Op-Ed: Time for ‘Child’s Given Name’ Acts
The debate over transgender issues in schools should have been over the instant it was revealed that some schools were hiding the transitioning of children from parents.
Max Eden writes at the Washington Examiner:
Time for ‘Child’s Given Name’ actsThe debate over how schools should accommodate students experiencing gender dysphoria has become so divisive in part because both sides speak different moral languages.Activists on the Left insist that “gender affirmation” is “lifesaving” care. When conservative state legislators in Florida proposed the Parental Rights in Education Act, it was quickly, and spuriously, labeled the “Don’t Say Gay” bill by critics. Conservative activists, in response, labeled it the “Anti-Groomer” bill. Things didn’t get less vitriolic from there.As conservative state legislators ponder what steps to take next, they could consider eschewing rhetorical warfare and homing in on the most important word to any child: his or her name. State legislators could propose and champion “Child’s Given Name” acts, which would simply and plainly declare that school staff should not refer to a student by any name or pronoun other than those provided to the school by the child’s parents.To date, the debate over gender identity in schools has focused more on what schools are doing to accommodate gender dysphoria than what must be done before those steps are taken. Issues such as bathroom access, athletics, and curricula have all proven deeply politically polarizing. Liberals have argued that bathroom access is simply a matter of human decency, that the question of athletics is largely overblown, and that students deserve to see a diverse array of lifestyles represented in curricula. But before and above all of these “what” questions, there is the “whether” and “how.” And this should actually be far less controversial.School districts across the country are adopting so-called “gender support plans,” which leave the question of how children should be treated exclusively up to the children themselves. These plans insist that for the sake of “safety,” it should be up to the children whether the parents are even clued in to the fact that their child is being treated as the opposite sex.
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