Gender Ideology

Background

Gender ideology is a belief system that asserts people can be born in the wrong body and, therefore, choose their gender. At schools, this belief system is pushed to students as part of their DEI programs in the name of inclusion.

What's happening?

Children are being asked to question their gender. In schools, this starts with students as young as kindergarteners with the introduction and use of preferred pronouns. Pronoun exposure and usage “plant the seeds” in children that there may be a mismatch between their sex and gender, especially if they don’t conform to regressive stereotypes. This is the start of social transitioning, which is an active psychological intervention with the potential to do harm.

Children feel compelled to comply because they want to be nice and inclusive. They are also celebrated for being courageous in identifying as non-binary, therefore creating an incentive to do so. What possibly began as an attempt to show acceptance has undermined the values of many and led to a school-to-clinic pipeline in the US (an outlier to the rest of the Western world).

Children with comorbidities such as anxiety disorders, eating disorders, autism spectrum, and childhood trauma are most susceptible and often targeted by gender ideology activists.

There has been a roughly twenty-fold rise in the number of people seeking transition, with teenagers hugely over-represented,” according to STATSFORGENDER.ORG.” Additionally, they note that “The profile of people seeking transition has shifted drastically, from overwhelmingly middle-aged males to predominantly adolescent females.”

In the US, more and more children are in the “school-to-clinic” pipeline, and clinical practices aren’t much better. In 2017, the American Academy of Pediatrics adopted an “affirming care policy.” Affirmation means that the child determines their gender and when transition should take place.

In contrast, the recent Cass Report (a recent review of gender identity services for children and young people in England) discourages full social transition of children; it describes that youth care in England will “no longer be based on the “gender-affirming” model of care but instead will treat youth with gender distress similarly to how it treats youth with other developmental struggles.”

On April 8, 2024, the final Cass Review, a systematic review of social transition, was released.

Their findings are important for three main reasons:

There is no high-quality evidence of medical benefits.
Full social transition is linked to persistence.
Even though some people think of social transition as inclusion, it is an active psychological intervention being performed by unlicensed teachers who are not trained clinicians. They do not have permission to do this without parental consent.

The use of pronouns is not “just being kind and inclusive.”

Why should you care?

Young, vulnerable people are being harmed. It’s not compassionate to lie to children. Children should not be asked to question their identity. There are only two sexes, male and female, and that can’t be changed. Let children be children and respect their development. Give them info as they are ready for it, not before.

What do you think happens when young children are taught that gender is fluid and that any “discomfort" with their changing body is “abnormal?” Social contagion is real, and the number of children being impacted is only growing. Public health researcher Dr. Lisa Littman was the first scientist to investigate the phenomenon of the growing number of adolescents identifying as trans.

There is no other medical standard of care where this affirmation model occurs. It inflicts dangerous and irreversible harm to children who are not equipped to make life-long decisions about medical transition. Puberty blockers are an experimental and damaging intervention that will change young bodies in ways we have yet to understand and may be permanent.

According to Genspect, these drugs have never been licensed to treat children with gender dysphoria in any country. By prescribing puberty blockers, clinicians are interfering with the emotional, developmental, and social stages that every human must experience to become a fully functioning adult.

Additionally, almost all children prescribed puberty blockers go on to transition medically. The bone, brain, and cardiovascular health issues which puberty blockers engender are infrequently discussed, as is the fact that puberty-blocked boys develop so little penile tissue that subsequent genital surgeries become far more complex and risky.”

As described by Do No Harm, “Pro-’gender-affirming care’ activists are shutting down debate, spreading misinformation, bullying those who express concern, and seeking to discredit actual scientific evidence detailing the risks of this ‘gender-affirming care.’”

Watch https://www.iwf.org/identity-crisis/ to learn more.

Implications for TITLE IX

Beyond the physical and psychological harm to a growing number of children, gender ideology has been enshrined through recent changes to Title IX. Originally enacted in 1972 to protect the rights of girls and women by prohibiting sex-based discrimination, Title IX was first written when “sex” was recognized as binary — male and female. It has now been rewritten to replace “sex” with “gender identity.”

Without notifying a student’s parents or obtaining their agreement, this new Title IX requirement will allow school officials to:

Provide counseling to one’s child about gender identity issues
Allow the child to choose his or her gender identity without regard to biological sex
Refer a child for medical attention

This will strip parents of their right to direct the education and healthcare of their children and to teach their children about issues of sex and gender identity without interference from school. Bob Eitel, President and Co-Founder of DFI commented that “President Biden’s new Title IX rule is a textbook example of how extremists in the administration have hijacked the law to force radical changes in American society through its schools, colleges, and universities.

The Defense of Freedom Institute has described that the Biden Education Department’s Title IX rule will “Threaten women’s sports, parental rights, due process, free speech, and academic freedom on campus.” In particular, it “undermines parental rights by requiring public elementary and secondary schools to affirm a child’s gender identity without the approval or knowledge of his or her parents. Without notifying a student’s parents or obtaining their agreement, this requirement will allow school officials to provide counseling to one’s child about gender identity issues, to allow the child to choose his or her gender identity without regard to biological sex, and to refer a child for medical attention.”