(NewsNation) — As students nationwide return to school, the debate continues concerning LGBTQ+ subjects.
In Los Angeles, tensions escalated, resulting in violence between a parental rights group and LGBTQ+ advocates regarding policies related to transgender issues.
This comes as multiple California school districts have passed or are considering policies that require educators to tell parents if a student wants to change their name or pronouns.
Some parents advocate for regulations mandating schools to notify them if their child identifies as transgender. However, critics argue that such policies might jeopardize students’ safety.
Burbank, California Mayor Konstantine Anthony believes the biggest conflict between the two groups is how soon a parent should be notified.
“One group says immediately, and the other group says, why don’t you let the teacher figure it out? Maybe it’s a day or two, maybe it’s a week,” he said.
Yet, overall, Anthony also argues the policy would require more work for teachers.
“If we create policy with hard and fast rules, where teachers immediately have to notify the parents that a kid said a specific word like transgender, or something like that, what you’re doing is putting the onus on the teacher and creating more work for them,” Anthony said.
He added: “Kids are gonna think of things, they’re going to experiment with their identity, they’re going to try on different personas throughout their K through 12, curriculum, you got to let the kids be kids. Then, at a certain point, if the teacher sees that there’s something important, they’ll work with the child, they’ll work with the school counselor, and eventually definitely get the parents involved.”
Meanwhile, children’s identity is something that many parents believe should be a nonpartisan issue and is a family concern, and their identity is something parents and guardians what to be informed of.
California Parents United Founder Tracy Henderson argues schools participating in pronouns and gender identity means they’re “participating in social transitioning.”
“The problem here is that gender identity is actually a mental condition. It’s in the DSM-5; it’s called gender dysphoria,” she said. “It should alert school officials, it should alert parents to the concern that this child may be heading down a path toward medical mutilation.”
Henderson added: “The government should not be co-parenting with me, And that’s it, we just want to know what’s going on.”
To that point, Anthony, who is the first diagnosed autistic mayor in the U.S., argues using those words and phrases is “highly dangerous.”
“Puts people in harm’s way, puts kids in harm’s way by claiming a mental illness diagnosis is the only true path to dealing with issues of gender and gender dysphoria,” he said.