The impact of the spread of gender ideology seems to be taking hold among America’s children. There has been a sharp increase in the percentage of youngsters identifying as transgender or non-binary over the past decade.
Folks on the far left would claim that the increase is due to more youths becoming comfortable with publicly embracing their gender identity. However, the rate of the increase suggests that something more could be at play.
Oregon’s Education Department released a report showing a huge rise in the percentage of students identifying as non-binary, meaning they do not identify with either male or female gender identities.
More than 2,770 K-12 students identified as nonbinary during the 2022-23 school year, according to the report, a 56.7% increase from the prior school year. The figure represents about .5% of the total student population.
The education department added nonbinary as a demographic option in 2018 as an "important step toward gender inclusivity." The department expects the number of nonbinary students to continue increasing each school year as districts update their registration forms.
Most nonbinary Oregon students were in high school, but dozens of children as young as kindergarten also identified as nonbinary. The cohort had a higher dropout rate than males or females in the 2021-22 school year, data showed.
Nonbinary and transgender populations tend to skew young. Nationally, about 3% of young adults ages 18-29 identify as nonbinary, according to a 2022 Pew Research Center survey. Another 2% identified as transgender.
The Pew survey did not include minors, but a 2017 survey of Oregon teens found 4.8% of eighth graders and 5.5% of 11th graders identified as nonbinary.
Despite claims coming from those who support the inclusion of gender ideology in K-12 schools, it is not difficult to imagine that other forces are at work when it comes to the drastic rise in children choosing various gender identities. It is clear that social contagion is playing a much larger role in this trend than leftists would have us believe.
The fact that progressives have been using the school system to inculcate children with their ideas on gender, sexuality, and race has to be accelerating this disturbing shift. Indeed, these schools are not only pushing these ideas on children without their parent’s knowledge, they are even helping students transition to other genders.
Matt Bunch, a businessman and political candidate in Oregon, told Fox News that they “now have a culture of educating our children what to think, not how to think,” and expressed concerns that many schools are focusing more on gender identity than actual education. He pointed to the fact that almost 60 percent of Oregon’s students are not reading at grade level.
This debate occurs against Oregon’s myriad of educational challenges. The report did note a slight improvement in graduation rates, but a sharp decrease in attendance, which remains significantly lower than pre-pandemic levels. Overall, total enrollment in the state’s schools has been declining severely since the 2019-2020 school year.
Oregon is one of several states that have been at the forefront of pushing LGBTQ ideology in the classroom. The state’s Department of Education was one of the first to let students identify as non-binary or gender-fluid, and has even distributed guidance ostensibly intended to protect the rights of transgender students.
What these states are doing goes far beyond promoting tolerance or acceptance of members of the LGBTQ community. They are not simply trying to get students to treat all people the same, they are actively promoting various gender identities. These folks are influencing youths to reject their biological sex, which is undoubtedly having an impact on these numbers.
This is what so many are fighting against across the country. Unfortunately, in deep blue states, it is an uphill battle as their governments are enforcing this ideology in schools. For many, the only choice is to pull their children out of government-run schools.
