Global Courant
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A radical bill hotly debated in the Golden State threatens to label parents as child molesters if they refuse to “confirm” their son or daughter’s sexual confusion.
AB 957, already passed by California’s State Assembly, would require judges overseeing custody disputes with affected transgender children to favor the mother or father who supports the child’s so-called new gender identity. Parents who choose to confirm the biological sex of their son or daughter are considered out of bounds and out of luck.
At the root of this dangerous legislation is the fundamental belief that the constructive and compassionate thing to do when it comes to gender confusion is to go along with what the child is feeling at the time. This premise is not only destructive, but short-sighted and foolish, and on several levels.
Cases of gender dysphoria or gender identity disorder have skyrocketed in recent years. Why is this happening? Sociologists report that gender-confused children, like teen suicide, run in clusters. Essentially, if one child starts to doubt or act up, others soon follow. In some cases, it has become trendy and exotic to experiment with drugs and surgery.
CALIFORNIA ACCOUNT THAT PARENTS WHO DO NOT ‘CONFIRM’ CAN CONFIRM CHILDREN’S GENDER IS ‘RECKLESS’
In reality, it is terribly sad, and also a direct affront to God’s beautiful design for mankind. My heart breaks for children who struggle and for those parents who struggle alongside them. The organization I lead, Focus on the Family, exists to help mothers and fathers guide and provide the critical help needed when children are in this type of crisis.
However, culture leads and encourages children down a dangerous path by affirming their sexual confusion. Some doctors and activists have even coined the misleading term “gender-affirming care” to describe the dark act of irreversibly mutilating and altering children’s bodies.
What makes this even more tragic is that sociologists tell us that a significant majority (more than 80 percent) of children who experience this confusion will eventually psychologically revert to their biological sex. In other words, they grow out of it.
Mark Yarhouse, a psychology professor at Wheaton College, suggests, “Most children who meet the criteria for gender dysphoria continue to fall short of the criteria as they grow up and enter adolescence.”
But for some who are on medication and have surgery, the act of completely “de-transitioning” is impossible.
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Despite the explosion of this confusion and abuse here in the United States, traditionally more progressive countries in Europe seem to be waking up to the reality.
The Norwegian Healthcare Investigation Board recently recommended that so-called sex reassignment surgery and puberty blockers be used in research settings, but not in children. They finally recognize that there is no science to justify these abusive acts.
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“The knowledge base, especially research-based knowledge for gender-affirming treatment (hormonal and surgical), is inadequate and the long-term effects are little known,” said the UKOM, an independent government watchdog of the Norwegian healthcare system. “This is especially true for the teen population where the stability of their gender incongruity is also unknown.”
Norway is not alone. Officials in the United Kingdom, Sweden, Finland and France have made similar decisions. The UK’s controversial Tavistock Gender Clinic closed last year and last Friday the UK’s National Health Service announced they were going to ban puberty blockers for children.
Whether in business or family life, leadership is knowing the reality and proposing solutions to problems. Confirming confusion and outright untruths does children no good and actually enslaves them to a lifetime of regret. We owe our children both truth and compassion, as well as situational clarity. California lawmakers serve only lies and confusion.
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Jim Daly is president of Focus on the Family and author of “The Good Dad: Becoming the Father You Were Meant to Be.”
