Although the end of Summer always signals the start of a challenging new school year, children and parents in Minnesota never expected the journey would include learning about gender pronouns. Yet while many of the state’s families were likely enjoying a much needed vacation this past July, the State’s Department of Education advisory council was voting to implement an LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender) “toolkit” for Minnesota’s public and charter school students; grades K-12.
It seems the educational flakes there are concerned about “evolving” gender identity issues. And since the council’s report advises that “gender identity does not correlate with sexual orientation,” the toolkit can assist teachers on how to be more “inclusive” in addressing LGBT issues. Who would have figured?
Of course, at the top of the list, children should be permitted to use the restroom of their preferred gender identity. In addition, according to the Washington Free Beacon, teachers must refer to a child by their pronoun of choice and “call students by whatever name they choose” to prevent them from being bullied. What’s more, students have no requirement to provide legal verification that their names have even changed. Any teacher in non-compliance with this standard could be found in violation of the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act. Other recommendations include using gender-neutral terms like “students” or “scholars,” instead of “boys” or “girls,” while offensive terms such as “homecoming king/queen” would be replaced with the more appropriate “prom ambassadors.” Students and teachers alike are encouraged to promote the new standards, while families of affected children are treated as mere bystanders to progress.
But amidst the incessant cultural glorification of transgenderism, calls of reason occasionally emerge. Walter Heyer, author of “A Transgender’s Faith,” recently appeared on the Glenn Beck Radio Network to share his powerful personal message of faith and the restoration to his male birth gender. Now 76 years old, Heyer’s life mission is to assist those who wish to return to their own birth gender after realizing that transitioning to the opposite sex was a mistake.
Heyer’s story begins at age four, when he became interested in female things and cross-dressing. His grandmother even made him a dress which heightened his gender confusion. When Heyer’s parents discovered the secret a couple years later, his father imposed harsh discipline and he was sexually abused at the hands of his uncle.
Things only grew worse from there. At age 13, Heyer was diagnosed with multiple personality disorder, changed his name to Crystal and became consumed with becoming female. Finally, at age 40, he was diagnosed with gender issues by a psychologist, recommended for hormone therapy, and in 1983 had transitional surgery to become a woman. Today, Heyer holds no grudges, but is troubled by those who sing the praises of transitional surgery despite the high rate of suicide that accompanies it.
According to some research, the pre-surgery transition suicide rate and post-surgery rate both stand at 46 percent. Percentages for those under age 30 are even worse. Heyer adds that 60 to 70 percent of those affected also suffer from separation anxiety, dissociative and body dismorphic disorders, schizophrenia and other assorted ailments that are not even being treated. Last, but not least, no emphasis is placed on determining what trigger mechanism set the transgenderism in motion or on identifying the trauma that caused their desire to be someone they cannot be.
For Heyer, he experienced a temporary euphoria after becoming female. Then, after eight years of trying to suppress his difficult childhood, he realized that his gender issues were actually psychological in nature. Thus, they could not be successfully treated with defective hormone therapy and surgery. Yet today, some states actually prohibit therapists from giving pause to juveniles suffering from gender dysphoria.
Heyer had also been unnecessarily mutilated, literally feeling like a man trapped in a woman’s body. Ultimately, Heyer would successfully detransition back to a man; finding faith through God and overcoming alcoholism.
Today, he is completely content in his manhood after meeting his wife at an AA meeting in 1992. They remain together after 20 years of marriage. In addition, Heyer helped start a website in 2005 calledSexChangeRegret.com for those who know the true heartbreak associated with transition surgery. In 2015 alone, 350,000 people visited the site from around the world. Its simple message; face your emotional issues through therapy and without hormones or needless surgery.
Still, transgender kookism is not just an American problem.
A new law in Ontario, Canada allows the government to remove children from a family if the parents refuse to accept a child’s “gender identity.” Meanwhile in Norway, the state may now determine gender reassignment for children as young as six when parents cannot agree on their child’s gender. Policies such as these point to the importance of school choice and parental activism. And for those who contend that American education is immune to such thinking, consider the citizens of Minnesota, who once upon a time were happy simply being known as the “Land of 10,000 Lakes.”
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