The guidance document begins by making it clear that a goal of school leaders and educators is to “ensure that all students have an opportunity to receive a high-quality education” and to “meet the needs of all individual students”. Yet the changes proposed for the treatment of transgender children in the document do not meet these standards.
“The consequences of not affirming a child’s gender identity can be severe, and it can interfere with their ability to develop and maintain healthy interpersonal relationships. In the school context, that distress will also hinder a transgender student’s focus in class and ability to learn. The longer a transgender youth is not affirmed, the more significant and long-lasting the negative consequences can become, including loss of interest in school, heightened risk for alcohol and drug use, poor mental health and suicide.” Gender Spectrum et al., 2015, Schools in Transition—A Guide for Supporting Transgender Students in K-12 Schools 8 (2015)
This policy does not create an “environment free from discrimination, harassment, or bullying” but rather fosters all of these. It encourages teachers and students to disrespect and disregard the humanity of trans kids, and gives them cover and protection under the new policy to do so without consequence.
Empowering parents is certainly a worthy cause, and something to be lauded. Parents can be some of the most important influences in a child’s development. Unfortunately, as members of the Virginia Department of Education must certainly know, parents are not always right, and do not always support their children as they should. Parents can sometimes make choices that are actively harmful towards children, whether from ignorance or malice. Research suggests that affirming a trans child’s gender identity is critical to their well being. Some resources:
https://www.columbiapsychiatry.org/news/gender-affirming-care-saves-lives
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5061456/
There are many more resources that support the conclusion that affirming the gender identity of trans children is life saving. How can we deny these children life saving care simply because the parents of the child refuse to allow it? How can we eliminate what may be the one safe place for these children, to please parents who seem to be misinformed? In this case, it is clear that ignoring the needs of children in favor of affirming parents does not “improve outcomes for all children in Virginia.”
The existence of trans identities is not an “ideological belief” but a biological fact, something that has been proven repeatedly. To turn the existence of a child into an ideological conflict is to deny their humanity.
This is a plea to the Board of Education to think of these children and protect them. Think about who is being affected by these changes. Think of the children. Please protect them.
For all of these reasons and more, I STRONGLY OPPOSE.