Gender Identity Policy in Greater Boston's Schools – Part 1: Cambridge Public Schools
Are we treating transgender children or creating them?
The number of adolescents — particularly girls — identifying as transgender is rapidly rising. While part of the rise may be due to society’s increasing tolerance making people more comfortable coming out as transgender, it likely doesn’t explain all of it. Journalist Abigail Shrier raised the possibility of social contagion as the force behind the surge in her book Irreversible Damage: The Transgender Craze Seducing Our Daughters.
While we should respect the rights of adults to be whoever they want to be, we should proceed with great caution when caring for children. Transitioning to the opposite sex has profound consequences whose gravity is impossible to understand as an adolescent. Yet government, healthcare, and education institutions are promoting “gender affirming” care, whereby adults follow the child’s lead.
Even ostensibly benign forms of transition are anything but. For instance, “social transition” is when family, friends, others use the preferred name and pronouns that align with someone’s gender identity. Instead of Molly the she/her girl, people are asked to say Mike the he/him boy.
Because this requires no medical intervention it seems innocuous. However, as Shrier deftly argues, social transition almost always leads to medical intervention — puberty blockers, hormone therapy, and surgery — all of which have irreversible consequences.
In her book, Shrier references the scientists who pioneered the use of puberty blockers:
“In fact, a team of Dutch clinician-researchers who pioneered the use of puberty blockers found just that: Social transition is a significant intervention. In a 2011 journal article, they warned that early social transitions proved sticky. Given that girls who had been living as boys for years during childhood “experienced great trouble when they wanted to return to the female gender role,” they cautioned, “We believe that parents and caregivers should fully realize the unpredictability of their child’s psychosexual outcome.”
“Sticky” is hardly a sufficient term. “Permanent” is more apt, as a research study showed just 2.5% of children who socially transitioned between the ages 3 and 12 (average age 6.5) reverted back to their original gender after fives year. More worrying, the children who participated in the study were not assessed against the DSM-5 criteria for gender dysphoria, as parents did not think it was useful or ethical. This raises the question of whether social transition through gender affirming care is sufficient to set children on a path toward medical transition even though they do not suffer from gender dysphoria.
In other words, are we treating transgender children or creating them?
The question is even more urgent given past research indicates 80% of children with gender dysphoria ultimately desist. Are the environments adults are creating and the peer camaraderie around transgenderism more powerful than gender dysphoria in influencing a trans adolescent’s persistence?
After digging into the accounts of detransitioners, it’s easier to understand why it’s so sticky. Firstly, the trans community is commonly hostile to detranstioners, denouncing them as disloyal and claiming they never really were trans. The Reddit forum r/detrans is replete with accounts of trans activists making detrasitioners miserable. Secondly, coming out as trans can lead to adulation from peers and adults. The surge in popularity can be hard to relinquish. Not to mention the natural embarrassment of having to tell your friends and family that it was just a phase and to request they revert back to your original name and pronouns.
Yet trans advocates point to the research as evidence that children are capable of making these hugely consequential decisions. Skeptics see a grave experiment on children whose consequences we will only realize when lawsuits pile up for robbing them of fertility and ability to achieve orgasm..
Erica Anderson, a transgender doctor and advocate for gender affirming care, has begun to raise the alarm on the use of puberty blockers. She recently wrote in the Daily Mail:
The biggest question today is not whether gender affirming care is appropriate for transgender youth. The question is: Who is transgender and at what point should medicines be used?
The recent presentation of large numbers of gender questioning youth at gender clinics has overwhelmed our ability to provide thoughtful methodical care prescribed under recognized standards.
She went on to praise France and Finland for adopting strict guidelines on providing gender affirming care to children under 18.
On a recent Zoom call with several other doctors in the field, she shared that no adolescent boys treated with puberty blockers in the very early stages of puberty — Tanner Stage 2 — have ever experienced orgasm.
Moreover, puberty blockers stop the growth of genital tissue. This has the perverse consequence of making gender affirming “bottom surgeries” more difficult for those who are truly dysphoric. TLC documented a trans teen Jazz Jennings through her surgical transition from male to female. Because Jazz had undergone total pubertal suppression, surgeons did not have sufficient tissue to build a vagina. This resulted in severe complications and three surgeries.
If social contagion is a factor in the rise of youth identifying as transgender, then school policy is critical. Administrators, teachers, and government officials will decide how hard or soft to pump the brakes on gender affirming care and how much or how little to engage parents.
Gender Identify Policy in Cambridge Public Schools
In the first of a multi-part series, I will dive into the gender identity policy of schools around Greater Boston, beginning with Cambridge Public Schools (CPS).
CPS' name change and gender identify policy extend oversight to parents through middle school. However, once a student enters high school, the child is able to independently request a formal change to their name and pronouns without parental permission:
High school students can request the use of a preferred name themselves without parent/guardian/caregiver permission.
The policy does not appear to require school administrators or teachers to notify parents of the change.
Students through grade eight must have the permission of their parents. While the language is unclear, students in grades 6-8 seem to be able to independently request name and pronoun changes if their parents complete an annual opt-out form.
Pre-kindergarten to grade 8 students will need their parent/guardian/caregiver to be part of the requesting process.
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Parents/guardians/caregivers may opt out of having their student in grades 6 through 8 request the use of a preferred name by completing an annual opt-out form.
In short, CPS fully supports the gender affirming model — with no alternative — and gradually eliminates parental oversight.
For a complete list of “gender diversity” resources provided on CPS’ website, click here.
In Other News
To kickoff Pride month, Cambridge Public Library will host a “Drag Story Time” for “children of all ages” on June 4. For full details, click here.