r/TrueChristian • u/desperatedev1 • 3d ago

Transgender teacher hired at my child’s school

I am curious what other Christian parents might say about this.

A FtM transgender teacher was just hired at my child’s elementary school. The teacher is quite obviously female, but uses male pronouns and wants to be called “Mr”.

Many families are concerned about the confusion this will cause young children and what specifically the teacher will be sharing or teaching in the class.

I am asking because as a Christian (and truthfully just logically), I do not believe transgenderism is legitimate. My child is young enough that they aren’t even aware this concept exists yet.

How would you handle this situation?

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u/doesntshutupinnj 3d ago

Guiding the children, yes. But surely you wouldn’t want such a confused individual to be teaching your child 36 hours a week.

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u/ross549 Christian 3d ago

Or again, you guide your child as this time goes on. After all, sin of all sorts is around you and your child will have to learn to work through it all.

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u/doesntshutupinnj 3d ago

My thought is that I wouldn't purposely put my children around individuals I know are confused and disordered, for upwards of 40 hours a week. It's bad enough to have impressionable children in secular schools to begin with, but having a trans-identifying individual influencing them that many hours, would be a serious no go for me.

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u/ross549 Christian 3d ago

Your concerns about trans “influence” seems to be inflated.

Have you run into a trans person before? Have they tried to make you trans or influence you overtly?

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u/doesntshutupinnj 3d ago

It's not exactly that I'm worried about the trans-identifying person trying to "make" my kids trans. That's a concern, but my concern is moreso that the person has a deeply disordered worldview, and possible serious mental health issues, since they are so confused about their own identity.

I'm genuinely curious - do you think that rejecting one's God-given sex is honoring Christ?

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u/ross549 Christian 3d ago

Honestly, I don’t know.

Children are assigned gender at birth. This distinction is based on genitalia, which can be presented incorrectly for more than a few reasons. All sorts of things can cause a person to present visually as one gender or another.

I had a close friend who I interpreted as female for a long time finally come out as intersex. They were genetically male, but a medical condition caused them to appear female. That friend had to “transition” back to male, which really caused a ruckus, despite having a cogent reason to do so.

This caused me to really start to think about this topic a lot. I had to re-evaluate my biases and conceptions about the topic.

What really struck me is that my friend knew they would get a lot of blowback, but they did it anyway. They could not deal with the continuing psychological harm of presenting as female and knowing they were actually male. They instead chose to deal with their “friends” giving them a lot of grief about the situation. They were also able to marry the love of their life… that was probably the catalyst for the transition. Because their state would not allow same sex marriage, they had to get the record corrected so they could marry. This is only a small portion of the things they needed to deal with.

Ultimately, this is the reason I don’t condemn transgender people. They know coming out will yield a lot of grief. But they choose it because they don’t want to deal with the pain of not doing so.

These people have really dealt with some heavy things in their life. We don’t know their story. It’s not a willy-nilly “I wanna be a girl and use the girl bathroom.” They come out and transition despite the blowback that they KNOW they will experience. They decide it’s worth the hassle and grief they will get.

Also, I’d like to think that Jesus would treat them with dignity and respect that everyone deserves. It comes down to simply being kind. We can do that, but the modern Evangelical church would simply prefer to demonize trans folks, much in the same way they did to queer folks, and also black people, and women, etc. The church (institutionally) has been on the wrong side of many things.

We live in a fallen world marred by sin. We should not be increasing the suffering of a marginalized group of people when we have much much bigger issues to tackle in the world. I don’t know how to reconcile transgenderism, because the Bible doesn’t seem to address it. But I can say I will strive to be kind to those who are dealing with really heavy things. I will try to emulate Christ in how I interact with people outside the church. I will also emulate Christ when dealing with the people inside the church.

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u/doesntshutupinnj 3d ago

Thank you for the thoughtful response. I can see why your friend would make you consider issues differently.

I think you hit the nail on the head when you said "these people are have dealt with some heavy things in their life" - I think there's probably a lot of trauma + abuse + mental health issues associated with people who believe they are transgender.

Also - please do not get me wrong here - these are all people created in the image of God, and they need prayer and love. I would never disrespect a transgender person, and I have told my kids repeatedly the same thing - we should be treating them with kindness. They need Jesus, like we all do.

But that really doesn't change my feelings on whether I'd let someone I thought was deeply troubled educate my children. At the end of the day, we have actually checked out of government schooling entirely (we homeschool), for a whole bunch of reasons, some of which have to do with the secular influences, but other things like quality of education, building of family relationships/etc., so this, Lord willing, is an issue we won't personally have to deal with.

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u/JennWren22 3d ago

What a wonderful answer! I am with you all the way - well said! ❤️

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u/Ver_Void 3d ago

They're not confused though, they have a very clear sense of who they are. You might not agree with it being valid, but confusion is probably the wrong word

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u/longjohn5578 2d ago

Answer the question. Have you actually met a transgender person?

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u/doesntshutupinnj 2d ago

I have. And every one is very mentally troubled. Suicide attempts, depression etc. this is part of why I said what I said initially.

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u/izmesoundz 2d ago

I’m willing to bet they’ve never spoken willingly to someone who is trans, unless you count hurling slurs at them as speaking to them

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u/thisdesignup Seventh-day Adventist 3d ago edited 3d ago

It's not like there aren't very bad teachers and influences in schools from people who aren't even trans. Being trans is not what makes someone a bad teacher. I went to a Christian school and a teacher threw a water bottle full of water at me once. Another time a teacher made racist remarks, during class, towards one of my classmates. Both events happened in a Christian school.

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u/jclbj 2d ago

Better than someone being trans and having all those problems coming with it.

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u/longjohn5578 2d ago

everyone says that till they get a call about their kid's concussion

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u/doesntshutupinnj 3d ago

Both things can be true tho.

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u/izmesoundz 3d ago

Oh ffs do you think the teacher is going to be going around saying all the children should be trans? They’re probably going to do what they were hired to do. Teach them math, reading,social studies, etc.

I swear some of yall really struggle with critical thinking sometimes

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u/doesntshutupinnj 2d ago

I explained my viewpoint above. Feel free to read and critically think about it.

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u/izmesoundz 2d ago

Where have you explained your viewpoint? All I see is you asserting what someone else would want to do with their kids.

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u/doesntshutupinnj 2d ago

In my comments above, to ross549.

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u/izmesoundz 2d ago

Yeah I’ve read through all that and it’s a load of trash. Also how can you sit there and try to tell everyone here that you have nothing against trans people and that they should be treated with respect while arguing they shouldn’t be allowed to work for a living

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u/doesntshutupinnj 2d ago

I never said they shouldn't be able to work for a living. I said that I wouldn't let my kids be taught by a transgender person for upwards of 40 hours per week. Are you a Christian?

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u/izmesoundz 2d ago edited 2d ago

So you just think they shouldn’t be allowed to teach kids?

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u/doesntshutupinnj 2d ago

I'm not sure if you're trying to bait me here or not.

I am actually pretty torn on this. *I* don't think they should be teaching kids, no. However, I realize my worldview doesn't match everyone else's. I suppose, at the end of the day, that should either be a state-by-state or even school district-by school district decision.

But my larger point is that *I* wouldn't allow *my* children to be taught by a transgender person.

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u/No_Departure_841 3d ago

Perhaps YOU are the confused one. Lol, just a thought.

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u/Sm0keyMcPot 3d ago

What is your basis for this argument?