Two members of the Orange Unified School District board have been removed by parents who opposed a policy requiring school staff to out transgender kids.

Two members of the Orange Unified School District board have been removed by parents who opposed a policy requiring school staff to out transgender kids.

Parents in Southern California have voted to remove two conservative school board members after they spearheaded a policy that forcibly outs transgender students to their guardians.

Members of the Orange Unified School District board voted 4-0 to enact the policy in September. It was passed at 11:30 p.m., after the three opposed members walked out and withheld their votes.

The policy states that parents must be notified when a student seeks “to be identified as a gender other than the student’s biological sex or gender listed on the student’s birth certificate or any other official records.” This includes names, nicknames, and pronouns, and applies even if the student hasn’t taken action but has discussed the matter with a counselor.

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At the initial meeting in September, the board was overwhelmed by crowds who showed up to either protest or support the policy. However, the majority of the attendees voicing support did not have children in the district’s schools, and most were not residents of the area, according to the Times.

  • shalafi@lemmy.worldEnglish
    413·
    9 months ago

    [email protected] -61 points 11 hours ago

    Tried stating a reasonable opinion with questions, got buried so hard I can’t respond to the comment without it getting buried and disappearing. Civil discourse anyone? Or is civility only for people you mostly agree with? LOL, this post is blocked so hard I can’t even read the replies without them disappearing. I can’t even tell what OP said that was out-of-bounds.

    This is how we create rightwing nuts. Take a person’s reasonable post, beat the shit out of them for some much as having a question, pondering the pros and cons. Nope. Straight to jail.

    Put yourself in OP’s shoes. “Fuck me. I just said what I felt as a parent, how I might react. And I get hit with a wall of hate and bans?!” How do you think lemmy swayed OP’s opinion? Discuss. (You’ll get banned or blocked if you do, but grow a pair, state your case.)

    I honestly don’t know how I feel about this. If my kid (which I do have one) was trying to pass as another gender in school, but not home, I would want to know. It’s generally not good for kids to keep big secrets like this from the people looking out for them. That’s how they end up getting in to trouble in life.

    Yeah, I’d want to know if my child was hiding something so utterly life changing. I hope my kids trust me, but coming out as trans is about as big as it gets.

    At the same time, I’m not the kind of parent that wouldn’t support my kid through such an issue. I understand it could be dangerous for some kids to be outted to their parents, but I don’t know that we should be governing based on the worst possible outcomes, when keeping the secret could also be dangerous to some.

    Yep, sucks either way. And either way, people may be hurt.

    It is telling to me that most of the supporters that showed up had no skin in the game. I don’t think this specific issue is as cut-and-dry as it appears at first. My mind has certainly changed on it the more I think about it.

    About that. How would y’all feel if we flipped it? A conservative or liberal mob from out-of-town trying to influence your child’s school board? (Which partly happened here!)

    • jkrtn@lemmy.ml
      9·
      9 months ago

      I’m sure you would want to know. So you can either: 1. create an environment for the child so they feel safe talking about it with you or 2. force everyone working at a school to out children who aren’t ready with potentially hostile audiences just in case your child isn’t comfortable discussing with you. Option 2. is pretty enticing, I guess, zero effort and all the benefit.

      I think it is pretty clear where the downvotes are from. The position is basically, “it doesn’t matter if another kid gets hurt, that won’t happen to mine, and I’d want to know.” In terms of setting policy I’d like school districts to instead consider what’s best for the vast majority of (ideally all) children.