2023-10-05 Moms for Liberty Howard County “Gender Ideology Forum”
- Source: YouTube
- Presentation by Kathleen Goonan and Tom Neumark.
Tom Neumark at 57:32:
And then breast binders and tucking. This one floors me. So we proposed this to the Frederick County Public Schools and spent now eight months advocating for this, with bigger and bigger crowds as this has gone on. And I said, okay – one of my speeches, I said, okay, you don’t want to pass all this complicated stuff, I get it. Could you at least pass the breast binder thing? Agree that you’re not gonna let any staff member allow a girl to bind her breasts and provide that medical device to her? Nope, they would not even consider that.
Neumark at 58:31:
And then FCPS and HCPS and all the Maryland districts, they’re not providing information, the information that Dr. Goonan just provided? Yeah, they should have something like that. They have it for anxiety, they have it for depression. If you look at those little scripts or graphic books that are in the counseling office, they have those things. They don’t have a gender dysphoria packet. They believe in gender identity, right? Which is gender ideology, I should say. Which is this belief that you can be born in the wrong body. They’re not providing objective clinical advice, or even just resources. Like, here, there’s a debate about this, here’s, you know, pros and cons, go look at it. Schools are not providing that.
Neumark at 1:00:59:
And we actually call the condition what it is, gender dysphoria. I have a picture on my phone I carry around because people don’t believe me it’s a real condition. Like, yep, see, it’s page 511, you can go look it up, there’s a picture and there’s a whole chapter in it, in the DSM-5. So it is a real condition, but so many folks, because of kind of the prevailing winds in the media and how activists, advocates on the other side have talked about this, people don’t realize it really is a mental condition. It’s not an identity.
Neumark at 1:04:09:
We disavow any kind of anti-trans, right-wing agenda. I mean, again, Dr. Erica Anderson quit WPATH because of this. Lots of folks have. And then there’s this idea that, like, we want to erase LGBTQ people. Why? That’s horrible, why would anyone ever do that?
Neumark at 1:10:25:
And then others, like Dr. Goonan and I, take more of a body-affirming view, because we don’t have a sense that we have a gender identity. The idea that everyone has a gender identity is really debatable. I didn’t even know that was a thing until, you know, the last five years. I don’t think most of you did. You just – you are your body, you are what you are born as, right? So I think most people have that sense. And so that actually does a real disservice to people who have just a very strong connection with their body, and they just are their body, they are who they are. And then you go to school, and a teacher’s gonna say ‘well, you might not be, and everyone has a gender identity’. Everyone doesn’t. Some people just have – feel what they are kind of inherently.
Neumark at 1:12:36:
So you want to go and say, okay, well, is it fair – and I’ve asked people this, and it really shuts them down, believe it or not – is it fair to say anyone who disagrees with you is a bigot? And, ‘well, you are’. Okay, great. And the next question: define a bigot – right? And you start asking them questions, and it doesn’t take too many for them to kind of realize that maybe they don’t have all the answers, right? And then I also like to remind them of this little thing called defamation that they seem to like to engage in a lot. Like, do you know what defamation is? You’re kind of doing it right now? Maybe you want to reconsider? Right? So it is important, I think, to protect yourself that way. Not to, you know, threaten people, but just to remind them that, you know, we’re human beings, we have families, we have kids, we’re not here to go and – we’re not attacking anyone. But when you do it to us, I just need to reflect back, like, you understand what you’re doing right now? You’re actually building a case, I can call three lawyers right now, you’re saying things you shouldn’t be saying, right? And so, again, never do it as a threatening way, but gently remind them of that, and usually people calm down after that.
Neumark at 1:15:20:
Yeah, the science questions, 4,500% increase – please explain that, opponents, do you have any theories? There aren’t really any good theories other than the ones that Dr. Goonan talked about, which is, social media is spreading this. And one thing that you can do, you will find that the opponents will argue something along the lines, ‘well, it’s not social contagion, it’s social acceptance’. So if you read our policy, we split the difference: we say “socially mediated”, so you can’t really argue it. Maybe it’s a little bit of both. Right? It could be, right, a little bit of both? But the bottom line is, it is socially mediated, no matter which your preferred term is, right? So if your opponents get hung up on “social contagion”, switch to “social mediated”, and then they don’t have an argument because you’re encompassing both.