Fort Worth ISD’s transgender guidelines shut out parents

As the parent of an incoming kindergartener this fall, I am deeply dismayed by the transgender guidelines presented by our Fort Worth school superintendent.

I am not a dyed-in-the-wool conservative. I proudly voted for President Obama, and this is the first time I have found myself so firmly entrenched on this side of the political dividing line.

This is certainly an alienating topic. A bit to my surprise, I have found myself identifying with a group of concerned parents who have rallied behind the hashtag #protectmykids.

While I echo some of their concerns, I find that hashtag both naive and offensive. I do not need to protect my four children from transgender youth in our schools.

I do not want transgender students isolated or bullied. That is never acceptable.

That said, I am alarmed by the guidelines’ blatant disregard for parental authority.

The guidelines lay a foundation for our schools asserting more authority in our children’s lives than we, the parents.

With this statement, excerpted from the guidelines, “School personnel may only share this information [regarding a student’s desire to conform to a new gender] on a need-to-know basis or as the student directs. This includes sharing information with the student’s parent or guardian,” Fort Worth ISD establishes itself as the primary authority between a parent and child on a highly sensitive and serious topic.

Should one of my four children come to me with questions or concerns about his or her identity, I would seek help and input from our pediatrician, our pastor and our community. But, ultimately, I, the parent, would act as I see fit to protect and care for my child.

This includes teaching our children what we believe as a family.

Our family does not support gender reassignment surgery or gender transitioning, but this does not mean that we would shun or belittle a child from school who has made a gender change.

I do not claim to have all the facts, and I know my point of view is unpopular and controversial.

However, in my own research, I came across social and medical evidence that suggests a child struggling with his or her identity may not find fulfillment in transitioning genders.

For example, Johns Hopkins Gender Identity Clinic quit offering sex reassignment — the same clinic that pioneered this very surgery in the United States — after a 15-year study concluded that “sex reassignment surgery confers no objective advantage in terms of ‘social rehabilitation’ as compared with a group of individuals who sought sex reassignment but remained unoperated upon at follow-up.”

Yet in states such as California, New Jersey, and Massachusetts, psychiatrists are banned from “striving to restore natural gender feelings to a transgender minor” even with parental permission.

This is further confirmation that parental influence is being eroded.

Of course, I realize that sex change surgeries are not going to be offered during lunch time at schools.

Nonetheless, a dangerous precedent is being enacted across the nation, and now in Fort Worth, that excludes parents from the delicate and difficult decisions surrounding gender identity.

This is a benchmark moment for Fort Worth ISD, and parents must voice their concerns and assert their authority, demanding that these guidelines be repealed and rewritten.

This story was originally published May 24, 2016 at 5:14 PM with the headline "Fort Worth ISD’s transgender guidelines shut out parents."