Sunday, September 18, 2016

A Christian's Response to Gender Choice in Michigan Public Schools


The Michigan State Board of Education just passed a policy on September 14, 2016, which allows school districts to make accommodations for students K-12 who consider themselves to be "transgendering" to the sex opposite their birth gender. The policy states that children may do this without their parents knowledge or consent in some cases. (Read the revised policy here). It was passed 6-2 despite an overwhelming response from the public opposing this policy, and without consulting Michigan legislatures. In addition, the board members voting for this policy have done so with complete disregard to health professionals and clergy who state transgendering among children is detrimental to their health. (Read American College of Pediatricians report here or ACP Summary Statement here and The Mayer Report).
"The Mayer report is an exhaustive review of the scientific literature concerning gender identity and sexual orientation. It is significant in that over 500 scientific articles were reviewed by two notable scholars: Dr. Lawrence Mayer, professor of statistics and biostatistics at Arizona State University and a self-described liberal citizen who supports LGBQT rights, and Dr. Paul McHugh who was the psychiatrist-in-chief at John Hopkins from 1975 to 2001. Among the many significant findings is that both doctors concur that neither sexual orientation nor gender identity is innate or immutable (no one is born gay or transgender, and both are fluid). Additionally, both doctors find no evidence to support encouraging children to identify as transgender."1 

The board members voted as follows:

 In favor of the policy:

John Austin (term expires 1-1-17)
Michelle Fecteau (term expires 1-1-21)
Lupe Ramos-Montigny (term expires 1-1-21)
Pamela Pugh (term expires 1-1-23)
Kathleen N. Straus (term expires 1-1-17)
Cassandra E. Ulbrich (term expires 1-1-23)

Voted against the policy:

Eileen Weiser  (term expires 1-1-19)
Richard Zeile (term expires 1-1-19)

For a list of all State Board of Education names and addresses click here. 

If John Austin and Kathleen Straus can be replaced with some sensible board members in the election this November, there would be at least a 50/50 chance of preventing policies which are harmful to children from being passed in the near future. However, I don't know at this time whether those running this November are any better.

State Legislatures Respond to the Policy

Legislation was introduced in the Senate (SB993) which, if passed, would not allow transgender students to use a restroom or locker room of the sex opposite their birth gender. However, this legislation still calls for accommodating transgender students with parent's permission, so in that sense it also disregards the warnings of clergy and health professionals who advise of the ill effects of allowing children to transgender. This bill was sponsored by Thomas Casperson

There are several Representatives who have spoken out against the Board of Education's policy when it was first released in early 2016, (Article link here).  Rep. Ray Franz, Rep. Lana Theis, and Rep. Gary Glenn have expressed opposition to the policy. Interestingly enough, this policy was released within a couple days of a bill being introduced to ban Common Core in Michigan (SB826). SB826 is a bill that is good for Michigan students, and teachers, as it allows local control of curriculum and keeps the federal government out of education, as it should be. 

The transgender guidance policy is bad because:


1. It distresses the many students who are uncomfortable with being exposed to transgender students in restrooms and locker rooms.
2. It leans towards the opinion that the less parental knowledge or involvement the better.
3. It completely disregards the detrimental results of allowing children to transgender.
4. It ignores the environment this creates for those who wish to pervert the policy. (Read about the Minnesota lawsuit here).

Of course these four points do not include the fact that the practice itself is against God's commands. Read A Christian's Response to Transgender Children and The Bible and Same Sex Love.

What the church needs to do:

  • Contact your state legislatures to express your views. Include the 4 reasons why this policy is bad. Especially reference The Mayer Report and the American College of Pediatricians Report noted in the first paragraph above, stating that transgendering is harmful to children. Ask that SB993 be supported, but modified to exclude accommodations for transgender students, and then passed into law. (While you're at it, you might mention support for SB826 as well).
    Link to Michigan Representatives    Link to Michigan Senators  
  • Write the members of the State Board of Education to voice your opposition to the transgender policy they passed. Not only write those who are in favor of it, but write those who opposed it and express your gratitude for their courage.
    For a list of all State Board of Education names and addresses click here.
  • Contact the superintendent of your local school district to find out his/her opinion and voice yours.
  • Write down the names of all of the elected officials in your region, and their position on this issue. Then be sure to refer to your list when voting.
  • Write to Michigan Attorney General Bill Schuette and thank him for joining the lawsuit challenging Obama's federal guidance policy on Title IX. (Article here).
    Contact information for his office is here.
  • Consider writing to any lawmakers who oppose this policy and thank them for having the courage to stand up for what is right.
Please feel free to use the following links to copy, paste and edit letters to your elected officials:

Letter to your State Legislators (Use for your Michigan Rep and Michigan Senator)
Letter to the State Board of Education Members who voted for the transgender policy
Letter to the State Board of Education Members who voted against the transgender policy
Letter to your local School District Superintendent
Letter to the Attorney General
List of Elected Officials and their stance on the policy (Print for your own use)

1 Child Healing: Strengthening Families from Institute for Marital Healing | 101 W. Elm Street | Suite 320 | Conshohocken, PA 19428. Retrieved 9/18/2016



Monday, May 16, 2016

The Real Issue--State's Rights

Fighting the Right Battle

The problem with the bathroom issue, gender choice, gay marriage etc. is that We the People are fighting over the morality of these issues and are missing the huge injustice that the federal government is imposing on us. This administration wants to give the government the power to declare right from wrong, and he is using these emotional trigger issues so that we fight over the morality of the choices, rather than uniting and putting a stop to the inflation of the executive office, and the federal government in general.

This President has paralyzed Congress through flattery or fear, and has empowered the Supreme Court beyond their constitutional powers, taking away the rights that belong to the States. The President or Supreme Court are not lawmakers, yet that is exactly what they have been doing, and Congress has not done a thing about it. Our President has used the same tactics on the Governors of the States as he has on congress--flatter those who agree with him, intimidate/threaten (even sue) those who won’t.

We the People need to quit fighting over the morality of these issues and unite to stop this expansion of federal powers, whether we agree with the issue at hand or not. We need to contact our Governors, and state legislatures and insist that they stand up to the federal government’s abuse of power. If you agree with the decisions this president has been making---for example regarding gender choice in schools, gay marriage etc. this may be hard for you to do, but it is the right thing to do. If the federal government is allowed to expand in this way, it will just be a matter of time before they do something you disagree with. It may be too late by then. We need to stop this abuse now. If you don’t agree with the decisions he’s been making, then the answer is not to argue about the morality of these issues, but insist that our legislatures stop the federal government’s abuse of power. We cry out in outrage if the President or Supreme Court makes a "law" that we disagree with. However, if we allow the President to make law when we agree with him, then we have given up our freedom to live our lives as we feel God has called us to. 

If the President were to announce tomorrow that gay marriage is not allowed or boys can’t go into girls bathrooms would you be happy? Probably, but we should not allow that because it is not his decision to make! We must not allow him to make these choices for us!  These "hot topic" issues are actually an attempt to increase the powers of the federal government, not the issue at hand. This administration wants to decide and legislate right and wrong. It is conditioning the people to accept the idea of the President and Supreme Court making laws and deciding what is moral and what is not. Our constitution does not give them the power to make these decisions!

For more information please visit the Tenth Amendment Center. 
http://tenthamendmentcenter.com/


Friday, March 25, 2016

Michigan Board of Education's Gender "Guidance" Policy

Michigan State Board of Education Promotes Gender Choice
March 31, 2016

The Michigan State Board of Education is continuing on with their plan to draft a "guidance" policy regarding LGBTQ students. Despite the thousands of people who offered feedback against it, they are only considering written comments in their final version of the LGBTQ Guidelines for public schools. The website that allows you to express feedback (EveryVoiceCountsMI) is NOT going to be considered in their final decision. PLEASE WRITE THEM and express your concern. Also, be sure to say that a "modified" version is not acceptable. The whole idea needs to be scrapped. The American College of Pediatrics has issued a statement that gender choice for kids is harmful. Comments accepted until May 11.

Following is my letter to the State Board of Education. 

Kim Kovalchick, Supervisor
Michigan Department of Education
Coordinated School Health and Safety Programs unit
P.O. Box 30008
Lansing, MI 48909

To: The Michigan State Department of Education

Following is my written comment on the draft Statement and Guidance on Safe and Supportive Learning Environments for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, and Questioning (LGBTQ) Students.

I am opposed to this Guidance and I am opposed to a modified version of this Guidance. It must be completely thrown out.

Mr. Austin says he wants to "meet the needs" of LGBTQ students, and now he says he is willing to "modify" the plan due to the outrage that has been expressed by many parents. I am not in favor of a modified plan that allows for any LGBTQ expression in the schools. A “modified” plan does not "meet the needs" of these students according to recent findings from the medical community.

If you really are concerned about meeting the needs of “LGBTQ” students, then you must oppose all forms of gender choice in K-12 schools. A child needs to have time and opportunity to mature in their birth gender before considering something so extreme as switching gender. Any plan which allows public school students to express themselves or “try on” a gender at school other than their birth gender must be opposed and scrapped completely, not “modified”. Medical professionals now confirm that for a child to assume a gender other than his/her birth gender is detrimental to their gender development, even going so far as to call it child abuse for adults to endorse gender discordance or condition children into thinking gender modification is normal.

Attached is the statement from the American College of Pediatricians regarding Gender Ideology. To quote from this article, “When an otherwise healthy biological boy believes he is a girl, or an otherwise healthy biological girl believes she is a boy, an objective psychological problem exists that lies in the mind not the body, and it should be treated as such. These children suffer from gender dysphoria...” And “(Gender) awareness develops over time and, like all developmental processes, may be derailed by a child’s subjective perceptions, relationships, and adverse experiences from infancy forward…”

Not only does this plan, in any form, cause undue stress on most of the kids in public schools, it also does harm, not good, for those who would consider themselves LGBTQ—even with parent’s permission or separate bathroom stalls.

This plan must be completely scrapped!


This is the statement from the American College of Pediatricians.

Gender Ideology Harms Children
March 21, 2016 – a temporary statement with references. A full statement will be published in summer 2016.
The American College of Pediatricians urges educators and legislators to reject all policies that condition children to accept as normal a life of chemical and surgical impersonation of the opposite sex. Facts – not ideology – determine reality.
1. Human sexuality is an objective biological binary trait: “XY” and “XX” are genetic markers of health – not genetic markers of a disorder. The norm for human design is to be conceived either male or female. Human sexuality is binary by design with the obvious purpose being the reproduction and flourishing of our species. This principle is self-evident. The exceedingly rare disorders of sex development (DSDs), including but not limited to testicular feminization and congenital adrenal hyperplasia, are all medically identifiable deviations from the sexual binary norm, and are rightly recognized as disorders of human design. Individuals with DSDs do not constitute a third sex.1

2. No one is born with a gender. Everyone is born with a biological sex. Gender (an awareness and sense of oneself as male or female) is a sociological and psychological concept; not an objective biological one. No one is born with an awareness of themselves as male or female; this awareness develops over time and, like all developmental processes, may be derailed by a child’s subjective perceptions, relationships, and adverse experiences from infancy forward. People who identify as “feeling like the opposite sex” or “somewhere in between” do not comprise a third sex. They remain biological men or biological women.2,3,4

3. A person’s belief that he or she is something they are not is, at best, a sign of confused thinking. When an otherwise healthy biological boy believes he is a girl, or an otherwise healthy biological girl believes she is a boy, an objective psychological problem exists that lies in the mind not the body, and it should be treated as such. These children suffer from gender dysphoria. Gender dysphoria (GD), formerly listed as Gender Identity Disorder (GID), is a recognized mental disorder in the most recent edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of the American Psychiatric Association (DSM-V).5 The psychodynamic and social learning theories of GD/GID have never been disproved.2,4,5

4. Puberty is not a disease and puberty-blocking hormones can be dangerous. Reversible or not, puberty- blocking hormones induce a state of disease – the absence of puberty – and inhibit growth and fertility in a previously biologically healthy child.6

5. According to the DSM-V, as many as 98% of gender confused boys and 88% of gender confused girls eventually accept their biological sex after naturally passing through puberty.5
6. Children who use puberty blockers to impersonate the opposite sex will require cross-sex hormones in late adolescence. Cross-sex hormones (testosterone and estrogen) are associated with dangerous health risks including but not limited to high blood pressure, blood clots, stroke and cancer.7,8,9,10

7. Rates of suicide are twenty times greater among adults who use cross-sex hormones and undergo sex reassignment surgery, even in Sweden which is among the most LGBQT – affirming countries.11 What compassionate and reasonable person would condemn young children to this fate knowing that after puberty as many as 88% of girls and 98% of boys will eventually accept reality and achieve a state of mental and physical health?

8. Conditioning children into believing a lifetime of chemical and surgical impersonation of the opposite sex is normal and healthful is child abuse. Endorsing gender discordance as normal via public education and legal policies will confuse children and parents, leading more children to present to “gender clinics” where they will be given puberty-blocking drugs. This, in turn, virtually ensures that they will “choose” a lifetime of carcinogenic and otherwise toxic cross-sex hormones, and likely consider unnecessary surgical mutilation of their healthy body parts as young adults.

Michelle A. Cretella, M.D.
President of the American College of Pediatricians
Quentin Van Meter, M.D.
Vice President of the American College of Pediatricians
Pediatric Endocrinologist
Paul McHugh, M.D.
University Distinguished Service Professor of Psychiatry at Johns Hopkins Medical School and the former psychiatrist in chief at Johns Hopkins Hospital
References:
1. Consortium on the Management of Disorders of Sex Development, “Clinical Guidelines for the Management of Disorders of Sex Development in Childhood.” Intersex Society of North America, March 25, 2006. Accessed 3/20/16 from http://www.dsdguidelines.org/files/clinical.pdf.
2. Zucker, Kenneth J. and Bradley Susan J. “Gender Identity and Psychosexual Disorders.”FOCUS: The Journal of Lifelong Learning in Psychiatry. Vol. III, No. 4, Fall 2005 (598-617).
3. Whitehead, Neil W. “Is Transsexuality biologically determined?” Triple Helix (UK), Autumn 2000, p6-8. accessed 3/20/16 from http://www.mygenes.co.nz/transsexuality.htm; see also Whitehead, Neil W. “Twin Studies of Transsexuals [Reveals Discordance]” accessed 3/20/16 from http://www.mygenes.co.nz/transs_stats.htm.
4. Jeffreys, Sheila. Gender Hurts: A Feminist Analysis of the Politics of Transgenderism. Routledge, New York, 2014 (pp.1-35).
5. American Psychiatric Association: Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fifth Edition, Arlington, VA, American Psychiatric Association, 2013 (451-459). See page 455 re: rates of persistence of gender dysphoria.
6. Hembree, WC, et al. Endocrine treatment of transsexual persons: an Endocrine Society clinical practice guideline. J Clin Endocrinol Metab. 2009;94:3132-3154.
7. Olson-Kennedy, J and Forcier, M. “Overview of the management of gender nonconformity in children and adolescents.” UpToDate November 4, 2015. Accessed 3.20.16 from www.uptodate.com.
8. Moore, E., Wisniewski, & Dobs, A. “Endocrine treatment of transsexual people: A review of treatment regimens, outcomes, and adverse effects.” The Journal of Endocrinology & Metabolism, 2003; 88(9), pp3467-3473.
9. FDA Drug Safety Communication issued for Testosterone products accessed 3.20.16: http://www.fda.gov/Drugs/DrugSafety/PostmarketDrugSafetyInformationforPatientsandProviders/ucm161874.htm.
10. World Health Organization Classification of Estrogen as a Class I Carcinogen: http://www.who.int/reproductivehealth/topics/ageing/cocs_hrt_statement.pdf.
11. Dhejne, C, et.al. “Long-Term Follow-Up of Transsexual Persons Undergoing Sex Reassignment Surgery: Cohort Study in Sweden.” PLoS ONE, 2011; 6(2). Affiliation: Department of Clinical Neuroscience, Division of Psychiatry, Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, Sweden. Accessed 3.20.16 from http://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0016885.





Michigan State Board of Education Promotes Gender Choice
March 2016

Please pray and take action regarding the Michigan Board of Education's new "Guidance" policy which would allow children in public schools to choose their gender without parent knowledge or consent. This is wrong and we need to speak against it, however, I suspect their plan is to take this extreme approach and then settle for a "compromise" which would still allow the acceptance of the idea of gender choice in schools. We need to insist they throw the whole idea out, taking the approach that our children should fully develop in their birth gender during school years and be protected from the idea of choice.

I would suggest:

1. Contacting the Board of Education. They are only taking public comments until April 11. You can voice your opinion at everyvoicecountsmi.org Link here

2. Contact your state representatives and encourage them to draft a bill that will protect our children from the idea of gender choice in the schools. A good article to cite is from the American College of Pediatrics, "Gender Ideology Harms Children." Link here

3. Contact your local school superintendent and find out if your local school board is for this or not. In Waterford, he wouldn't answer my question so I assume he is in favor of it.

4. Write a letter to the editor of your local newspaper voicing your opinion and informing others. Here is my letter to the editor. I had to revise it several times to get it under 250 words! Feel free to adapt it to your region.

"Our elected president of the Michigan Department of Education, John Austin, and State Superintendent Brian Whiston have embarked on a scheme to implement a policy which encourages the practice of gender choice in public schools. This policy drops the frog in the water. It is extreme because, in its current form, it hides a child’s gender choice behavior at school from the parent, even allowing them to use bathrooms designed for the opposite sex. However, I’m sure the plan is to come up with a “compromise” as parents express their outrage against this. A compromise is not what we need. We need a policy that will protect our children from the whole concept of gender choice. A school-age child has not yet reached gender maturity in their own birth gender. We need to encourage them to fully discover the joys of their birth gender while in these sensitive formative years. What Mr. Austin is proposing is a breeding ground for gender confusion. It plants the idea of choosing a sex into the minds of young children who would not otherwise consider this idea. This is not a sympathetic solution for those who are “questioning,” it is overstepping the bounds of the school’s purpose. Are school officials now deciding this issue for us? Waterford Superintendent Keith Wunderlich would not answer my question of whether or not he would adopt this policy in Waterford schools. He would only say it was not his highest concern. I can only assume he would."
The idea of gender choice, as bad as that is, is just the tip of the iceberg of an extreme lawlessness and deception. It is a disregard for the boundaries of right and wrong in its most basic form. To deny reality and say I can choose to misrepresent myself in such a way as gender, is deception at its best. However, we know that this is what happens in the last days before Jesus returns. He said lawlessness would increase. He said there would be a strong delusion for those who do not love the truth. (Matthew 24:12, 2 Thessalonians 2:9-12). It's important that we speak out and take action, however we must also be sure to prayer and engage in spiritual warfare to free the minds of those who are lost and bound.

Links

"The Guidance"
The Daily Caller Article Link
Oxford Journals: Journal of Medicine and Philosophy Article
The Shrinking Power of Parents Article