Children in kindergarten need to “understand there are many ways to express gender,” says a “core idea” in the newly released Washington state health and physical education standards.
The standards name “self-identity” as a topic of the “core idea” of the K-12 curriculum, and define gender as a “social construct based on emotional, behavioral, and cultural characteristics attached to a person’s assigned biological sex.”
That “gender identity” claim is a sharp departure from conventional education and civic norms, which assume that young people with male biology will and should see themselves as boys, and that young people with female biology will and should see themselves as girls. Those conventional practices are backed by science, statistics, experience and parental preferences. For example, national studies suggest that only about 1-in-2,400 adults switch their names from one sex to the other.
In contrast, the Washington rules fully implement the opposite ideas. The standards assume that a significant number of boys will see themselves as girls, and a significant number of girls will see themselves as boys, regardless of biology. The standards also embrace the political claim that the government, local community and people should fully accept children’s declarations that their biology and feelings of gender are disconnected, and also endorse each child’s personal sense of “gender identity.”
For example, the standards define “gender” as “a person’s social and/or legal status as male or female,” without any link to the a child’s biology.
Other definitions in the new standards include:
Gender expression. The way someone outwardly expresses their gender, whether consciously or unconsciously.
Gender identity. Someone’s inner sense of their gender (see Transgender).
Gender roles. Social expectations about how people should act, think, or feel based on their assigned biological sex.
“Transgender” is defined in the standards as “a broad term describing people whose gender expression is non-conforming and/or whose gender identity is different from the gender they were assigned at birth.”
Learning standards for the other grade levels with regard to the “core idea” topic of “self-identity” are:
Grade 1: “Explain that there are many ways to express gender.”
Grade 2: “Understand there is a range of gender roles and expression; Understand importance of treating others with respect regarding gender expression.
Grade 3: “Explain that gender roles can vary considerably; Understand importance of treating others with respect regarding gender identity.”
Grade 4: “Identify how friends and family can influence ideas regarding gender roles, identity, and expression; Demonstrate ways to show respect for all people; Define sexual orientation.
Grade 5: “Describe how media, society, and culture can influence ideas regarding gender roles, identity, and expression; Promote ways to show respect for all people; Identify trusted adults to ask questions about gender identity and sexual orientation.”
Grade 6: “Understand the range of gender roles, identity, and expression across cultures.”
Grade 7: “Distinguish between biological sex, gender identity, gender expression, and sexual orientation.”
Grade 8: “Recognize external influences that shape attitudes about gender identity, gender expression, and sexual orientation.”
High School: “Evaluate how culture, media, society, and other people influence our perceptions of gender roles, sexuality, relationships, and sexual orientation.”
In a letter introducing the new standards, Randy Dorn, Washington state superintendent of public instruction, writes:
[T]he Health and Physical Education K-12 Learning Standards have been reviewed by thousands of Washington educators, administrators, professionals, parents, and students. As part of the developmental process, the standards underwent multiple reviews from many stakeholders including two Bias and Sensitivity reviews and an extensive public comment period, allowing those with a stake in health and physical education an opportunity to inform the development and implementation of the standards.
The Washington standards are based on the Whole School, Whole Community, Whole Child (WSCC) Model, which seeks to “improve each child’s cognitive, physical, social, and emotional development.”
“The WSCC model focuses on an ecological approach directed at the whole school, with the school in turn drawing its resources and influences from the whole community and serving to address the needs of the whole child,” the introduction to the standards reads, adding that the state superintendent’s office has made a “continuous commitment to supporting rigorous, inclusive, age-appropriate, and medically accurate instruction to ensure that students are prepared to live healthy, productive, and successful lives in a global society.”
The Washington superintendent’s office says the state utilized the National Sexuality Education Standards, K-12 (NSES) as a resource for the new standards.
Advisory members of the NSES include Robert McGarry, Ed.D., director of training and curriculum development of the Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network (GLSEN); Monica Rodriguez, MS, president of the Sexuality Information and Education Council of the United States (SIECUS); Jennifer Heitel Yakush, public policy director of SIECUS; and Leslie M. Kantor, MPH, director of national education initiatives of Planned Parenthood Federation of America.
GLSEN was founded by gay activist and former Obama administration “Safe Schools Czar” Kevin Jennings, who currently serves as executive director of the Arcus Foundation, a powerful LGBT activist organization. Arcus is led by billionaire Jon Stryker, heir of the Stryker medical technology company, who aided President Barack Obama’s 2012 re-election campaign as a top bundler. Arcus provides “social justice grants” to “support emerging LGBT leaders.”
In September of 2014, Catholic San Francisco reported “abundant evidence” that the campaign against San Francisco Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone for his decision to speak during the March for Marriage in Washington, D.C., was orchestrated by the leftist Faithful America, which was funded by Stryker’s Arcus Foundation, LGBT activist Tim Gill of Colorado’s Gill Foundation, billionaire George Soros, and the Evelyn & Walter Haas Jr. Fund.
As Christian News reports, Jennings and a “coalition of Massachusetts school teachers who supported advocacy for homosexual issues” formed GLSEN in 1990.
According to its website, GLSEN says its goal is to “ensure that every member of every school community is valued and respected regardless of sexual orientation, gender identity, or gender expression.” The activist organization also states it seeks to build a “global movement.”
The group creates printed resources for teachers to use in the K-12 classrooms and urges schools to celebrate LGBT History Month and LGBT Pride Month. Reading materials and lesson plans for children include the books Heather Has Two Mommies, It’s OK to Be Different, and Tango Makes Three. A lesson plan on “ThinkB4YouSpeak,” a guide to LGBT politically correct language, is also promoted by GLSEN.
A history and English Language Arts lesson – reportedly aligned with the Common Core standards – is offered on the story of Matthew Shepard, a gay young man who was murdered years ago and who is an icon for militant LGBT groups. The story of Shepard’s murder, however, was debunked several years ago by investigative journalist Stephen Jimenez, who discovered that Shepard was not murdered by a stranger because he was gay, but rather by a fellow drug dealer with whom he often had sex.
GLSEN’s website provides K-12 “educator resources” that include an “LGBT-inclusive curriculum” and lesson plans on topics such as how to celebrate LGBT History Month in classrooms.
Each year, GLSEN sponsors its Day of Silence, when it encourages thousands of public high school and middle school students to remain silent throughout an entire school day to promote the militant LGBT agenda among young people.
GLSEN has also joined with Planned Parenthood to promote sex-related curricula in schools. [TWEET]
The push to establish the “gender identity” claim in the nation’s schools is strongly backed by President Barack Obama’s deputies.
In response, more than 60 leaders concerned about the mental health of American children signed an open letter that says the Obama administration’s K-12 gender fluid policies are “putting the nation’s children at risk.”
Among the letter’s signers are Dr. Michelle Cretella, president of the American College of Pediatricians, and Lisa Bell, founder of Youth Trans Critical Professionals.
The pediatricians assert that standards or policies that promote gender fluidity amount to “child abuse”:
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)…
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. Conditioning children into believing that a lifetime of chemical and surgical impersonation of the opposite sex is normal and healthful is child abuse.”
Similarly, Youth Trans Critical Professionals – a group of self-described “left-leaning, open-minded, and pro-gay rights” professionals say it is risky to affirm young people who claim to be transgender and provide them with hormonal and surgical treatments to change their bodies.
“Our concern is with medical transition for children and youth,” say Youth Trans Critical Professionals on their website. “We feel that unnecessary surgeries and/or hormonal treatments which have not been proven safe in the long-term represent significant risks for young people.”
“Policies that encourage — either directly or indirectly — such medical treatment for young people who may not be able to evaluate the risks and benefits are highly suspect, in our opinion,” says the organization, which is composed of psychologists, social workers, doctors, and other professionals.
The professionals express “alarm” that, because of the current trendiness of being transgendered, many young people have decided they are a member of the opposite sex simply as a result of “binges” on social media sites. They describe a process of transgender activists recruiting these young people for their “cult.”
“There is evidence that vulnerable young people are being actively recruited and coached on such sites to believe that they are trans,” the professionals say.