“If something can’t go on, it won’t,” the paraphrase of economist Herb Stein goes. And thus did mass hysteriae such as the Salem witch trials, medieval dancing plagues, and Tanganyika laughter epidemic inevitably end. So it will be with the MUSS (Made-up Sexual Status, aka “transgender”) agenda. The only question is when.
Perhaps providing a clue is a new guidance for English schools, scheduled to be published Tuesday, that reportedly will dial back on the imposition of some of the MUSS agenda’s most radical dictates. As The Telegraph reports (note: The following incorrectly applies the term “gender” to people; the proper term for the quality of being male or female is “sex”):
Schools will be told to presume that a child cannot change gender in the Government’s first guidance for teachers on trans issues.
Under the new “parent first” approach, head teachers must tell parents if their child wants to change gender.
Teachers and other pupils will be told they do not have to use the preferred pronouns of children, and staff will not face sanctions if they choose not to do so.
The guidance, set to be published on Tuesday, has been promised since 2018 but delayed amid a disagreement within the Government over how to respond to the rise in the number of children who say they are trans.
The Government will urge schools to take a cautious approach to children who want to transition socially — where they adopt the pronouns and dress of the opposite gender.
A Whitehall source said: “This Government firmly believes parents should be involved in decisions about their children and much more caution should be taken, so this guidance means there should effectively now be a presumption against social transitioning in schools.”
… Schools will also be told they have no obligation to provide gender-neutral facilities, including lavatories, changing rooms and dormitories. Single-sex schools will be told that they do not need to accommodate transgender pupils.
Note that these changes would merely bring school policy more in line with public sentiment. This is necessary, too, The Telegraph stated in an October article, because the lack of regulations have allowed the (radical) squeaky wheel to get the grease.
Ministers of Parliament “have warned that without official guidance, schools have been forced to seek advice from third-party providers, which have arguably promoted radical gender ideology in classrooms,” the paper wrote.
“A report by the Policy Exchange think tank published in March found that schools were routinely affirming allowing pupils to change their gender identity without informing parents.”
“Teachers in one school in Brighton have punished pupils for using the wrong [read: “right”] pronouns, a campaign group set up by worried parents has claimed,” The Telegraph continued.
Know, too, that the persecution of students and teachers for using objectively correct, but politically incorrect, pronouns is a phenomenon that pervades the West — including the U.S.
While many will cheer the new guidance as a victory for common sense, no victory lap is warranted. First, even if the guidance “reaches teachers before December 25, Ms Keegan [education secretary] has said it will be subject to a ‘long consultation’ before it is finalised,” The Telegraph also related in October. And, of course, it could easily be watered down during this phase.
Even more significantly, some critics have pointed out that the guidance is a half measure, as “social transitioning” is still allowed. English politicians had considered a complete prohibition, but an attorney general warning that this would be illegal under the “Equality Act 2010” deterred them. (Consider: What does it say about “equality” when it trumps sanity?)
In reality, while the guidance represents movement in the right direction, it nonetheless amounts to the mere retaking of a small percent of recently lost cultural territory, to put it figuratively. It wasn’t that long ago that the MUSS agenda was unknown to many people and absent from schools, and that “gender dysphoria” was considered a psychological issue called “gender identity disorder” (and should be labeled “sexual identity disorder”).
Now, being part of the Sexual Devolution, “gender” is an obsession. As MSN commenter Rhonda Dockery put it, responding to the first Telegraph article, “Why are schools even thinking ‘constant gender’ over Reading, History, writing, mathematics and critical thinking skillls [sic]?”
Since former (and regretful) MUSS individual Alan Finch is correct in saying that you “fundamentally can’t change sex…. Transsexualism was invented by psychiatrists,” you can’t “transition,” socially or otherwise. There thus should be no “social transitioning” in schools (or anywhere).
(For that matter, sex — including in the form of so-called “education” — shouldn’t be in the schools, period.)
Moreover, the term “gender dysphoria” supplanted “gender identity disorder” after complaints that the latter was stigmatizing. In reality, though, that this stigma has been replaced by reward — masquerading as the opposite sex can now bring attention, sympathy, preferential treatment, and even great riches (to “influencers”) — explains why the once rare MUSS phenomenon is now a fad. It explains why, while decades ago most claiming opposite-sex status were boys, today most are girls: the latter are more susceptible to social contagion.
In other words, the behavior in question is supposed to be stigmatized. In accordance with the “Condemn the sin, not the sinner” principle, a truly confused youngster should get treatment for his disordered feelings. But acting on those feelings should never, ever be tolerated.
Remarking on the new English guidance, commentator Allison Pearson prays that it “will be the beginning of the end of the trans lunacy.” But a beginning is all it is. And as demonstrated by a lawsuit just settled in New York — in which a school district agreed to reinstate critical race theory and “identity” in its curriculum (and paid the plaintiffs $100,000) — beginnings can be ended.
Because evil never rests, neither can the good.
