Josue Sierra, media relations specialist for the Maryland Family Institute, says his team commends the Frederick County school board for removing the requirement that students and staff members address people by their preferred pronouns and for encouraging parents to be involved in discussions about their child's gender identity.
"I think that's a small step in the right direction," he tells AFN. "The fact is pronoun mandates and social transitioning are not harmonious, are not neutral."
He says "multiple studies" show that when schools socially transition children by changing their names and pronouns and giving them access to spaces designated for the opposite sex, "that locks them into a pathway of permanent harm before they're mature enough to understand the consequences."
Oftentimes, these are vulnerable children who are struggling with other mental health issues that are buried in this ideology. It significantly increases the likelihood that those children will later seek out "medicalized, irreversible, sex-rejecting drugs and surgeries," Sierra asserts.
Even so, the Frederick County school board has voted to continue allowing students in the district to use whichever bathroom or locker room they choose and to compete on sports teams of the opposite sex.
Sierra says that breaks the promises of Title IX, which exists to guarantee equal protection and opportunities for female students, including privacy and safety.
He notes the Maryland Family Institute filed a formal Title IX complaint against Anne Arundel County Public Schools in September over similar policies that explicitly allow male students into female restrooms, locker rooms, sports teams, and even overnight accommodations on school trips.
"School boards should understand that these decisions carry legal consequences, including federal investigations and loss of fundings," Sierra tells AFN. "Our Title IX complaint asks the Department of Education to enforce the law, because protecting girls' privacy and safety is just not optional; it's a legal requirement."
He says when school boards allow boys in girls' bathrooms, locker rooms, and sports, they are abandoning common sense and basic biological reality.
"That's not education," he insists. "That's indoctrination."
Sierra says it is important to fight these so-called accommodations because young girls – not administrators or activists – are the ones who pay the price. He invites others who recognize that "compassion does not require denying objective reality" to join Maryland Family Institute in that fight.
