The Saskatchewan Schools Question

 

I was startled when friend Xerxes framed the current debate over SOGI (sexual orientation and gender ideology) in the schools as a matter of children’s “trans” rights over parents’ rights. After all, the parents marching are concerned about the introduction of gender ideology in the schools, and discussion of sexuality in general. This has nothing obviously to do with being either a boy or a girl, straight or gay.

Nevertheless, that is how it was framed by a court, in trying to put a stay on Saskatchewan’s policy that parents must be informed and consent if a child “changes their pronouns.” A recent CBC “At Issue” panel took this as a given. They spoke only of whether it was in the political interests of the federal Conservatives, or conservative parties at the provincial level, to oppose children’s human rights. And of course their argument was that it wasn’t. After all, voters, including “ethnic voters,” were concerned with pocketbook issues, not such distractions. 

Never take political advice from your adversaries. There couldn’t be a more important or more powerful issue for conservatives, in my opinion. Decent people care more for their children’s future than for their own welfare. This is the hill on which a parent is ready to fight, and, if necessary, die. In fact, it is the appeal on which young men do usually go to war: to protect the hearth, the women and children back home.

But let’s extend that logic. Let’s say it is a child’s human right to decide they are a boy and not a girl, without their parents having anything to say about it. If a child has a right to decide such things it must follow that society has no right to require them to attend school in the first place. This is slavery: they are being forced to work, told what to do at every moment, and given no pay. How is that not a violation of their human rights?

Child labour laws must also be abolished as unconstitutional. A child must have the right to earn a living.

In school, if parents have no right to input on the curriculum, certainly society has no right. The children must decide what they want to learn about, or indeed to do, today. Schools and teachers must demonstrate that any discussion of sexual orientation or gender is prompted by the children themselves. 

But this must also be true for reading, writing, or arithmetic. It must also be a child’s human right to decide for himself or herself, without coercion, whether 2 plus 2 equals 4; whether gravity ought to apply to them; or whether their spelling of a word is the best one.

They also have the inherent right to choose their teachers, and dismiss them if dissatisfied. 

If the left is not prepared to be consistent here, we must suspect an ulterior motive.

Could it be to advance the notion that even small children have the right to consent to sex in any form? Certainly looks like it.

One Million and One?

Friend Xerxes has come out with a column on the One Million March for Kids. Of course he is in support of the transgender ideology, but shows a bit of uncertainty now. He notes that Blaine Higgs’ requirement that parents be informed if a student decides to transition sounds, superficially reasonable, but…

As someone who marched on September 20, I assure you, gentle reader, that the protest was not about getting parental consent for changing gender. It was to remove SOGI from the schools: that is, discussion of sexual orientation and gender ideology.

Simply informing parents and requiring their consent for a change of gender is not enough. Schools should not be teaching children that it is possible to change their sex—because it is not. This introduces grievous confusion about self-image and physical reality that can lead to mental illness and suicide. It is the perfect prescription for driving a child mad. Almost 50% of those experiencing “gender dysphoria” have actually attempted suicide.

Children have difficulty distinguishing fantasy from reality. They can imagine themselves to be a dump truck, or the old woman down the street to be a witch. This should not be exploited to confuse them. They need to be taught unambiguity what is real and what is not. Otherwise you are grooming them for schizophrenia.

In addition, openly endorsing gay sexuality in schools contradicts the religious teachings of Islam, Christianity, Judaism, and other faiths. Religious liberty and freedom of conscience requires that such subjects must be removed from public schools.

It also has the schools directly contradicting the moral teachings of the children’s parents and faith tradition—again introducing confusion and disorientation that is likely to lead to depression and mental illness. Which is a current emergency. Along with reckless drug use, depression is skyrocketing in our society. I believe it is up 28% over just the last two years.

What we call depression is a loss of direction and meaning in life. And this is also the cause of drug abuse. The schools are now seemingly systematically stripping children of all sense of reality and direction.

Xerxes argue, in defense of teaching children about sexuality in graphic detail and letting them decide to be the opposite sex:

“Children are neither slaves nor serfs. They have a constitutional right to make their own choices.”

If he really held this view, he could not require them to attend school in the first place. Or do what the teacher tells them once there. Few children want to. 

If you cannot agree to that, gentle reader, and to children consenting to sex or marriage too, and so forth, then to make an exception for choosing their “gender identity” is suspiciously inconsistent.

Among other things, it requires you to endorse pedophilia—and this is indeed where this all seems to be headed. It looks like grooming.

Xerxes then argues that, if kids are allowed to choose their own nicknames, they ought also to choose their own sex.

But words are not things. What you call yourself is a matter of choice. But nobody chooses whether to be a boy or a girl, any more than they choose whether to be a dump truck or a marmoset. If a child insisted their skin was green, they were made of glass, and they needed to drink blood, the same issue would arise. Endorsing and encouraging such claims would be just as damaging, especially if it led to “corrective surgery.” 

Xerxes writes, of the parent of a hypothetical boy who decides he is a girl:

            “If I were her daughter, I would be terrified of telling her that I thought I was in the wrong body.”

To say you are in the “wrong body” makes no more sense than declaring that gravity should not apply to you. You cannot dictate physical reality. To do so is insanity by definition.

If a child’s chosen sex is not honoured in their school, Xerxes warns,

            “It would be much easier to drop out of that school completely, and start a new life somewhere else.

            Except that a farmer’s daughter in rural Saskatchewan, or a lobster fisher’s son in New Brunswick, may not have any other place where they can start anew.”

Moving to a new town won’t help.

I cannot decide I am seven feet tall, 21 years old and handsome, either. And I still would not be in Saskatchewan. Which is why the gender dysphoric who undergo surgery are just as likely to kill themselves afterwards. The only cure is to treat the gender dysphoria, and the underlying disorientation. Which cure is being made illegal.

Xerxes:

            “Teachers may be better informed and more compassionate than parents.

            “Yes, some teachers are incompetent and biased. But even those teachers have years of training in dealing with adolescent growth. Few parents do.”

A teacher may indeed be better informed and more compassionate than the parents. But the odds are against it.

If it were merely a question of who knows best, governments would have the right to dictate to us in general, on the premise that they have access the best experts. That’s the way it works in China; but no human rights. 

We each have an inherent, God-given right to make our own choices. It is for this we were created—for the exercise of free will.

Adults do often know better than children what is best for the child; and children need guardianship or they may do themselves harm. The question then is, which adult has the child’s best interests at heart? Which adult knows this particular child’s needs best? The parent, or the state?

If you think it is the state, through their schools and their assigned teachers, you must also endorse the Indian residential schools. You simply want the same principle extended to the general population.

While there are bad parents, paternal instinct ensures that parents normally love their children and want the best for them. An unrelated bureaucrat, who is just doing a job for pay, does not have the same instincts for a mass of strangers.

Teachers also have no special knowledge in this area. Teachers do not have training in “adolescent growth,” by which is presumably meant psychology or child psychology, as Xerxes suggests; perhaps a course or two in teachers’ college. It is not their job. But even if they did, the fields of psychology and child psychology have established nothing; there is no consensus on anything within the field, only shifting theories. Children should not be involuntarily experimented on. That is a violation of human rights. Just teach the curriculum.

Xerxes then laments that those who want the decision left to the parents are “trapped in a hierarchical mindset. They still believe that power devolves downwards from the top.”

Here he is oddly arguing against himself. Perhaps we are actually witnessing a mind I the act of changing. He had only just claimed the teachers, the school and the state know better than the parents, and we “should be controlled by the more competent.” 

Subsidiarity means the decision should be left with the parents: at the lowest level possible, the level closest to the child.

Or, in the common slogan of the marchers, “Leave the kids alone!”

More than a Million March?

 

Last Wednesday I attended the One Million March for Children locally. The march was exhilarating. Muslims and Christians marching together, young and old; everyone waving the Canadian flag and singing “O Canada.” We were all one, and all friends. It was marred, it is true, by a small group of counter-protesters waving rainbow flags. But that evening, I was discouraged. I saw the hateful posts by Jagmeet Singh, Justin Trudeau, and our local city hall, declaring the parents bigots.

Singh:

“The rise of hate towards the 2SLGBTQI+ community is deeply alarming.

All people deserve safety and freedom to be who they are.

Today and every day, New Democrats stand with the trans community in solidarity.”

Trudeau:

"Let me make one thing very clear: Transphobia, homophobia, and biphobia have no place in this country. We strongly condemn this hate and its manifestations, and we stand united in support of 2SLGBTQI+ Canadians across the country – you are valid and you are valued."

City of Saint John:

“The City is aware of the '1 million march 4 children' taking place today throughout the city, including at various school locations.

While the City supports people's rights to organize and protest, we stand by, and with, our 2SLGBTQIA+ community and their right to live their lives free of hate, harassment and discrimination.”

The city then changed their Facebook page photo to show a largeish crowd waving pride flags.

And silence from Poilievre and the Conservatives. It seemed the concerned parents, kids, and, indeed, teachers like me, were just going to be slimed, their concerns falsified, and nobody was going to listen. 

I was heartened when I got off the bus the next day. I saw that the kids at the high school next door were staging a large walkout in support of the march. Word had gotten out, and they were encouraged to follow suit. Bullhorn, placards, no counter-protesters. Maybe this thing will grow.

Then yesterday, I see on YouTube, there was another big rally at three schools north of Toronto, including some prominent speakers.

And now Pierre Poilievre has at last chimed in:

“Justin Trudeau always divides to distract from all he has broken. This time, he is demonizing concerned parents. 

Parents should be the final authority on the values and lessons that are taught to children. Trudeau should butt out and let parents raise their kids.”

Poilievre is a politician first and last. He was not going to sacrifice himself for principle. If he has now come out for the protesters, he has made the calculation that this movement is growing. He is calculating he will get more votes by supporting it than he will lose.

The snowball may have begun its slalom downhill.

The One Million March

 

Today I attended the “One Million March for Children.” It was a festive occasion, despite a smaller group of counter protesters that was not kept separate from the main protest. (It strikes me as worrisome that the police were not there separating the two groups. Did they want trouble?) Most of the “Million” marchers, perhaps a few hundred in our small city, were plainly Middle Eastern—Muslims. A few black and white faces interspersed. I saw one clerical collar. 

The counter-protesters were all quite pale; although their hair came in many colours.

The counter-protesters held signs that said “Smash the Cis-tem,” “We refuse to disappear,” and something like “Down with your ignorance.” They waved rainbow flags and pastel trans flags. The Million Marchers chanted “leave our kids alone” and “let kids be kids,” sang “O Canada,” and waved Canadian flags. Many had kids with them. March speakers stressed they had nothing against gays or transvestites.

One of the counter-protesters stood behind me when we reached the town park. She started to heckle the speaker, but was soon engaged instead in rather civil conversation by a marcher. The counter-protester, said she was concerned with every child being safe, including “trans kids.”

The marching parent said, “What about my daughter? She’s bullied at school because she attends church. Shouldn’t she be safe?”

One of the kids said “What about shared washrooms?”

 The counter-protester said she was a teacher, and three of her students had committed suicide. Trans kids. So there’s a real problem.

That’s surely alarming, and is probably true: the rate of depression, anxiety, and suicide has been rising since the end of the Second Word War. Just in the past few years, it has jumped about 28%. Not to mention the skyrocketing rate of death by drug overdose. And Medical Assistance in Dying.

An odd coincidence: there was no suggestion of gender ideology, or even the concept of gender as applying to psychology as opposed to grammar, until 1947. Once it appeared, the rate of depression and suicide began to rise. If there is not a direct connection, the gender ideology may well be a symptom of a larger problem: a general loss of our social bearings, our grip on what is and is not real, or on what is right and wrong. We’ve lost the faith.

We also know from studies that the rate of attempted suicide among kids experiencing “gender dysphoria” is about 48%. It is not lower for those who undergo puberty blocking or surgeries—those “affirmed” in their claim that they are another sex. They end up just as dead.

The obvious conclusion is that introducing SOGI—sexual orientation and gender identity—to the schools does not prevent kids from committing suicide. It murders them.

Depression is a loss of meaning; a feeling that one is trapped in a maze with no sense of the right direction, of no solid ground under your feet. Nothing around you makes sense; you cannot trust those around you, or even perhaps the evidence of your own eyes. You no longer know which way is up, or who you are, or what you are supposed to do or be. It is a loss of the sense of he rules  of the game.

This being so, nothing could be much more poisonous than challenging a young person to question their sex, their “gender.” But SOGI also seems calculated to disorient them with respect to their relationship with their parents and with their religious traditions. Cutting away all the ground on which they can stand and establish their identity.

It could hardly be more sinister—even aside from the fact that it looks like deliberate sexual grooming, an often leads to sterilization and cutting off body parts. Something a depressed kid is already too easy to persuade to do to make the pain stop.