Twisting the Minds of Vulnerable Schoolchildren

If you like progressive arrogance mixed with complete contempt for parental rights, it’s hard to top guidance drafted by Michigan’s State Board of Education. Last month, State Superintendent Brian Whiston issued a memorandum with the subject heading “Presentation on State Board of Education Statement and Guidance on Safe and Supportive Learning Environments for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, and Questioning (LGBTQ) Students.” The agenda behind it is clear: Michigan schools will be expected to allow all students to self-identify with regard to their gender, and all school officials will be expected to abide whatever permutations arise from that identification.

Yet it gets even worse. “The responsibility for determining a student’s gender identity rests with the student,” the memo states. “Outside confirmation from medical or mental health professionals, or documentation of legal changes, is not needed.”

In other words, it doesn’t matter what the child’s biological sex is, or whether he or she is in the midst of a temporary identity crisis and/or getting professional help from a medical doctor or a psychiatrist. The memo defines gender identity as “a person’s deeply held internal sense or psychological knowledge of their own gender, regardless of the biological sex they were assigned at birth.” Yet even the definition of biological sex is a hedge, with the memo stating that it is a “combination of bodily characteristics, including chromosomes, hormones, internal and external genitalia, and secondary sex characteristics,” before adding that when infants are born they are “assigned a sex, usually male or female, based solely on the appearance of their external anatomy.” (emphasis added)

What about parents? The complete usurpation of their rights to know about what goes on between their child and the child’s teacher and other school officials is made clear. The memo advises, “Transgender and GNC [gender nonconforming] students have the right to decide when, with whom, and to what extent to share private information.”

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