NJ middle school teaches 7th graders about trans hormone therapy

AP Photo/Mary Altaffer, File

Parents of students at a middle school in Kinnelon, N.J. were recently shocked to learn that their children had been shown a video of a transgender adult injecting testosterone and talking about their experience over a ten-year period. The video was shown in the childrens’ social studies class, indicating that social studies has certainly changed a lot since I took those classes back in the day. The fact that the parents were not notified in advance caused many of them to contact the school or go down in person to ask questions. They later learned that the subject of the film, Aydian Dowling, was scheduled to speak at a school-wide assembly, though the parents were given the opportunity to opt out for that event. School officials admitted the parents should have also had the chance to opt out of the video presentation. (Free Beacon)

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As part of a social studies class, a New Jersey public middle school forced students to watch a video about a transgender man’s hormone treatment—all without notifying parents.

The video, “Ten Years on Testosterone,” details the transition of LGBT activist Aydian Dowling through hormone injections. Teachers and administrators at Pearl R. Miller Middle School in Kinnelon, N.J., did not notify parents about the lesson, which included slideshows with definitions of different gender ideologies, beforehand.

“You can build up the courage to stand up for yourself in a way that this is what you want to do with your life,” Dowling says in the video after injecting testosterone.

Middle school students are at the age where they are transitioning toward adult bodies and are always very curious, but this is still the sort of thing that should be left to the discretion of the parents. And I’m referring to any material relating to sexual maturity, not transgender indoctrination.

What’s more disturbing is the idea that a patient who has no listed medical training is distributing information like this to children. Hormone therapy has been used for a long time to treat patients with a variety of issues and it’s something that always has to be monitored closely. Significant side effects are possible and the prognosis varies from patient to patient. This is often the case with women who undergo surgery after reaching menopause and developing issues. Getting the replacement hormone levels correct can be tricky.

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What’s being discussed here, however, is something entirely different. This isn’t replacement therapy. This is a case of taking an otherwise healthy body and grossly altering the hormone levels the person’s system “expects” to encounter. As I’ve said here repeatedly, if you’re an adult and you want to do this and can find a doctor to assist you, feel free. Just be aware that you are responsible for the consequences.

But this film was being shown to children, some of whom were assuredly barely past puberty. I did some checking and found out that Aydian Dowling is now 34 years old and has been injecting testosterone for ten years. That means that she didn’t start on this regimen until she was already in her twenties and an adult. Doing this to children is pretty much as insane as giving them puberty-blocking drugs, which really should be a felony and a reason to remove any doctor’s license. That’s because the FDA has never approved the most common puberty-blocking drugs for gender dysphoria, only for precocious puberty.

Parents in New Jersey had better brace for even more rough waters. As the Free Beacon goes on to report, Democratic governor Phil Murphy is getting ready to enact new education “health standards” that will see second-graders learning about genitalia, and “gender expression.” Students in fifth grade will be taught about masturbation, sexual orientation, and gender identity. And eighth-graders will have to be able to define “vaginal sex, oral sex, and anal sex.”

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But hey… these are the people you folks in New Jersey voted for. So I suppose that’s what you had coming. If you find yourself freaking out now, maybe you should just move to another state.

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Ed Morrissey 10:00 PM | November 22, 2024
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