OPINION From the Right and the Left: Drawing the line between trans rights and parental sovereignty

people suffer from lack of legal protection, elevated rates of poverty, stigma, harassment and discrimination, violence, lack of healthcare coverage, and widespread lack of accurate identity documents.

harms of transgender medical treatment is an attempt to improve psychological well-being and reduce suicidal behavior.

children away and protect them while law enforcement investigates. This, however, is very different.

So your 12-year-old son or daughter comes to you, the parent, and informs you that they have been wrestling with a dilemma that has become foremost in their everyday life: Namely, they seriously question their gender and it has become unbearable, maybe even life-threatening. In other words, your son is convinced he is a woman, or your daughter is convinced she is a man, or maybe it’s a mix between the two, identified as non-binary.

You at first pass it off but your child refuses to allow you to downplay it as a childish delusion and informs you that they have considered suicide as it has affected their very existence. You realize you have a serious issue to deal with. (Notice I use the pronoun they so as not to be disrespectful. Welcome to the new world).

This is a worldwide phenomenon. According to the United Nation’s Commissioner for Human Rights “the more specific term ‘trans’ is used to describe persons who identify with a different sex than the one assigned to them at birth … they are caught in a spiral of exclusion and marginalization: often bullied at school, rejected by their family, pushed out into the streets, and denied access to employment.”

According to the Human Rights Campaign (HRC) Foundation “three out of every 10 adults in the U.S. personally knows someone who is trans … and about half a decade ago, only one-quarter of people in the US supported trans rights, and support increased to 62 percent by the year 2019.”

Data collected by the HRC Foundation identify that trans

Paso Robles Joint Unified School

District AP Chemistry

Textbook Controversy

Dear Editor, Thank you for your coverage of local education news. As a student of Paso Robles High School, I believe that the recent controversy over the newly approved AP chemistry textbook is unnecessary. The claims made by multiple parents that the textbook is “politicizing our academic subjects’’ are misguided. They are centered around the belief that any idea which opposes their own is incorrect and “inappropriate.” In reality, the ideas and examples shared in this textbook about the goals proposed by the UN in 2016 for “global sustainable devel -

A study by the Pew Research Center released this past September reports that many states are passing restrictions on transgenders that include: making it illegal for health care professionals to provide someone younger than 18 with medical care for a gender transition, excluding coverage of Medicare care for gender transitions from state Medicaid, or making it illegal for public school districts to teach about gender identity in elementary schools.

In addition, 58 percent say they would “favor or strongly favor policies the require transgender athletes to compete on teams that match the sex they were assigned at birth.”

The World Professional Association for Transgender Health suggests that hormones could be started at age 14, two years earlier than the group’s previous advice, and some surgeries done at age 15 or 17, a year or so earlier than previous guidance. The group acknowledged potential risks but said it is unethical and harmful to withhold early treatment.

The new guidelines offered by the leading transgender health association “include starting medication called puberty blockers in the early stages of puberty, which for girls is around ages 8 to 13 and typically two years later for boys … the drugs delay puberty and give kids time to decide about additional treatment; their effects end when the medication is stopped.”

An update also recommends sex hormones — estrogen or testosterone-starting at age 14; breast removal for trans boys at age 15; and most genital surgeries starting at age 17.

There is considerable debate within the scientific/medical community as to how early to start gender transition treatments. At risk in the debate over the potential benefits and

Indeed, legislative efforts are afoot to ban treatment until a minimum age. Thus, political interference smack in the middle of culture war politics reinforces the weaponization of issues that ideally should be left to the scientific and medical communities.

Under no circumstances do I pretend to be an expert on the technical medical aspects surrounding this issue. What is unacceptable, however, is the extent to which political considerations are foremost in the public debate over what medical treatments are acceptable and which are not.

Most problematic, from my perspective, is the extent to which culture war politics are being employed to negate and replace professional medical and scientific remedies that require technical expertise by institutions and professionals who are much better situated than those of us who only want to do what is best for our children.

I know and have spoken with several people who have been dealing with the dilemma of how best to cope with transgender kids. It is gut wrenching in that the underlying mandate is to be supportive of and sensitive to the needs of our children. And in the end the need to rely on the medical expertise as to how best to treat your loved ones must take precedence over everything else.

In its purest form, political manipulation of the legislative and judicial institutions of government, in many instances against the will of the populace, are further dividing the country. Shame on those who use political capital to the detriment of our kids.

Lance Simmens is an independent columnist for The Malibu Times, he along with Don Schmitz write a bi-weekly column on national topics from the perspective of their political leanings you can forward any comments you have to editorial @malibutimes.com.

SB 5599 in Washington state has been passed by the legislature and sent to Gov. Jay Inslee, who intends to sign it. Prime sponsor Sen. Marko Liias (D) touts the proposed law as protecting youth seeking gender affirming or reproductive care by “removing barriers to safe shelter,” or in other words, protecting them by keeping them away from their parents.

Liias stated: “Under the bill, shelters would not be required to report youth seeking gender-affirming care or reproductive care to their parents. Instead, the measure requires reporting those youth to the state’s Department of Children, Youth and Families (DCYF).”

You read that correctly. Your kid runs away, goes to a government shelter, and if they are seeking “gender affirming treatment” (GAT) or an abortion, the government will hide them from you. For an indefinite period of time.

Governor Inslee stated: “If a young person is totally estranged from their parents and has no meaningful relationship we need someone to care for that child and the way the legislation is set up is essentially, the Department of Children Youth and Families will step in to that position to care for that child so you have someone looking out for their benefit.”

Who decides “meaningful relationship” and “estranged”? The child, and Big Brother. Nationally, it has been the norm that should a child run away from their home due to incest or physical abuse, the government will keep the

It is the law in Washington that abortions and GAT are “protected health care services.”

Doctors are shielded from any liability for giving abortions or sex change operations and puberty blockers to minors under SB 1340. Furthermore, a minor can get an abortion at any age without consent or notification of the parents. Puberty blockers can be given at 13, and sex change surgery can happen without parental consent or knowledge should the doctor conclude the child is “mature.” Should a parent deny their child an abortion or GAT, the government will hide them and “provide care.”

People have passionate beliefs on GAT, on both sides of the issues. However, the government is stepping in and telling parents “It’s our decision.” Imagine the nightmare of parents cut off from their children, who are making life-altering decisions without them. Children simply aren’t mature enough for the gravity of this.

Hypocritically, Democrats are sponsoring a juvenile offender sentencing bill (SB 5475) predicated on “the expansive body of scientific research on brain development, which shows that adolescents’ perception, judgment, and decision-making skills differs significantly from that of adults.” This is the rationale for reducing sentences because they don’t know better when committing crimes.

Feel safe here? Don’t. Should your kid run off to a shelter there, under HB 1469, it’ll be illegal for an agency to extradite them home in contradiction to Washington laws, and GAT is legally protected. A proposed amendment would have added language to the bill stating its intent “is to not undermine the relationship between a parent and a child and that the act is to be narrowly construed in that context,” but it was rejected.