Just Say No To Social Transition At School

A 'gender' toolkit written by a psychiatrist

“There is no expert clinical consensus regarding the treatment of children who meet diagnostic criteria for gender dysphoria,” Kristopher Kaliebe writes in An Urgent Conversation: What to Know About Children, Gender, & School Policy. Produced for Restore Childhood, it is available for free (donation optional) at their website.

Founded by parents and educators, Restore Childhood was a grassroots response to school closures as well as vaccine and mask mandates that, like ‘gender medicine,’ resulted from ‘settled science’ that turned out to be wrong. “During the Covid-19 pandemic it became apparent that policy makers had little motivation or political will to provide thoughtful and nuanced policies that place the well-being of children first,” the nonprofit organization says.

They asked Kaliebe, a professor at the University of South Florida, to write this brief for the general audience involved in education: mainly parents, but also teachers, administrators, counselors, school resource officers, and so on. Social transition is the wellspring of the medicalization pipeline that is laid out in the graphics of the guide. Well-meaning intervention creates the sickness. Pronouns are the first step on a path to iatrogenic harm. As Nancy Reagan would advise, just say no.

Kaliebe points to intrusive and frequent questioning about pronouns, as well as other subtle ways that students are prompted to self-report a gender identity, as examples of the pernicious ways ‘gender’ recruits the young. In general, “public schools cannot mandate that children use someone’s preferred pronouns or compel students to announce their own pronouns.” They can encourage it, but not punish it.

Parents are allowed to know what school policies are and opt their children out of objectionable ones. Parents are also allowed to see the materials their kids are being given and object to them. “Oftentimes, gender curricula ARE aimed at very young students using child-friendly graphics, activities and books.” Secretive “transgender support plans,” which are used to arrange an at-school social transition without parental knowledge, also violate federal law.

Gender activists deliberately spread confusion about this point. The Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act of 1974, or FERPA, was however “designed for parents to protect their kids’ privacy, not for schools to protect kids’ privacy from parents.” Legislation to hide schoolhouse ‘gender identities’ from parents, such as California’s AB 1955, will likely not withstand the scrutiny of federal courts, but Kaliebe has not written a legal brief.

It is enough to point out that parents do have a right to know. None of the 40+ pages in An Urgent Conversation is dense. Kaliebe does not argue the science, for there is nothing scientific about ‘gender identity.’ He identifies it as “a belief” or “an ideology” rather than an objective reality. “The concept of gender identity is a theory, not a fact — the belief that gender exists independent of sex is ideological in nature and not scientifically based.” He is, as the kids say, based.

Parents must be armed against the emotional blackmail they will meet. “There is no high-quality evidence to suggest that social or medical transition mitigates suicide risk,” Kaliebe writes. He points to this recent longitudinal study showing “a high rate of completed suicide in a cohort receiving hormone treatment” in “youth 12-20 years of age.” The supposed cure is the disease.

Furthermore, because “gender nonconformity” is the single best social science predictor of whether a child will grow up to be gay or lesbian, the people most often harmed by the iatrogenesis of gender ideology are same-sex-attracted. Mental illness and autism are also highly correlated with transgender identification. All of these populations deserve protection, not a pipeline to medicalized self-harm.

Having read many parent guides over the years regarding numerous public policy issues, I recognize much of this advice as perennial. When dealing with administration, for example, creating paper trails is always better than having personal conversations. No matter the problem, parents are always stronger when they organize and share what they learn about policies and educational materials.

The genuinely new thing in this guide, which did not exist until our historical moment, is not the focus on ‘gender’ issues, but its advocacy for “digital hygiene.” Led by Jonathan Haidt of the After Babel Substack, there is a growing movement to take the ‘smart phones’ away from kids and restore face-to-face socialization in American childhood. Instead of padding every surface in life, children need play time that is free of parents. Focus on reducing their stress and keeping them safe has not helped thim. They need to overcome challenges if they are ever to gain adult confidence.

Many parent guides include polls. Kaliebe cites two, both from 2023. In this Harvard Caps Harris Poll, “an overwhelming majority of American voters (including 67% of Democrats) are in favor of restricting sex changes for minors,” he notes. A Washington Post-KFF poll also shows that Americans oppose medicalizing ‘gender’ in children. Politicians need to know that these policies are not on the right side of public opinion, let alone the right side of history.

An Urgent Conversation: What to Know About Children, Gender, & School Policy also links to sources and resources from sex realist organizations like Genspect and The Paradox Institute. A flourishing social movement is getting organized and producing abundant literature for historians to examine.

Kristopher Kaliebe recently appeared on the TransMuted podcast to talk about his work with Jenny Poyer Ackerman.

Listen to Episode 13 with Kris Kaliebe, MD