WHEREAS in the last 15 years there has been an explosion in the number of minors in the United States self-identifying as transgender as evidenced by the fact that the first pediatric gender clinic in the US opened in 2007 and there are more than 50 such clinics in the country today; and
WHEREAS it has been shown that the transgender trend in schools across the nation is driven by social contagion and social media influencers causing a precipitous rise in the number of young people identifying as trans unlike classic gender dysphoria which for decades affected only 0.01% of the population, mainly in young boys, but now, according to a June 2022 report, 1.4% of 13 to 17 year-olds and 1.3% of 18 to 24-year-olds in the US identify as transgender,
double from 5 years ago when the percentage for both was 0.7%, and making an estimated transgender population of 1.6 million transgender people ages 13 or older in the US; and
WHEREAS schools across the nation are teaching children beginning in kindergarten about "gender diversity" promoting the idea that gender is not determined by biology, but is "fluid" and they can choose to be a boy or girl or both or neither and that they can "self-identify" their gender and be supported in school, even without parental knowledge or consent, labeling teachers "unethical" if they don't affirm students' stated gender identities; and
WHEREAS in the US, government agencies, medical and teacher associations, and state legislatures are advocating transgender affirming policies and procedures in the name of nondiscrimination and in support of anti-bullying and anti-harassment policies; and in the name of preventing suicide in transgender minors ("Would you rather have a dead daughter or a live son"); and
WHEREAS transgender and gender non-conformity social affirmation include practices that affect society at large such as when changes are made in the use of names and pronouns normally used by the opposite biological sex, effecting a change in our basic language norms; and access to restrooms, locker rooms, school trip overnight accommodations, etc. of the opposite biological sex, forcing, for instance, biologic females to share these private spaces
with biologic males; and allowing biologic males to join women's sports' teams, giving them unfair advantage over the women athletes, essentially erasing women's rights to have their own teams; and changing sex on birth certificates, school records, and other official documents, promoting inaccurate recording of vital statistics and risking mistaken sex in medical care; and
WHEREAS transgender affirmation can include the use of medical interventions such as puberty blockers, cross-sex hormones, and sex reassignment surgery which are not fully reversible and have lifelong implications for the minors undergoing these treatments, including lifelong medicalization, infertility, and sexual dysfunction, and are deemed in many states as child abuse; and
WHEREAS there is no test or scan that a medical professional can administer which can diagnose, examine, or observe a gender identity; and
WHEREAS when "gender confused" children self-identify as transgender, their self-diagnosis is taken as irrefutable by educators and medical professionals without any physical, mental, or emotional testing or counseling to further confirm their diagnosis or help them to overcome their distress over their biologic gender; and
WHEREAS 25 states in the United States, including Utah, have made psychotherapy to reduce gender dysphoria in children younger than 18, illegal: and
WHEREAS compared to minors who are not trans, a high percentage of young people who identify as trans have coexisting mental and emotional health challenges, often also associated with suicidal tendencies; and
WHEREAS initial studies claiming high suicide rates among trans-identifying youth who were not affirmed compared to those who were affirmed are now considered highly flawed, and more current studies have found that ten years after "gender transition surgery" trans-identified people are nearly 20 times more likely to die from suicide than the general population; and
WHEREAS 61-98% of children who struggle with their sex as a boy or a girl come to accept their sex by adulthood if not subjected to chemical or surgical interventions or social transition; and
WHEREAS the “gender affirmative" model reinforces false beliefs that ignore basic science which tells us that there are two sex chromosomes—2 X's in females, and an X and Y in males—in nearly every cell of our bodies, including in our brains, so it is virtually impossible to be born with a body with a brain of the opposite sex and other such theories; and
WHEREAS the UK's National Health Service, the Swedish National Board of Health and Welfare, and the Finnish Health Authority, after decades of advocating and practicing the gender affirmative model, have within the last year conducted independent reviews and are now rejecting this model, saying there is insufficient evidence to justify the general clinical use of puberty blockers or cross-sex hormone use in youth experiencing gender dysphoria, and
acknowledging that a treatment regimen that focuses exclusively on gender dysphoria, ignoring co-occurring mental health conditions, will not provide optimal care for young people, resulting, among other consequences, in the world's largest pediatric gender clinic in London being condemned and forced to shut down by the Spring of 2023; and
WHEREAS in the United States and Europe there are increasing reports of de-transition and transition-related regret among youth who transitioned in recent years, many asking where were the adults in their lives when they were "gender confused" and allowed to make such life altering decisions? Now, therefore, be it
RESOLVED that the Wyoming Republican Party urges the Wyoming State Legislature, the Wyoming Department of Education and Lincoln County School Districts #1 and #2 to enact legislation and create policies that support the following guidelines:
Schools should teach only scientifically proven truths about human biology and reject unproven theories, subjective perceptions or political ideologies such as gender- identity ideology in the classroom, in all instructional and library materials, in extracurricular clubs and activities, and in school record keeping;
School policies should respect the parents' role in guiding the beliefs and protecting the health and well-being of their children, maintaining transparency with parents as gender identity policies are being contemplated, adopted, and implemented, notifying parents if their child expresses that he or she wants to identify as transgender, and respecting parents'; decisions about their children's gender-identity issues, so long as they do not violate the rights of other students;
Schools must protect the safety, privacy, and diverse beliefs of all their students by fostering a culture of respect for the bodily differences between the sexes and the safety concerns these differences create, providing for the need for separate and/or private spaces for both biologic sexes, allowing only biologic girls to compete in girl's teams and athletic events, etc.;
Schools should foster a culture of "respect for difference" encouraging children whose interests are outside of stereotypical norms for boys and girls (boys who prefer dance to sports or girls who prefer wrestling to cheerleading), reinforcing that these preferences do not mean that children are something other than their sex or that they need to alter or harm their bodies to fit a mold.
Sources:
Irreversible Damage, The Transgender Craze Seducing Our Daughters, Abigail Shrier, 2020, Blackstone Publishing
Navigating the Transgender Landscape, School Resource Guide, Child and Parental Rights Campaign, Inc. (CPRC), 2020
Special Report: Transgenderism in America, The Epoch Times Special Report: Epoch Insight, Week 37, 2022
World's Largest Pediatric Gender Clinic Shut Down Due to Poor Evidence, Risk of Harm, and Operational Failures, Society for Evidence Based Gender Medicine (SEGM), July 29, 2022, segrn.org
Passed:
Wyoming Republican Party, 22 Nov 12 SCC
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