Last year, Townhall reported how documents uncovered by parental rights organization Parents Defending Education (PDE) found that Seattle Public Schools’ School Based Health Centers offer middle and high school students access to certain types of gender mutilation care, including referrals for irreversible surgeries.
Now, documents obtained by PDE and shared with Townhall show that another Washington school district is partnering with a clinic to push dangerous transgender ideology on its students.
According to the documents, a “research scientist” from the Multicare Gender Health Research Program sent an email to Tacoma Public Schools asking for a transgender survey to be sent to students as young as 14 years old. The email was sent on Feb. 20 and is described as “confidential” for “trans and gender-expansive young people, ages 14-24." The "research scientist" urged the school to keep the survey private (via PDE):
Please do not post anything about this online, especially on social media. We have learned that bots and bad actors specifically target queer research efforts to sabotage the work and/or take the financial incentive. We have several data quality/safety measures built in, but I’d like to do everything we can to ensure that real and eligible humans are participating.
The survey asked students to share if they knew where to find information about so-called “gender-affirming care,” which includes puberty blockers, sex reassignment surgery and hormone treatments. In addition, students were asked if they’ve experienced “microaggressions” and discrimination for their gender identity (via PDE):
The survey asks numerous questions where participants answer “strongly agree,” “agree,” “somewhat agree,” “somewhat disagree,” “disagree,” or “strongly disagree.” Some questions asked in this survey include:
I know where to find good information about gender affirming care.
My gender affirming care provider respects who I am.
I have had to teach my healthcare providers about gender affirming care.
I know/knew how to navigate the transition into adult gender affirming care.
I have experienced microaggressions, discrimination, or hostility from my parents/caregivers about my gender identity.
I think that my primary healthcare provider has talked or might talk to my parents/caregivers about my gender without my permission.
My parents/caregivers accept my gender identity.
I worry that I might regret taking gender affirming hormones.
My parents/caregivers are (or were) worried about or afraid of me receiving gender affirming care.
Students were offered a $20 e-gift card to Fred Meyer or Amazon for taking the survey.
“The cozy relationship between gender clinics and school districts needs to end. Too many schools are all too willing to offer these clinics access to a captive audience of vulnerable students without the knowledge of their parents. These clinics and their affiliated schools need to leave minor students alone and stop pressuring them into conversations and surveys about their gender. This is like pushing Scientology on kids except it can lead to permanent changes to the body including the removal of healthy body parts – schools are complicit in that," Erika Sanzi, director of outreach at PDE, told Townhall.
