“People can feel like girls, they can feel like boys, they can feel like both, and they can even feel like neither,” Joel Baum, director of the activist group Gender Spectrum, tells the students at Redwood Heights Elementary School in California in the accompanying video. “Gender identity is about what’s in here (Baum says pointing to his chest). It’s about what’s up here (pointing to his head) and in here (again pointing to his chest).”
It’s all part of the Oakland Unified School District’s efforts to create “gender sensitive environments for kids.”
When I see something like this, taking place in the public school system, I cannot help but think of the kind of indoctrination that children growing up in the Soviet Union went through.
In support of their “teaching,” educators such as Baum point to gender-bending fish to suggest that since such exceptions are found among animals, it must certainly be “natural” to find similar exceptions among human beings.
“You are just like a fish,” one can almost hear Baum telling the students. “In fact, you are a fish with legs.”
Scripture, quite plainly points out that, “God made them male and female.”
Yet, the highly paid educational gurus and gender experts know so much more than the Heavenly Father who created us, don’t they?
The so-called “gender experts” suggest that there could be as many as six or seven different genders. Others have gone on to say that there are as many genders as there are individuals.
While the education the school district is imposing upon young children is designed to expand their concepts of gender identity, the likely result is that it’s leading to greater gender confusion.
“What am I?” a young boy is asking himself. “I always thought I was a boy, but now I’m thinking that maybe I’m neither. Maybe I’m a fish.”
Rather than providing clarity, the lesson serves primarily to confuse. A lesson that is supposed to lead to less ostracization, probably leads to more, as those students who always believed that there were simply boys and girls are now ostracized by their peers for their “abnormal” beliefs.
It’s another fine example of our tax dollars put to work in the public school system. Our children may not know how to multiply or write a sentence, but at least they’re not constrained by our limiting constructs of the male and female person.
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Thanks, Tim. This is one of the reasons I read the blogs here and subscribe to the Register print edition. I need to know about this stuff to teach my own children the Truth and to defend it in public.
God bless!
All you gotta do to debunk the gender indoctrination is say, “Look, man is male (man, boy) and female (woman, girl). There is no human being who isn’t empirically male or female” and “Look, pseudoscience relies on emotion (the heart), ancidotal evidence (hearsay), and falsibility (evidence can’t be proven wrong). That’s what this indoctrination is.”
From a theological standpoint, though, all you gotta say, “If you believe in the heart (soul), than you also must believe in God Who created us, and as He says: ‘God made them male and female’. Truth speaks truthfully or else nothing is true. Truth and scientific fact do not contradict, either.”
We don’t have money to fund arts education, or PE, but we can find the money to teach this?
Well, the thing that they never point out is that things like homosexuality and neutral gender are the exceptions rather than the rule in nature. Rather than trying to teach sensitivity to minorities that are different, they are really trying to pretend that homosexual attraction, gender identification issues, and such are and should be the normative rule.
And then it becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy as insecure pubescent kids who would not question their gender identity at all suddenly wonder if they were supposed to do so because they are extremely insecure and concerned about “being normal”.
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Just How Many Genders Are There?
Gender Indoctrination in the Public Schools
Share by Tim Drake Tuesday, June 14, 2011 10:34 AM Comments (4)
“People can feel like girls, they can feel like boys, they can feel like both, and they can even feel like neither,” Joel Baum, director of the activist group Gender Spectrum, tells the students at Redwood Heights Elementary School in California in the accompanying video. “Gender identity is about what’s in here (Baum says pointing to his chest). It’s about what’s up here (pointing to his head) and in here (again pointing to his chest).”
Wow! This is the first I’ve heard of the importance of “in here” and “up here.” Our culture pummels us on a moment by moment basis with how important gender - down there- is!
But then, it’s awkward for those promoting gender confusion, whether consciously or unconsciously, to talk about “down there” gender because there are ONLY TWO TYPES. There are male genders and female genders.
I’ve blogged with some advocates of this multi-gender approach, who try to prop up their cause by pointing to rare disorders like hermaphroditism, but might I repeat these disorders are exceedingly rare, and are not useful for a general discussion of human gender norms.
For heaven sakes, in all our sophistication, we are strikingly blind as a societal group, aren’t we?!
NIck, LOVE LOVE LOVE your logic!! I think I am going to copy and paste your comment and store it somewhere for future use! Thank you!
And Tim, thank you, again, for keeping us informed of what’s ‘out there’.
reason #1651 we homeschool… lol
This indoctrination is happening in California with current legislation under way to provide sexuality identity to all public school children.
Why am I not surprised?
Given the logic of the tenured union teachers that would allow this, what’s to say that little boy is not a fish? If he “feels” like a fish in his heart (or a cat, or a cow, or an alien from outer space) that should be what he is. The school district needs to take care of his special needs and make sure there is a pool of water available for him at all times.
Just because you feel something doesn’t make it true. Likewise, just because you think that something is true doesn’t make it true.
I could “feel” that I’m a laptop, but I’m not. I could “think” that I’m a laptop, but I’m not.
No wonder California schools rank at near the bottom.
My goodness .... thank you for making it so clear that there is indeed a need for such education. The comments about “fish” ...such a wonderful way to steer the conversation away from the truth. Of course as already pointed out we are to ignore the physical example of the “intersexed” as they are rare and not normal. Science and scripture at odds with each other ..... no .... seems more like the same attitude that denied the truth that Copernicus and Galileo brought forth. It only took 500 years for an official Catholic apology on that one. I wonder when there will be courage enough to actually investigate and face the facts. In the meantime, given that a certain portion of the adult generation is willfully ignorant of the facts I am glad that schools are teaching the truth and perhaps giving the upcoming generation a chance. Bravo for the school! And yes .... I am a transgender person and yes I came from a Catholic background. I am happy to report that my mother is a wonderful and devout Catholic lady and that most of the Catholics I know show far more love and compassion than I have seen in the article or comments thus far. I challenge you and plead .... for the love of Jesus ... reconsider and edcuate yourselves.
All this talk about “I feel like a” [something I may not be] and fish reminds me of “The Incredible Mr. Limpet”. I’ll believe the “gender experts” some time after I believe the veracity of the Don Knotts movie.
What if I “feel” like I’m a bully?
Can we apply that to the calendar? It feels like Friday so it must be Friday and I should have the next two days off.
This ‘tollerance’ extremism is going too far.
These ‘gender sensitive’ people will only end up confusing kids and screwing up their sexuality, making it very hard for them them in the future to have normal and healty romantic and/or sexual relationships.
This is truly child abuse.
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@ Rita
sorry but your ‘Galileo’ example makes no sense. Several Catholic Philosophers and Theologians (like Oresme) claimed that it was possible that the earh was going aroud the sun.
Galileo was tried NOT for his scientific theory (and indeed Copernicus who was a priest was never tried at all!) but for his claims against scriptures… that’s a bit different.
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“am happy to report that my mother is a wonderful and devout Catholic lady and that most of the Catholics I know show far more love and compassion than I have seen in the article or comments thus far.
“
Well this is YOUR perception, because maybe they support you. If I supported a neonazi killer he’d say the same about me.
Truth is NOT a ‘feely-goody’ subjective thing, but an objective one.
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LASTLY: sure there *are* people who have problems with their sexuality, but clearly they are *NOT* the norm, just like a person who is born without legs is not in the norm.
This does not mean we should go amputating children’s legs for ‘equality’ or teach children they should reconsider using their legs.
What this people ate doing is *amputating this children’s emotional intelligence and sexuality*.
Kids should learn abou their gender, not be keppt in a murky environment where it’s taught ‘OK’ to change tour sex just like that.
Sre, some children MIGHT have innate problems with their gender and sexuality, but those are abnormal cases, not what *nature* (and NOT laws or religions) has set as a norm.
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Indeed learn from Galileo and Copernicus Rita: what is status quo of science today (ie nothing is immoral, everything is OK) is just like the geocentrism that was believed by scientists in the middle ages (yes geocentris was a scientific theory postulated by philosophers like Ptolomaeus, not by the Church).
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Or dear RITA: if I feel like having my neighbour’s BMW, should I than steal it? After all it;a mere cleptomania… and I just ‘feel like’ taking stuff without paying it…
It’s absurd. ‘Feel like’ is no argument.
If you had troubles with your sexuality my sympathy goes with you and I am glad your mother and friends and community have respected your choices and treat you with the respect you deserve.
This does NOT mean that EVERY child has the same tencencies as you… as most children (as SCIENCE tells!) have already a defined sexuality early on and should NOT be confused about it!
The comments leave me confused. It is quoted “God made them male and female” and then acknowledged that there are hermaphrodites (this is not the only gender disorder, merely the only one mentioned). So if there is only male and female, which gender do hermaphrodites belong to?
Actually, the United Nations (at least way back in 2009) recognized nine different genders. So glad they’re spending their time determining that problem when there are other issues like, oh, Christians being terrorized in the Middle East.
Peyton - would it not make sense to say that if they have XX chromosomes, they are female and if they have XY they are male? There is a difference between a physical condition and ‘feeling like a fish’..... But, biology 101 taught me in the 9th grade that male homosapiens have XY gender chromosomes and females have XX. I do not remember there being any other combinations…..
Marybeth- Most true hermaphrodites are XX but more rarely XY individuals are described as well.
Again, Peyton, social NORMS do not need to include these very special and rare individuals; they are special cases no matter how you wish to look at them.
Similarly, Peyton, you may be tempted to answer Marybeth’s last post by illustrating the rare 47 chromosomal condition known as Kleinfelter’s syndrome where the individual is XXY, but is phenotypically male. Again, for those few humans among us who have these unique charicteristics, I propose we as a society deal with them charitably and individually, and not seek to base sexual normative identity in general on the mere fact that a few uniquely different humans among us exist.
Let’s allow our boys to be boys, our girls to be girls, and during the fluctuating time of adolescence, let’s allow our families to support each of them in a wholesome fashion.
Laura, well put. And thank you for the clarification from a medical perspective… it helps my own understanding.
The worrying undertone of this ‘lesson’ is that it suggests you can change your gender as often as you change your clothes. Indeed, that’s one way of doing so! What this style of ‘teaching’ seems to do is to create doubt and confusion where there are certainties.
What I find highly objectionable about this group’s approach is the giant leap from the specific reproductive issues of a fish to humans! Talk about nonsense! I’m all for the celebration of the beauty of Creation. In fact, there are species of plants that self-polinate, and slime mold is really, really fascinating (no kidding; I did research with it in college). However, it’s just grasping to try to butress up a case for multiple forms of human sexual identity by using the reproductive specifics of another species. Let’s stay on topic with our own species, please.
No one wants to get caught up in stereotypes. So, the scientific fact that there are two sexual forms of human being: male and female, naturally has meaning about gender and sexuality issues. It’s OK to be a guy who is better at gardening and cooking or a gal who likes to tinker with engines, but the bedrock sexual form should continue to inform the individual in a meaningful, wholistic way. For example, because I am a less traditional woman does not mean that I am a lesbian or that I should have a sex change,and I think that this must remain clear in our minds, for many are trying to confuse the issue these days!
Nick, your logic…isn’t logic.
“Look, pseudoscience relies on emotion (the heart), ancidotal evidence (hearsay), and falsibility (evidence can’t be proven wrong). That’s what this indoctrination is.”
Religion relies on emotion (God speaks to your heart, gives you a feeling of connection to a spiritual being and to others that believe), anecdotal evidence (the Bible), and unfalsifiable claims (the existence of God cannot be disproven). That’s indoctrination too then, by your own admission.
I hope these “gender experts” and “open minded teachers” are practicing what they preach and have removed those discriminatory signs off the bathroom doors. And I hope if they choose teams in phys ed class they don’t say that you have equal number of boys and girls. You don’t know if one of those “boys” is actually a girl today. <\sarcasm off>
Aside from Klinefelter’s, there are: Turner’s syndrome: XO (i.e., there is only one X chromosome and no Y), supermale: XYY, tetrasomy: XXXX, and pentasomy: XXXXX.
So no, I don’t think it would make sense to say that XX is female and XY is male - but not solely because of “rare” genetic disorders (note: there are no studies to say to what extent these conditions exist in the general population). I don’t think that because it is simply not true. More directly, it is the introduction of androgens in the first trimester of pregnancy that determine sex. Introduce them to a fetus that is XX: it will have male characteristics. Block them in a fetus that is XY, it will lack male characteristics. And this happens - it is why there is concern over things like BPA plastics, etc.
I 100% agree that we treat these individuals charitably and with love - as we are called to treat everyone. And I think, to do this, we can’t bury our head in the sand and say “God made humans male and female”. If I were struggling with these type problems, I might find such a statement very dehumanizing. It is difficult enough for people to find their way in society today - to brush off their problems with blanket statements and sarcasm - well, I guess I simply can’t find Christ in such an action.
Biological anomalies in plants, animals, insects, etc are explained in scientific terms as exceptions to the rule. Anomalies in human beings are given their own “minority rights.”
I can’t help but be reminded of Faulkner’s “As I Lay Dying”, when the youngest child has an entire chapter that simply consists of “My mother is a fish.”
I remembered this a few minutes:
The Men’s Prayer(from the Red Green show)
I’m a man
but I can change
If I have to
I guess
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1I3pSZGCuHA
Just remember who Christ reached out to in this world. He reached out to the marginalized and the ‘minorities’ of this world; those born with impediments and those judged because they did not meet societies norms. He offered healing and acceptance as should we.
Unfortunately many of the comments above are attacking people who are born with struggles none of us would ever choose, rather than attacking sin. The assumption being also that those who are confused will automatically choose a sinful path. Yes it seems at every turn our children are being manipulated by a Godless and sexualized society, but don’t mix that up and attack individuals who are already burdened. As Christians we are to represent Christ and ease their burdens not ignore their existence, as a ‘small percentage’.
Yes indeed minorities (or ‘anomolies’ as some put it) deserve rights and may reach the Kingdom of Heaven before we do.
My husband wants to know if he can change species, since he has always felt that he is a dog. He howls at the moon, eats lots of meat, likes to play with dogs, occasionally barks, and can’t abide fleas. Does it make him a dog? :)
Interesting, I have 47, XXY syndrome. my life can be summed up by the phrase “I’m none of you.” To me the answer is contained within the question; I cannot claim to be Heterosexual or Homosexual, not because I lack an attraction to one or the other but because I am both. Our Brains form differently, we are very sensitive to same-race genetic errors and show signs of Atavism like Taurodontism. We really don’t understand the whole point of binary arguments.
so, I’m neither man, neither woman, technically both, appear to be a man, am not concerned with the whole black/white views of the world, I’m a living sample of human evolution. Neanderthal had 48 chromosomes, Sapiens have 46, I have 47 and have never read a religious text. “half man - half beast” I guess my brethren Einstein, Tesla and Washington are busy in the third heaven for the third gender.
When people stop believing in God, they start believing in anything
Does anyone still truly believe that there is no official religion in the US?
We are witnessing a perversion of education; to indoctrinate these innocent youngsters with such crap (to put it nicely) is a real form of child abuse! It’s a sad fact that those doing the “teaching” won’t recognize that, and it will take a few years for the damage to become evident in the lives of the children.
this is what we all need to understand just because you have male genitals doesn’t mean you have to be a boy/man and same goes for female genitals
you were born one way but that doesn’t mean you have to stay like that
Gender is a social construction. Don’t confuse “gender” (men/women/genderqueer/trans/berdache/fa’afafine/third gender/two-spirit/other CULTURAL variations and definitions) with “biological sex,” which is (male/female/intersex).
Some have tried to make gender into a “social construct” and that’s their interpretation, doesn’t mean it’s reality.
If gender is only one or the other, then why are there people born as an intersex person, someone having both male and female parts? Why are there so many species that have intersex, hermaphrodites, asexual beings, etc? If the creator or “God” wanted there to be only male or female, he/she/it/creator would only allow natural occurrences of two genders and not ones that have both. If “God” is such a complicated human being, then why do so many “Christians” want to make him so simple as black and white? I believe that the creator is a complex being that can never be fully understood, which is also traditionally a Christian value. Why do so many “Christians” want to make our creator so boring? I believe that our creator is such a wonderful mystery that should be appreciated. I believe that the creator gives us signs that are sometimes obvious as a intersex person. It’s just like a “white” family that all of the sudden has a dark child, then it turned out in their ancestry they had a person of color. The creator will tell you what he wants when it is time. If you go around denying your ancestry, he’s going to give you more features of the ancestors that you are denying to make you think. If you deny it after the creator is so bluntly honest with you, then you are denying the creator.
There’s a difference between biological gender and gender identity, it’s a scientific fact that some people are born with brains that match more closely to the biological gender opposite their own. I don’t see any harm in teaching this to children, maybe at around 10 or 11 years old, just before puberty. If it’s a religious concern for parents, they can teach their kids whatever they like, but I don’t think religion should dictate what is taught in public schools or not.
I made six genders within two sub-groups (for the purposes of reproduction- known in the common tongue as Male and Female). Salvation lies within.
I believe the author of this article is confusing sex (genetically dictated) with gender (culturally constructed). A genetic male may not identify with a traditionally male gender role; therefore, while he remains a phenotypical male, his gender can be anything but. However, it would be an offensive error to trivialize such complex cultural realities by saying that, because he doesn’t identify as a male, he might as well be a fish. Social progress and peaceful human existence relies on teaching our children to respect and empathize with others, even if they don’t subscribe to our personal beliefs. Isn’t that what Jesus taught?
A man may “identify” as a woman, but that does not make him a woman. That makes him a man who pretends to be a woman. Truth is not a “personal belief”. Truth exists by itself.
Telling a man that pretends to be a woman that he is indeed a woman is no charity. It is as misguided as telling a crazy man who thinks he is Napoleon, that he is in fact Napoleon.
Lie always leads to evil. Truth sets us free.
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