By Susan Ciancio
Parents are charged with protecting their children. But in our increasingly woke culture, protecting our children is becoming incredibly hard. Fortunately, Tennessee is helping parents in that state get one step closer to protection outside the home.
Last month, the Tennessee House voted 77-16 to pass a bill prohibiting “gender-affirming care” to children. This not only includes surgery but hormones and puberty blockers.
Governor Bill Lee signed this bill into law.
It’s honestly frightening that this is even something lawmakers are debating. Children do not have the cognitive abilities to make that kind of life-altering decision, and they should never be pressured into it by misguided peers or teachers.
This pressure has become a disturbing trend in schools throughout the nation, with “nonbinary” teachers attempting to corrupt the minds of confused or unhappy children. Instead of allowing children to be children or helping parents address the root problem of any feelings of inadequacy or feelings of self-loathing that children may experience, these teachers push children to be the opposite sex or both sexes or some kind of made-up sex. And then they literally laugh about it.
Take for instance the preschool teacher who bragged on social media that she was teaching her students about gender “fluidity”: “To the parents who refuse to educate their children on queerness . . . I am an openly non-binary trans preschool teacher. I talk to my students about pronouns, transness, gender expression, and sexuality.”
Or the California teacher who bragged about using a stuffed animal to teach young children about different pronouns.
Or the Michigan school that advised teachers to “hide from parents that their son identifies as transgender.”
It goes on and on.
Our school systems are becoming like the bullies we try to caution our children to avoid. Instead of focusing on science, they’re teaching incorrect biology. Instead of teaching literature and grammar, they’re teaching made-up words. Instead of teaching history, they’re teaching agendas.
Barring any chromosomal abnormalities, people are created male or female. Even if a man or a woman has a surgery to change his or her reproductive organs, they don’t actually become the opposite sex. Male or female genes are in our DNA. They are not only in the sex organs.
We know that gender dysphoria is real, and it’s a truly difficult thing to live with. But the majority of kids who experience gender dysphoria grow out of it. This is why it’s integral to protect children from teachers and Hollywood stars who claim that it’s cool to “change” your sex or to even change it on a regular basis. This is incredibly unhealthy.
In order to be truly happy, children must learn to love themselves as they are. Body mutilation is never the answer to their problems.
It is not love for anyone to push a harmful sexual agenda on a child, especially in school. A teacher’s job is to assist the parents in the instruction of life skills and in the advancement of knowledge. It is not a teacher’s job to use a classroom as a platform to advocate for his or her confused sexual beliefs.
Protecting and loving our children is a parent’s first priority. Electing people who will help us protect children should be a close second.
As parents, as grandparents, as aunts and uncles, and as concerned citizens, we must pay attention to what’s going on in our schools and communities. Transparency in schools is crucial. There should be nothing going on within a classroom that a parent wouldn’t be welcome to hear as well. These are our children, and the school system works for us using our tax dollars. Even if we fear speaking up, we must summon the courage. Our children’s lives literally depend on us.
Further, we must talk to and educate our children, keep the lines of communication open about these issues, ask them their opinions, and help them work through any confusion they may experience. We must establish trust in our children so that they know we have their best interests at heart.
Finally, we must stress the fact that we are so much more than sexual beings. Every person is unique, every person matters, and every person should have the chance to love themselves as they are. Any person who believes it’s better for a child to have surgery or take drugs to alter his body does not truly care about the child. They care about an agenda.
So while I’m glad that the Tennessee House has passed this bill, we have a long way to go. Let us remain vigilant, and let us never stop advocating for our children.