Category: Gender Ideology

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A Big Picture Jeremiad

This post is primarily for my Christian Brothers and Sisters. Obviously all are welcomed to read.

From my Classic Christian point of view let me briefly lay out the big picture. This will give theological context to my writings about today’s Gender Identity Moment. You can find more detail about this big picture in my previous posts. Especially, “But, I Love That Body.” And “He Told The Women to Go Away.”

God created a bi-natured world of these constitutive parts, Heaven & Earth, Spirit and Matter, Soul (mind) and Body, Male and Female.

[I’m not forgetting all the other beautiful creatures great and small, nor the sun and the moon, or the land and the sea, but these are the major categories.]

It may seem counter-intuitive, but, yes, Heaven was created too. Classic Christianity maintains that the Triune God existed before the creation of Heaven and Earth.

Before going further, let me clear up what may be puzzling to some. By juxtaposing Heaven and Earth, Spirit and Matter, Male and Female, Soul and Body, as I have done am I not saying that maleness corresponds with Heaven, Spirit and Soul and that femaleness corresponds with Earth, Matter and Body and isn’t that dichotomy more than slightly demeaning? Some might say, objectifying? 

Well, first of all, the main point is the union of each pairing, or the complementarity of each pair and not the correspondence between the different pairings.  For example, both males and females are a mysterious unity of spirit and matter, or if you prefer, soul and body. 

Second let me question a further assumption that many make here, an assumption made especially by disciples of Plato (It’s possible to be a disciple of Plato and not know it!) That assumption is something I’ve called, unequal dualism. Unequal dualism regards the second place position in each pairing as inferior to the first. For example, Plato linked the irrational and physical with the female sex, and the rational and spiritual with the male sex. Making males superior to females in his mind. And only in his mind! Unfortunately his was a very influential mind.120th Century Mathematician & Philosopher, Alfred North Whitehead, once said the safest way to characterize Western Philosophy “is that it consists of a series of footnotes to Plato.”

But with respect to the great Plato, I reject unequal dualism on biblical grounds. And also from the personal experience of knowing my wife and all the other great women in my life. (Not to mentioned throughout history).

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I maintain that both parts of God’s bi-natured world were created EQUAL. But equal does not mean same. In the beginning Earth was created equal to Heaven and likewise Matter was created equal to Spirit. Just like God’s earthly family, humans, were created equal to God’s heavenly family, angels.2Revelation 22:8–9 (NRSV): I, John, am the one who heard and saw these things. And when I heard and saw them, I fell down to worship at the feet of the angel who showed them to me; but he said to me, “You must not do that! I am a fellow servant with you and your comrades the prophets, and with those who keep the words of this book. Worship God!” Maybe you’ve not thought of God’s two families before, but according to Scripture, God created two Image-Bearing families. Equal yet different. One family of spiritual beings, (angels) and another one of embodied souls (humans).

I view Equal Dualism as a crucial interpretive key in Christian Theology.

For example, you can think of heaven as being another dimension of God’s created order. Don’t be thrown off by spacial metaphors, though the scriptures sometimes suggest those metaphors. Heaven is simply another dimension where God “resides” for the time being. Which means heaven, like our God, is not far off, but very near.

Because of “The Fall” the bi-natured world has been separated, first from God, but also from intended creational integration. However, here comes the Good News, God’s Big Picture plan is to bring the two parts of the created cosmos back together again in a holy marriage. At the center of the original cosmological marriage was a Garden, Eden, in the book of Genesis. At the center of the future cosmological marriage, is a Garden City, New Jerusalem, found in the book of Revelation. These are the Two Garden bookends of Holy Scripture.

I know what I’m writing sounds Freudian. But I don’t care. This is the biblical witness. And it preceded Siggy Freud by thousands of years. God’s interlocking and overlapping bi-natured world has, at its united center, a Garden of Life. A place where life happens. And the Living God dwells.

Gardens in the Ancient Near East were often regarded as Temples. That’s the case here. The temple garden is the place where heaven and earth overlap, interlock and come together. Hopefully forever. The living God meets with the people of God in that sacred area of overlap. It might help to think of a simple Venn diagram to picture what I mean. As one would expect, the Garden-Temple is a place where life happens. From this Garden Center the dominion mandate of scripture to “be fruitful and multiply” and “take dominion” i.e. spread the rule and reign of God’s kingdom to the rest of the planet is inaugurated.

The first commandment in scripture was to have sex and make babies. The objective was to spread God’s kingdom rule by multiplying God’s Earthly Image-Bearers, God’s representatives, across the entire planet. This Big Picture, bi-natured fruit-producing forward-looking existence makes abundant sense to me. Anthropologically. Cosmologically. Soteriologically. Eschatologically. It all fits together as part of The Big Picture design and plan of God.

How about you? Does that make sense to you? Given what you know of the biblical story? Of God’s creation?

Unfortunately down through the ages, Christians have gotten themselves into trouble by disregarding the importance of either side of God’s bi-natured creation. God created both the invisible world and the visible world and called both of them “good.”

Visit my post “But I Love That Body” to get more detail on how and why Christians have gone off track. Hint: Plato and other Plato-like worldviews, unequal dualisms that elevate the spiritual and denigrate the material realm.

In the story handed down to us, when human’s came along, especially after the ladies arrived, God declared that what he had just done was “very good.” Up to this point in the story, after creating different parts of the bi-natured world, the biblical text said: “And God saw that it was good.” But then after the crowning achievement of earthly creation, the creation of male and female humans, the text for the first time says: “God saw everything that he had made, and indeed, it was very good.”3Genesis 1:31

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The Expulsion of Adam and Eve from Paradise – Benjamin West – 1791
Courtesy of The Metropolitan Museum of Art

But as you know disobedience crept in and a breach occurred between God and God’s Image-Bearers. This resulted in the bi-natured parts being separated, parts that were originally designed by God to harmoniously overlap and interlock. Everyone is somewhat familiar with what Theologians call “The Fall.” There was also a fall in heaven as well as one on earth. A fall before the human fall. This explains the crafty evil serpent in the story, who was more than just a serpent. We know much more about the human fall, but according to Scripture both Image-Bearing families fell. Creational brokenness, pain and misery have been the sad result. But because of the Risen Christ, who was broken on our behalf, wholeness will finally return to God’s good creation.

Our job now is to align ourselves with God’s plan for creational wholeness.

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The trouble is that some on the Theological “Right” and the Theological “Left” have been tricked into abandoning God’s bi-natured creational intent. They do this by denying one part, the material part, of God’s good creation. It is an “overspiritualized” anti-creational theology.

On the Right you often encounter the “I’ll Fly Away” mentality. This ol world is not my home, they say and sing. One day Jesus will come and rapture us from this earthly coil and we will live with God eternally in heaven. This view sometimes reduces Christian witness to the “saving of souls.” Less care for the rest of God’s earthly order, ecological life, cultural life, etc., naturally results from this reduced theology. Why polish brass on a sinking ship, some say. Rescuing souls, that’s our business.

On the Theological Left you often find a disregard of one particular bit of matter, the most important human body ever created, and then recreated, the Risen Body of our Lord and Saviour. Many on the Theological Left deny the central event of our Faith, the risen body of Jesus. For various modern reasons they “spiritualize” the event. Jesus and what he stands for has been “raised” in our consciousness, they say. But the apostle Paul is clear on this point, if Jesus’ body remained in the tomb then we are pitiable fools to believe the Gospel message that “Jesus is Lord” for he has not conquered Sin and Death if his body did not rise. Since only the body dies, if the body remains dead, then death has not been defeated, only accepted. And Jesus is NOT LORD.

To “overspiritualize” in this way is to preach a false Gospel.

1 Corinthians 15:16–19 (NRSV): If Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile and you are still in your sins. Then those also who have died in Christ have perished. If for this life only we have hoped in Christ, we are of all people most to be pitied.

We might as well become hedonists. Eat, drink, and be merry, for tomorrow we die, Paul says, if Jesus’s body stayed in the ground.

Also the denial of bodily resurrection means
bodily life has no Transcendent meaning.

But that’s not what the Scriptures teach or the Church Historic.

My friends on the Theological Left who are willing to discard the bodily resurrection of Jesus and view the Christian Faith in more “spiritual” terms have grossly misconstrued Biblical Spirituality. True Biblical Spirituality, holistic spirituality includes the rescue and reconciliation of God’s bi-natured creation.

Heaven and Earth. Soul and Body. All of it. Rejoined in an unbroken state of holy matrimony.

Jesus’s bodily resurrection was “the first fruit” of a new creation begun on Easter morning.41 Cor 15:20 (NRSV) But in fact Christ has been raised from the dead, the first fruits of those who have died. A new creation, a new Eden, to be fully consummated at the reconciliation of all things when Heaven and Earth are finally remarried. “I saw a new heaven and a new earth.”5Revelation 21:1

This is the Big Picture celebration that is in our future. And marriage between God’s bi-natured creation is the interpretive key to understanding our past, present & future.

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Let me bring this post back to our current concerns. Some of my friends on the Theological Left, especially many members and leaders of the Episcopal Church USA, have jettisoned creational Truth and the transcendent value of our bodily life in favor of an unbiblical spirituality. When they affirm today’s various Gender Identities as just another expression of God’s diverse world they have opposed creational Truth. In so doing, they have “privileged” the invisible inner life over the visible life of the body, effectively separating body from soul. Never God’s intent. They do so ostensibly for the purpose of loving everyone and welcoming difference. A notable goal.

But it is our loving Lord who taught us we were created “male and female.” There are no other options. Not for those who confess a belief in a Creator. 

"Have you not read that the one who made them at the beginning 'made them male and female,..for this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh'?  So they are no longer two, but one flesh.  Therefore what God has joined together, let no one separate." [Matt 19:4-6]

Analogous to this is the marriage of Soul & Body. I believe Jesus would also say about this marriage “what God has joined together, let no one separate.”

Episcopalian “affirming love” which seeks to affirm the self-assertion of confused individuals, individuals who regard their biological sex, their God-given body, as a material mistake, a mistake that must be corrected and remade in their preconceived image, is a direct consequence of having deemphasized, doubted, & disbelieved for decades the essential doctrinal truths of the Historic Faith: Creation. Incarnation. Bodily Resurrection of Jesus. Bodily Ascension of Jesus. Bodily Return of Jesus. And Bodily Resurrection of Believers.

It is all there in The Ancient Creed’s that most Episcopalian’s still affirm every Sunday. But do they still believe them? If our affirmations of difference don’t align with Truth they won’t be loving. They can’t be.

Because these theological errors have led many on the Theological Left to believe that bodily life has no Transcendent value, they are uniquely susceptible to the arguments of today’s Gender Identity Moment.

Do you see how someone with my theology simply cannot in good conscience disregard bodily life? I can’t accept that only my internal disposition, will or desire, my invisible nature, determines who I am as God’s created being. For God made me body and soul. Today’s Gender Identity Moment runs afoul of God’s creational design. Therefore it must be rejected.

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God’s creational design and plan to rescue the creation from its fallen disordered state must be our loving message to anyone who doesn’t identify with their biological sex. (People with gender-dysphoria). And we must not be intimidated into silence because of a spurious understanding of what it means to love my broken neighbor. Love divorced from Truth will be fruitless.

We must embrace, but not affirm. [See my post “Embrace, Don’t Affirm“]

And I must also lovingly say, for I know many Episcopalian brothers and sisters, the affirming stance of your denomination on this issue is one reason why the Episcopal Church USA is dying. A recent report by your denomination reveals that if current trends continue then by 2050 there will be no one sitting in your pews. No one. That’s just 29 years from now. [This survey was conducted in pre-Covid 2019.]

Marriages and baptisms have dwindled well below replacement levels. Other mainline denominations show similar trajectories. One Episcopal priest called the results “dire.” 

“The overall picture is dire – not one of decline as much as demise within the next generation unless trends change significantly,” said the Rev. Dwight Zscheile, an expert in denominational decline and renewal. An Episcopal priest, Zscheile is vice president of innovation and associate professor of congregational mission and leadership at Luther Seminary in St. Paul, Minnesota.  “At this rate, there will be no one in worship by around 2050 in the entire denomination,” Zscheile told Episcopal News Service.

Hollowed out places of worship could be the result, if changes don’t happen quick. The Flight from Orthodoxy coupled with a desire to follow “the fresh winds of the Spirit” are the culprits here. Proclaiming “inclusion” as an organizing principal has led, ironically, to including fewer people in the life of Episcopal communities. Conceding to a culture of “personal autonomy” and “self-creation” such as we find in this current Gender Identity Moment will not end well for Episcopalians. Or any other Christian denomination that follows their lead.

For those who have ears to hear. Hear.

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Our Schools & Gender Ideology

Several years ago many of our Elementary school students were introduced to “The Genderbread Person (playing off the old-timey “Gingerbread Man.”). (Click on image for bigger view.)

Let me highlight a few things. And as I do this remember the video at the end of the post “My Truth, Your Truth” where most students in the video were prepared to accept the self-identity of a 5’9″ white guy who declared that he really was a 6’5″ Chinese woman. Most students were unwilling to say he was wrong to make such a claim. (video is at end of this post too.)

You may be puzzled as to why those students would be so irrational. Answer: they were taught to think this way. Especially about sex and gender.

Okay, top left, we read: “Gender isn’t binary. It’s not either/or. In many cases it’s both/and. A bit of this. A dash of that.” Gender is on a spectrum.

Most of us would be willing to say that unlike sex, gender roles shift depending on social norms and needs. There is definitely a social component to gender roles and how sexual differences are presented. But we are not willing to say gender itself is untethered from biology, unaligned with biological sex. If your “internal sense” of gender does not match your physical sex at all then that is a disorder to be lovingly addressed, not an identity to be accepted. The inclusion of biological sex in the genderbread breakdown is tacit acknowledgement of this connection.

But if you read the text at the top right just above the 4 blue rectangles in the “Gender Identity” section you notice some cognitive dissonance creeping in and find the following:

“4 (of infinite) possible plot and label combos.” The 4 listed are “woman” “man” “two-spirit” & “gender-queer.”

If all this sounds confusing to you, imagine your kindergartner.

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The Gender Activists eventually agreed that including biological sex in the genderbread breakdown was no longer appropriate. Also, they thought the Genderbread Person looked too much like a guy. So now our grade school students have been introduced to the more gender neutral Gender Unicorn (although the phallic symbol on the top of the head seems problematic, so who knows how long the Unicorn will last.) (Click on image for bigger view.)

No mention now of biological sex. Instead we get “sex assigned at birth.” Biology has been cancelled.

A strategic linguistic move is under way here. If sex is assigned, then it can be reassigned via hormones and surgery. Most of us don’t believe sex is assigned at birth. Most believe sex is recognized at birth or often before when the ultrasound pictures reveal the happy news, boy or girl.

Actually to be technically precise boy gamete meets girl gamete after the penis deposits sperm (boy gamete) which the egg (girl gamete) receives, sex is determined at that ‘magic’ moment. Contrary to the ancient belief that the mother bore responsibility for whether the child became male or female, it is actually the male sperm which determines the biological sex of the zygote, the new human organism. Sex is not assigned at birth. And the standard embryology textbooks in our medical schools agree. Here are three of them.

According to Langman’s Medical Embryology, the sex of a new organism is determined at fertilization: “An X-carrying sperm produces a female (XX) embryo, and a Y-carrying sperm produces a male (XY) embryo. Hence, the chromosomal sex of the embryo is determined at fertilization.“1T. W. Sadler, Langman’s Medical Embryology (Philadelphia: Lippincott Williams & Wilkins, 2004), 40.. The sex of the new organism is created at that moment. Not at birth.

William J. Larsen’s Human Embryology is equally straightforward in its definition of “sex determination” in the glossary: “The male sex is determined by presence of a Y sex chromosome (XY), and female sex is determined by absence of a Y chromosome (XX).”2William J. Larsen, Human Embryology (New York: Churchill Livingstone, 2001), 519.

The Developing Human: Clinically Oriented Embryology gives more detail here: “The embryo’s chromosomal sex is determined at fertilization by the kind of sperm (X or Y) that fertilizes the oocyte; hence, it is the father rather than the mother whose gamete determines the sex of the embryo. Fertilization by an X-bearing sperm produces a 46, XX zygote, which normally develops into a female, whereas fertilization by a Y-bearing sperm produces a 46, XY zygote, which normally develops into a male.”3Keith L. Moore and T.V.N. Persaud, The Developing Human: Clinically Oriented Embryology (Philadelphia: Saunders/Elsevier, 2003), 35.

It’s a very binary process.

Notice the word “normally” in the preceding graph. An XX embryo normally develops into a female. An XY embryo normally develops into a male. But in very rare instances, pathologies can disrupt normal development. These abnormalities have been transformed into “differences” by Gender Ideologues, ostensibly for the purpose of not stigmatizing those who have these disorders. But the Activists also have a larger ideological purpose. These recategorized “differences” provide “evidence” for dismantling the male-female sex binary as an ol fashioned and downright bigoted understanding of human difference.

The end result is the normalization of disorder. My next post will take a closer look at Biological Sex and Disorders of Sexual Development.

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There are many ways to be a boy and many ways to be a girl. But these different ways don’t make you less than a boy or girl. We can attack bullying (often the stated goal of gender sensitivity training) without succumbing to the notion that biological facts are irrelevant. But that is what we are being asked to do. And that is what our children are being taught. Revisit this video and see the result of detaching gender identity from biology:

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There is a Culture of Androgyny and gender confusion sweeping through the Western World. Is this the world we want to live in?

Even if you disagree with the Christian understanding of the created order, that God made us male and female, certainly you must agree that Christian parents (and other parents) should be allowed to teach their kids on this subject in a manner that they deem most appropriate. Schools should not be allowed to wrest this authority away from parents. Historically that has never been the school’s charter. But increasingly that is what they think they are there for. Schools have become “life coaches.” And parents are beginning to notice this is not working out so well.

Think of Julie in the last post. No matter how much she desires to be a man and perform like a man, she is never going to be a man. Her most basic molecular truth, a truth that structured her physical reality, reveals XX chromosomes. That will never change. And she will continue to drop ballerinas. Until an adult stops the madness. Or she runs out of ballerinas to drop. Manhood will never happen for her. You can restructure ballet routines all you want. You can decide to do away with uplifted motions because you don’t want to discriminate against Trans-men who can’t perform at that level. But the beauty of ballet’s male/female dance will be diminished. To go along with this affirming charade and develop public policies on the basis of a delusion is lunacy. Previous generations would know this. Why don’t we?

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Email: blog@blueridgemountain.life

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Parental Authority and Our Schools

Abigail Shrier in her book Irreversible Damage spends a chapter on the parents who are in pain and whose authority is being disregarded. Let me mention a few parents and their daughters. (Names have been changed by Shrier.)

JULIE

Two Midwesterners, Shirley and her lesbian partner were raising an academically successful, physically energetic but socially challenged young girl. Shrier gives her the name of “Julie.” She had crushes on boys growing up, which was just fine with her two moms. Julie was a member of the Gay-Straight Alliance (GSA) at school, which her mothers took as a welcome sign of solidarity.

Julie had no history of gender dysphoria (the scientific literature unequivocally shows GD occurs mostly in boys and usually presents itself around the ages of 2-4. Little boys will say things like, “but no mommy, I’m not a boy, I’m a girl.” Natal Females almost never do this.) Julie didn’t either. Shirley said, “As far as I knew, she identified as straight. She was pretty girly and feminine.”

At the GSA she met a girl named Lauren, who introduced her to anime, computer-animated images of anthropomorphized creatures. “I had no idea it was tied into this whole trans culture,” said Shirley. Julie began to visit DeviantArt, a website where Trans folk hang out and gender ideology is discussed at length.

Julie loved ballet. And was good at it. She was on route to becoming a professional ballet dancer, “nabbing top roles in her dance company.” She landed the coveted part of Cinderella in the ballet by the same name. But, after “crushing” her performance and coming out onstage to take her bows and receive the high praises of the audience, Julie caught the eye of her closest friend, Lauren. Shirley describes what happened next, she “sort of looked like she was ashamed of herself and faded. All of her joy sucked out of her body.” Unbeknownst to Julie’s parents, Lauren had recently come out as “transgender.” Julie would soon follow.

"Gendered performances, such as occur in ballet, fly in the face of trans identification.  To transgender adolescents, gendered behavior that accords with one's sex is the ultimate blunder--it unmasks as frauds those who lack commitment, who are really just "cis"1"Cis" means on this side of gender, "trans" means on the other side after all.  - Irreversible Damage, Abigail Shrier

Like the culture of eating disorder patients who regard “thinness” as a virtue, and extremism in pursuit of the noble goal as a sign of personal integrity, transgenderism tracks the same disordered trajectory. There are pro-anorexia sites all over the social media internet preaching the purity of the pursuit. Same with the Online Trans world. It is an “Us” vs. “Them” division.

Julie’s parents wanted to be on the side of their daughter so they followed along too. And began using new names and pronouns, thinking maybe this was the right thing to do. But Julie was getting angrier and more distant and emotionally detached. So they stopped doing that.

Shrier then recounts what she described in an online interview as one of the most disappointing parts of this whole Trans story; in loco parentis (in place of the parent) has taken on a new meaning within many of our public & private schools. 

Shirley met with the school administrators, who assured her that as long as Julie was at their all-girls’ school, they would treat her as a girl and use her given name and female pronouns. “Well, that’s not what happened.” Without her mothers’ knowledge or permission, Julie’s teachers, administrators, and friends all acceded to Julie’s request and began referring to her as a male student and by her new male name. Julie began to lead a kind of double life. “When she was too much at school, too much at her computer, she became morose, withdrawn, angry. We had no idea she was indoctrinating herself with these YouTube videos.” - Irreversible Damage by Abigail Shrier

But the die was cast. And it seemed like most were playing along. Even dance company choreographers: 

At eighteen, Julie moved out of the house, signed up for Medicaid—although she was still on her mothers’ insurance—and began a course of testosterone. Julie found a local dance company that would permit her to train as a male. But she wasn’t strong enough, Shirley told me. “From what I understand, the choreographer had to rechoreograph it three times because she couldn’t keep up [as a man]…. She dropped a couple of dancers.” Her mother was frightened that Julie’s apparent fixation was going to hurt her or someone else. She reprimanded her, “It’s not just your body and your career. You’re talking about someone else’s body and their career. You’re going to hurt them.” But by then, Julie was done taking advice from her mothers. She abruptly cut off contact with them. She has hundreds of followers on Instagram; her mothers are blocked from viewing her account. “We have someone who’s been able to snoop in on her [Instagram]… I saw the picture of her, right after her mastectomy, lying in the hospital bed, talking about how this is the best day of her life, tears of joy, this kind of thing, and four hundred of her cheerleaders saying, ‘Yay,’ ‘Awesome job,’ ‘We’re so proud of you,’ ‘You can do this.’ You know—the usual.” - Irreversible Damage, Abigail Shrier

Instead of standing in place of the parents, and representing the parents wishes for the children in their charge, schools are disregarding parental concerns. They go around parents and often kids like Julie become more and more distant from the ones who love them most. Parents who don’t affirm are regarded as “toxic.” This “toxicity” charge will be leveled not just by the legions of Internet Trans Influencers but by school teachers and administrators. I’ll go into more detail about that in a minute, but first another story.

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GAYATRI

Her father an Indian immigrant and physician and her mother a software engineer came, as all do, for the abundant opportunities of American life. Once again, Gayatri showed no signs of childhood gender dysphoria. She was born with a minor neurological disorder affecting her motor skills, and as a result, by the time puberty hit, more than the usual awkwardness followed. In middle school one of her elementary school friends came out as Trans and began “transitioning” by binding her breasts and announcing her new male name, and asking others to use her new male pronouns.

In ninth grade Gayatri was given a laptop and after much pleading a smartphone. She spent a lot of time on Tumblr and DeviantArt (mentioned earlier). Every free moment she spent online. But since both her parents were comfortable with technology and the Internet, nothing up to this point concerned them. 

In the second half of her freshman year, one of her teachers nominated her for a leadership retreat, and her parents were thrilled, eagerly paying the fee. “I always had great appreciation and respect for all the institutions in the United States, starting with the government, and the federal nature of everything, the school districts being independent and all that,” her father said. He examined the flyer for the retreat, believing his daughter had been recognized for a special honor. The flyer contained “all positive things” about leadership and social justice, which sounded like a good thing. “I trusted the school completely.” At the end of the weekend-long retreat, the students performed a play for the parents. “The whole play focused on sexuality and gender,” Gayatri’s mother told me. “It was all about these depressed kids with no motivation.” Each kid stood up and introduced themselves with some alleged hardship identity—“I’m depressed,” “I’m gay.” Then, Gayatri stood up. “ ‘I’m transgender, and I go by they/them.’ We were like in tears, we didn’t know what to do,” her mother said. After the camp, Gayatri discarded all of her girls’ clothes and set up an Instagram account announcing her new name. One day, while she was walking the dog with her parents, Gayatri floated the idea of starting testosterone and getting top surgery. Her parents became alarmed. By then, they had learned that Gayatri’s school had been using her “new name” and pronouns (though never on any documentation sent home) entirely without their knowledge. No longer merely the class bungler, Gayatri had reinvented herself as the edgy trans kid. The “likes” and emojis showered on her Instagram profile spoke for themselves: this new identity was an upgrade. As a “trans boy,” Gayatri had friends—lots of them. [emphasis mine] - Irreversible Damage by Abigail Shrier

If you ever wonder why so many parents have become deeply disillusioned with the state of public education in America, this might now be exhibit A.

Schools are being coached by Activists to protect the privacy of the student who identifies as Transgender, even if this means keeping the parents in the dark.

According to Transgender Activists, the starting point is the conviction that,

Privacy and confidentiality are critically important for transgender students who do not have supportive families. In those situations, even inadvertent disclosures could put the student in a potentially dangerous situation at home, so it is important to have a plan in place to help avoid any mistakes or slip-ups. - Human Rights Campaign "Schools In Transition" pg 16

An entire chapter (5) in HRC’s “Schools in Transition” is devoted to “Unsupportive Parents or Caregivers.” But what about those many parents who truly love their children and sincerely believe that transitioning is the worst thing for them. What about those parents who want to assist with a course of therapy (and prayer) that doesn’t include the advice of the “affirmative care model”? What if they believe helping their child align with their birth sex is a better pathway to personal wholeness? What if they believe God created their children as male or female? Are these experts from the Human Rights Campaign and their supporters in our school systems the only experts to be consulted? Are you comfortable with these experts going around the backs of parents? Keeping them in the dark?

I’m not.

Here is a revealing quote in the HRC guidelines.

School officials interact with the student on a daily basis and focus on supporting the student’s growth and development, which gives school personnel unique insight into the student’s needs.

And parents don’t have unique insight into the student’s needs? More than school officials? For the Activists unless these parents adopt the affirm-only, puberty-blocking, sterilizing doctrine of pediatric medical transition they are at best misguided and at worst bigots.  Are you comfortable with that conclusion?

I’m not.

Maybe these parents possess wisdom gleaned from having raised these children from birth, wisdom these school experts and Transgender Activists don’t possess about these particular children. Maybe refusing to be cajoled into going against a parents deepest protective instincts should be respected by those payed to educate their children. Maybe agreeing to a never ending regimen of cross-hormone therapy and radical life altering surgeries is a bridge too far for most parents. Maybe these parents have done their own research and are convinced that the recent explosive growth of teen girls identifying as Trans is not real but evidence of social contagion.

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Another model the “Policy on Transgender and Gender Nonconforming Students” produced by the National Center for Transgender Equality and GLSEN includes the following guideline:

Staff or educators shall not disclose any information that may reveal a student’s gender identity to others, including parents or guardians... 

Unless absolutely required to do so by law. These guidelines give advice on how to use a student’s preferred name and pronouns in class, but the legal name and normal sex-specific pronouns in communication with parents. Rather than respect parental authority and adhere to the historic in loco parentis expectation, parents are being deceived and disregarded.

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Many call for public education reform so that the money “follows the student” instead of going to designated school districts, some of which are failing academically, as well as failing to live up to the historic in loco parentis expectation. These reformers insist the 1964 Civil Right’s Act anti-discrimination guidelines will still be followed, guidelines which specifically reference “race, color, religion, national origin” and “sex” discrimination. Nobody wants to “turn back the clock” on those advances. Practical matters like transportation issues can be worked out. These reformers say, let the parents pick the schools on a rational geographic basis. If your local school is “preaching” a gender ideology that you as a parent disagree with, then you should have the flexibility to send your child elsewhere. Just like in Sweden, where the money follows the child. You are not locked into a particular school simply because of where you live. We need to allow parents creative choice solutions to a very real and for them disturbing trend in education.

I would personally support something like the Swedish education model without disregarding the religious “free exercise” clause in our Constitution. A clause which supports freedom of religion, not freedom from religion. Otherwise, we would veer off into anti-religious bigotry. A very real concern these days.

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Here is an interesting link about the Swedish Culture and Economy. We have been told that Swedish society is based on a socialist model. Well, that was then. 30 years ago. This is now. At around 33:43 into the video, they start talking about how the Swedes do public education. But you might want to watch the whole thing.

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Some think this too extreme, which given the current state of public education in America, I don’t know why you wouldn’t want to experiment with different solutions.

I know many public school educators. I have great respect for most of them. But, I’ve personally witnessed more than a few inadequate teachers, administrators and failing schools. So if you think American parents like the ones in the stories above will accept this new understanding of in loco parentis and simply roll with gender ideology, you might be mistaken. After the remote learning experience of last year & the unwillingness of schools to reopen many parents are deciding to pull the plug on the current local school option, if at all possible.

Obviously for most parents this is not feasible. But if the money followed the student they just might vote with their feet. And I wouldn’t blame them.

My next post will look at gender ideology propagated in our elementary schools.

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Email: blog@blueridgemountain.life