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Erin Brewer's avatar

Thank you for putting this together! Social transition needs to be considered a therapeutic/ medical intervention and school counsellors should not be advocating for treatments. Social transition is often thought of as benign but it puts kids on a path to medicalization, especially in states that have therapy bans and medicalization is the only treatment available for kids struggling with their identity.

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Dr Maggie Goldsmith's avatar

They also affirm because what matter most are test scores. Just as teachers are being compelled to design curricula to align with standardized tests, so, too, are counselors having to keep students stable and academically engaged to ensure performance. Kids who present as trans are often the brightest and produce high scores. Let’s not forget that suburban real estate prices track with school ranking. The counselors’ primary mandate is to make sure these kids hold it together at school for the duration of their attendance. I hate to sound so cynical but it doesn’t make sense in any other way.

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