An Opinion Piece by Jordan Peterson, Clinical Psychologist, About Gender Ideology in Schools

Opinion

by Justine Kreher

Jordan Peterson is a clinical psychologist who is controversial because he does not believe the state should enforce pronoun use and for some of his views on the sexes and their role in society (which could be characterized as center right).

He has written an opinion piece in the the National Post called “Gender politics has no place in the classroom.”

He discusses the confusion he fears, as a clinical psychologist, will arise from telling children there is “no such thing as a boy or a girl.” This is something that happened in a classroom of six year olds and is now the subject of a complaint by the parents, as their child was upset. These ideas arose from postmodern influenced queer theory in academia, by people such as Judith Butler.

The bill he refers to is a human rights bill in Canada, Bill C16:

Worse is the insistence characteristic of the bill, the policies associated with it, and the tenth-rate academic dogmas driving the entire charade, that “identity” is something solely determined by the individual in question (whatever that identity might be). Even sociologists (neither the older, classical, occasionally useful type, nor the modern, appalling, and positively counterproductive type) don’t believe this. They understand that identity is a social role, which means that it is by necessity socially negotiated.

While some may see this as a conservative opinion in this day and age, it is actually shared by some leftists, LGB people, and trans people. The LGB community used to play with identity and use cross-sex pronouns at times. There wasn’t the obsession with pronouns and identity that there is today. Nor the desire (except some etiquette rules around drag shows) to invest in having the general public validate them. Some GenX LGB people, in particular, feel this is a step backwards. And some trans people do as well. They tend to be more conservative, or “transmedicalists,” who don’t deny the relevance of biological definitions of sex or believe society needs to embrace the concept of multiple genders. Some of the opinions of LGBT supportive liberals and LGBT people, which aren’t that different from Peterson’s, can be found here. While Peterson is speaking about confusion around gender ideology and children, examples of how gender ideology is causing some confusion and strife within the LGBT population can be found here.

I have a complaint with this article, as well as other articles that express worry that gender ideology will confuse and over-medicalize children. I agree we should be worried it will. However, these critical articles often fail to address any solution for the child who’s behaviors and interests are highly aligned with cross-sex stereotypes. These youths my be trans-identified or not. But either way, extremely effeminate boys and masculine tomboys are outliers that aren’t really incorporated very well into our society. They don’t see themselves represented anywhere. These children are often treated poorly, including verbal and physical abuse. And if people who do not like current gender ideology and trans activism want to create change, it would be best to address how these youth’s can be supported as well. Instead, they are forgotten about in these articles about maintaining concepts of “societal structure.”

Jordan Peterson is not a far-right person. But this point relates to why I am personally very skeptical about addressing this issue with any far-right conservatives that only frame this in terms of social order, with no regard for those children/teens who are harmed by the way that order currently exists.

We do not have open comments on the Gender Health Query website. But that doesn’t mean we aren’t interested in what you have to say. If you have a comment, blog post idea, or any other feedback, we would be interested if the information can be supported by science research, an informed opinion, real-world observations, or personal experiences. Please contact us.

A Student in the UK is Punished & For Not Believing in Multiple Genders

News

A student in the UK was removed from class and told he must adhere to a multiple genders worldview in school even though the teacher admits the view is unscientific. Gender identity laws are being passed all over the Western World and gender ideology (a subset of postmodern influenced queer theory) and there will be more attempts by private and public entities to force it on people who do not agree with it.

A link to the video can be found here.

The United States has free speech rights as part of it’s constitution. Forcing the public to adhere to pronoun demands, including third gender pronouns such as “zir” and “they” likely would not hold up in court even though these laws are being passed statewide and the federal Equality Act may make misgendering a crime.

Update 06/23/19: The student in question has apparently been suspended from school for three weeks over the incident.
Update 06/04/19: The student has apparently been expelled from school.

We do not have open comments on the Gender Health Query website. But that doesn’t mean we aren’t interested in what you have to say. If you have a comment, blog post idea, or any other feedback, we would be interested if the information can be supported by science research, an informed opinion, real-world observations, or personal experiences. Please contact us.

Mermaids Trans Youth Charity Breaches Privacy Safeguarding & Receives Internal Criticism

News

The London Times has published a story about a privacy breach committed by Mermaids, a trans support group, who receives public funds from the UK government. Mermaids promotes the gender dysphoria affirmative model for children and parents.

The article is titled “Parents’ anger as child sex change charity Mermaids puts private emails online.”

Many emails were put online where they could be seen by the public:

More than 1,000 pages of Mermaids’ confidential emails, including anguished messages from parents about their children’s suffering, were uploaded for anyone to view.

The charity has received some criticism in the released private emails:

Alongside the client emails were hundreds of revealing internal ones showing trustees’ concerns about Green’s leadership, accusations from parents that Mermaids felt like a “cult” and alcohol problems at residential weekends putting children “at risk”.

The charity has received some criticism from a Tavistock (from a trans youth clinic) clinician in the UK:

A Tavistock clinician said: “Mermaids push simplistic views, emotional blackmail and conscious misinformation at parents. They do so much harm.”

Susie Green is cooperating but also blaming some criticism on transphobia.

We do not have open comments on the Gender Health Query website. But that doesn’t mean we aren’t interested in what you have to say. If you have a comment, blog post idea, or any other feedback, we would be interested if the information can be supported by science research, an informed opinion, real-world observations, or personal experiences. Please contact us.

Recent LGBT Protests Against Other LGBT People Who Are Skeptical of Medical Protocols on Minors and Aspects of Gender Ideology

NEWS COMMENTARY

Two recent protests in British Columbia exemplify some of the fractures occurring within the LGBT population around the medical treatment of minors and gender ideology.

A near riotous protest erupted (near Victoria) against a transgender activist who opposes medical treatments on minors and aspects of trans activism. Jenn Smith identifies as transgender and bisexual. Smith is active with churches and holds some conservative viewpoints but does not consider himself (he uses male pronouns) as a right-wing Christian. Smith is an example of how the LGBT community, or even trans community, is not a monolith where the opinions promoted by LGBT rights organizations are universally shared.

Jenn Smith opposes aspects of SOGI (sexual orientation and gender identity) mandated education in Canadian schools due to the inclusion of certain viewpoints of gender identity seen to conflict with girls’ rights in schools. These are views that biological sex is determined by gender identity alone, and that gender is a spectrum. Another fear is that they are contributing to a social contagion aspect to gender dysphoria in youth and large increases of medicalized children and teens.

Smith is dismayed by trans activism extremism, which is a newer phenomenon from Smith’s personal historical perspective. Extremism is something our website addresses. Smith also considers gender activism as trendy and thus problematic.

It appears protestors tried to aggressively shut down Jenn Smith’s speaking event using air horns and by creating enough fear for safety that Smith had to leave. A video of the event may be found here.

This Medium piece is a fairly typical response from gender activists. It demonstrates the unfortunate impasse between many in the “queer left” and LGBT people critical of current gender ideology. Critical LGBT people generally believe caution is warranted in treating dysphoric minors and that it is important to maintain biological definitions of male and female for the purpose of empiricism and female sex-based rights to privacy and sports.

Anything less than a full endorsement of a dysphoric child’s medical treatments and full validation of a trans identity in law and every area designated for females, is considered hate speech. “Hate speech” some believe that should be prosecuted by the government and is being prosecuted.

It doesn’t matter that Jenn Smith is trans. Jenn Smith is a “transphobic bigot” in these protesters’ view.

LGBT youth are at increased risk for bullying and schools can be abusive environments. All LGBT youth are at increased risk for mental health problems. Protecting these youths and giving them a sense of belonging are some of the valid goals of SOGI.

However, some people beyond the usual right-wing opposition to sex ed programs and LGBT rights have concerns about gender identity ideology in SOGI, including LGB people who agree with some of what Smith says.

There is a link with these programs and increases in trans-identified females after them. And this increase in trans-identification is looking like a social contagion in female youth. And because of fast-track medical treatments, people fear for the safety of struggling youth who may not be helped by medical treatments.

These concerns occur alongside concerns for the safety and inclusion of gender nonconforming young people and trans-identified youth.

Another ironic protest involving LGBT youth medical transition activists protesting an event attended and supported by other LGBT people, occurred in Vancouver. This was at a presentation by feminist Meghan Murphy, Dr. Ken Zucker (a psychologist), and Dagny, a detransitioned young women. What is ironic is that Dr. Ken Zucker is worried the current protocol of social transition and hormone blocker use is likely to medicalize would be gay and lesbian people. And that Dagny, is a same-sex attracted female who discusses how the affirmative model was harmful in her case and the negative ways “queer” youth culture is currently affecting young females. There were many LGB people who attended the event to hear what the presenters had to say. Detransitioned LGB youth are an LGB community issue.

It was good this call to action did not encourage any violence or major disruption.

However, there was still verbal abuse directed at attendees. A protester lunged at one woman. And there were many accusations of “murdering trans children” by protestors.

A description of the event:

A crowd of about 260 gathered at the Croatian Cultural Centre in Vancouver on Thursday night to hear three perspectives on the issue of gender identity and kids. Event attendees had to face about 100 protestors holding signs with slogans such as “Transphobes Kill” and “Support our Trans Sisters or Fuck Off” before entering the venue.

The term TERFs means “trans exclusionary radical feminists” who don’t believe trans women are literally women. It is now applied to everyone not in full alignment with current transgender activism.

Another woman spoke with a protestor who screamed hysterically “F*** you, you fucking ***” and accused her of “killing trans children.” The woman went out to explain that some dysphoric youth may be gay or bisexual, not trans. This viewpoint is validated by the fact that the detransitioner at the presentation, who came out as trans at 15, now identifies as a bisexual woman. And desistance statistics point to reasons to be concerned about this as well.

The identity politics are untenable when what is at stake is sterilizing minors, some of who may be confused LGB you. These protestors, as well as gender clinicians themselves, do not have any perfectly clear picture about the effect of the youth medical transition movement on borderline, gender nonconforming, same-sex attracted youth.

Whatever one believes about giving tweens hormone blockers and performing surgery on minors or postmodern gender ideology, what is true is that critical LGBT people, so far, are not attempting to no-platform and threaten the pro-child/teen medical transition movement.

Megan Murphy event on trans youth desistance protested

Update 06/22/19: A University of B.C. professor and student group tried to ban Jenn Smith from speaking on campus.
“UBC staff and students want presentation cancelled over concerns of hatred towards trans people”

Update 07/10/19: The Vancouver Pride Society banned the University of B.C. from participating in the Vancouver Pride parade because they allowed Jenn Smith to speak on their campus.
“UBC banned from marching in Vancouver Pride Parade after allowing ‘transphobic hate speech”

We do not have open comments on the Gender Health Query website. But that doesn’t mean we aren’t interested in what you have to say. If you have a comment, blog post idea, or any other feedback, we would be interested if the information can be supported by science research, an informed opinion, real-world observations, or personal experiences. Please contact us.