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Numbers

"If the numbers are so small, why is this important?"

Arrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrgh. The percentage is small, the numbers aren't 1% of the 14.9 million will be in grades 9 through 12 (2015) is 149,000 kids. Just in the US, another 100,000 or so in grades 6-8. That is roughly equivalent to the 75th largest city in the US. There would be another 250,000 counting all school age (K-12) kids.

So when do these people think that the numbers should matter?

Where Do Attitudes Come From?

I'm old enough to remember how hilarious??? it was for Uncle Milty to put on a dress. TV was telling us that any man who would crossdress was inherently weird and to be scorned.

The opinions of these high school students probably closely reflect their parent's. Maybe not so much as my generation. When I was growing up my parents decided what newspapers and magazines entered our home. They controlled the TV and radio channel knobs. Channel knob on the right, volume knob on the left.

Parents still probably make some of those decisions and whether you watch FOX or MSNBC will shape your thoughts. But today's kids have the INTERNET. If they're remotely curious they can find a huge amount of what passes for information. My town had a nice Carnegie library. The building looked like a mini-county courthouse and it housed more books than I could ever imagine reading. However, it's warehouse of information was miniscule compared to what you can look up on your iPhone.

The comments on this story are both maddening and insightful.

Although Obama has the moral high ground on this issue, I question the real reasons for the federal mandate. Sure . . . someone had to take a stand, but what was the politics behind this step . . . in an election year?

I'm glad this issue has become as actively debated as it has. The more people have talked about it, the more people realize that trans children are everywhere and are not "dysphoric".

Jill

Angela Rasch (Jill M I)