Washington State to Teach Kindergartners about Transgenderism

Under new health education learning standards, Washington state schools will teach transgender expression to kindergartners. The new standards include sexual health as a “core idea” of K-12 education.  The Daily Caller explains, “While some aspects of sexual health aren’t taught K-12 (HIV prevention begins in fourth grade), one component of sexual health titled ‘Self-Identity’ begins in kindergarten, where students will be expected to ‘Understand there are many ways to express gender.'”  The state’s health education glossary defines gender as “A social construct based on emotional, behavioral, and cultural characteristics attached to a person’s assigned biological sex.” Gender expression is defined as “The way someone outwardly expresses their gender.” [2]

As part of an aspect of sexual health titled “Healthy Relationships,” kindergarteners will learn to distinguish between “safe and unwanted touch.” They will also learn to “Recognize people have the right to refuse giving or receiving unwanted touch.” OSPI [Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction] did not answer a question from TheDC about whether this lesson plan amounts to teaching consent to kindergarteners.

In third grade, children will learn that they should respect others’ self-determined “gender identity,” an idea that will be elaborated on in fourth grade, when they will be taught to identify “how friends and family can influence ideas regarding gender roles, identity, and expression,” along with lessons on HIV prevention. [1] In fourth grade, students will learn to define sexual orientation and how friends and family can influence gender expression, gender identity, and gender roles. [5] In fifth grade, children will be taught about the ways “media, society, and culture” influence the “social construct” of gender and how to “identify trusted adults to ask questions about gender identity and sexual orientation.” [1] At the culmination of elementary education around the age of 11 or 12, students will be expected to understand the range of gender identities, gender roles, and gender expression in different cultures. However, the sexual health training regarding gender doesn’t stop there. [5] In seventh grade, students will be asked to distinguish “between biological sex, gender identity, gender expression, and sexual orientation.” [3]  Lastly, high schoolers will learn how culture, society, media, and other people influence our beliefs about sexuality, relationships, gender identity, and sexual orientation.[5]

“The standards don’t define ‘gender spectrum.’ But self-identity is a key component,” Nathan Olson spokesman for OSPI said when TheDC asked whether learning that gender is a “spectrum” is considered part of learning about “gender identity.”  [1]  There has been pushback from people nationwide regarding schools teaching a “gender spectrum.” Fox News’s Todd Starnes reported last month on Fairfax County (Virginia) School District’s plan to teach the gender spectrum to middle- and high-school students with “the idea that there’s no such thing as 100 percent boys or 100 percent girls.” That curriculum caused outrage amongst parents. [5] Despite the massive controversy over ideas surrounding “gender identity” versus biological sex, the OSPI denied they were trying to indoctrinate students with a set of beliefs. “Standards help students become familiar with concepts that education experts feel are essential for all students to know,” Olson said. “Standards are not used to impose belief systems.”  The Daily Caller also asked if a student rejects the teaching that “gender identity” is distinct from “biological sex” would they fail the class. Olson said: “That would be handled at the district/school level.” But then Olson said “we don’t exactly know what a school would do if a student failed to complete an assignment because he/she opposed the materials being taught.” [2]

Falling in line with President Barack Obama’s homosexual agenda that ultimately ended up with the United States Supreme Court redefining marriage to legalize same-sex “marriage” — so that the union is no longer solely recognized as being between one man and one woman — the state of Washington is redefining gender.  According to the Northwest state’s health education glossary, gender is now officially defined as something that is based on a number of confusing contingencies.  “Gender – A social construct based on emotional, behavioral, and cultural characteristics attached to a person’s assigned biological sex,” Washington’s newly revised glossary currently reads.  In order to blur the lines even further between boys and girls — and between men and women — the public education system in the state seeks to make sure that students take a number of factors under consideration when attempting to pigeonhole another’s “true” or desired gender. The state’s health education learning standards attempts to do this though offering another definition.  “Gender expression – The way someone outwardly expresses their gender,” the newly defined LGBT term reads.  Even though changes have already been made to the state standards as public education officials are preparing to roll out the new curricula, a press release has not yet been issued by the Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction (OSPI) to alert concerned parents throughout the state of Washington about what their children will be subjected to within a year’s time.  Admittedly, students’ objection to the new teachings — nor parental consent — were not addressed by the OSPI as it moves forward to implement its new sex education curriculum next year. When pressed, the OSPI conceded that it has not yet determined what would be done if students with sincerely held beliefs opposing the teachings object to completing assignments required under the new curriculum on sexuality. [4]

Nathan Olson, communications manager for OSPI expressed that the individual school districts can create their own curricula surrounding “sexual health” as long as they align with the state’s standards.  While Washington State’s OSPI says that they are not trying to push an agenda with the standards that strive to teach students about gender expression, these standards contain concepts that “educational experts” believe are essential. However, those “educational experts” often push liberal viewpoints at students, so it seems as they are indirectly doing so through the state’s new standards.  Also, its interesting that Washington State’s public schools are designating sexual health as a “core idea” of K-12 education. Traditionally, the core ideas of education have been social sciences, English, and STEM subjects. It appears that the government wants future students to learn different things in school than previous students had. [5]

“Parents should be concerned about whether these standards are age-appropriate, as well as whether the manner in which these topics will be taught may undermine the values held by their family,” the Family Policy Institute of Washington said in a statement. “It is frightening to think that students who hold traditional beliefs about gender and sexual identity may have to choose between accepting politically correct talking points or failing assignments and being ostracized by school administrators.”  Joseph Backholm, executive director of the Family Policy Institute of Washington, told LifeSiteNews, “By and large, this is not something that kindergartners are walking around wondering about themselves,” and questions they do have should be answered by parents. [8]

Below are screenshots of the “self-identity” and “healthy relationships” sections of Washington’s sexual health standards for K-5:

This is what Rush Limbauch had to say on the issue: