To the editor:
The complaint against the book “If I Was Your Girl” by Meredith Russo in the Cody High School library had nothing whatsoever to do with pornography.
The school board’s approval of the book rested on three premises: (1) that it concurred with the KEC Complaints Committee’s recommendation; (2) that it deemed the book not to be pornographic; and (3) that it considered the book to be supportive and inclusive of gender-confused students and instrumental in helping students learn to be empathetic and compassionate towards those who are different than themselves.
Premise number two is entirely irrelevant. That the board members focused on pornography leads to the conclusion that they had not read the complaint properly or seriously considered it. Not one trustee mentioned the real complaint during the brief board discussion and subsequent unanimous vote that rubber-stamped the KEC Complaints Committee’s recommendation to retain the book.
The actual but ignored substance of the complaint is this – The book is arguably dangerous and misleading. It chronicles the transition of a boy to a girl, assuming one agrees that to be a possibility. This involves a number of stages. First, the boy receives puberty blockers which effect a chemical castration through blocking the normal process of production of testosterone. Next comes the mutilation of healthy male sex organs and the re-designing of what’s left to mimic female sex organs. The patient is by now sterile. Further hormonal drugs are administered to cause the feminizing and softening of the body. This person will never have a healthy life free of medical interventions. All this medical and pharmaceutical work is highly lucrative, which might explain why it is so popular with some doctors and hospitals.
The book is a description of a supposedly successful and triumphal transition and a glamorized rendition of this character’s perilous high school romance with a football player. Left unsaid are the numerous testimonies of vulnerable young people (too young to be making adult decisions) whose gender confusion spontaneously resolved but who had already been tragically urged on to undergo these radical and unnatural medical procedures.
All too many young lives have been irreparably harmed. Many have spoken out about the physical, mental and emotional pain and suffering they have endured.
These social, pharmaceutical and surgical transitions are harmful, extremely expensive and largely irreversible. Schools should not be taking sides and cheerleading such controversial issues.
(s) sheila leach
Cody
(2) comments
First, You thinking that transgender people shouldn't be allowed to exist is not a basis from barring everyone from reading about them. If you don't wish for your children to learn empathy you are free to tell them they are not allowed to read whatever books you wish. Other people are allowed to check out library books you don't like.
Second, every major medical organization supports gender affirming care, which reduces negative mental health outcomes, and brain scans show the structure of the brain reflecting gender, not genitals. Yes, Amanda was able to get surgery -at 18- just as she would have been able to make any other decision in her life as an adult. Again, you can choose whatever you want for you and yours, leave everyone else alone.
Paige, the article's writer did not express that T are not allowed to exist. Merely that this book glamorizes dangerous choices. There are many ways to learn empathy that do not include accepting body mutilation.
Other people are allowed to check out library books, yes, but these are impressionable children not yet 18.
I disagree wholeheartedly that "every major medical organization supports gender affirming care" as scores of doctors have been fired or suspended for disagreeing.
For actual figures please consult the reference section of the book "Irreversible Damage."
No one needs a PhD to read brain scans and figure out who is a woman and who is a man. Many children have been mentored and pushed to get surgery, coaxed into becoming lifelong clients of Big Pharma, only to regret it later.
Yes, please choose as you please. But children deserve protection, and that involves the books the children's library. They can read anything they want at 18.
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