Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity
The Issue: All schools in BC are required to follow the guidelines presented in SOGI 123.
All schools in BC are required to follow the guidelines presented in SOGI 123. The SOGI guidance is imbued with the ideology that people can be born trans, just as people can be born homosexual. The Resources for Parents website states that everyone has both a gender identity, and a sexual orientation. The following statements can also be found on the website: “There aren’t two boxes – boy and girl”, and “Some people’s biology doesn’t fit neatly into two boxes”.
Why does SOGI 123 matter?
These statements either have no basis in science, or they are false. That people can be born trans (born in the wrong body) has no scientific backing. That people don’t come in two types – male and female – is false. Aside from a tiny percentage (about .2%) of people born with Disorders of Sexual Development, all humans (like all other mammals) are either male or female.
The gender ideology of SOGI teaches children that their bodies have no relationship to their sex, that they might be the opposite sex from what their bodies indicate. Thus, teachers and students are expected to applaud a child who announces that they are not the same sex as their body. This is the promotion of an unscientific ideology that leads to children in distress wanting experimental medical procedures including powerful drugs, wrong sex hormones and surgery – all of which have negative effects on their long-term sexual function and health. Since children who “identify” as the opposite sex tend to exhibit mental/emotional distress, the possible causes of that distress are ignored when gender identity is named as the cause. Identifiable other causes include sexual/physical abuse, parental neglect, parental alienation, autism, and latent homosexuality.
What can we do about SOGI 123?
Refuse to accept the conflation of gender and sex. Demand a definition of gender that does not include stereotypes.
Protest in person or through letter campaigns at schools, boards of education, Ministries of Education. Lobby the BC Federation of Teachers to stop its support for SOGI. Demand that parents be informed of all signs of child distress, including a wish to be known as the opposite sex or by wrong sex pronouns.
Resources
These two videos provide a critical analysis of what is taught about gender identity throughout the elementary, middle, and high school grades in Seattle's schools.
The videos highlight the harmful messages inherent in the approaches taken to teach children about gender identity; e.g. you might be born into the wrong body.
Ideology is presented as fact, biology is erased or misrepresented and children are presented with information that may be confused, misleading or incorrect. The same ideology is being taught to children in BC schools. If you have children in your family in K-12, ask their teachers if these lesson plans and resources are used.