A new problem in public education is that school authorities are secretly “transitioning” children to a different gender identity. The case is currently pending in the United States Court of Appeals for the First Circuit. foot v. Ludlow School Committeethis provides the clearest opportunity yet to defend parental rights and protect children from the serious risks associated with social transition.
During the 2020-21 school year in the Ludlow School District in Massachusetts, teachers and staff actively promoted social transitions for children, calling them by new names and pronouns and hiding the changes from parents. One counselor had confidential discussions with students, including through online chats, suggesting that the students would not be safe with their parents. The parents of the two children filed a complaint with the school administration. The superintendent called the parents’ concerns “flimsy intolerance” and argued that school officials’ actions were required by state education guidelines and anti-discrimination laws. The parents filed a lawsuit in federal court alleging violations of their constitutional rights to direct their child’s care, make medical and mental health decisions on their behalf, and enjoy family privacy. .
Last December, the district court granted the school’s motion to dismiss. The court said the plaintiffs “explain how calling someone by their preferred name or pronouns, which does not require special training or skill, has clinical significance when no treatment plan or diagnosis has been established.” “I haven’t,” he reasoned. In other words, isolated social transitions were not medically relevant and were therefore outside the scope of a parent’s right to make decisions regarding their child’s medical care. Plaintiffs appealed to the First Circuit, and the case is pending.
We recently filed an amicus brief in favor of the parents that modifies the district court’s understanding. This book presents medical research showing that social transition, far from being a neutral act or polite practice, is an aggressive mental health intervention that poses serious risks to children and adolescents. Therefore, its use in schools would violate the constitutionally protected rights of parents.
Decades of medical research have shown that at least 70 percent of children with gender dysphoria resolve by adulthood. This means that most people will eventually be happy with their birth gender. Given this spontaneous remission, Dutch clinicians who pioneered pediatric sex reassignment recognized that early transition carries significant risks. They argue that some children who transition early have “little awareness that they are different from their natal sex” and develop a sense of reality that is not rooted in biological sex, leading to He warned them to have realistic expectations. Therefore, the Dutch team recommended postponing social transition until adolescence, and then only after diagnosis of gender dysphoria.
Researchers and clinicians working with gender-concerned youth similarly believe that social transitions fix temporary stages of identity formation and make it unnecessary to accept one’s gender and come to terms with one’s body. They have expressed concern that it could become difficult. A 2013 study found that social transition was associated with persistence of gender dysphoria, but the authors wondered whether transition perpetuates these feelings or whether people who did not naturally stop being gender dysphoric It was not possible to state with confidence whether there is a high possibility of a transition. A 2022 study by researchers aimed to show that “transgender children know who they are and rarely change their minds inadvertently,” confirming their initial hypothesis. Supported. Children’s social transitions impede natural withdrawal processes and increase the potential for unnecessary and harmful medicalization.
There is also good reason to believe that transgender identities are not stable during adolescence or even adulthood. In recent years, a group of young people who suddenly experience feelings of gender dysphoria have rapidly emerged, suggesting that cross-gender feelings are neither innate nor immutable. Clinicians are asked to identify “true transgender” youth, those whose heterosexual feelings demonstrate a lifelong struggle to accept their body and gender, and a related desire to live socially as a member of the opposite sex. There is no consistent and reliable way to distinguish between young people who are and people who are simply, in some cases temporarily, “gender nonconforming.” The claim that regret rates are negligible is based on studies conducted almost exclusively on adults. The small number of adolescents who participated in these studies were transitioned based on Dutch protocols. This protocol is a more conservative approach that is rarely or rarely practiced in American clinics. Recent studies have found that rates of regret and retransition range from 10 percent to 30 percent.
Furthermore, the US medical community is increasingly out of step with the European medical community regarding the use and value of social transitions. The American association mischaracterizes the literature on renunciation/persistence and calls for automatic “gender affirmation” of children, regardless of age, whereas health authorities in Finland and the United Kingdom mischaracterize the literature on renunciation/persistence, calling for automatic “gender affirmation” of children, regardless of age, while health authorities in Finland and the United Kingdom It is recognized as an active psychological intervention and denies the child’s sense of self-esteem. Recognition should be reflexively “affirmed.”
Finally, when plaintiffs who identify as transgender and their advocates argued in court that they have a legal right to use the restroom of the opposite sex, social transition was considered an important part of treatment for gender dysphoria. argued that it was an important part.
Given all of this evidence, the question of whether to pursue social transition for students falls squarely within the constitutionally protected discretionary powers of parents to make health care decisions for their children. Ludlow school authorities violated the constitution by secretly transitioning students against their parents’ wishes. Even worse, it puts the mental and physical health of minors at risk. The First Circuit should overturn the district court and protect students from harm at the hands of ideologically motivated government officials who believe they know best.
Photo: marrio31/iStock
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