Warwick defends their children from anti-trans bigots
"These kids are not disordered, bending cultural trends, or going through a phase. They're not pretending to be another gender and they're not contagious. They're just normal people."
Right-wing anti-trans activists descended on the Warwick School Committee on Wednesday in an attempt to convince committee members to reverse a seven-year-old state-mandated Rhode Island Department of Education (RIDE) policy that protects the rights of transgender, gender diverse, and transitioning students. As has become usual, the subject of transgender students was not on the agenda; the subject was brought up by anti-trans rights activist Robert Chiaradio, a Westerly resident allied with the Washington County, Rhode Island branch of Moms for Liberty, a far-right extremist group.
A large number of Warwick residents turned out to oppose Chiaradio. I have included his comments to the committee as a footnote.1 After Chiaradio’s comments, an audience member characterized his words as “Absolutely disgusting,” provoking Committee Chair Shaun Galligan to call for “decorum.”
Calls for decorum and respect for the opinions of people you don’t agree with are all well and good until, but, as Reverend Father Jarrett Kerbel reminded the committee, quoting James Baldwin, “We can disagree and still love each other unless your disagreement is rooted in my oppression and denial of my humanity and right to exist.” Chiaradio, in school committees across Rhode Island, has claimed that trans people do not exist, saying, “No matter how much a boy wants to be a girl, dresses like a girl, or thinks he's a girl, he will never be a girl, never. Same with girls who identify as boys.”
Below is the testimony presented, edited for clarity:
Eve Condon: I'm a Warwick resident. I'm a proud auntie of a non-binary child, and I'm a member of the LGBTQ+ community. I am speaking in favor of RIDE's policies regarding gender-diverse children. I am urging you to uphold those policies.
I don't even know where to begin to rebut everything the [previous speaker] said, but I've heard him speak before. The things he has to say about gender affirming care are blatantly untrue. [His words] are contradicted by best practices that are evidence-based and are supported by the American Psychological Association, the American Medical Association, and the American Academy of Pediatrics. These policies are there for a reason. They work, they save lives. Please consider that, and please consider upholding these policies.
Rebecca Malone: I'm a Warwick resident, and I have four boys who've been in the district. And I'm also a school psychologist. I would like to voice my opinion agreeing with the woman who just spoke and affirm that these policies are in place to protect our children and that if we did not have these policies in place, students who belong to the LGBTQ community or are transgender or non-binary, would be subjected to a lot of discrimination. We're looking to eliminate that in the schools. A lot of what [the first speaker] said is untrue, and I want to reiterate that. Thank you for your time and consideration in protecting all of our students.
Kristen Lancaster: I am a resident of Warwick. I have gone through the school system. My two sisters went through the school system. My son went through the school system. My seven nieces and nephews went through the school system. Three of them are bisexual, one of them is non-binary, and I assure you that everything [the first speaker] has said is blatantly false, and he knows it. I mirror what Ms. Condon said. Please protect our children from the evil that he spews.
Jojo Clark: I'm here with my allies to rebuke Mr. C. [The first Speaker] I ask that you follow the RIDE guidelines because they're there for the fairness of all students.
Josh Malone[?]: My pronouns are they them. I am a resident of Warwick. I graduated from Tollgate High School in 2018. In my junior year and my senior year, I made the difficult decision of attending my prom in what some would consider cross-dressing. I wore a dress, and I wore makeup. The support of my peers has profoundly impacted my life. I feel like I can be the authentic person that I am truly meant to be. No one approached me and said, "How dare you?" No one felt afraid of me.
People were very excited to see me expressing myself in my senior year. I was happy to see three other people expressing themselves in their authentic gender expression and identity because I had made the courageous decision to put myself out there the first year. Protecting trans children protects all of us and gives people, even people who identify with the gender they're assigned at birth, the room to explore and see that gender is simply a social construct. Please continue to protect all of our children and give us this right that we have fought long for.
Zachary Colon: I am a taxpayer in Warwick, resident, homeowner, and 2017 Tollgate High School grad. I didn't plan to speak today, but I think we have good reason to because that was just absurd. If you made it through kindergarten, you were using pronouns that, these, me, us, him, her, they, them - all pronouns. I went to school with, as far as I know, at least three trans students, probably more. They were some of the nicest people I knew, and there was never an issue. I never asked them where they peed because I didn't care, and no one cared. It is absurd to question something like that.
In North Dakota in 2023, the governor signed a trans-athlete ban into law. Over 27,000 students participated in North Dakota high school sports, and in the two years before that bill was signed into law, the Republican governor who signed this into law said, “There has still not been a single recorded incident of a transgender girl playing or entering the process to even ask to play on a North Dakota girls team.”
You are making up issues that are simply not happening frequently, and it's absurd. It's disgusting, it's harmful, and you are the reason that the suicide rate is higher in these groups of people. You push them into killing themselves because you make them hate themselves because of the words that you use to put them down every single day. Every single day. You are evil, evil, evil people to make this the priority of your day-to-day life.
Let people piss where they want to. It's ridiculous. All I'm going to say is I know we have normal people on this school committee. I'm a candidate for the school committee. This is not a campaign speech, but I will say right now you can count on the fact that no matter who wins this school committee election in 2024, you will have people on this school committee that will care about our students and will make damn sure that [trans students] are welcome to be here in a place that they deserve to be as the person they are. Enough. Enough.
Laurie: I'm from Johnston, Rhode Island. I'm here to share documented medical findings from WPATH (World Professional Association of Transgender Health). WPATH is highly respected and relied upon in setting the standard of care for all physicians, clinicians, hospitals, and insurance companies throughout the world. On March 4th, 2024, WPATH had documents leaked from their internal chat board, 30 hours to be exact. These chats were never to be exposed to the public, but here they are.
I have quotes: Clinicians stating that patients receiving irreversible treatments who seem very unlikely to be able to defend themselves, some too young and others with mental health disorders. Doctors stated they knew that cross-sex hormones and surgeries are likely to cause serious harm but advocated these treatments nonetheless.
Dr. Lieber is the co-author. She says we cannot carry on in this field that involves permanent changes in young people's bodies if we don't fully understand what we are doing and learn from when we fail. Dr. Bowers, who is the president of WPATH, states that patients should not be blaming education. Whether people helped guide them, they need to own their final step. Children need to own their final step. Can you imagine that? This is absurd. Psychology today.com states that the maturity of the front cortex of the brain is developed in the late twenties. This part of the brain is responsible for reasoning, judgment, and decision-making. Gender dysphoria has also shown links to schizophrenia. More studies of mental health should be provided about ADHD.
Committee Chair Galligan: One second, ma'am. One second. Folks, we will not have any outbursts from members of the audience. For future outbursts, we'll ask you to please leave. You'll be escorted out by Warwick PD. That is it. That is the last time. We have rules. We stated those rules. Whether you're for the policy or against the policy doesn't matter. The public can comment for three minutes without interruptions or outbursts.
Laurie: More studies of mental health should be provided about ADHD, autism spectrum disorders, or mental health-related conditions. These children are victims of a science experiment. They need emotional health support from their parents and personal doctors, not principals, counselors, teachers, or anyone medically who wants to groom and transgender them for their political agenda. Puberty is their biological passage to adulthood, pronouns and medical interventions only lead to sterilization.
Rhode Island has two lawsuits, filed in November of 2023, by two minors misdiagnosed into transition surgeries. This is a political, multi-billion dollar industry that has brainwashed doctors, the Department of Health, and the Department of Education. Patients will be forced to rely on lifelong hormone therapies. As parents, grandparents, and members of Moms for Liberty, we will not be silenced, nor will we be co-parented with the government.
Jennifer: I'm a parent of a middle schooler here in Warwick. My entire family went through the Warwick system. I appreciate you guys being here and taking the time to listen to all of us. I have a whole speech right now, but I don't even know how to feel or what to say anymore. This is a hot topic. There are two sides. It doesn't seem like there's anybody in the middle. I sit back and listen quietly and hear what everyone is saying. Our differences are supposed to be what we appreciate about each other, how we learn, how we can teach our kids to be inclusive and, accepting and kind to everyone when there's such a divide and such hateful, childish behavior coming from grownups in this room. I appreciate you shutting that down.
I feel like the school's job, your job as a school committee, is to try to keep all kids safe, not just a small group, not just people who are making noise. All kids, it doesn't matter what color you are or how you identify. All kids? I'm asking that you keep that in mind as you go through these policy changes and recommendations from RIDE.
We know that RIDE is not always correct in its policy-making, but I trust that you'll consider that. I know we have quite a diverse group of people. I know most of you, too, and I appreciate what you're doing. It's not an easy place to be in. You have to hear all of the voices.
I'm worried about the liability that you put on yourself either way with this stuff. I'm sure you do, too. I'm asking you to keep all of our kids in mind, not just a small group making noise. I mean that with all due respect. Everybody deserves protection. Everybody deserves to be happy. But we always talk about inclusion and equity, and I don't feel like it's equitable to force a girl to feel uncomfortable in elementary school when they don't fully understand what's going on.
Sean: It's tough for me to say, but I'm proud of my son. My son is one of the LGBTQ members. He's gay. He's happy about it. He's happy in life. Why shouldn't he be happy? If you guys aren't happy, go somewhere else.
I'm not for or against this policy. Do what's right for the kids that are coming to our schools. Don't worry about people from Westerly or North Providence or wherever the hell they're coming from. Do what's right for our kids.
My kid's successful, 21-year-old - successful the way he wants to be. I don't even want to get started because the cop will be taking me out, but my son is very successful, pays his bills, has a great job, and goes to school. That's all I care about. He's successful and happy. If you got to use the same bathroom, use the same bathroom, whatever. That's all I have to say. I'm proud of my son, and anybody who says something against him or to me will have a problem.
Lawrence[?]: I went to school in Warwick, went to Warwick Vets, taught in the Warwick school system, and ended up going to LA, Minneapolis, and a few other cities. I didn't know we were talking about being gay tonight. In '98, I was living in the subway in New York because of AIDS, getting called faggot, and spit on because I was part of Act-Up.
Later on, I decided that I'd become a teacher, and I went to school and did my student teaching here ... As I got into teaching, I loved it. I was the teacher of the year in Milton, Mass - and then they wanted me to start talking to my students about things I didn't think were appropriate.
I never felt the need to have to tell my students I was gay. My teachers didn't tell me what their life was like, what their wives were like, what their kids were like. I didn't know my teachers' political affiliations. That's how I was a teacher, and that's how I went through teaching. My personal life has nothing to do with that. So when they started asking me to talk about sexual things... the main thing that did it was there was one student I knew who was having trouble and thinking he was gay, but I knew somebody on the school staff said to him, “Well, you might be a girl.”
That's when I gave up my school affiliation. I walked away from teaching because I didn't like what was going on. You can deny all you want, but there's a political part of this, and it's not good. I've been with my partner Kurt for 15 years, and I know that there's an underlying message going on through the trans community - not the gay community. Just because you're gay doesn't mean that you're in there hitching their cart to your horse. That's what's happened. I continue to fight for gay rights, lesbian rights, and bisexual rights.
Sarah Curtis: I live in Warwick. I'm a medical speech-language pathologist. I specialize in neurological functions. My work revolves around the brain, a part of the body you can't see. I believe that all of us in this conversation want our children to know their value. We want them to be able to compete in skills they're good at and show they're unique. We want them all to feel like they belong.
Another thing we all have in common is we are all living in a time when we are adjusting to a huge revelation that the first thing we see about our babies - the concept of binary gender that we built culture and traditions around is not the whole story. That's difficult and uncomfortable when, for generations, we thought that we could see what was, but today, we have a lot of evidence that in the human brain, gender is not two opposite things. It's all over the map.
I'm certainly not an expert. The Rhode Island Department of Education's guidelines are aligned with the American Medical Association, the American Academy of Pediatrics, the American Psychological Association, the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, the American College of Physicians, the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, the American Psychiatric Association, the American Nurses Association, and the World Health Association. I could go on.
It's important to say out loud: The American Medical Association, I'm paraphrasing to shorten it here, says that transgender and non-binary individuals are normal variations of human beings and that gender-affirming care is critical. It's ethical to care for people and not discriminate against them based on their gender identity - based on the gender they are.
We live in our brains. We don't live in our reproductive organs. Who we are on the inside is important, especially to a child. These kids are not disordered, bending cultural trends, or going through a phase. They're not pretending to be another gender, and they're not contagious. They're just normal people.
I think that we've gone through a lot of transitions. Title IX finally got women into sports properly and protected women from discrimination. We need to recognize that these students are people - humans - and it's important to protect them.
Susan Grant: I went to a school committee meeting a while back, and my daughter and I came out flabbergasted because there was a doctor there saying to the school committee and the town people that the teachers should not be outing children who identify as transgender and keeping it a secret from parents. I have a major problem with that. First off, I think it's awful that we encourage our children in our school systems too to lie. To lie to our parents. Parents should always be involved in whatever's going on with the child. That's a hundred percent. It's got to be that way. A school can't be hiding things and taking a child and reverting them - to moving to a transition situation without the parents not knowing about it. And that's what's happening.
We had a doctor who came in. We were very upset to find out that the doctor had been to the middle school and spoke to several of the kids there about transitioning, unbeknownst to many of the parents who were at the committee meeting. That kind of thing just should not be happening. He was standing there and wanted to encourage the school committee to adopt the RIDE policy of not having parents involved, which creates a pathway for them to take these kids and mold them where they want them to go. You're talking about a group of kids that are going through puberty. They have a lot of questions. They have a lot of stuff, but now it has gotten your experiment. Can I do this? Can I do that?
They get direction from people that are in the medical field, by the way, the medical field, the medical field that's doing this kind of surgeries and all this kind of stuff with puberty blockers and all that. It is like a $500 billion business, and that's what it's turned out to be. It's a $500 billion business, and I hate to see kids getting maimed.
[Note: I was at the Smithfield School Committee meeting that Susan Branch is reporting on. Little that she said about Dr. Will Giordano-Perez’s testimony is accurate. You can watch the video of his comments here. You can also read my transcript of Dr. Giordano-Perez’s comments at the footnote.]2
Reverend Father Jarrett Kerbel: I'm the pastor at St. Luke's Episcopal Church in East Greenwich. We admitted students at our church who were in schools in Warwick. Thank you for all the good care you give these students and how they grow while they're under your care.
I would like you to support the RIDE policy, please. I support it because I want children not to be stigmatized as they discover who they love, how they love, and how they express who they are. It's a very vulnerable time of life. We surround them with great love and care, and some children will talk to their parents, and some will not. Some will talk to their pastor, and some will not. We want to talk to that child and say, why are you making [the choice not to tell your parents]? And they might say, well, I'm scared of what my parents will say, or I'm scared of what my pastor will say. I don't want to be judged. I don't want to be hit. I don't want to be further damaged.
I feel like a respectful atmosphere is the baseline. Until we listen carefully, lovingly, and closely to people who identify as they identify, who know who they love and how they love - we don't have a say in the conversation until we listen to them with love and respect and gentleness and that's what this policy holds out. It's what you do in the school system, as far as I've been able to see, and I'm thankful for that.
I'm inspired by the young people who spoke up today and their courage and bravery because there's so much hateful stigma out there that interrupts the ability to grow. I'm going to end with a favorite quote by the great James Baldwin. “We can disagree and still love each other unless your disagreement is rooted in my oppression and denial of my humanity and right to exist.” James Baldwin wrote as a Black man and as a gay man. It all begins on the basis of respect and inclusion and moves from there.
Jeremy Langill: I have two daughters at Warwick Neck, in kindergarten and second grade. I'm here tonight to express my strong support for the policy that we've already had on file since 2018, which follows all of the legal guidelines that RIDE requires of us. The RIDE policy from 2018 is not optional, and it's, in fact, law. This school committee, in 2018, has already done its work, and that has created a safe place for our students where everyone is included. I also serve as the Executive Minister for the State Council of Churches here in Rhode Island, so for me, it is very important that when we're thinking about how we make our decisions, we choose to live in the House of Love, and we're in the House of Fear.
The House of Fear is about discrimination, exclusion, dishonesty, and a lack of integrity. That's not who we are in Warwick. In Warwick, we live in the House of Love, and that means we're going to include all of our students. We're going to serve all of our students, and we're going to make sure that this is a place that is a beacon of health and compassion.
Darlene: I'm a lifelong resident of Warwick, a homeowner, taxpayer, voter, and teacher. As a teacher, I want to provide education to all of my students - no matter how they present themselves, how they look, how they dress, or what pronouns they want to use.
As an English teacher, I, of course, have a bias toward subject-verb agreement, pronoun-antecedent agreement, and so on. But it might be interesting to know that historically, pronouns themselves have been very fluid, and the uses thereof have been fluid. I just Googled quickly. I have stuff at home, but I don't have it with me now. This is from the History of Pronouns. It may seem that pronouns are a new thing, a 21st-century thing, but they're not. In the 1800s, people were on the search for gender neutral pronouns. The search was popular amongst feminists who wanted to use gender-neutral pronouns to eliminate social bias. This argument was further examined in the Daily Arkansas Gazette in 1882. I won't read all of it. I won't have time. But I think the basic point is we have male-female pronouns. People who are non-binary, identifying another way as non-male non-female, have chosen to use 'they/them' as a means of expression. Maybe it is time to come up with other pronouns. Other countries have done it...
Earlier, there was this hostility toward people choosing their pronouns. People have a right to identify and express themselves as to who they are, and it's no one else's business to try to tell them what pronouns to use or how to identify. As many of the professionals tonight have spoken about brain development and quoted from organizations that deal with these matters, I think we need to respect everyone that comes into our schools, educate everyone, follow the law, and come up with policies that follow the law.
I'm on the policy committee. We are looking at the Title IX policy update based on Title IX revisions that have been made. It was tabled. We're still looking at it. I'm sure we'll come to a place to protect all of our students and all of the people who come through Warwick Public Schools.
Jasmine Roy: I'm the Vice-chair of Moms for Liberty in Washington County, Rhode Island. I'm a proud member. I'm a mother of a young boy. What I would like to speak about is the levels of education. Everything that we have been discussing tonight about gender fluidity, gender ideology, all of these things - what is important is the statistics of our children's learning. If we focus more on educating our students rather than what their pronouns are and how they feel about themselves in K through 12, we may overcome these low numbers.
I'm not here to discriminate against anyone's sexual orientation. I couldn't care less what you do as an adult. But when you start involving children and indoctrinating them at the early ages of five and six years old, it is unacceptable. As a parent - my parental rights - I should be informed of everything that goes on in school, whether my child will understand where I'm coming from or not. The level of education in Rhode Island has dipped, and our children are suffering because of the ideologies that are being inserted into classrooms.
That's all I have to say about that. I hope you think about these things and try to focus more on education rather than gender ideology.
Committee Chair Sean Galligan: Are there any other members of the public looking to comment? I see none. Ms. Bacchus, okay.
Committee Member Karen Bacchus: Back in 2014, did school committee…
Shaun Galligan: One second, Ms. Bacchus. Legal counsel has advised us not to respond to public comments.
Karen Bacchus: I'm not responding. I want to make a point of fact of what the school committee did in 2014...
Shaun Galligan: One, second, Ms. Bacchus. There are no other matters of business before...
Karen Bacchus: It's not about gender.
Shaun Galligan: No, I get that. One second, please. I'm going to defer to counsel...
Legal Counsel: The only agenda item is future meetings. Now that we've finished public comment, the only agenda item at this point is future meetings and then adjournment.
Karen Bacchus: That's too bad.
[AFTER THE MEETING ADJOURNS]
Karen Bacchus: In 2014, we passed the resolution that we support all families, straight, transgendered, gay, and all families in the City of Warwick and beyond. That's it.
Since I assume that no one on the committee, or you, Superintendent Dambruch, has to share lavatories or changing areas with members of the opposite sex while at work, why in your transgender policy do you mandate that our children are forced to do this? It's hypocritical and cowardly. You've sold out your students and their families by doing this because there are six pillars of RIDE's guidance, which is untruthful and unlawful - which is not law - that reside within your policy.
Biological boys use the same bathrooms and locker rooms as girls, room with girls on overnight field trips, compete with and against girls athletically and compel teachers to use pronouns of the student's choice. That's a First Amendment violation - you know that, sir? And keeping secrets from parents regarding the social transition of their kids while at school. This policy discriminates against 99% of this district's kids, especially our girls, by placing them in uncomfortable, unsafe, and unfair positions.
The chair mentioned that nothing happens until it happens, and I couldn't agree more. That is exactly my point. Today's policy allows our kids to be placed in these types of situations and worse. So whether anything [has] yet occurred is not the point. The policy allows it to be.
Your Title IX policy is an unlawful rubber stamping of the [Biden] Administration's attempt to erase women, and I will not allow that to happen. Title IX was written to protect women from discrimination based on sex, not men who pretend to be women. That is not the same thing. No matter how much a boy wants to be a girl, dresses like a girl, or thinks he's a girl, he will never be a girl, never. Same with girls who identify as boys.
These policies pushed an already vulnerable population to organizations such as Planned Parenthood, where over 40,000 girls have begun their transition with an initial dose of testosterone, leading to a lifetime of harm and pain. Suicide rates among this group increase post-treatment. They will never reproduce. Those who push this are an evil demonic cult and must be stopped. Groups, like the ones who follow me around, lie about the suicide rate of this group [and] about the imminent danger to this group. They lie because they don't care about these kids. They are gender driven ideologues. This is the trans cult I talk about, not the kids. The kids are the victims. God bless the children and families of Warwick. God also bless the United States of America.
The testimony of Dr. Will Giordano-Perez, Chief Medical Officer at Tri-County Community Action Agency, at the May 15, 2023, Smithfield School Committee:
“I’m not a resident of Smithfield. I’m a physician, and I work out of the Tri-County Health Centers, where I’m the Chief Medical Officer. Within our treatment area is Smithfield, so many of my patients are students here. Many parents here see me as their primary care provider as well. I’m also an assistant clinical professor at the Brown Medical School.
“I’m an expert in LGBTQ health in particular, and I’m a communications consultant for about a dozen local schools within Rhode Island hospitals and healthcare settings. I was informed of the new transgender policy with concern about informing parents of a student’s identity, primarily around their gender. It grabbed my attention, and I wanted to make sure I came here today to just speak a few words that could hopefully be enlightening or helpful.
“I’ve never once been to one of these school committee meetings before. And I must say that they are incredibly thoughtful and inspiring, and I’ve enjoyed it already, just in the last hour.
“I’m a family medicine doctor by training, so I take care of entire families and deliver babies. I take care of children, adults, and older adults as well. Many of my patients are LGBTQ-identifying. It’s one of the primary reasons people will seek me out for primary care. In Rhode Island, we don’t have many primary care providers who offer that care. We’re comfortable talking to individuals about their sexual orientation or about their gender identity, which means that I have people from all over the state and from Massachusetts and Connecticut who come to find me, sometimes traveling for a couple of hours.
“Some of your staff here have invited me here [in the past]. I recognized when I drove up here that I’d given a presentation here on gender identity and sexual orientation, but I believe it was the middle school population, which was just lovely because there aren’t too many school districts that will put that forward.
“I’m here to mostly express the concern, around this discussion, about outing students to their parents when it comes to their gender identity. I want to express why that’s a concern for me. As a physician, I have access to very intimate conversations and information with patients, children themselves, their families, their support systems, and those involved in all of that care. The conversations we have are intimate and personal, and I think it would be helpful for you to hear some of that.
“I’ve cared for children here in Rhode Island who’ve been kicked out of their homes because of how they identify. 40% of our homeless youth in Rhode Island identify as LGBTQ, despite making up only 7% of the population in Rhode Island. I’ve cared for children who’ve been harassed, beaten, and verbally and emotionally tormented by those closest to them all because of how they identify.
“Nine out of ten LGBTQ youth have experienced harassment or discrimination just within the past year. Those who experience discrimination and harassment are much more likely to miss school and or drop out compared to those who do not. More than one in three LGBTQ youth reported that they have been physically threatened or harmed due to their identity – within the last year. I’ve also cared for children whose families and identities have unfortunately left them to feel quite alone in the world – in a world in which we do not honor their privacy and their rights the same way we honor those of others who are in the majority.
“92% of LGBTQ youth stated that they hear negative messages about what it means to be LGBTQ. And worst of all, in my seven years practicing as a primary care physician in Rhode Island, I’ve cared for children who unfortunately decided that it was better to end their lives than to continue living. 40% of LGBTQ youth make that same decision to end their lives compared to just 12% of the general population. All of this is to say that our identities are deeply, deeply personal; they need to be honored, and they need to be respected.
“These statistics demonstrate the severity of discrimination and harassment that LGBTQ youth face in schools, in their homes, in their communities, in their daily lives. They also highlight the urgent need for creating safe and affirming environments for LGBTQ students, [and] I know this school district is capable of [this] and has proven they’ve done in the past.
“As a physician expert in the field, I would be remiss not to emphasize the importance of creating safe spaces for LGBTQ students and the dangers of outing these students to their parents without their consent. It is important to note that outing a student to their parents can put the student in danger and cause serious harm. It’s crucial to provide privacy and confidentiality for our LGBTQ students. This means ensuring that students’ gender identities and sexual orientations are kept confidential and that they are not forced to disclose this information unless they choose to do so.
“If a student is outed without consent, it can put them at risk of physical, emotional, and psychological harm, including rejection, abuse, and even homelessness. Thank you for allowing me to come tonight and share a few of these thoughts. It means a great deal to me, and I hope it will help put together whatever your final recommendations are for your school district policy. Together, we can do better, and we can all do better when we feel we are safe and supported.”