Another school year has begun, and the daily schedule of attending to all is underway. As. the new students enter the schools looking for their place, and the returning students; well, we have all been there. Nothing is ever the same, it is simply a matter of assimilating back into your previous environment. You were quite comfortable, only three short months before. As a student on the first few days of class, it seems like eons have passed; until one of two reminders of reality slowly reveal two of what used to be considered “old reliable”. The first reminder is normally the food. Everyone enters the cafeteria, and as you begin to see all of your old friends waving you over to sit, you begin to get that “de ja vu” experience once more. You spend some quality time there and finally, you are at ease.
The other walk thru begins immediately with the sound and smell of physical education in the gym. For those of us who were assigned gym lockers, you will remember that anxious feeling of getting your number and walking through. You looked for your number with growing anxiety praying for a top locker. At the same time, you could feel eyes on your back, and your friend base growing as you seemed like an avenger proceeding without fear, until you reach- the top locker.
You can remember the feeling of “the top locker.” The elation is unlike any other. Your fellow gym mates experience mixed emotions; some look upon you as if you had just defeated the “Kraken”. (Tennyson, 1892) Others look upon you with distrust, as there must be a trick to getting the top locker. One thing is certain about these first few days, emotions run high, and students feel pressured; tested in a way to achieve what is beyond their control.
With all of these sensations running high, coupled with meeting new students, new teachers, finding classes, finding lockers in the halls and then once again-in the most private of all places, the gym locker room. Imagine the following scenario- there are two:
1) Females: You are standing in your locker room getting ready for gym class, when you hear the words “And this will be your locker, young lady.” (Kellogg, 2015) Standing before you is a boy- a boy, who dresses and acts like a girl. More recently, the terminology is politically correct when stated “a boy who identifies as a girl” being assigned a locker and was allowed to use the same restroom.
2) Males: You are standing in your locker room, perhaps near the urinal, when you hear the words “And this will be your locker, young man.” Standing before you is a girl– a girl, who dresses and acts like a boy. More recently, the terminology is politically correct when stated “a girl who identifies as a boy” being assigned a locker and was allowed to use the same restroom.
This happened just yesterday in the classes at Hillsboro R-3 School District in Missouri. The female students in the locker room were faced with this very situation, as well as their parents. Matt Sharp is an attorney with the Alliance Defense Foundation (ADF) advised, “The female Hillsboro students were shocked, because no notice given. There were also no accommodations offered to female students who objected to the use by the student.” Sharp says, “The ADF suspected the policy change has the fingerprints of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) on it and says the school district is, in fact, relying on materials from the ACLU, such as before in cases such as the one involving the Gloucester School Board. The focus of this concern was representation of the concerns of parents and students, after legal counsel voted all students would use restrooms corresponding to their biological sex or to use one of the several single-stall private restrooms available. (Kellogg, 2015)
Attorney Sharp states, “The ACLU has made it very clear that part of their agenda is to break down traditional gender ‘barriers’ to create a genderless society.” For some, this is the beginning, or the first they have heard of the ACLU or gender “barriers”, but for the States of Massachusetts and California? This is an ongoing controversy, that can continue for them, or it could help others realize gender born have rights as well. Gender born have the right to choose? Some would say, choosing is being informed, and having a choice. Others would say, having the right to choose to be informed is one thing, but to have the information pushed on you; or having your parents against it? This conflict could be too much for children, and could actually cause regression, aggression, and a reason to bully.
California and Massachusetts have a bill in their states protecting those with disabilities against being bullied. I did not realize transgender was a disability, but that is another concern. These two states are recognizing transgender equality as a need to be addressed as early as elementary school. They now have transgender coaches entering the first and second grade classrooms, and teaching the children in graphic detail, that it is okay to be something other than what you were born to be. You do not even have to be a gender at all.
We have now come to be a society of people who are undetermined, and why? We do not want to be bullied. As a parent, you may say, “Well, I would just sign that form that says my child will not be attending.” According to the Mass Resistance, it is not an option to do so. The reasons the schools are mandating it, or the reasons the government passed the bills, are because of the following:
Parents at home aren’t doing their job, aren’t supporting kids’ choices, and are even throwing kids out of the house if they say they are “transgender”.
This is absolutely necessary to stop bullying, which “transgender” kids suffer from more than others.
We must have respect for differences.
Transgender” kids are committing suicide, and these programs must be done school-wide to stop that.
We need everyone to feel welcome and safe.
(And our favorite:) If you’re against this, then you’re in favor of teaching children to hate.
The Center for Lesbian Rights and Gender Spectrum, and the California Teachers Association, (CTA) were interviewed on Weigh In by Megyn Kelly, with Fox News Reporting. Their director, Shannon Price Minter, Board of Faith in America Chair and the Legal Director for the Center for Lesbian Rights, who advised the curriculum was gentle and learning, and there was no reason to have an opt out; however, Brad Daycus President of Pacific Justice referenced material from their teaching, and
discussed why it should be an opt-out for parents, and why parents wanted to opt out. However, the director denied knowing anything about that information in particular, and remained firm that the program should not be opted out of. (Price Minter, 2011) It is for these reasons the ADF has drawn up the District Model Policy.
With the ACLU push towards breaking down gender walls inside our schools, the ADF has drawn up this model, and it will establish:
(1) No federal law requires public schools to open sex-specific restrooms, showers, and changing areas to opposite-sex students,
(2) Providing such access violates the fundamental rights of the vast majority of students and parents, and
(3) Schools have broad discretion to regulate the use of school restrooms, showers, and changing areas. (Sharp, 2015)
A school board meeting will be held today, August 27, 2015 to discuss the options available for parents and students. It is one concern to uphold the right to bodily privacy, as not to violate the rights of the students. It’s also a concern for the legal liability of the District, to maintain the rights and protections of its employees.
Our Two Cents:
Some people will still argue about transgender and how transsexualism or transgenderism is something they struggle with from birth; therefore, it must be something God given. Well, I don’t know anything about having transgender, because I wasn’t born with this ailment. I was born female. There are times I wanted to be a boy. I wanted to play football, and even tried to play on the football team. They told the few of us girls, we had to be on a “power-puff” football team.
There was another time I can remember I wanted to be a boy, because my dad always went with boys to do things. I saw my cousins go hunting and fishing, and even though my dad didn’t always go, I didn’t want to stay with my mom. My uncle told me I couldn’t go, not because I wasn’t tall enough, or not that I couldn’t pull my weight, but because I was a girl. I remember my dad going to work, and watching him fire up his log truck, and my mom was talking with my sister about going to college. She said, “What are you going to do when you grow up?” I told her I wanted to drive a log truck, like daddy. “That is stupid,” she smirked. I remember thinking, “It’s not stupid; daddy does it! And how I used to watch him sometimes come through town, or backing it in, or driving that truck out at 4AM. I would get up just to watch him. I wanted to be just like him, but I wasn’t a boy.
These days, with gender equality being such a big part of the work place, girls I grew up with are driving trucks, and all types of jobs you would not have thought about girls doing. So, I a girl can do anything a man can do, why can’t a man do anything a woman can do? Well, because quite frankly, he doesn’t have the necessary body parts, and that is where the problem began:
You see, Genesis 1:27 says:
~So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.
It did not say, HE created man in his own image; male, female and a (?). He placed the three in a box of crackerjack, and the answer received, is what HE created. God had a specific purpose, never did HE leave anything to chance.
One of my favorite versus, I suppose because it is about me. It’s also about you. It’s about each of my children, and yours. I love it, because it’s so personal, so subjective, and so perfect in every way about me. It’s also about you too. Psalm 139:13-18 says:
~For you formed my inward parts; you knitted me together in my mother’s womb. I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Wonderful are your works; my soul knows it very well. My frame was not hidden from you, when I was being made in secret, intricately woven in the depths of the earth. Your eyes saw my unformed substance; in your book were written, every one of them, the days that were formed for me, when as yet there was none of them.
I have heard some people say, “I was just like a child, switched at birth. I belonged to someone else.” No child was born in the wrong womb, surround in the wrong placenta, or delivered by the wrong mother. You were born how you were supposed to be. God doesn’t make mistakes. God is love, and love does not delight in evil. Jesus definitely claims to be sufficient for any and all of our battles, and He desires to sanctify us through His Word of truth. John 17:17 says~
Sanctify them in the truth; your word is the truth!
As children, we are complacent with our limitations. We learn we all have limitations, physically, mentally, emotionally, and spiritually. We accept them and we grow. Our parents teach us we are loved, no matter what. Our Father, teaches us we are loved, no matter what. However, as we become adults, we decide we want more. We can have more. We go out and we get more. What happened to having those limitations and still being who we are and being loved just the same?
I remember growing up and watching all of these Olympic hopefuls and how they because Olympic winners. Some of those people were winners, and it came to be they were winners, not because they trusted in God, but because they took medications. Others became Olympic winners because they succeeded in being all they were. One of those people was Bruce Jenner.
I recall looking at Bruce Jenner, and thinking, “Wow!” “How blessed he was to be able to do all he did.” “He won!” As a man, aging in a world of people who thought so much of him, he decides he wants to be a woman. He went from someone I used to read about, to someone I don’t even browse a magazine about. As a grown up with my limitations, physically, mentally, emotionally, and spiritually- I consider the fact there are many things I guess I could do to make some changes, but why bother? I am so perfect in the only way it matters. And when I look at my children, I hope they see me the way God sees me too; for purity of heart, and grace is so precious in the eyes of God, and in Luke 17:1-2 to HIS disciples HE says:
~”Temptations to sin are sure to come, but woe to the one through whom they come! It would be better for him if a millstone were hung around his neck and he were cast into the sea than that he should cause one of these little ones to sin.”
I pray each night for my children and their limitations: physically, mentally, emotionally, and spiritually. I pray each night for those who want to be something they can’t because of a limitation. I pray for each child who is caused to sin because of their parent’s lack of interest. I pray for Casey, Ben, Brody, Kendall, and Kylie Jenner for it was hard enough to be raised in the public eye with a father who gave up so much to be an athlete in his younger years. That is an extremely hard life to live. Then to selfishly give up his adulthood to live the life of a woman in a very public life. If this person, wherever his heart may be, would have given more of it to be a father, than to be famous; these kids would have everything. I pray our Father gives them more.
Touring from the Park Bench 