The Parental Aspirations of the Government

If you live in Alberta, you have probably heard of the NDP government's school diversity bill (Bill 10). It outlines guidelines whereby schools must provide safe spaces for students of "diverse sexual orientations, gender identities and gender expressions." You can see the whole document here.

There are lots of troubling elements to the guidelines, and these have been thoroughly discussed in various articles, on social media, etc.. 

Some of the main concerns:

• "Self-identification is the sole measure of an individual’s sexual orientation, gender identity or gender expression” The problems with this can hardly be explored in a simple blog post. There are simply no parameters whatever placed on this open statement. Total sovereignty of the self, subject to no authority and no reason.
• males identifying as female students, can enter female locker room and bathroom facilities (and vice versa, although no one is nearly so concerned about girls entering the boys bathroom, for obvious reasons)
• the discouragement of gender segregated activities, seeing them as divisive and potentially alienating

The disrespect of a girl's right to privacy in bathrooms or change facilities has probably received the most air play. But in my opinion, it isn't the most crucial section of the guidelines.

The two most important issues are these:

1. Under these guidelines, a student who is mired in a state of confusion, experiencing conflicting emotions and thoughts about their own gender, can not expect to receive ANY outside help. From page 5 of the guidelines: “No student or family should be referred to programs which purport to ‘fix,’ ‘change’ or ‘repair’ a student’s sexual orientation, gender identity or gender expression” 

We can compare this condition to any number of mental disorders, where a person believes one set of facts about themselves, but those facts disagree with their physical make up. Examples would be anorexia - the belief that you are overweight, even when starving or body dismorphic disorder - a pyschological disorder in which a person becomes obsessed with imaginary defects in their appearance. 

These are both disorders that bear parallel features to gender dysphoria, where a person strongly believes or feels that something with their body is not right, or does not match the person they believe they are.

A fact that you will not hear in the mainstream media: this condition is a treatable one, and the young people that experience it have a high degree of recovering a cohesive body/mind identity. In fact, even without treatment, many people who experience report recovering a cohesive identity over time.

Included in the guidelines is this statement: "Staff (must) have access to information about available community resources and expertise. When needed, they can help a student (or the student’s family) identify and access relevant and appropriate resources and supports beyond the school. No student or family should be referred to programs which purport to ‘fix,’ ‘change’ or ‘repair’ a student’s sexual orientation, gender identity or gender expression." 

The government has apparently discovered (not sure when or how) that, "ta da", it's actually NOT a problem! It should be affirmed rather than treated, so students are told to just embrace it, and teachers are told to affirm it.

To quote one article, "What is missing from the conversation about these laws is any sound legal or scientific basis for the proposed changes."

The entire article on the non-science of transgenderism (as a settled identity) can be found here. 

2. The second major issue is that the parent is summarily shoved aside in favor of the government's wisdom and values. Allow me to quote from a letter to a friend, Josh, from his MLA (Shaye Anderson, Leduc-Beaumont) in response to Josh's letter of concern.

"What our guidelines have identified is that not all students are not supported in their homes when it comes to their expressed gender identity... schools can be the place where students struggling at home can feel safe. It's our legal responsibility to support them as best we can."

Right, this is all a legal concern.

From the guidelines themselves: “In keeping with the principles of self-identification, it is important to: … [have] a student’s explicit permission before disclosing information related to the student’s sexual orientation, gender identity or gender expression to peers, parents, guardians or other adults in their lives.” (page 6) 

To quote from ARPA Canada - Opposing New Ministry of Education Guidelines:
"In other words, parents are only allowed to be informed about how their child decides to identify if the student gives permission to the school. The school (through the power of the State) now can interfere in the parent-child relationship, even without the parent’s knowledge or consent. This is a direct violation of parental authority."

Does anyone see the problem here? We are one step away from kids being confiscated from their homes because their parents have the audacity to say that if they were born a boy, then they are a boy. Perhaps some would say this is just being dramatic. And my question would simply be, should we wait until such things are actually happening to get all flustered? The government has stated, to it's citizens, that they know better than parents. They have taken a particular view of human nature and sexuality, and have stated their disapproval with parents who differ. 

The NDP aspire to be the parent you always wish you had. They are already the parent I wish we didn't have.

I hope to write some more thoughts on this later. I'm interested in hearing yours.