By Mecca Fowler
Editor’s note: The opinions expressed here are those of the authors. View more opinion on ScoonTV.
When I first noticed teachers coming out to their students a few years ago, I thought nothing of it. They were infrequent and I thought they simply wanted students to know how to address them and be respected regardless of their sexual orientation. However, the more coming out videos I saw, the more I recognized that this was not so innocent and not a naturally occurring phenomenon.
These teachers aren’t simply sharing their sexual or gender orientation to eliminate confusion and set a new standard on what they should be called. It seems more that they’re desperately seeking attention, validation, and affirmation from children and teens. They are shedding their ideas and understandings of gender theory onto children in the process.
While I understand the need and desire to feel comfortable being yourself, that onus should not be put on children. That’s even more true when it’s children you’re responsible for teaching. This is wrong and harmful for children because they are not emotionally and logically mature enough to understand the complexity of what all this means. Coming out, in general, is considered psychologically complex so children should not be used for emotional support. Doing so could be considered psychological or emotional manipulation.
Fast track to this year. I now have a clearer picture of what is going on in these schools. In an effort to teach and advance gender ideology, gender theory activists have used the American educational system to reach millions of children. Schools are increasingly instructing students as young as five years old that gender is a construct that is independent of sex. This ideology has been spread through Gay-Straight Alliance extracurricular clubs on school campuses and infiltrated into the curriculum.
Gender ideology is rife with radical and illogical assertions that are either demonstrably wrong or very contested. As evolutionary biologist Heather Heying puts it, men and women are inherently different. Another biologist reiterated that point, saying there are only two biological sexes. These are things mankind has always generally agreed upon.
Teachers are telling students that their gender is fluid daily and asking them to choose pronouns and identities that fit them best. If students don’t identify as girls, they are told that they could be boys and vice versa. This is not a biological or medical reality. What’s more, this sometimes occurs behind parents’ backs without them even knowing.
As biologists Dr. Colin M. Wright and Dr. Emma Hilton wrote, “Denying the reality of biological sex and supplanting it with subjective “gender identity” is not merely an eccentric academic theory.” Children are particularly susceptible to sex denial which is why it is very heinous that they are systematically subjected to this ideology.
Dr. Wright and Dr. Hilton continued, “When they’re taught that sex is grounded in identity instead of biology, sex categories can easily become conflated with regressive stereotypes of masculinity and femininity. Masculine girls and feminine boys may become confused about their own sex.”
This has led to skyrocketing cases of gender dysphoria in Western societies. Instead of treating the condition using therapy and other methods, children are being nudged toward the idea that they are of a different gender than the one that they are. Queer theory has opened up a Pandora’s box for them to identify as everything and nothing at the same time.
The premises that gender theory is built on seem more like pseudo-scientific theories than concrete tenets of science. Some leaders in this movement have seen their work heavily criticized, too, even veering into pedophilia. John W. Money was a premiere psychologist, sexologist, and author known for his research into sexual identity and the biology of gender. Many ideas in modern gender theory were based on premises that he made about gender being more learned than innate. His most famous case study of having a twin baby boy that had a botched penis surgery live life as a girl was fundamentally flawed. Alfred Kinsey, also known as the father of the “sexual revolution,” is a pioneer in bringing a curious attitude about sex into the mainstream during the 1960s and 1970s. Much of his work has since been deemed junk science.
Another reason that gender theory is harmful to children is because of the large overlap of children on the autism spectrum that also identify as gender diverse. If these children are already vulnerable, they could be susceptible to these theories. Encouraging children on the spectrum that they can be a different gender and in some cases encouraging them to transition is wrong.
This is the reason parents are speaking up and fighting back against this massive propaganda machine we call k-12 education. It cannot be a breeding ground for more gender theory concepts to come down the pipeline. They will never run out of neopronouns or new genders to identify as. This is why shielding children from this harmful ideology is important.
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