Recall Has a Blog (No Comments)

The recall group has their own blog. Of course, after the fiasco with their previous message board, where their fanatics got completely out of control, until they had to shut it down, the recall group's blog doesn't have any comments.

That's good for them, because it means no dialogue. Dialogue can only be bad for them, in two ways: people on their side can say what they think, and people who disagree with them can say what they think. In the past, this has meant that their people raved like loonies, including threatening the school board and everything else, and people who happened across the message board started leaving prank messages, making fun of them. If they had allowed comments on their blog, the same thing would happen, you know it would. The one smart thing they've ever done, cutting off the dialogue before it hurts them.

We have a strict policy here. If you want to comment, we don't care about your point of view, if you're decent about it. These are obviously complex issues, and it's not scary to us if somebody can disagree with grace and wit. But trolls -- and if you don't know what that is, you probably aren't one -- will be banned, pure and simple. If people want to be jerks about it, we'll shut off our comments altogether.

OK, so the recall blog of today says:

The new curriculum blithely adds this note, "Transgender refers to someone whose gender identity or expression differs from conventional expectations for their physical sex. This term includes transsexual and transvestite. (Source: American Academy of Pediatrics, Pediatrics, Vol. 92, No. 4 (Oct. 1993), pp. 631-34)"

Yep, no reference at all to gender identity disorder.

(The irony here is that the above link is one of the resources that the advisory committee recommended but isn't given to teachers or included in the lesson outline.)

Wow ... blithely ... no reference at all... irony ... that sounds bad.

That last comment is about their link in their text to an article about gender identity disorder, which, as they say, they wanted to be in the curriculum. But ... nobody cares. This isn't what the class is about, it isn't relevant, it really doesn't belong here, and it was voted down in the committee. The brought it up, they showed everybody, everybody voted, and they lost. That happens sometimes.

Maybe they would've wanted to quote the whole section, which starts: For Teacher Reference Only.

See, this material isn't for a classroom lecture, this is some auxilliary information for when a student asks a question, so the teacher has some idea what the answer is. No, they don't list every character disorder and neurosis that has a sexual-identity component. This section of the curriculum gives teachers some definitions -- here's the whole section, so you can see the term in context:

For Teacher Reference Only
Questioning refers to people who are uncertain as to their sexual orientation. (No source)
Transgender refers to someone whose gender identity or expression differs from conventional expectations for their physical sex. This term includes transsexual and transvestite.(Source: American Academy of Pediatrics, Pediatrics, Vol. 92, No. 4 (Oct. 1993), pp. 631-34)
Coming Out refers to the process in which a person identifies himself or herself as homosexual or bisexual to family, friends and other significant people in his or her life. (Source: American Psychiatric Association Fact Sheet: Gay, Lesbian and Bisexual Issues (May 2000)).
Intersexed refers to people who are born with anatomy or physiology (ambiguous genitalia) that differs from cultural and/or medical ideals of male and female. (School Resource)

See? It's just information for the teacher, answers to some questions that might come up.

What are the chances a kid is going to raise their hand and ask, "Teacher? Teacher? What is gender identity disorder?"

And this is what they're so upset about?