Pride Group
Dear Editor: I am writing to lend support to the letter recently published by the Pride Group.
I agree with the pride group that the bill proffered by the governor is not the result of a reasoned process based on credible research or logic but is based on misdirected beliefs and political ideology.
First of all, there is no question in my mind that a child should turn to his or her parents whenever faced with tough decisions, concerns, doubts or questions. That’s what families are for. But the trust and sense of safety necessary for that dialogue to occur are not always present in families. When that situation exists, then a trusted teacher, counselor or peer will hopefully be available for that child. And perhaps that person might facilitate the conversation that needs to occur between the child and his or her family. But it is not always possible. And this process should not be forced by legislative decree. There must be some trust in schools and the individuals who work there to navigate these situations.
The part of the bill directing how bathrooms should be utilized based on sex at birth is clearly based on ignorance and misinformation. As an instructor in upper division university classes on human development and biopsychology, I learned that human sexual development is an extremely complex process. Well, actually, all human development is an extremely complex process. If any part of that process is advanced, interfered with or delayed, even by hours, there will be consequences, sometimes slight, other times significant. Whether one’s fingers grow or fail to grow by a millimeter might be a result. The thickness of an upper lip might be altered. How a brain develops might also be affected.
For the purpose of this letter, alterations in brain development are particularly relevant. Based on what is known from research, and this is a gross oversimplification, male and female brain anatomy vary somewhat. In other words, there is a typical male brain that looks slightly different from a typical female brain. And our brains basically make us who we are, our identity. The vast majority of, but not all, individuals are born with one set of genitals or the other, male or female.
But what happens when the brain’s sexual anatomy does not correspond with the genitalia? I don’t pretend to know the answer but that scenario does happen. And then add in all the influences from our families, society, culture and whatever other things influence who we are and the possibilities explode. Who we are on so many levels is complex, including on the level of sexual identity. Trying to reduce this to such a dichotomy or mandate who is male or female is just not consistent with reality.
The beauty and wonder of human development is that the differences that result from typical and atypical development really don’t matter that much most of the time. From a philosophical perspective, those differences might also be normal, in that most of us are likely somewhat atypical, therefore, by definition, normal.
Finally, I think we need to take a close look at the role of government brought up in the letter written by the Pride Group. How far should a government intrude into the private lives of its citizens? It seems to me that state governments have gone way too far intruding into our lives. Governments in several states are limiting free speech, limiting the availability of medical procedures, limiting parental rights in accessing health care for their children, limiting what adults can wear in public, limiting what we can read, and limiting the expression of religious ideas. These limitations often reflect a specific ideological concept, but not all citizens belong to that ideology. In a free society there must be room for multiple ideologies, otherwise it’s not a free society.
Charles Morgan, Ph.D., Sitka
