Samantha Brown is the mother of an 11-year-old daughter from Essex County in southern Ontario. Her daughter came home from school one day and told her mom she felt uncomfortable because a 13-year-old male student was using the girls’ washroom. Brown spoke to the principal, who said that her daughter could use a single-stall gender neutral washroom if she was uncomfortable.
Brown questioned a strategy of shunting all the girls who were uncomfortable (there were many) to a single stall washroom so that one boy who called himself “trans” could use the multi-stalled girls’ washrooms. She requested the opportunity to speak to the Greater Essex County District School Board (GECDSB) at it’s next public meeting. Her request was denied on the basis of “confidentiality issues,” but she was told she could speak at a private meeting of the board. According to Brown this was unprecedented. Neither she, nor any of the other parents she associates with, have ever heard of a parent speaking to a private board meeting.
She prepared a speech, which she read at the private board meeting on February 21, 2023. Afterwards, one of the trustees commented that there was no reason that speech couldn’t have been read at the public meeting. She was shut down by board chair Cathy Cooke who, in addition to serving on the school board, is a social worker and owner of a private counselling company. For an article about a previous GECDSB meeting, follow this link https://wokewatchcanada.substack.com/p/parents-bullied-and-disrespected.
With her daughter’s support, Brown has given Gender Dissent permission to publish her speech.
I am here today as a woman, as a mother, and as a survivor of sexual assault. I would hope we would all agree with the notion that we should protect girls from sexual violence. I will now explain why denying girls safe, segregated spaces away from genetically male students opens them up to increased risk of sexual assault.
According to the US Department of Justice, 99% of perpetrators of sexual violence are male, and 91% of sexual assault victims are female. This clearly shows us that natal males are substantially more likely to commit sexual assault against natal females.
According to a study from the Correctional Services of Canada, 45% of transgender inmates in Canada are behind bars for sexual offences. To put that into perspective, 13.9% of the male prison population is behind bars for sex crimes. This can only mean one of two things: either males who identify as trans are 3 times as likely as other males to commit acts of sexual violence, or that sex predators will take advantage of self ID laws and pose as transgender women in order to access victims. Either way, it’s clear that allowing self ID in our schools is opening girls up to heightened risk of sexual assault.
Another thing I believe we can all agree on is that we want to prevent the children in our schools from committing suicide, or attempting to do so. That’s one of the main reasons why we are being told to blindly affirm these kids when they come out as trans and to allow them into spaces which were meant for the opposite sex. According to the American Association of Suicidology, multivariate analyses showed that women and girls with histories of sexual assault in both childhood and adulthood reported significantly greater odds of lifetime suicide attempts. I don’t know why this is not being taken into consideration, but it should be.
Self-reported statistics tell us that 41% of transgender individuals have attempted suicide. According to statistics from the UK, US, and Canada, there has been an over 4000% increase in youth being referred to gender clinics in the past decade. One more statistic I will share with you on this matter is that according to the new addition of America’s Health Rankings Health of Women and Children Report from the United Health Foundation, there has been a 29% jump in teen suicides in the past decade. Putting the last three statistics together, we are left with only a couple of possibilities. Either the 4000% increase in trans kids indicates a severe social contagion that should be heavily discouraged before more children are unnecessarily medicalized, or it’s not as dangerous as we’re being told not to affirm a child’s trans identity. If it were as dangerous as we are told it is, why has there been an increase in teen suicides since our society has become more accepting and affirming?
Where was the epidemic of gender non-conforming kids taking their lives? Is it possible that we are putting girls at risk of suicide due to sexual assault in order to soothe the feelings of group of people who are 60-90% likely to change their minds and desist, according to all 12 studies done on youth with gender dysphoria? Victims of sexual assault can’t change their minds to escape their trauma. They have no way of going back in time and not being raped.
I know how much everyone loves to go on about kindness these days. Where is your kindness for a victim of sexual assault? Why does the terror she feels when forced into a confined space with a person who possesses the physical attributes necessary to rape her not matter to you? Are girls really that insignificant to you? Or is everyone just afraid of saying and doing the right thing?
We must also acknowledge the fact that voyeurism and indecent exposure are no longer crimes, so long as the perpetrators claim to be transitioning. Unless you truly believe that sexual predators are above lying to gain access to vulnerable girls, you must see the problem here. How is a girl to differentiate between a transgender girl and a boy who wants to watch her undress or possibly assault her? How are YOU to differentiate between them?
If you’re wondering why we haven’t seen an influx of sexual assault cases at schools, I have another statistic for you. For every 100 instances of sexual assault, only 6 are reported, with minors being the least likely to report. How much lower do you think that number gets when the perpetrator is a member of a protected class? One of the main reasons sexual assault victims keep quiet is fear that they won’t be believed or that they will face backlash.
If we follow this to its logical conclusion, we wind up with girls being forced to change for gym class in front of males, at best. At worst, we wind up with rapes and assaults, which we are already seeing in the US.
I have to ask: do you feel that it’s kind to force girls to undress in spaces they no longer feel comfortable in? To give them the message that their consent is conditional? Do you feel that it’s right to imply that they are transphobes and bigots for wanting private spaces away from males? Is it a good idea to encourage girls to ignore their natural instinct to be wary of males in certain situations?
I am aware of the law. I am also very aware that the law is not a moral compass. We are all going to have to live with ourselves if we sit back and allow this to happen out of ignorance or fear of the consequences we may face. I implore you to do everything in your power to rectify this injustice before this dangerous situation becomes a tragedy, or several.
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