Forsyth County Georgia Board of Education - Jere Krischel - 04/16/2024

Last month, we heard last minute pleas against HB1104, which tried to help transgender youth get appropriate mental health treatment and to protect young women in sports. The bill did pass the Senate, unfortunately the House did not act in time to get the bill passed this session. One can only hope that next session, we'll have a better outcome.
It feels like we're moving in the right direction, with the Supreme Court allowing bans on transgender mutilation to go into effect in Idaho just yesterday, but there is still a lot further to go to protect our children.
This past week, the landmark Cass Review, commissioned by the NHS regarding "gender identity services for children and young people", noted that clinicians "are unable to determine with any certainty which children and young people will go on to have an enduring trans identity." The harsh truth is this - the horrific and barbaric hormonal and surgical treatment that has been foisted on our children, was done without any sort of critical study or rigor. Every child who was physically treated for a mental illness, was part of a completely uncontrolled experiment, violating our most sacred ideas of informed consent.
As more and more detransitioners come out of the closet, the dramatic costs are being exposed all too late for many. When we look back on this era, where so many healthy gay and lesbian children were mutilated to fit the traditional hetero-binary, it will be with deep shame and regret.
Part of the opposition to the transgender bits of HB1104 was that the bill was originally intended for mental health screening for athletes - they felt gender dysphoria had nothing to do with it. But gender dysphoria is literally mental illness. Mentally ill male athletes might easily adopt a female identity, thinking that their failures against fellow boys will be erased once they're beating girls in sports.
Not to mention the girl athletes that suffer from mental anguish when forced to share private spaces with boys. Especially when the boys are autogynephilic, and are literally aroused by the thought of being female. Imposing that kind of sexual fetish display on girls at school is simply wrong.
The restrictions on sex education until the 6th grade, and requiring parent opt-in, and implementing a library system which notifies parents of any books checked out, certainly didn't directly apply to mental illness, but they are certainly good policy.
I understand that those who have promoted the failed model of "gender affirming care" may be incredibly reluctant to admit the horrors they have enabled. I'm certain that they did so in the hope of being loving and compassionate. And we should all strive to be more loving and compassionate. In this case, love and compassion mean helping people accept their healthy natural bodies, and allowing boys to be feminine, and girls to be masculine. Feeling like you don't belong in your body is a universal human experience during puberty, and telling our children we can fix their discomfort by sterilizing and mutilating them is just wrong.
I'd like to ask the Board to make sure that every school counselor is required to read The Cass Review, so that they can be kept up to date on the latest medical health knowledge necessary to treat mentally ill children properly.
And so on that note, thank you very much for your time, and again, I'd love to buy lunch for anyone who disagrees with me.