By LAURA-LYNN TYLER THOMPSON
JUST over a year ago I was told that every child in BC would be told by the public school system called SOGI 123 resources that they are gender-fluid and can switch their sex / gender if they want to.
“This cannot be true!” I said. I began to investigate this wild claim and to my shock, I found it WAS true. SOGI 123 has 14 transgender indoctrination books for kids from Kindergarten to Grade 5, not to mention the continued promotion of transgenderism all through every class to Grade 12.
I began to examine all the Kindergarten books like “I Am Jazz” which is based on the true life story and reality TV series by the same name, based on the life of Jazz Jennings. Jazz, in real life, has just undergone surgery as a 17-year-old to remove his p—s and make a v—a. He began puberty blockers before he was 10 years old and did not have enough male genitalia to complete the surgery in the prescribed way. Jazz had to have tissue from his stomach lining used in the procedure. Jazz has stated that he has never felt sexual feelings for another person. The doctors are saying it is expected that he might be in a depression after this surgery and now we are to all him a girl.
I was then shocked to read “My Princess Boy” about a four-year-old boy whose father dances ad celebrates him being transgender. “His Dad tells my Princess Boy how pretty he looks in a dress.” Then there is “Jacob’s New Dress” where this child insists that he is a girl. “10,000 Dresses” is a book about a little boy who is called a girl through the whole book, except for his mother and father who are presented as very mean and they tell him he is a boy and cannot wear a dress. The strong message is sent that parents do not know what they are talking about.
With only 0.3% of the population ever identifying as transgender why do we have so many books on this subject for little kids? The lesson plans for SOGI 123 ask children to go up to a gender graph and choose where they “feel” like they fit in. It is the deconstruction of everything they know as their foundation. While SOGI 123 claims to be an anti-bullying, inclusive teaching, it actually has a much deeper ideology behind it.
Gender Dysphoria is on the rise. This is where children feel that they don’t fit into their bodies. In the UK they are trying to determine why referrals to gender clinics have gone up 4,000% in 10 years. Professionals like Dr. Lisa Littman have studied this extensively and are calling this a social contagion that is causing some groups of girls to all say they are transgender at the same time. Dr. Littman attributes much of it to videos on the internet that are now making trans-sexuality popular. They say it’s trendy to be trans and the fad is growing. It used to be that we had Goth kids or Punk Rockers, but now the new “in thing” is to be gender-fluid and bi-sexual or pansexual.
SOGI 123 is the subject of the upcoming municipal elections and I am running for a School Trustee position in Burnaby and standing against this child indoctrination resource. Find out who is against SOGI in your area and vote them in on October 20. Teach reading, writing and arithmetic and let kids be kids.
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Author: “Relentless Redemption”
Twitter: @LauraLynnTT Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/lauralynn.t.thompson
If she were elected, I’d be one of the teachers that Laura-Lynn Tyler Thompson would be working with in the Burnaby School District. I’m not going to lie…this is NOT something I look forward to. My primary issue is that valuable time and resources would have to be invested in responding to false narratives that she promotes. She clearly has many misconceptions about how education works – and about SOGI.
Her attack on the resources of SOGI 123 continue to be ridiculous and her political platform and public identity is based on a misrepresentation of truth. She takes “nuggets” from lesson plans, resources, and videos and sensationalizes them with ominous exaggerations. What she claims with regard to the intent behind them, and how the materials are used might be analogous to me suggesting that, because the Bible mentions slavery, the intent of all Christians is to teach young kids to recruit slaves. The mere mention of a group of people, and clarity around what their experience might entail is not indoctrination. We don’t try to teach children to be gender fluid, but we do try to ensure that students who identify in that manner feel safe in their classrooms.
Thompson is under the impression that that when we talk to students about gender as a spectrum, we are attempting to make ALL students gender fluid. The vast majority of students will identify as male or female and no one is interfering with that aspect of their identity. SOGI inclusive education is simply about asking students to recognize that SOME people have a different experience of gender that is not adequately understood within binary restrictions.
Teachers make decisions about resources that are relevant and meaningful to our learning objectives (as defined by the curriculum). We adapt and design lessons to be engaging and informative. We are responsive to the dynamics of our classroom, and because those dynamics are so unique to each classroom, we rarely follow any lesson plan exactly as written. So, to take quotes from a suggested plan, and suggest that all teachers are teaching it exactly as drafted is, at best, misleading, at worst, willfully ignorant.
There are certainly lots of recommended resources and lessons plans available to choose from for ANY subject area. There is such a wealth of resources available, that, even if we endeavoured to, we wouldn’t be able to use them all. The fact that 14 books that feature transgender characters exist or are recommended does not mean that those 14 books are going to be used in the classroom. It simply means that teachers have choices. It allows for teachers to think critically about the materials and select texts that are developmentally appropriate and connected to themes they are developing in their classrooms. These books are often used among a multitude of other books. Resource selection and use is informed by experience gained in practicums, methodology courses, seminars, professional development opportunities, and building relationships with our students. Our choices are informed by the needs of our students, some of whom identify as trans.
Thompson taking issue with the number of books available is a little like claiming a 10 000 volume library collection insists that patrons become paleontologists because Thompson found 100 books about dinosaurs. Or claiming that grocery stores are force-feeding green beans to their customers because there is a display of them in the produce aisle.
Interestingly, Thompson will promote the perspective of one doctor who engaged in a study, that has since undergone some additional scrutiny from peer reviewers since it was initially circulated and claim it as the definitive understanding about trans identities. She neglects to include all of the other perspectives of doctors and researchers whose work represents other findings. Take some time to Investigate the differences between the American Academy of Pediatrics and the American College of Pediatricians. Thompson’s material comes primarily from one group, ignoring that one is considered the authority on pediatric issues, and the other is regarded as a politically-minded Anti-LGBTQ+ group. Her selection and promotion of resources appears to undergo less scrutiny than the ones used in classrooms, something I consider irresponsible when one is making public claims about complex topics, and claiming to be an expert on things that negate the lived experiences of others, and ignore the professional perspectives of health providers. When it comes to what resources and how they are being used in classrooms, I’m going to defer to the judgement of the trained professionals that step into classrooms to do the challenging work of educating children.
I continue to encourage anyone who wants a rational understanding of what SOGI is and how it is actualized in a classroom to talk to their child’s teacher. It is dangerous to rely on the perspective of someone who cherry-picks her resources, uses them out of context, makes inflammatory and inaccurate claims, and who so clearly polarizes the conversation. Sadly, the presence of this candidate and the volatility of her platform, will actually distract teachers from the important work they do because we’re going to be busy correcting miconceptions about SOGI that are the result of this candidate’s fear-mongering.
Love how you’re trying to paint Lara as fear-mongering. She’s not cherrypicking resources. I and many concerned parents have read through what the SOGI curriculum is about and she’s right. There’s no way I’m letting the school override my parental rights on what my children learn – especially material like this that will confuse young, vulnerable children.
Any school trustee willing to speak up against SOGI gets my vote. And there’s a lot of parents i’ve spoken to that are just as outraged. Many are afraid to speak out publicly
Do you know why? Every time someone speaks out against SOGI, they get bullied, called names, and called hateful….by guess who? LGBTQ folks. Which is hilarious considering they’re promoting diversity and acceptance….until they run into opposition. At one time, i sympathized with them because they were wrongly discriminated against but now, I have lost all respect for them as they’ve gone from the defensive to now trying to force their agenda on everyone else and now children. Disgusting.
Brian Gidinsky. Thank you for your comment. I am in total agreement with you. We all have to be prepared to stand up against transphobia and homophobia. Fear mongering and misinformation must be countered with rational arguments and facts. Having a curriculum which includes SOGI is long overdue. Children know what gender they are and SOGI will not change that. What the end result of this curriculum will be is happy healthy children who accept the diversity our society is composed of. We need more teachers like you.
If your math is correct, in a high school with 2000 students, there are 6 students who are transgender or questioning their gender identity. We should do everything we can to ensure those 6 young people feel less alone and more understood.