They’re Coming for the Kids

 

Seldom do I read a piece about the state of education in this country without remarking to myself and my husband how glad I am to be homeschooling. There’s a remarkable piece in The Atlantic by George Packer this month about one father’s journey through New York City’s public schools that made me do it again. What’s remarkable is how clearly the author illustrates how everyone in the public school system in New York, from teachers up to the Mayor himself, have made a conscious decision to sacrifice education on the altar of Progressivism. Here’s a sampling:

I wanted the plan to succeed, but I had serious doubts. It came festooned with all the authoritarian excess of the new progressivism. It called for the creation of a new diversity bureaucracy, and its relentless jargon squashed my hope that the authors knew how to achieve an excellent education for all. Instead of teaching civics that faced the complex truths of American democracy, “the curriculum will highlight the vast historical contributions of non-white groups & seek to dispel the many non-truths/lies related to American & World History.”

Packer’s experience mirrored my own in New York City public school. I attended a charter school on the Upper West Side my last year of high school that later became famous for illegal trips to Cuba to learn about the revolution. No, I am not kidding. Math and science took a backseat to a progressive view of English and history (where entire semesters about the prison system and Howard Zinn were taught).

Now in my early 30s, the most jarring thing as a parent has been to witness how mainstream that education has become, to see how many of my radical classmates became teachers themselves. This isn’t just a problem for New York City’s teachers; it is endemic across the education system. After college, graduate school and paying union dues, it’s the rare teacher who comes out without a heavy dose of indoctrination. Even among my classmates from the rural Upstate New York town I spent most of my childhood in, the teachers emerged speaking fluent Woke Progressive.

That might not be an issue for some parents, as long as their kids are getting a good enough education. But unfortunately, juggling indoctrination and basic instruction is proving challenging for many teachers in school districts across the country; not just in New York City. And that’s the ultimate cruelty of the breakdown of the school system: those who can afford to leave the public system will. And those without the means to flee will left will be left without a basic grasp of English, math or science. That’s the future and will be the legacy of the progressive takeover of our schools.

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  1. JoelB Member
    JoelB
    @JoelB

    Perhaps it’s time to return to the roots of the Sunday school movement by teaching reading, writing, cyphering, and the Bible.

    • #1
  2. Drusus Inactive
    Drusus
    @Drusus

    Public schools largely reflect the communities in which they operate. I am a public school teacher. I went to public schools for part of my education. My rural Georgia high school U.S. History teacher (in 2001) made us watch the documentary on how the moon landing was faked and a different one about how the Clintons killed everyone. It’s not the system – it’s the kooks that the communities foster and laud. If the Upper West Side didn’t support field trips to Cuba, you can bet the School Board would fold like wet cardboard and fire anyone who agitated for such.

    • #2
  3. TBA Coolidge
    TBA
    @RobtGilsdorf

    If I was in charge of educating the perfect worker-taxpayer for my imaginary country I would be sorely tempted to inculcate limited numeracy and literacy, convenient histories, unassailable self-regard, and an allegiance not to country, but to a vague ‘good’ which would be a work in progress. I would also teach them to reject information that is contrary to the point of view I wish them to have by having them embrace fallacies of use to me. 

    Luckily for us, no one could be that cynical in practice. 

    • #3
  4. Clifford A. Brown Member
    Clifford A. Brown
    @CliffordBrown

    Bethany Mandel: And those without the means to flee will left will be left without a basic grasp of English, math or science. That’s the future and will be the legacy of the progressive takeover of our schools.

    That would be a feature, not a bug, for the left.

    • #4
  5. I Walton Member
    I Walton
    @IWalton

    Drusus (View Comment):

    Public schools largely reflect the communities in which they operate. I am a public school teacher. I went to public schools for part of my education. My rural Georgia high school U.S. History teacher (in 2001) made us watch the documentary on how the moon landing was faked and a different one about how the Clintons killed everyone. It’s not the system – it’s the kooks that the communities foster and laud. If the Upper West Side didn’t support field trips to Cuba, you can bet the School Board would fold like wet cardboard and fire anyone who agitated for such.

    Some yes, but we’ve centralize them, put them under the control of a non teaching bureaucracy that serves no purpose other than spreading the establishment views on matters and curricula as if a large centralized bureaucracy knew what everyone should teach.  Are there any good reasons to centralize the system?  Why can we not change the disaster?  The worst western schools were in New Zealand.  They abolished the educational establishment, turned schools over to parents and teachers and made them compete for students.  Any kid could go to any school.  They could fire teachers who were seen as weak.  Teachers and parents know whose those teachers were.  New Zealand education rose to the top, just below Singapore.  

    • #5
  6. Stad Coolidge
    Stad
    @Stad

    Drusus (View Comment):
    It’s not the system – it’s the kooks that the communities foster and laud.

    Even if the kooks have community support, whacko teachers still need to be called out for what they are.  Let them know there are parents out there who recognize garbage when they see it . . .

    • #6
  7. Jon1979 Inactive
    Jon1979
    @Jon1979

    I’ve posted before that the progressive effort to kill off merit-based academic programs in the New York City school system, along the race-based application of both curriculum and hiring/promotion, dates back at least to the mid-1960s. So what’s happening in 2019 isn’t all that new.

    And while Packer does mention in his article that the actions of Bill de Blasio and his schools chancellor, Richard Carranza, created the current mess, he notes the current far left curriculum shift started in 2014 without ever noting that de Blaiso was elected mayor in 2013…

    …or, for that matter, if George Packer voted for Bill de Blasio as mayor in 2013. Or voted for his re-election in 2019.

    If you vote for a hyper-progressive, woke SJW mayor who sees everything in terms of race and wants to tear down anything that he sees as allowing white privilege — only after his kids have graduated from those same schools, of course, and despite the fact most of those schools are majority-Asian now —  don’t be gobsmacked when the progressive, woke SJW mayor sets about destroying the school system, down to the lower grades curriculums.

    John Lindsay managed in 1968 to get parents and Untied Federation of Teachers president Albert Shanker on the same side, in walking out of school for two months over Lindsay’s effort to push race-based hirings (and firings) in the school system. And a year later, NYC voters went out and re-elected John Lindsay as mayor. If you want to stop progressives from destroying the school system, stop putting progressives in charge of the school system.

    • #7
  8. RightAngles Member
    RightAngles
    @RightAngles

    I understand why people would want to homeschool, but I wonder if it might be better if we all kept our kids there and acted as parents to put a stop to this stuff.  If we all leave, then they can do it unopposed. I didn’t homeschool my daughter because she’s an only child and I wanted her to have the social aspects of public school, which are as important as academics. She got to be a cheerleader, go to school dances, go on field trips, and make lifelong friendships. I especially wanted her to have those friendships, which she still keeps today at age 24, because she has no siblings.

    But boy howdy I spent 15 years battling PC, and it wasn’t easy. I practically had to deprogram her every day after school, and I had to go in to see teachers a lot, and I even had to report one of them to the administration for a really egregious act of PC poison  (I posted about it a while back). I just wonder if more of us did this and kept an eye on what they’re teaching and how they’re teaching it, we could battle it more effectively and keep them from getting away with it. It seems like the more of us leave the more emboldened they’re becoming.

    • #8
  9. DonG Coolidge
    DonG
    @DonG

    Don’s razor:  Good families make good students and good students make good schools.

    Corollary:  If you want good schools, start with good families.

     

     

    • #9
  10. Stad Coolidge
    Stad
    @Stad

    RightAngles (View Comment):
    I didn’t homeschool my daughter because she’s an only child and I wanted her to have the social aspects of public school, which are as important as academics.

    One of the common misconceptions about homeschooling is that homeschooled kids miss out on a social life.  Not true!

    Homeschooled kids can (emphasis on “can”)) have just as fulfilling a social life without going to a public school.  If you live in a neighborhood with a lot of children, kids will play together when they’re young.  When the other neighborhood kids start going to school, no doubt they’ll meet friends and bring them home, and the homeschooled kids can socialize with ’em too!

    Homeschooled children will socialize and make friends in church, camp, athletics (Little League Baseball, Pop Warner Football), and other places.

    The word “can” comes into play because parents have to allow their kids to have a social life in the first place.  Strict parents can ruin a child socially if they prohibit contact with othjers, even if they go to public school.  We had a few like that way back when dinosaurs ruled the Earth I went to public school . . .

    • #10
  11. RightAngles Member
    RightAngles
    @RightAngles

    Stad (View Comment):

    RightAngles (View Comment):
    I didn’t homeschool my daughter because she’s an only child and I wanted her to have the social aspects of public school, which are as important as academics.

    One of the common misconceptions about homeschooling is that homeschooled kids miss out on a social life. Not true!

    Homeschooled kids can (emphasis on “can”)) have just as fulfilling a social life without going to a public school. If you live in a neighborhood with a lot of children, kids will play together when they’re young. When the other neighborhood kids start going to school, no doubt they’ll meet friends and bring them home, and the homeschooled kids can socialize with ’em too!

    Homeschooled children will socialize and make friends in church, camp, athletics (Little League Baseball, Pop Warner Football), and other places.

    The word “can” comes into play because parents have to allow their kids to have a social life in the first place. Strict parents can ruin a child socially if they prohibit contact with othjers, even if they go to public school. We had a few like that way back when dinosaurs ruled the Earth I went to public school . . .

    But she couldn’t have experienced school dances or cheerleading! I mean I respect the decision to homeschool for some. It just wasn’t right for us. And I still don’t think playing with other kids is the same as being at school with them. That’s just my opinion, and is partly the result of my own great memories of school I guess.

    • #11
  12. Kephalithos Member
    Kephalithos
    @Kephalithos

    RightAngles (View Comment): But she couldn’t have experienced school dances or cheerleading! I mean I respect the decision to homeschool for some. It just wasn’t right for us. And I still don’t think playing with other kids is the same as being at school with them. That’s just my opinion, and is partly the result of my own great memories of school I guess.

    Something tells me that your own experiences and preferences are at odds with those of a lot of Ricochetti . . .

    I’d pay good money just to spare my children (if I had any) the incalculable pain of school dances and pep rallies.

    • #12
  13. Stad Coolidge
    Stad
    @Stad

    RightAngles (View Comment):
    But she couldn’t have experienced school dances or cheerleading!

    And that’s a perfect reason for going to a school with those activities!  Some public school systems even allow homeschoolers to compete on their athletic teams, although the lefties try to stop it (even though the homeschooling parents pay taxes).

    I submit if public schools didn’t have so much negative crap stuff going on in them, we wouldn’t see as much home schooling as we do now.  Three cheers to you for your heroic effort to de-program your daughter every day!  Many parents roll over and give up, but that’s part of the left’s playbook – make it too hard to fight them . . .

    • #13
  14. RightAngles Member
    RightAngles
    @RightAngles

    Stad (View Comment):

    RightAngles (View Comment):
    But she couldn’t have experienced school dances or cheerleading!

    And that’s a perfect reason for going to a school with those activities! Some public school systems even allow homeschoolers to compete on their athletic teams, although the lefties try to stop it (even though the homeschooling parents pay taxes).

    I submit if public schools didn’t have so much negative crap stuff going on in them, we wouldn’t see as much home schooling as we do now. Three cheers to you for your heroic effort to de-program your daughter every day! Many parents roll over and give up, but that’s part of the left’s playbook – make it too hard to fight them . . .

    Oh I didn’t know they allowed that, and I applaud it (and I’m not at all surprised the lefties wouldn’t like it). Surprisingly, I have a lefty friend in CA who homeschooled. She really went all out, too. She took them on field trips to different states and did a lot of other activities. Sometimes I have to wonder if deep down my reason for not doing it was laziness haha. It’s a huge commitment, and truly my hat is off to those who undertake it.

    • #14
  15. TBA Coolidge
    TBA
    @RobtGilsdorf

    Stad (View Comment):

    Drusus (View Comment):
    It’s not the system – it’s the kooks that the communities foster and laud.

    Even if the kooks have community support, whacko teachers still need to be called out for what they are. Let them know there are parents out there who recognize garbage when they see it . . .

    And silence them. 

    Seriously, they are not paid to spread ‘their truth’, they are paid to teach facts and skills as they are understood by society at large. 

    I often think on Dr. Williams’ quote, “At the beginning of each semester, I tell students that my economic theory course will deal with positive, non-normative economic theory. I also tell them that if they hear me making a normative statement without first saying, “In my opinion,” they are to raise their hands and say, “Professor Williams, we didn’t take this class to be indoctrinated with your personal opinions passed off as economic theory; that’s academic dishonesty.” I also tell them that as soon as they hear me say, “In my opinion,” they can stop taking notes because my opinion is irrelevant to the subject of the class — economic theory.” 

    When I consider the left’s antipathy towards religion in schools being based on K-12 kids have almost no defenses against indoctrination, I can only agree with them; supportable facts, verifiable history, and tested (and re-tested) best practices are the only things that should be taught by teachers paid by the people. Because that is what they are paid for. 

    btw, in the old days I thought K-12 was a little too jingoistic. That has been way over-addressed and now we graduate wanna-be socialists. 

    • #15
  16. Annefy Member
    Annefy
    @Annefy

    There is no one solution, which is why school choice is so important. It would have the added benefit of empowering parents

    My four years of high school were torture – my husband went to the exact same school at the exact same time and had a good experience. 

     

    • #16
  17. Mark Camp Member
    Mark Camp
    @MarkCamp

    TBA (View Comment):
    When I consider the left’s antipathy towards religion in schools being based on K-12 kids have almost no defenses against indoctrination, I can only agree with them;

    It would be truthful to say that I disagree with their religion and they with mine. Not that they, nor you, lack any religion.

    The young being susceptible to indoctrination by their parents– to being brought up in either the way they should go or the way they should not go–is a given of human nature.  Atheists don’t occupy a neutral ground on faith, so they don’t occupy a neutral ground on education.

    What matters is which doctrine one generation passes on to the next, not whether or not indoctrination occurs, which it must in any case.

    The Progressivists have taken control of the institutions of education, and are propagating their religion, and the political system that is necessary to advance it: the political system of lies, terror, and death.

     

    • #17
  18. Stad Coolidge
    Stad
    @Stad

    RightAngles (View Comment):
    Sometimes I have to wonder if deep down my reason for not doing it was laziness haha. It’s a huge commitment, and truly my hat is off to those who undertake it.

    We sent our three daughters to parochial school until they were ready for 10th, 9th, and 8th grades.  We stopped because all three were going to a Christian school in Augusta, Georgia (20+ miles away), and the daily drive was wearing us down.  In addition, oldest daughter was learning how to drive, and we did not want her on I-20, driving her sisters to and from the school in Augusta.  Aiken?  No problem.

    The biggest culture shock going from a private Christian school to a public school was the foul language allowed by the teachers.  Oh sure, the private school had its share of foul-mouthed students, but they were dealt with harshly by the teachers and administration, and when their were parents called in?  They lowered the boom on their kids.  In the public school, the parents mostly sided with their brats . . .

    • #18
  19. Stad Coolidge
    Stad
    @Stad

    Annefy (View Comment):

    There is no one solution, which is why school choice is so important. It would have the added benefit of empowering parents

    My four years of high school were torture – my husband went to the exact same school at the exact same time and had a good experience.

     

    To be honest, I hated every single year of public school, from grade 1 to 12.  But when I went to college, I thought I’d died and gone to heaven.  Still, I had four teachers in high school who made my love of (and success in) college possible.  That part of high school didn’t suck . . .

    • #19
  20. TBA Coolidge
    TBA
    @RobtGilsdorf

    Stad (View Comment):

    Annefy (View Comment):

    There is no one solution, which is why school choice is so important. It would have the added benefit of empowering parents

    My four years of high school were torture – my husband went to the exact same school at the exact same time and had a good experience.

     

    To be honest, I hated every single year of public school, from grade 1 to 12. But when I went to college, I thought I’d died and gone to heaven. Still, I had four teachers in high school who made my love of (and success in) college possible. That part of high school didn’t suck . . .

    Find those guys and give them a raise; fire all the other guys. 

    • #20
  21. SkipSul Inactive
    SkipSul
    @skipsul

    What struck me in that Atlantic article was how the author could actually see how toxic and crazy the school system was, yet still could not bring himself to actually question its authority or stand up to it.  Seemed he would just keep following the latest Woke marching orders with his children, happy they were learning all the “good progressive” stuff, even as he was worried about what it was doing to them.

    It took him far far too long to wake up, and I still don’t think he has.

    Our son was less given to joining a cause and shaking his fist. Being older, he also understood the difficulty of the issues better, and they depressed him, because he knew that children really could do very little. He’d been painfully aware of climate change throughout elementary school—first grade was devoted to recycling and sustainability, and in third grade, during a unit on Africa, he learned that every wild animal he loved was facing extinction. “What are humans good for besides destroying the planet?” he asked. Our daughter wasn’t immune to the heavy mood—she came home from school one day and expressed a wish not to be white so that she wouldn’t have slavery on her conscience. It did not seem like a moral victory for our children to grow up hating their species and themselves.”… “in politics, identity is an appeal to authority—the moral authority of the oppressed: I am what I am, which explains my view and makes it the truth. The politics of identity starts out with the universal principles of equality, dignity, and freedom, but in practice it becomes an end in itself—often a dead end, a trap from which there’s no easy escape and maybe no desire for escape. Instead of equality, it sets up a new hierarchy that inverts the old, discredited one—a new moral caste system that ranks people by the oppression of their group identity. It makes race, which is a dubious and sinister social construct, an essence that defines individuals regardless of agency or circumstance—as when Representative Ayanna Pressley said, “We don’t need any more brown faces that don’t want to be a brown voice; we don’t need black faces that don’t want to be a black voice.” At times the new progressivism, for all its up-to-the-minuteness, carries a whiff of the 17th century, with heresy hunts and denunciations of sin and displays of self-mortification. The atmosphere of mental constriction in progressive milieus, the self-censorship and fear of public shaming, the intolerance of dissent—these are qualities of an illiberal politics. I asked myself if I was moving to the wrong side of a great moral cause because its tone was too loud, because it shook loose what I didn’t want to give up. It took me a long time to see that the new progressivism didn’t just carry my own politics further than I liked. It was actually hostile to principles without which I don’t believe democracy can survive. Liberals are always slow to realize that there can be friendly, idealistic people who have little use for liberal values.”

    • #21
  22. SkipSul Inactive
    SkipSul
    @skipsul

    And so much of what makes the NYC schools so toxic is how NYC is itself effectively a party machine.  Parents have no power but the ballot box in the city, and even that is ultimately denied them.  About all they can do is leave, everything else is run by the party, for the party.

    • #22
  23. Henry Castaigne Member
    Henry Castaigne
    @HenryCastaigne

    I’m writing a story for my nieces to counteract all the progressive nonsense in the culture. 

    • #23
  24. RightAngles Member
    RightAngles
    @RightAngles

    Stad (View Comment):

    RightAngles (View Comment):
    Sometimes I have to wonder if deep down my reason for not doing it was laziness haha. It’s a huge commitment, and truly my hat is off to those who undertake it.

    We sent our three daughters to parochial school until they were ready for 10th, 9th, and 8th grades. We stopped because all three were going to a Christian school in Augusta, Georgia (20+ miles away), and the daily drive was wearing us down. In addition, oldest daughter was learning how to drive, and we did not want her on I-20, driving her sisters to and from the school in Augusta. Aiken? No problem.

    The biggest culture shock going from a private Christian school to a public school was the foul language allowed by the teachers. Oh sure, the private school had its share of foul-mouthed students, but they were dealt with harshly by the teachers and administration, and when their were parents called in? They lowered the boom on their kids. In the public school, the parents mostly sided with their brats . . .

    Well I have to admit there was no foul language when I was in school (the Early Bronze Age). Not on TV, hardly even in movies, and certainly not allowed in school. It’s a whole different world out there now.

    • #24
  25. JoelB Member
    JoelB
    @JoelB

    SkipSul (View Comment):

    And so much of what makes the NYC schools so toxic is how NYC is itself effectively a party machine. Parents have no power but the ballot box in the city, and even that is ultimately denied them. About all they can do is leave, everything else is run by the party, for the party.

    When you have kids, you are less likely to fight city hall and battles that will take years to win. 

    • #25
  26. SkipSul Inactive
    SkipSul
    @skipsul

    JoelB (View Comment):

    SkipSul (View Comment):

    And so much of what makes the NYC schools so toxic is how NYC is itself effectively a party machine. Parents have no power but the ballot box in the city, and even that is ultimately denied them. About all they can do is leave, everything else is run by the party, for the party.

    When you have kids, you are less likely to fight city hall and battles that will take years to win.

    Which only perpetuates the problem.  The NYC school board knows this – they know that so long as they are gradual enough, the parents will never pull together enough to turf them out.

    • #26
  27. Jerry Giordano (Arizona Patrio… Member
    Jerry Giordano (Arizona Patrio…
    @ArizonaPatriot

    Good post, Mrs. Mandel.  I agree, but this is nothing new.  My wife and I saw this problem over 20 years ago, even in relatively conservative Arizona.  Thus, we homeschooled our 4 kids.  In fairness, she deserves almost all of the credit, as she did almost all of the work.

    I’m going to go further, and say something more controversial.  The problems actually began in the 1960s, if not earlier.  Thus, almost all of us were indoctrinated in malicious, wicked Leftist ideology.

    If you are socially liberal, this is the result of such indoctrination.  If you think that premarital or extramarital sex is OK, if you think that homosexuality is unobjectionable, if you think that divorce is normal and understandable, if you think that the racism of affirmative action will solve anything — then I think that you are a victim of this ideological corruption.

    I know that this will be unpleasant to hear.  I urge introspection

    • #27
  28. Henry Castaigne Member
    Henry Castaigne
    @HenryCastaigne

    Jerry Giordano (Arizona Patrio… (View Comment):
    If you are socially liberal, this is the result of such indoctrination. If you think that premarital or extramarital sex is OK, if you think that homosexuality is unobjectionable, if you think that divorce is normal and understandable, if you think that the racism of affirmative action will solve anything — then I think that you are a victim of this ideological corruption

    I just don’t get why homosexuality is included there. Divorce is bad for kids, affirmative action is bad for black people and for whites and Asians, premarital sex is risky from a biological and mental perspective and extramarital sex makes people unhappy in the long run. What do gays have to do with anything. 

    • #28
  29. TBA Coolidge
    TBA
    @RobtGilsdorf

    JoelB (View Comment):

    SkipSul (View Comment):

    And so much of what makes the NYC schools so toxic is how NYC is itself effectively a party machine. Parents have no power but the ballot box in the city, and even that is ultimately denied them. About all they can do is leave, everything else is run by the party, for the party.

    When you have kids, you are less likely to fight city hall and battles that will take years to win.

    We don’t have free moms anymore; they’re all at work. So they really can’t pull their kids out or show up at school and complain (try getting on campus these days). They don’t have time to go to board meetings. 

    These people act as if they are unaccountable because they aren’t really ever called to account. 

    • #29
  30. Jerry Giordano (Arizona Patrio… Member
    Jerry Giordano (Arizona Patrio…
    @ArizonaPatriot

    Henry Castaigne (View Comment):

    Jerry Giordano (Arizona Patrio… (View Comment):
    If you are socially liberal, this is the result of such indoctrination. If you think that premarital or extramarital sex is OK, if you think that homosexuality is unobjectionable, if you think that divorce is normal and understandable, if you think that the racism of affirmative action will solve anything — then I think that you are a victim of this ideological corruption

    I just don’t get why homosexuality is included there. Divorce is bad for kids, affirmative action is bad for black people and for whites and Asians, premarital sex is risky from a biological and mental perspective and extramarital sex makes people unhappy in the long run. What do gays have to do with anything.

    It’s a major deviation from traditional sexual morality.  It’s tremendously dysfunctional.  It prevents reproduction, for one thing.  It is a major vector for disease transmission, for another.   It seems to be an addictive trap and a lure away from what ought to be the highest calling of almost all men and women — to be husbands and fathers (if male) or wives and mothers (if female).

    I appreciate your comment, Henry.  My proposition is that your inability to see the obvious dysfunction of homosexuality may be a result of Left-wing indoctrination.  I’m pleased that we seem to agree on the other issues.

    I don’t know for sure, but on the issue of homosexuality, I you may believe the Leftist propaganda that homosexuals are “born that way” and that it is “immutable.”  I delved into these falsehoods in detail, about 6 months ago, and it will probably be tiresome for me to repeat the arguments.  The evidence to the contrary was quite overwhelming.

    The big problem is that homosexuality (and transgenderism) is spreading in an extraordinary way.  The latest data that I’ve seen is from a GLAAD survey in 2017.  They did the survey again in 2018 and 2019, but did not report these results.  This gives you an idea of the shocking increase in homosexuality and transgenderism.

    Among the oldest generation (72+), only 3% identified as “not strictly heterosexual” and 3% identified as “non-cisgender.”  Among the youngest (18-34), 16% identified as “not strictly heterosexual” and 12% identified as “non-cisgender.”  This is an epidemic of confusion and perversion.

    Here is the GLAAD study.  

    I should add one caveat to the above results.  There are two categories reported by GLAAD that I may misunderstand.  One is “non-cisgender, not strictly heterosexual” and the other is “non-cisgender, strictly heterosexual.”  I’ve assumed that the latter category means, for example, a biological man who is “trans” but is sexually attracted to women — i.e. someone like Bruce Jenner, who (as I understand it) is “non-cisgender” (being a man pretending to be a woman), but who is sexually attracted to women, not men.  Does this make him heterosexual, or not?  

    • #30
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