Planned Parenthood disconnects gender and genitals

Planned Parenthood released updated parental guidance this week on how to talk to kids about sex.

The new website—while maintaining its progressive stance on sex and sexuality—added pages of new advice on how parents should talk about and respond to their children regarding gender identity and transgenderism, including sections for parents of preschoolers on how to explain the difference between gender and sex, and how to know if your child is transgender.

The previous site recommended parents answer children’s questions about sex and genitals with no-nonsense gender distinctions, for example:

“Q. How come I have a penis and you don't? A. Boys have penises and girls have vulvas.”

But the new site blurs gender distinctions at every turn.

In the section entitled “How do I talk to my preschooler about their body,” the site says it is important for children ages 0-4 to understand words like boy, girl, man, and woman describe someone’s gender, not their sex.

“Your genitals don’t make you a boy or a girl,” the article claims. Planned Parenthood instead recommends telling preschoolers “some people with the gender identities ‘boy’ or ‘man’ have vulvas, and some with the gender identity ‘girl’ or ‘woman’ have penises/testicles.”

And while the old site had little information about gender identity, the new site warns parents anything but complete affirmation of a child or teen’s perceived gender could cause extreme harm. Parents are encouraged to let children choose their clothes, haircuts, and pronouns as early as age 3, and eventually let them make the decision to medically transition. That advice is a little self-serving. Planned Parenthood has started offering hormone replacement therapy for men and women wanting to change genders.

“Trying to steer your kid toward a more typical gender expression if that’s not their instinct does more harm than good,” the article says.

Experts disagree.

“Gender identity for children is elastic (that is, it can change over time) and plastic (that is, it can be shaped by forces like parental approval and social conditions),” according to a report by three renowned doctors and academics published last month in the journal The New Atlantis.

The report pushes back on the unquestioning acceptance of “gender affirmation” by doctors, therapists, and activists, instead warning that affirming gender expression from the earliest evidence of cross-gender behavior—as Planned Parenthood advocates—may “drive some children to persist in identifying as transgender when they might otherwise have, as they grow older, found their gender to be aligned with their sex.”

The report notes the best, most widely accepted studies continue to find the vast majority of children with gender dysphoria eventually come to embrace their biological gender, and that sadly those who persist in a transgender identity are disproportionately likely to suffer from a variety of mental health problems, including depression, anxiety, and suicide.

Easier, faster gender transitions

The British government plans to make it easier and faster to change genders. According to a new proposal announced Sunday by Britain’s women and equalities minister, Justine Greening, people who wish to change their legal gender will no longer need a medical diagnosis of gender dysphoria or be required to provide evidence that they have been in transition for two years. Under the proposed plan that streamlines the Gender Recognition Act of 2004, anyone can get a new legal birth certificate with a preferred gender simply by completing an administrative process.

Advocates say people should be able to self-identify, and that though the current law was groundbreaking in giving transgendered individuals the right to have their gender legally recognized, the process needs reform: “We need a simple process which isn’t medicalized, intrusive, or demeaning,” Ruth Hunt, chief executive of Stonewall, Europe’s largest LGBT advocacy group, told The Guardian.

But others are pushing back, instead arguing the decision to change legal gender should not happen easily or quickly. “It should not be easy to do something as massive as change your gender and the law is there to protect us, normally from other people, but also sometimes from ourselves,” Mary Douglas of Grassroots Conservatives told BBC Radio 4’s Today program.

“Gender dysphoria is a psychological condition,” said a spokesman from The Christian Institute, a U.K. faith-based advocacy group. “People who believe they are trapped in the wrong body need patient help to come to terms with reality.”

Even some LGBT advocates think the proposal goes too far. In an editorial published by The Daily Mail, British writer Libby Purves says the current law is a warranted safeguard against impulsive decisions, and also noted that “’self-identification’ has its limits and also its dangers.”

“How sensible is it to expect parents to entrust their shy little girls—without being informed—to a camping trip led by a muscular figure called Maureen, who still shaves every day, and has not been through any medical screening, but merely 'self-identified'?” asked Purves.

Greening said the government will publish a consultation on the Gender Recognition Act in the fall. —K.C.

Conflicting advice

Two U.S. agencies are clashing over whether sexual orientation is protected by the Civil Rights Act.

The Department of Justice told the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on Wednesday that sexual orientation is not covered by Title VII of the 1964 Civil Rights Act, which bans workplace discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex, or national origin. In a friend-of-the-court-brief the department said its position is consistent with previous court rulings and the will of Congress.

“Any efforts to amend Title VII’s scope should be directed to Congress rather than the courts,” the Justice Department said.

But the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) claims the law includes sexual orientation and that it enforces the measure against private employers. In 2015, the commission under then-President Barack Obama issued a 3-2 ruling that discrimination based on sexual orientation was illegal.

The Justice Department made it clear in its brief the EEOC does not speak for the government.

The case in question involves a skydiving instructor who is says his employer fired him for his sexual orientation. —K.C.

Parents push back on ‘smacking’ ban

A group of Welsh parents is calling on the local government to ditch plans to criminalize spanking. The campaign, called Be Reasonable Wales, is pushing back on plans to remove the legal defense for parents who use corporal punishment to discipline their children.

The group says current law adequately protects children from abuse and attack, and the move will instead criminalize parents who moderately discipline their children. They also note it will backlog the already overloaded child welfare system in trivial cases, diverting time and attention away from serious cases of abuse.

“The law already protects children from abuse, which of course is important and vital, but this additional change can have no other consequence other than making parents who are loving and caring into criminals,” said Lowri Turner, campaign spokeswoman. —K.C.