Forcing Gender-Neutral Language on Everyone Doesn’t Comfort Anyone

Note: This opinion piece was posted to Twitter by Tran Longmore, founder and long-time editor of The Saline Post.

by Tran Longmore

Forcing silly gender-neutral language on everyone else doesn’t provide comfort for anyone except activists who constantly demonstrate to the world that only they matter – and the school board members trying to curry favor with a bunch of asleep-at-the-wheel people who’ve been told this is the next thing to be a good human about. Guess what. Kids are different. Kids stand out. They don’t all fit in the way they want to and no amount of Orwellian language will change that.

Hundreds of kids face that every day for all kinds of reasons. Some kids have a lisp. Some kids are chubby. Some kids speak broken English. Some kids are really short, and others are awkwardly tall. Some kids have learning impediments. But only one reason gets all the attention these days – the public comment, the emotional speeches from school board trustees.

Only one reason requires the schools stop recognizing reality as humanity across the world has known it for centuries. (Even though studies show 65 to 95 percent of kids grow out of it.) For every other reason, we teach kids to be nice. We teach kids to be friendly. Teachers and staff do their best to look out for these kids. And when that’s not enough, parents teach coping. Not for the parents of the gender fluid. For them, we demand everyone change what they know and what they say.

Hormone “therapy.” Sterilizing surgery. (The Orwellian Gender-Affirming Care – a money grab and worse). A difficult confusion is heaped on to a confusing period of life.

Why do we want this, especially when we know that kids with autism, anxiety and depression gravitate towards this as a place to fit in? Why do we want to add to their distress? When people cite the suicide rates and suicide attempt rates – that’s not an invitation to normalize this. That’s a call to do the opposite. Why are we promoting language that normalizes a condition that leaves kids with so much confusion and anxiety about something that’s so fundamental?

Is this language really for the comfort of the gender fluid 2nd grader? Or is it to propagandize the vast majority of kids?