A school district in California heavily pushing radical gender theory advertised a talk to students about “transgender young people” that did not require them to be accompanied by parents.
Davis Parent University, a volunteer group in partnership with California’s Davis Joint Unified School District (DJUSD), hosted a lecture last week with Rachel Pepper, a child sex change-affirming therapist and author of “The Transgender Child: A Handbook For Parents And Professionals.” Students aged 12 and up were invited by the school district to attend with any adult aged 18 and up.
“Do not ever think that withholding care or telling a teen to wait until they are 18 and of age to move forward are suitable options,” said Pepper in a clip from the event that surfaced online on Wednesday.
Rachel Pepper, author of "The Transgender Child," says you should "not ever think that withholding care or telling a teen to wait until they're 18 [before transitioning] are suitable options."
Hesitant parents must ask if they "would prefer a suffering child or even a dead one." pic.twitter.com/UpveUW0QAi
— Colin Wright (@SwipeWright) January 18, 2023
“If you find that you are resistant to providing congruence options for your teen — and the clock is ticking — keep coming back to love and ask yourself if you would prefer a suffering child — or even a dead one — to a child who could receive gender-affirming care,” said Pepper, relying on a debunked affirm-or-suicide narrative frequently used to emotionally blackmail parents into letting their children obtain puberty blockers, cross-sex hormones, and gender-related surgeries.
During a Q&A segment, Pepper was asked what to do about extended family members who are “skeptical” of a “very young trans kiddo, age four.”
“Sometimes families have to make hard decisions because there may be people in extended families who are toxic and who are not safe people for those children to be around,” replied Pepper.
When asked what the statistics were for youth who identified as transgender and nonbinary, Pepper claimed that “recent studies of high schoolers” have shown that “15 to 19% of youth identify somewhere on the spectrum of non-binary, gender diverse, [or] transgender.”
DJUSD students have been bombarded with instruction on “gender identity” and sexuality in recent years, resulting in a concomitant boom in trans-identification. An average of 6% of surveyed DJUSD students identify as “nonbinary” or “neither male nor female,” according to a 2020-2021 school survey — which is 4.3 times the national average, and three times California’s average.
Advertisements for the lecture appeared on Davis Parent University social media posts and on a student portal where homework assignments were accessed. A mother of a ninth-grade student told The Daily Wire that flyers for the event were emailed directly to her son two weeks in a row.
“My concerns are that the school counselors and administrators are promoting one way of dealing with gender dysphoria, and that is telling teens that they are a ‘trusted adult’ and support ‘trans kids’ and their transitions,” a Davis Unified parent, who wished to remain anonymous, told The Daily Wire.
Opposition to the event may have influenced the organizers’ decision to host it virtually rather than in person, as originally intended. A group of protestors peacefully organized outside Davis Senior High School and the Susan B. Anthony administrative building in the rain on the afternoon of the event.
“We were raising awareness at the high school specifically because this talk was really marketed towards kids,” said Allie Snyder, a Davis Unified parent who attended the protest. “Even though the Davis Parent University organization said the event was for parents, it was directly promoted to children in the district. A bulletin about the event was sent to all the kids, starting in the seventh grade.”
@ethical_care @StandingforXX @ChoooCole @RubinReport #knowschoolsecrets. Stop indoctrination of students. Kids are beautiful in their natural bodies. @DJUSD @DJUSDPC pic.twitter.com/8ebtcAmbPL
— DetransAwareness (@DetransAware) January 12, 2023
As many as 30 parents held signs that said, “gender ideology is anti-science,” “Democrats against experimenting on kids,” “transitioning is not suicide prevention,” and “stop telling gay boys they’re trans girls.”
The Davis Joint Unified School District did not respond to The Daily Wire’s request for comment in time for publication.