Most Americans are aware that transgender ideology has taken a firm and tragic hold on our nation's institutions, and nowhere more deleteriously than in the schools. This destructive agenda was first introduced at the university level and descended into high school and middle school classrooms before victimizing our youngest, most vulnerable children in the elementary grades.

As a consequence of all this indoctrination, sex reassignment drugs and surgeries on the young have been rising for the past dozen years. The explosion in gender dysphoria, particularly among girls, is unlike anything that has ever been seen before, stoked in the schools by disingenuous counselors and therapists who won't question it when a pubescent or even prepubescent child asserts that she is really "a boy" or that he is really "a girl." Rather, these kids are affirmed in their confusion by adult so-called "professionals," who escalate the process of emotional and even physical transition before parents have a clue as to what is happening.

At least one transgender activist advocates for all children to be put on puberty blockers until they can decide their gender. The Blaze reported in December 2020 that "popular transgender activist, Zinnia Jones" (whose "real" name is Lauren McNamara) argues that "children should be legally able to consent to the administration of puberty blockers since they already de facto consent to the ‘permanent and irreversible' changes that come naturally through puberty."

Jones is a YouTuber with a following and a fan page. Born male in Chicago with the given name of Zachary Antolak, Jones for years identified as gay. In 2011, he concluded that he was actually a transgender woman, and "started a romantic relationship with close friend and lesbian Heather McNamara, becoming an adoptive mother towards Heather's two children." Jones is currently "in a polyamorous relationship with Heather and another trans woman named Penny."

Bitter fruits

With obviously disturbed characters like Jones serving as role models for the transgender lifestyle, it's little wonder confused kids become mired in disorder and depression. The sad reality is that many such children will undergo sterilization through puberty blockers and cross-sex hormones, followed later by physical mutualization and broken, unhappy lives, all at the hands of the public-school system, the health-care system, and social and mainstream media. As LifeSite News reported: "Sex change surgeries have been performed on children as young as 13 years old in the United States."

Douglas Blair of The Daily Signal documented several examples of the egregious transgender influence currently taking place in the nation's public schools. "In Howard County, Maryland," Blair wrote, "eighth grade students were subjected to a video in English class featuring a biological woman who identifies as a man talking about transgender issues. The video begins with discussions surrounding genital surgery, sex, and public restrooms before devolving into a screed about transgenderism in general." In California, teachers helped "a 12-year-old girl with a gender transition without telling her parents, then called Child Protective Services when the parents found out and tried to stop it."

Harmeet Dhillon, lawyer and founder of The Center for American Liberty, says "teachers are grooming our children" to embrace the transgender lifestyle. Dhillon tells the story of a 12-year-old girl who was "manipulated into identifying as a boy, changing her name on school records, binding her breasts so she wouldn't look like a girl, and keeping all of it a secret from her mother, Jessica."

In this particular case, the school formed "a secret ‘equality club,'" where preteens were recruited and persuaded "to question sexual and gender identities." At club meetings, kids learned that they may really be boys trapped in girls' bodies and vice versa. Radical teachers suggested to Jessica's daughter that the 12-year-old "was sexually attracted to both men and women."

As a result of this indoctrination, club leaders became convinced that they had successfully "transitioned" the child, and it was only then that they contacted Jessica and told her she was "to call her own daughter a boy's name with male pronouns — and that her daughter's name and gender had already been changed in official school records."

Fortunately, Jessica's mother fought back and Dhillon's organization has filed suit against the offending parties on her behalf. But Dhillon concedes: "From what we know of this case, it looks like we're in for a knock-down-drag-out legal battle..."

Paying the ultimate price

Incidents like those described above take place nationwide every day throughout the public-school system. But perhaps the most tragic examples of the irreparable harm being done are the kids who ultimately take their own lives.

On March 19, The Blaze reported the tragic story of Yaeli Martinez of California, who showed signs of depression by the time she reached eighth grade and began questioning her sexuality around the age of 15. Her mother, Abigail Martinez, related her daughter's sad story at a Heritage Foundation event earlier this month titled "Protecting Our Children: How Radical Gender Ideology is Taking Over Public Schools & Harming Kids."

Martinez told the audience that her daughter believed she was receiving support from the transgender crowd by going to meetings although no one truly cared about the girl's wellbeing. She accused California's public-school system of brainwashing children with gender ideology, and that her 16-year-old daughter's "struggle with gender identity led her to commit suicide.

"The school counselor was involved, DCFS (Department of Children and Family Services) was involved, and LGBT [sic] was in there too, trying to ‘help' my daughter transition..." Martinez explained. "They all accused me of not wanting to open my eyes, insisting that since Yaeli was a little girl she felt she was a boy, which was not true. She was not even close to a tomboy ... she was the girlie girl in the house."

Martinez then met with the school counselor and the principal, which she said actually made the situation worse. After a failed suicide attempt, the school psychologist and representatives of the LGBTQ lobby told DCFS that Yaeli, who had decided to take the name "Andrew," would "be better off out of the house." The girl was removed from her mother's home and placed in foster care.

In another attempt to save Yaeli, Martinez petitioned the court "to please let my daughter have a psych evaluation." But the girl's social worker said the problem was that Yaeli "needed to be acknowledged as transgender," and so the judge denied her mother's request.

Martinez disclosed that "an LGBT group" assured Yaeli that the State of California "would pay for her surgeries." They told the girl: "This is the best time to do it, because if you don't do it right now, nothing is going to make you happy. You're unhappy with your body, you hate your body so you go for it."

Martinez said she begged the court to focus on her child's mental health crisis rather than the gender identity issue and to "help her from the inside out." Instead, they forbade her to talk to Yaeli about God. A social worker warned that talking about God "was going to make him (Andrew) feel uncomfortable because he's in danger of committing suicide."

In September 2019, Yaeli Martinez ended her life by kneeling on a railroad track in front of an oncoming train. Her mother told the Heritage Foundation audience in closing: "I want everyone to know the truth because it didn't have to happen. I don't want this to happen to any other family... There's a lot of pain."

Now in litigation, Yaeli's Arcadia School District and the Los Angeles DCFS "have extended their condolences" to the Martinez family but have refused to comment in light of the grieving mother's lawsuit, according to the U.K. Daily Mail. A spokesperson for the DCFS touted the "therapy, leadership and mentorship programs, crisis intervention services, support groups, training, and education" that will allegedly be available through "new contracts with the Los Angeles LGBT Center, Penny Lane Centers, The Help Group and the Long Beach LGBTQ Center for ‘tailored youth services' which are ‘intended to uplift a youth's sexual orientation and gender identity.'"

The question is whether all these "services" would be necessary if the schools would teach valuable academics and leave children's personal, sexual health matters to parents.

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