The Michigan Department of Education has adopted a new program that pushes gender fluidity to elementary school students and encourages teachers to “facilitate the sexual transition of minors without parental consent,” according to a new report.
In a City Journal report, videos and internal documentation obtained from the state’s training program pushes the basic narrative of queer theory with presenters claiming the West is trying to oppress racial and sexual minorities by pushing the notion that “gender is binary.” It also adopts tenets from critical race theory to “dismantle systems of oppression.”
“We’ve been conditioned and we’ve been acculturated in this particular culture that gender is binary,” trainer Amorie Robinson argues.
She goes on to claim that gender is a spectrum and includes identities such as “gender non-binary,” “gender fluid,” “gender queer,” “gender non-conforming,” and “bi-gender” and she adds that sexual orientation labels are also expanding.
“Students might identify as ‘asexual, lesbian, straight, gay, bisexual, queer, questioning, demisexual, demiromantic, aromantic, and skoliosexual,” Robinson says. “I’ll leave that to you to go Google on those. Because we ain’t got time today!”
The training first took place in 2020 and was repackaged for public school employees for the 2021–2022 school year, Christopher Rufo, a senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute, reports.
The training program follows the basic narrative of radical gender theory: the presenters claim the West has created a false notion that “gender is binary” in order to oppress racial and sexual minorities. In response, teachers should work to “dismantle systems of oppression.” pic.twitter.com/weNqAmcokn
— Christopher F. Rufo ⚔️ (@realchrisrufo) September 14, 2022
Rufo reveals teachers were told to throw out so-called gendered language such as “boy” or “girl” and use gender-neutral variations such as “earthlings.”
“Kids have a sense of their gender identity between the ages of three and five, so about the time that kids have language, they can start to share with us whether they’re a boy or a girl—usually those are the only things that they will identify as, because those are the only options we’ve given them,” says Phillips-Knope.
“Go with what the kid says,” Amorie responded to a teacher who asked whether she should call her student by the “she/he/they/them” pronouns. “They’re the best experts on their lives. They’re the best experts on their own identities and their own bodies…You may have to sit with some discomfort sometimes.”
The Michigan Department of Education also told teachers to facilitate the transition of students, but keep the process a secret from parents, even if the child is suicidal. They encourage educators to hide the student’s new name, pronouns, and sexual identity confidential from the family, unless otherwise directed by the child.
And if the child is suicidal, the trainers recommend leaving out the student’s sexual transition.
But statistics indicate 82% of gender-questioning or transgender individuals have considered killing themselves and 40% have attempted suicide, with suicidality highest among transgender youth, according to a 2020 report on suicide among transgender youth.
“If you’re sort of into that area of like, ‘you’re going to hurt yourself or somebody else,’ and you have a duty to report—I mean, the law is really clear about that—you can also talk to parents, though, about like that ‘your kid is having suicidal thoughts,’ without outing them, without saying why,” Phillips-Knope contends. “You can say, ‘We have some concerns, your child has shared this,’ [but] I would one-thousand percent recommend working with the student to let them guide that process.”
In a statement to Rufo, the Michigan Department of Education defended the program saying it’s about “respecting all children” and “meet(ing) the needs of their LGBTQ+ students.”
Virginia Moves to Involve Parents in Their Own Children’s Lives
Meanwhile, The Virginia Department of Education released new guidelines Friday that require teachers to obtain written permission from parents before beginning to treat students as transgender, National Review reports.
“The phrase ‘transgender student’ shall mean a public school student whose parent has requested in writing, due to their child’s persistent and sincere belief that his or her gender differs with his or her sex, that their child be so identified while at school,” the guidelines read.
“Parents are in the best position to work with their children … to determine (a) what names, nicknames, and/or pronouns, if any, shall be used for their child by teachers and school staff while their child is at school, (b) whether their child engages in any counseling or social transition at school that encourages a gender that differs from their child’s sex, or (c) whether their child expresses a gender that differs with their child’s sex while at school,” the policy continues.
The new policy is keeping in step with Republican Gov. Glenn Youngkin’s campaign promise to respect parental rights in education.
Earlier this month, Youngkin called out Fairfax County Public Schools for not mandating that parents know about their child’s pronouns.
“They think that parents have no right to know what your child is discussing with their teacher or their counselor, particularly when some of the most important topics, most important topics that a child may want to discuss are being determined,” Youngkin said. “What’s their name? What pronoun will they use? How are they going to express their gender? This is a decision that bureaucrats in Fairfax County believe that they should be able to make without telling parents.”
Every local school board must adopt policies that comply with the state’s new guidelines.
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