The truth that a person’s gender is solely determined by biology was, until very recently, universally recognized as self-evident. If an otherwise healthy biological boy believed he was a girl, he was deemed to have a identity disorder called Gender Dysphoria (GD); a psychological condition still recognized as a mental disorder in the most recent edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of the American Psychiatric Association (DSM-V).

There is no scientific evidence that a man can somehow be trapped in a woman’s body, or that a woman can somehow be trapped in a man’s body: nor can someone born male become female; or someone born female become male. As a definitive study by two world-renowned psychiatrists titled “Sexuality and Gender” recently concluded: “…transgenderism is unsupported by science and any notion to the contrary is dangerous, especially for children.”

Notwithstanding the medical facts, several provincial governments within Canada have recently enacted laws forcing educational and medical professionals to recognize gender ideology as valid. 

Dr. Kenneth Zucker, a world-renown child psychologist specializing in Gender Dysphoria, had to close his gender identity clinic in Toronto last year, despite having successfully treated hundreds of children with GD during the previous three decades, after Ontario withdrew funding under Bill 77, which proclaimed: “No person shall, in the course of providing health care services, provide any treatment that seeks to change the sexual orientation or gender identity of a person under 18 years of age.”

In 2015, Alberta enacted Bill 10, allowing children, of any age, and without parental consent, to choose language reflecting their choice of gender within schools. Alberta then implemented a mandatory policy declaring: “For the purpose of accommodating the diverse needs of students and staff in a school, an individual’s self-identification is the sole measure of their sexual orientation, gender identity or gender expression.”

Prominent Alberta doctors publicly condemned this policy, especially the provision allowing a child’s self-identification to be the sole measure for determining gender identity. As they explained: “Nowhere else in medicine, other than gender identity and sexuality, is such a reckless stance taken or practiced.” They cited the case of an anorexic girl who believed she was “obese,” despite being severely malnourished and requiring emergency hospitalization. They argued that if they had been forced to accept her mistaken self-identification she would have starved to death.

The American College of Pediatricians (ACPeds) offers a wealth of scientific evidence in their study “Gender Ideology Harms Children” which explains how gender ideology is both unscientific and extremely damaging. They note that according to the DSM-V, as many as 98% of gender-confused boys and 88% of gender-confused girls eventually accept their biological sex after naturally passing through puberty, adding that rates of suicide are twenty times greater among adults who use cross-sex hormones and undergo sex reassignment surgery. They conclude that “…conditioning children into believing that a lifetime of chemical and surgical impersonation of the opposite sex is normal and healthy is child abuse.” [For links to ACPeds and other documents referenced in this article go to: https://kja321.wordpress.com].

Gender Ideology is a cruel fiction: it erroneously teaches children they can “choose” to be either male or female. The PEI government must keep this dangerous theory out of Island schools – to accept and promote it would be tantamount to state-sanctioned child abuse.