This issue has caused people to go to unhealthy, Orwellian extremes. Schools have to report a students planning to do harm to themselves or others, but should be under no obligation to report this sort of personal issue to parents, especially when it can cause a rift in the family. And if we're actually going to entertain the argument that this sort of thing can be a "phase", then deliberately and immediately outing a student to their parents is probably the worst thing a school can do. It'll put the student's back against the wall, and force them to commit one way or the other, when in reality they might not be ready to do so, and the better strategy is just letting them explore and come to the right conclusion in time. And I don't see anything about this school offering any sort of medication to the student, so I don't see the problem.
Yes, being trans is not the same thing as being gay, but the backlash against this so obviously comes from a similar place. It's sad how people have gone from being (understandably, IMO) confused by this, and claiming "I'm not sure what I think about this" to these melodramatic tirades about how young people coming out as trans is "ruining society" (sure sounds familiar...) There are a few students who want to use they/them pronouns at my school, and I can assure you that they are in no way ruining school for other students, or even making them particularly uncomfortable. What does ruin school for students here are those who have zero emotional regulation and those who are intentionally rude and even cruel. The fact that some of you would go to these emotional extremes when your lives aren't even affected by this situation is telling.
Just because you don't understand why or how someone would want to recognize as a different gender (heck, I can't say I fully get it) doesn't mean that it's impossible or that your perception is the only one that should count. Identity is messy, let young people explore it a bit without demanding that they be micromanaged by their parents every step of the way.
I miss the era where a woman could be masculine and a man feminine without being considered trans. "Gender is a social construct" and all that, remember? That was less than a decade ago. I will never understand why the left became even more rigid on gender roles than the right, but in a different way.
They still can be.
I have never met someone in real life who unironically thinks that if Oliver likes musical theater and the color pink that they're actually Olivia. Not even the people I know who go really,
really far on most issues argue this. I've only ever seen right-wingers dig up Tweets from random people as "evidence" that this is what "the left" thinks.
