DORI MONSON
Dori: Bellingham dad upset with transgender books for preschoolers: ‘let kids be kids’
Jun 16, 2022, 8:23 AM
(Unsplash)
(Unsplash)
Bellingham parent Christopher Morris believes preschool should be a time of life when adults need to let “kids be kids.”
That’s why he and other Whatcom County parents are upset with the Bellingham School District for featuring two titles about transgenderism involving young children.
Morris told The Dori Monson Show that when he reached out to district officials regarding making the books available to pre-kindergartners, he was shut down.
“They conflate parental concern with their ugly interpretation of what we’re asking for,” Morris explained. “The problem in our schools isn’t necessarily ‘inclusion’ because I think most of us agree with inclusion, but it’s ‘promotion.’ That’s what really concerns parents. It’s not inclusion; it’s promotion. That’s what gender ideology is receiving.”
One of the books in question is told by its 12-year-old co-author who is undergoing gender transition. The other is about a boy who – after playing with his mom’s clothes and makeup – decides he likes his new appearance. Consequently, the character decides, he must be a girl.
For some parents, raising questions about the age-appropriateness of these topics for preschoolers and elementary-aged children “automatically labels someone as transphobic,” Morris said.
Morris, the father of a 2nd-grade son, said he discovered this in February during Black History Month, too.
“Instead of focusing on Black history heroes,” he said, schools chose to introduce a curriculum that included “transgender ally-ism.”
Morris said that when he asked the school principal about this, “what they came back with is that I must have a problem with Black History Month.”
He’s also upset that one of Bellingham’s school board members decided to host an open mic event at the all-ages sex shop she owns. When parents protested the event because “they didn’t think that children belonged in sex shops,” the protestors were painted as “homophobes and transphobes” in the local media, Morris said.
It’s why Morris had opted to enroll his son in The Bellingham Family Partnership Program. BFPP partners with families of kindergarten-8th graders who prefer to homeschool their children.
“Really, we just have been preserving some amount of innocence for our 8-year-old little boy,” said Morris.
“Why can’t they just let kids be kids without an agenda that pushes sexuality and inappropriate subjects on kids younger and younger?”
Listen to Dori’s interview with a dad upset by transgender books in a Bellingham School District preschool
Listen to the Dori Monson Show weekday afternoons from noon – 3 p.m. on KIRO Newsradio, 97.3 FM. Subscribe to the podcast here.
