Whether social, chemical, or surgical, “transition” procedures harm, they do not help. To legislate as if they do, claiming the science is settled when it is not and keeping parents in the dark, is irresponsible, unethical, and dangerous. 

Last month, the governor of Colorado signed a bill into law that legally requires teachers to call children whatever they want to be called, regardless of their legal name and without parental permission. Not only does the language of the law cement “gender identity” as a legitimate category, but it also defines it as a child’s “innate sense” of gender without reference to his or her biological reality. The law also specifies that charter schools, along with all public schools, must comply. And, the law applies to all employees, educators, and even contractors, both during the school day and all extracurricular activities. Anyone who does not comply is, according to the law, guilty of discrimination.

The law does not include criteria for a name demanded by a student to be binding. So, in theory, a student could identify as “her” on Monday, “ze” on Tuesday, “cat” on Wednesday and Thursday, and “he” at the game on Friday night. If teachers cannot keep up with the demands and call a student by a different name, they would be guilty of something akin to using a racial slur for a student of ethnic minority.

Perhaps the worst part of the bill is the absence of any mention of parents. Nowhere does the bill discuss a parent’s role in a child’s preferred name. The bill empowers teachers, educators, and coaches to treat kids however they think best, but leaves parents out of the discussion completely. This only assumes an idea dominant in state-run education, that children belong to the state, and that state employees know better than the moms and dads who raise, provide, and care for children.

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