Gender Ideology Education from Birth Through Age 12.
I thought I'd start this project off with something small and non-controversial.
This is my first shot at entering the public debate on this issue - if you feel like my steelmanning attempts, for other side, fall short, I am open to revising this in response to criticism. My goal isn’t to solve the issue or take a side, but to neutrally map out the terrain, in the hopes of improving public deliberation, as best as I am able.
Leftwing argument - In the quest for a more equal society, children who are possibly transgendered should be taught about gender as a spectrum as early as possible so that those children who are (or may be) can be identified early and given support in their transition, whether that be social or medical. If teachers believe that parents might interfere in this process, because of their belief that gender and sex are identical and thus binary, teachers have an obligation to hide their children’s gender status from them, including names, pronouns, clothes, and medical procedures. Transgender children who are not protected from their parents and who are in schools that do not teach gender ideology will be at a higher risk of bullying and suicide.
The better they make the world for transchildren, the better the world will be for all transpeople, and thus everyone over all.
Rightwing argument 1 (my version) -
Children are impressionable, and exposing children to these ideas might push (or ‘groom’, in the common partisan parlance) children to take on these identities to make their teachers happy. Many people who experience gender dysphoria find that the condition goes away, either through the passage of time or through the resolution of other psychological issues, and there are many examples of people who came to regret their medical transitions. The medical procedures cause permanent sterility, which ends the person’s ability to ever have their own biological children and grandchildren, and children are unable to consent to this decision and its lifelong implications.
Rightwing argument 2 (courtesy of Nemesis in the comment section below):
“While you have presented a practical objection, you have not presented a philosophical one, which is more fundamental to the right-wing position:
* The 'gender spectrum' is a false construct that conflates biology and sociology. While some men may be effeminate, they are still (and will always be) men.
* Transgender ideology presents the issue as if empirical biology, and subjective sociology, are complementary, peer-level concepts--or even worse, that the subjective sociology is more "real" than the biology, when in fact the opposite is true. This is an epistemological error of such magnitude that it will poison children's ability to reason clearly and logically in many unrelated areas, possibly for the rest of their lives.
* Gender dysphoria is a mental illness which affects fewer than 1 in 10,000 adults, and while those people should be treated compassionately, the disconnect they experience between their biological realities and sociological expectations is not a cognitive model that should be normalized any more than teaching children that morbid obesity is a body identity that they can achieve if they eat 20,000 calories of sugar every day.”
Moral values in conflict with one another:
Left - Equality, empowerment of children, civil rights Vs. Right - Harm, damage to the family unit, consent
Questions raised:
Who should make decisions for children 12 and younger - parents, children themselves, or teachers? Why?
In what situations is it ok to hide information, especially medical information, from parents?
How do we create deliberative spaces to debate the relationship between biological sex and intersubjective gender identities?
How shall we approach the fact that sometimes gender dysphoria is sometimes persistent throughout life from birth for some people, and temporary for others? Are all transpeople experiencing the same phenomena, or is there a typology of trans-identities?
Both sides agree that schools should teach the educational basics (reading, writing, math, etc.). How should schools handle the tension between parents who want to instill their own moral code in their children, and teachers who wish to instill a different moral code, especially when those moral codes are in conflict with one another?
Sources I’m collecting to include in my future article on this subject (Please send any recommendations you might have):
https://www.newsweek.com/new-homophobia-opinion-1698969 (Gay man who is concerned about transgender activism)
https://www.flsenate.gov/Session/Bill/2022/1557
CS/CS/HB 1557: Parental Rights in Education Bill (dubbed the ‘Don’t Say Gay’ Bill by critics)
https://legiscan.com/MO/text/HB2649/2022
Similar Oklahoma bill.
https://www.modernhealthcare.com/policy/florida-advises-against-gender-affirming-medical-or-social-care-transgender-kids (article recommended on Twitter by National Center for Transgender Equity.
While you have presented a practical objection, you have not presented a philosophical one, which is more fundamental to the right-wing position:
* The 'gender spectrum' is a false construct that conflates biology and sociology. While some men may be effeminate, they are still (and will always be) men.
* Transgender ideology presents the issue as if empirical biology, and subjective sociology, are complementary, peer-level concepts--or even worse, that the subjective sociology is more "real" than the biology, when in fact the opposite is true. This is an epistemological error of such magnitude that it will poison children's ability to reason clearly and logically in many unrelated areas, possibly for the rest of their lives.
* Gender dysphoria is a mental illness which affects fewer than 1 in 10,000 adults, and while those people should be treated compassionately, the disconnect they experience between their biological realities and sociological expectations is not a cognitive model that should be normalized any more than teaching children that morbid obesity is a body identity that they can achieve if they eat 20,000 calories of sugar every day.