critiques of the critiques etc. I have listened to hundreds of hours of research and testimony from the experts in the field of psychology, medicine and sociology, people suffering from gender dysphoria, and people receiving transition care. I have also learned a lot about the parallel socio-political evolution regarding how Western society has come to define (or argue over) sex and gender. I could draft a thesis for you, but I will not.
What I will say is there are a few areas of the curriculum being taught that are not based on science. Specifically:
• That sex is an “limitless spectrum”
• That gender identity is a characteristic that exists in every individual's brain and is the “inner sense of who you are (boy, girl, nonbinary/genderqueer, agender)”.
“Teach your students that sex is different from gender! Neither are binary and both exist on a limitless spectrum.” (From the page on Intersex students)
The notion that sex exists on a limitless spectrum is not scientifically sound or settled. Gender expression is (and should be embraced as) an infinite spectrum that needs to be accepted in our culture because feminine men and masculine women are still the targets of judgement and abuse and this is not ok. But biological sex is observed (not assigned) at birth and does not change in critical material ways even if gender presentation and gender expression do. It is a biological reality that the most feminine men are male and the most masculine women are female and that material reality should not be obfuscated in science class.
Disorders of Sexual Development (DSDs or “intersex conditions”) do not a spectrum make, as the curriculum suggests (https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/12476264/).
DSD’s impact males and female pathways of development in a very small number of people who physicians can overwhelmingly determine to be male with a DSD or female with a DSD. I worked for a long time in the Pediatric Endocrinology Department, where we saw kids with DSDs. I saw kids who had been surgically altered (given vaginoplasties) as infants because of anatomical ambiguity (not function) and were sent home with their parents being told “raise them as a girl and don’t mention anything.” My understanding of the history of DSD activism, is that is has be focused on determining and honoring the biological truth of the sex of people with DSDs. The section of the curriculum that talks about (and overrepresents) people with DSDs justifies itself based on principles of inclusion and making all kids comfortable. There is an argument to be made that obscuring biological reality does not actually serve most children with DSDs and that the percentage of conditions that functionally obscures sex (kids who need more specific information, not from general sex ed, but from their medical care team about their specific biology) is .018% or 1.62 kids in a school district of 9000 children.
It is certainly true that “sex” is no longer as important in many areas of life as it once was – particularly in liberal and secular areas like XXXX where we acknowledge and teach most of our kids that gender stereotypes are not binding or limiting in terms of their clothing, behavior, interests or friends. But scientifically speaking, biological sex exists and still has enormous implications in other areas (reproductive functioning, disease management, and risk of forced birth (and other health outcomes resulting from restricted access to abortion) and sexual and domestic violence – things that disproportionally effect girls and women throughout their lifespan because of their sex at birth. Why not teach accurate science and discuss social realities of sex and what it means and what it doesn’t mean for our kids?
“Gender Identity” as a characteristic in/of the brain.
The concept of “Gender Identity”, which is used in the curriculum alongside 3 other categories – “sex” “gender presentation” and “sexuality” (genderbread person) – is just one theory or idea or metaphor that has be used to explain a number of different (sometimes conflicting) phenomena including: sex-based stereotypes and expectations within cultures, gender non-conformance, gender dysphoria and/or transgender identity. Unlike sex, gender presentation and sexuality, which are all quantifiable parts of people identities and/or biological and social realities, there is no scientific evidence that “gender identity” (an internal sense of being “male” or “female” or “nonbinary” or “genderqueer” or “agender”) exists in the brain. Certainly “gender identity” is part of the cultural zeitgeist and our kids’ ever-growing lexicons and its pervasive use in our culture justifies having discussions with our kids; particular during the period in their lives where they are figuring out who they are or aren’t and who they want to be but teaching “gender identity” as a scientific principle and brain-based component of identity is not accurate.
Personally, I believe in giving kids more information vs less so I am not considering opting out of this or any portion of the sex ed curriculum because of these two inaccurate points but I am committed to the belief that all parents in XUSD should know and understand exactly what the teaching on “identity development and inclusion” means, so they can also have deeper conversations with their kids about this complicated area of life and culture. XUSD may also want to investigate more science-based options for sex education curriculum. This is not my area of expertise, but I will leave you with one resource in the UK that is working on more accurate and nuanced methodology, language, and materials:
https://www.transgendertrend.com/schools-resources/
As a last point, I know from friends whose kids are declaring trans identities, there are material concerns (and fear) about the ways in which curriculum can codify the idea of “gender identity” for this very vulnerable population and further obscure the bigger picture and ultimate safe resolution of what their children are struggling with. Please consider those families.
I look forward to hearing about the steps XUSD will take to address my two requests.
Sincerely, Cheyenne XXXX