Embracing the topic
The Post of course thinks this is a good thing, or at least wants to appear to. Gender idennniny taught in schools:
Some lessons are direct: “Who can describe what transgender means?” In other classes, the discussion is more subtle: “Remember, families can come in all shapes and sizes!”
Yes all! In some families the parents are shaped like pyramids and the children are shaped like orcas!
In Florida and several others states, educators are restricted in teaching about gender identity, but elsewhere, teachers are embracing the topic as the number of transgender and gender nonbinary children rises.
If it’s true that’s unfortunate, because transgender is a fiction and “gender nonbinary” is simply meaningless. If the number of transgender and gender nonbinary children is rising it’s probably partly because they’re being taught about it in school.
Resources and lesson plans for those who want to teach about gender identity are becoming much more common. Seven states now require that curriculums include LGBTQ topics.
Wait, stop. LGB is one thing and T is another. (Q is nothing.) There is no soup that is LGBTQ, there are 5 separate things, and they don’t all combine well.
The National Sex Education Standards, developed by experts and advocacy groups, name gender identity as one of seven essential topics, alongside puberty, consent, sexual orientation and other subjects.And the federal government recommends that schools include gender identity in their sex education programs.
What kind of experts? Why include advocacy groups? What if “gender identity” is just a made-up label for a contested mental state? Why teach it to children?
Opponents argue that teaching about gender identity is driven by liberal ideology and is inappropriate for children, especially young children.
The ideology isn’t really liberal though. It thinks it is, but it isn’t. Instead of being relaxed and liberal about who can wear skirts or like Lego, it shoves children into gender boxes for wearing skirts or liking Lego.
The restrictions often go beyond the classroom.Many districts have resisted efforts to allow transgender students to use the bathroom corresponding to their gender identity, and 18 states limit transgender women from competing in women’s and girls’ sports, though some measures are on hold pending a court challenge.
The usual lie. The issue isn’t transgender, the issue is males in female toilets and sports.
Classes that address gender identity are still the exception in American schools. But an increase in the number of young people identifying as trans or gender nonconforming has prompted many schools to change course and adopt lessons that would have been unthinkable just a few years ago.
In other words they see a trend and decide the thing to do is speed it up. But what if being trans is actually not a particularly happy fate? What if all these young people would actually be vastly better off if they were urged to perform a nonconforming gender all they liked but stay away from meds and surgeries until their brains have finished developing? What if they shouldn’t be encouraged to think they’re trans as opposed to mildly eccentric?
The approaches vary, particularly for elementary schoolchildren. In some classrooms, lessons about gender identity focus on gender stereotypes. Students in first grade, for instance, may be prompted to consider that there are no “boy colors” or “girl colors.”
Do that. Go with that. Hold that thought. Say we’re all a big soup of “gender” and nobody has to change any organs or appendages to fit anything.
But that’s the goddamn antithesis of gender identity, and … WHARGARBL
I’ll agree and disagree with this depending on the meaning of liberal. If liberal refers to the political doctrine of maximizing effective liberty, then no, Genderism isn’t liberal. If liberal refers to something associated with people called liberals, though …
People who identify as liberals?
Many of the genderists to hold classic liberal views, but they err in thinking that means everything they believe is liberal. When they advocate expanding rights for one group beyond what any other group has, and at the expense of another group that has been historically marginalized, then they are not liberal. That is not a liberal idea. That is the patriarchy.
Damn it, Ophelia, now I want my child to be shaped like an orca!
Hella lotta liberals think gender ideninny is old-fascioned patriarchal oppression in a new dress: i.e., the opposite of liberty or liberal.
I associate the modern usage of the word liberal to very broad brush strokes. For some people it means “everything I think is stupid.” I was once called a Liberal for not reversing a bank fee.
It’s a meaningless word, though often spat out with great disdain.
See one of the things “liberal” means is generous, and by extension tolerant – not picky, not prone to quibbling, not restrictive. A virtue, and an attractive one, mostly. But sometimes definitions really do need to be clear and exact as opposed to generous and expansive.
Yes, who can describe what transgender means?
It really takes effort to write these pieces. All the mental gymnastics, translation, euphemism, misdirection and self-censorship must be exhausting compared with just writing a factual, truthful article. Maybe it’s easier if you’re a true believer (or you’re at risk of disciplinary action or termination), but still, to one outside the Faith, it seems a lot of work, even for The Great Cause.
There you go, being transphobic again.
Well yeah, people get confused when I tell them Oregon has extraordinarily liberal gun laws (and that it even extends to swords)… California’s are quite conservative on the other hand.
But no, the gender goblins don’t seem to be all that liberal.