Transgenderism 101: A Guide for Teachers

The debate, extreme positions, and middle road

Photo by Alexander Grey on Unsplash

By Igor Stravinsky (anonymous Canadian high school teacher)

If you are like most teachers, you are ambivalent when it comes to transgenderism and kids. You can see the schools are pushing for maximum acceptance of trans kids, which seems good, but there are questions….

Sex and Gender

Sex and gender are terms that were once used more or less interchangeably, but in the current context have taken on quite different meanings. A person’s sex is biological: If your body’s reproductive strategy is to produce sperm, then you are male. If it is to produce eggs, then you are female. This is binary and immutable, notwithstanding the existence of a very small (less than 0.1%) of cases of people who are “intersex” which is to say display physical characteristics that do not fall clearly into the categories described above. A full discussion can be found here. But trans people are not intersex.

A person’s sex is a biological fact that can be easily determined and is observed (not as is sometimes said, “assigned”) at birth and duly noted. An adult of the male sex is a “man”, a female is a “woman”.

The term “gender”, on the other hand, is usually used these days to describe a person’s identity- an internal feeling a person has about their “maleness” or “femaleness”, which usually corresponds to their sex but may align with the opposite sex, or even be “fluid” meaning it flips between the two sexes. Some people may feel that they do not have a particular identity with regard to their sex at all. 

People whose gender identity does not always align with their sex are “transgender”.  A man who identifies as a woman is a “trans woman”, and a woman who identifies as a man is a “trans man”.

The Debate

Unless you have been living on another planet you know there is an intense, often acrimonious debate going on right now around transgenderism. Before I get into that, let's look at what is not up for debate by reasonable and tolerant people: 

1. A person may identify as the opposite sex and choose to present themselves as such by selecting clothing, using make-up, taking hormones, or even getting surgeries in order to appear more like the opposite sex. 

2. Such a person may change their name and pronouns to match their gender identity.

3. These transgender people have the right to do this, and should not face any kind of discrimination when seeking a job, working, or just going about their daily lives. 

4. Anyone who does not agree with the above can justifiably be called “transphobic”.

Critically, all of the above pertains to adults. In Canada, that means a person who is 18 or more years of age. The debate is raging around children. Should a child’s self-identification as transgender be taken at face value, and if so, at what age?

Some say that as soon as a child is old enough to articulate the sentiment (as young as age 3) they have the same transgender rights as an adult. Others say no child should be able to make this decision.

The Extreme Positions

Proponents of Early Interdiction (PEI): Advocates for the most extreme position on child trans rights, those who say that any child no matter how young should be accepted as transgender if they so identify generally make the following argument: Maleness and femaleness are kind of spiritual essences. So there is no connection between sex and gender. A person can simply be “born into the wrong body” and as soon as that is declared, it must be validated and supported. Not to do so, in this view, would be a kind of child abuse, forcing the child to live a false reality. The problem is there is no actual physical evidence to support this view. This is, in fact, an ideological position. 

Wait for Adulthood Proponents (W4A): On the other end of the spectrum are those who say that a child should never have an identity validated in any way that does not align with their sex. If they choose to identify differently later (as an adult) that is fine, but until then they should accept their biological body and identify correspondingly. These people point to the fact that there is currently no way to determine a person’s gender identity, other than by just asking them, and that kids routinely conflate reality with their imagination. They ask “is it not the role of the adults in their lives to keep them grounded?”. But of course making the child wait means that they will undergo “the wrong” puberty and their future transition will be incomplete. 

Is there a middle road between these two views?

Most people have good intentions and want to protect kids from harm. We don’t want to suppress Children’s identity, nor do we want to exert social pressure on them to identify one way or the other. 

The first question that should be asked If a child expresses trans identity is why they feel that way. Many children do not feel that they belong with their sex group because they do not relate to the kids of activities, dress, etc. that is stereotypical of that group. So a “tom boy” might be a female child who enjoys sports, playing with toy guns, and dressing in pants and t-shirts and wearing a baseball cap. While some girls who behave this way do end up being trans the vast majority do not. So it would be wrong to suggest to a child that they might be trans based on a pattern of non-stereotypical behavior. 

Then there are the kids who express gender “dysphoria”. The opposite of euphoria (a feeling of elation or happiness), dysphoria means that the child is very dissatisfied with their sex and longs to change it to the opposite.

Should we immediately accept as trans a child who expresses gender dysphoria? If so, then a series of drastic, irreversible measures must be undertaken. First, the child must be placed on puberty-blocking drugs and opposite sex hormones, because going through puberty will result in physical changes that, while natural, are also irreversible. In other words, this is a fork in the road- a kind of point of no return, whatever decision is made. Then there are the surgeries. Can a child consent to them?

So in order to answer these questions- to drug or not to drug, and when can surgeries be done, we really need to know the facts, at the very least, the following:

• What percent of dysphoric kids, if left to experience natural puberty, will in the end accept their sex and go on to live relatively well adjusted and happy lives?

• What percent of dysphoric kids, if left to experience natural puberty, will go on to be trans and be unhappy after adult transition having been denied the opportunity to transition as kids (thus transitioning more fully)?

• What are the long-term effects of the drugs dysphoric kids are put on (are there even any studies of this, or are we in fact performing a kind of drug trial on these kids?).

• What percent of kids who transition later regret it and end up “de-transitioning”, and what is their life satisfaction prognosis?

There are no scientifically reliable answers to these questions. In the past, few kids transitioned so there is just very little long-term data. The answers you get from PEI and W4A people are drastically different and, as you would expect, align with their personal views on the subject. 

Nevertheless, the Government of Canada, Government of Ontario, and school boards have lined up with the PEI position and that position (a child knows if they are trans and must be believed and immediately affirmed), is being taught as a fact in our school system. Anyone who balks at it is being labeled “transphobic”. Speaking against the PEI position is routinely being called “hate speech”. This means debate on the subject is effectively closed. 

Only time will tell what impact this will have on our youth. 20 or 30 years from now, will we have a legion of relatively happy and well-adjusted transgender people looking back at the forward thinking progressive PEI people of today with thanks and admiration? Or will we have a lot of miserable and regretful people who feel they were abused and neglected, having been pawns in delusional activists’ political games? 

We are running a grand experiment. 

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Thanks for reading. For more from this author read, Why is the PDSB gutting Special Education?

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