With all the talk about the effects of transgender discussions in elementary classrooms, I am reminded of my own childhood. I am a girl but between the ages of seven and twelve, I looked like a boy. Kids that did not know me would ask if I was a boy or a girl. Adults would call me “son” and “bud.” I knew my appearance was misleading, but at no time did I ever think that I was a boy. I just looked like one, and I wanted to look that way.
At that age, my logic for changing my appearance to look like a boy was sound, yet immature. I wanted to be associated with the boys because I enjoyed being outside, catching frogs, and playing sports like the boys. I was not interested in girly things. My thoughts were that if I looked like a boy, then people would associate me with boy things and not with the girly things that I did not like. That is all.
I can’t help but imagine how my life could have turned out if I were born a decade later. In school, I would have been able to choose which bathroom I wanted to use. What kid would not be curious about the opposite gender’s facilities? I would have been subject to reading about and exploring transgenderism. Could broad conceptions from doing so have led me to believe that I actually was a boy? I would have seen parties held for other students who wanted to change their gender. Would I have decided I was a boy just because it meant that there was a party for me? I was a student who could have been easily targeted by teachers or school counselors to consider transitioning into a boy. Would I have been able to defend myself as a child against adults?
Looking back, I don’t know if my young, immature mind would have held to the belief that I was a girl if I were under these conditions. I cringe at the very real possibility that I could’ve fallen into the transgender trap placed in front of kids today.
My life could have been irreparably altered. It is disconcerting to know that there are kids like me who are being unfairly corrupted in their classrooms. It is an abuse of power for adults to force this emotional turmoil on children.
After all, teaching transgenderism to kids who do not have a sexual sense of self causes unnecessary distress and the cruelest part of forcing transgenderism on kids is the damaging and possibly irreversible hardship that this kind of confusion can cause in their lives.
