“Talk with teens about possible regret.” That’s what the American Academy of Pediatrics says about tattoos and body piercings. But when it comes to giving a girl who thinks she’s a boy a double mastectomy, the same organization thinks parents should “respect” their kids’ wishes.

That’s just part of the hypocrisy Dr. Michelle Cretella was trying to point out about the liberal medical community in a popular video for the Daily Signal. I say “trying,” because after two years, the flaggers at YouTube decided to pull down the 2017 content and ban it. The truth about transgenderism, they said, “violates YouTube’s hate speech policy.” According to liberal flaggers, the offensive part was just one sentence – but, as Daily Signal editor Katrina Trinko explained on Thursday’s “Washington Watch,” it was an important one.

“If I walk into my doctor’s office today and say, ‘Hi, I’m Margaret Thatcher,’ my physician will say I am delusional and give me an anti-psychotic,” Dr. Cretella explained. But, “if instead, I walked in and said, ‘I’m a man,’ he would say, ‘Congratulations, you’re transgender.’ If I were to say, ‘Doc, I’m suicidal because I’m an amputee trapped in a normal body, please cut off my leg,’ I will be diagnosed with body identity integrity disorder. But if I walk into that doctor’s office and say, ‘I am a man, sign me up for a double mastectomy,’ my physician will.” Then came the part that really set YouTube off: “See, if you want to cut off a leg or an arm you’re mentally ill, but if you want to cut off healthy breasts or a penis, you’re transgender.”

Nothing that Dr. Cretella said is medically inaccurate. “And yet [it’s] so ‘offensive,’” Katrina argued, that “YouTube cannot even let it be said.” And what’s even more incredible is that this video has been online for a whole two years! It already has 70 million views. If YouTube wanted to keep the lid on these facts, they sure took their time doing it. But even now, after months of back-and-forth with the Daily Signal, it’s obvious the company isn’t concerned about truth or fairness. “We said, ‘Hey, we understand you’re a private company. We respect that you have the right to have your own rules. But we really think that this is a targeting of conservatives. Can we come to some sort of understanding?”

YouTube’s answer? No. “Ultimately, we were told the only way we could get the video back on YouTube was to delete the sentence [about cutting off healthy body parts]. In other words, we had two choices: censor the doctor’s words or have no video on the world’s biggest video platform.” That, Katrina said, “should horrify every YouTube user – and anyone who values the importance of a public square featuring a variety of perspectives.”

At a time when children are being legitimately and irreparably hurt by this ideology, the last thing any social media company should be doing is silencing experts. Dr. Cretella is a pediatrician with decades of professional experience. She understands the consequences of this because she’s seen them. If families reinforce and support their kids’ biological gender through puberty, “the vast majority of gender-confused children [as many as 98 percent!] get better.” But here we are, she warns, rushing to “chemically castrate gender-confused children with puberty blockers. Then we permanently sterilize many of them by adding cross-sex hormones, which also put them at risk for heart disease, strokes, diabetes, cancers, and even the very emotional problems that the gender experts claim to be treating.”

The truth may be uncomfortable. The science might be “offensive.” But what people don’t know about this fad of self-expression is destroying our children’s futures. The Left can’t debate Dr. Cretella – they can’t argue against the facts – so they call it “hate speech.” It’s time for the rest of us to rise up and speak out – while we still can! Conservatives may not be as loud and noisy and quick to complain as liberals, Katrina says, “but we exist.” And we should be allowed to speak freely. If you agree, weigh in. Tweet at them: @YouTube and @google. Or leave a message on Google’s Facebook page or YouTube’s.

Originally published here.

Parents Look for Eraser in Austin Sex Ed

Do you want your kids learning about sex from a group of Planned Parenthood pole dancers? Neither do parents in Austin, Texas. The state capital came within inches of adopting the group’s middle school curriculum – but had to scrap it at the last minute when the legislature banned “local governments from doing business with abortion providers.” Unfortunately for local parents, what the school district did pass is just as horrifying. And locals have no intentions of taking it sitting down.

It’s been over a week since Austin’s Independent School District acted independently of local feedback. Despite a sea of protestors and crowds of angry parents, members still voted unanimously to do what almost three-quarters of the parents asked them not to: approve sweeping changes to the district’s sex-ed curriculum. And not just any changes, but “LGBTQ-inclusive” changes – the kind that teaches little girls they might be little boys and questions kids’ sexuality. “It’s about acceptance,” the district’s health and physical education supervisor Michelle Rusnak said, waving off parents’ concerns.

But acceptance, Matt Pennies argued, shouldn’t include conversations about gender identity or anal sex.

“I get the sensitivities around the LGBT issues,” he told reporters. “I tried to say this, but I was drowned out by the chaos – in a strictly heterosexual context, this content is just so aggressive. It’s just so much so soon.” Graphic lessons about sex acts, he and plenty of others feel, have no place in the classroom. “I just feel like the school district is overstepping… There’s no place for the reasonable middle in this conversation, and it really makes me angry that we can’t have a more measured conversation.”

Measured conversations have been tough to come by these days, as our friends at Texas Values know. During a press conference about the vote, extremists burst into the room “with music, kazoos, and chants,” screaming, “Black trans lives matters!” to disrupt the event. The Austin American-Statesman described the chaos, as people waving rainbow flags and one man shouting into a megaphone created such a scene that the Austin police had to intervene.

For now, the school board’s vote may be over, but the public outcry is not. As we speak, parents and Texas Values are debating a possible legal challenge. At the same time, they’re also demanding answers about the curriculum made its way to the city in the first place. “Parents have a right to know where this radical curriculum came from and who approved it,” Mary Elizabeth Castle insisted. It’s been a rushed and secretive process, they say, and the majority of input has been ignored. If Austin has nothing to hide, let them prove it.

And thanks to a new Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request, they’ll have no choice but to. The message from Texas Values and the rest of Austin is: Hand over the documents that led to this hyper-sexualization of our curriculum. In particular, the group is trying to uncover any communications about the cancellation of Planned Parenthood’s Get Real lessons – and the decision to pass a controversial Canadian model in less than two months. If the district doesn’t cooperate, they’ll pursue other options. Already, a petition rejecting the changes has more than 8,000 signatures.

Take it from Austin – the fight isn’t over until parents say it is! If your school district is considering (or even if it’s passed) a radical sex ed program, there are options. Don’t throw in the towel until you’ve exhausted every avenue! And even then, there’s always one thing you can do: hold the bad school board members accountable in the next election. Or better yet, run for the seat yourself!

Originally published here.

This is a publication of the Family Research Council. Mr. Perkins is president of FRC.