Teach Your Kids About Homosexuality and Gender Confusion

We are continuing our series highlighting special material our friends at Focus on the Family have provided for your family and your church.

Today we want to share two guides Focus on the Family has released on teaching your kids about homosexuality and gender confusion.

The guides outline:

  • Age-appropriate conversations you can have with your children as they grow up;
  • Answers to common questions children may ask;
  • Information on responding to messages your children hear at school.

These guides are designed to equip you as a parent. You can download these resources below or from our “Resources For Your Church and Family” page.

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How to Talk to Your Kids About Homosexuality, by Jeff Johnston.

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Equipping Parents to Respond to Gender-Confusing Messages in Schools, by TrueTolerance.org.

Girl Scouts of the U.S.A. Policy to “Serve All Girls”

The following blog post is by Deborah Beuerman.

Articles published recently announced that boys who would rather live as girls can now be included as members of the Girl Scouts of the United States of America.

A transgender girl—a boy who acts like a girl—who is treated as a girl by his family will be accepted as a “girl” by Girl Scouts. This is really not new news.  A 7-year old boy who had been living as a girl since he was 2 was allowed to join a troop in 2012.

Sadly, a policy of inclusion has been in place for many years, with the Girl Scout membership policy simply stating that Girl Scouts is open to all girls.  On the face this sounds good, but such a simple statement without more definition can be broadly interpreted, and can be the basis for removing guiding principles for the organization.  Girl Scout founder Juliette Gordon Low did want diversity in scouting, but the definition of her day was quite different from the “diversity and tolerance” of our day.  While she did not want to exclude any girl because of race, socioeconomic class, or disability, today’s idea of including generally is focused on sexuality.

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Gym Bans Woman Who Complained of Man in Locker Room

Planet Fitness in Michigan has revoked the gym membership of a woman who complained and told other members about a man using the women’s locker rooms.

According to various sources, the gym revoked Yvette Cormier’s membership because she violated their “judgment free” conduct policy.

In response to the situation, Planet Fitness released a statement saying,

“Our gender identity non-discrimination policy states that members and guests may use all gym facilities based on their sincere self-reported gender identity.”

Ms. Cormier told CNN the policy was “something they [should have] pointed out when I signed up.” She told another news outlet, “I wouldn’t have signed up for this gym if I knew that ahead of time” and that the gym is “failing to protect me if anything happens in those locker rooms with a man.”

Fortunately for Ms. Cormier, she can still take her business to a gym that does not let biological males who claim to be female use the women’s locker rooms; however, under some of the so-called “nondiscrimination” laws and ordinances filed around the country, all “places of public accommodation” (including fitness gyms) would be forced to let a man use the women’s locker rooms, showers, and changing areas if he claims to be a woman.

This was a concern many people raised about the ordinance the Fayetteville City Council passed last year; that ordinance was repealed at a special election, but the Eureka Springs City Council hastily passed an even broader ordinance last month.

The issue is one of public safety, which Ms. Cormier summed up very well in her interview with CNN:

“This is all new to me. I didn’t go out to specifically bash a transgender person that day. I was taken aback by the situation. This is about me and how I felt unsafe.”

You can read more about this situation here and here.