Andrea Lafferty: Donald Trump and Others ‘Don’t Understand the Full Impact’ of ‘Gender Identity’ Ideology

The president of the Traditional Values Coalition says that GOP candidate Donald Trump and others “don’t understand the full impact” of people who are pushing the idea of “gender identity” into American culture.

“This isn’t just about somebody going in [a bathroom] and relieving themselves and leaving,” Lafferty told Breitbart News political editor Matthew Boyle on Breitbart News Saturday, Sirius XM Patriot Channel 125. “There’s a much greater impact.”

“It impacts every level of our culture. I’m concerned we’re only focusing on the Bruce/Caitlin Jenners of the world, when in fact we need to be discussing the impact on our children – day in and day out,” Lafferty emphasized.

“Curt Schilling showed courage by refusing to back down against proponents of political correctness,” she said. “Over the course of time, we’ve seen more and more people coming against the right to believe, the freedom to believe, and Schilling is just the latest victim – although he is not acting as a victim. He is not backing down.”

Former Boston Red Sox pitcher Schilling was canned by ESPN for taking the common sense position most Americans have that men should use men’s rooms and women should use women’s rooms.

Lafferty said there is a lot of confusion about the North Carolina public safety and privacy law – confusion that the progressive left has exploited.

She explained that many people believe the North Carolina law is about Bruce/Caitlin Jenner, whom she describes as “some really rich guy who’s really famous and lives in an awesome house.” Lafferty said most people suffering from the belief that they are a member of the opposite sex are psychologically unhealthy and may not have the same financial resources as Jenner.

As Web MD states, the condition known as “gender dysphoria” was once referred to as “gender identity disorder.” However, the website takes the now easily recognizable “politically correct” approach: “But the mismatch between body and internal sense of gender is not a mental illness. Instead, what need to be addressed are the stress, anxiety, and depression that go along with it.”

The American College of Pediatricians, however, has asserted that gender ideology is harmful to children. The college states:

The American College of Pediatricians urges educators and legislators to reject all policies that condition children to accept as normal a life of chemical and surgical impersonation of the opposite sex. Facts – not ideology – determine reality…

No one is born with a gender. Everyone is born with a biological sex. Gender (an awareness and sense of oneself as male or female) is a sociological and psychological concept; not an objective biological one…

A person’s belief that he or she is something they are not is, at best, a sign of confused thinking. When an otherwise healthy biological boy believes he is a girl, or an otherwise healthy biological girl believes she is a boy, an objective psychological problem exists that lies in the mind not the body, and it should be treated as such. These children suffer from gender dysphoria. Gender dysphoria (GD), formerly listed as Gender Identity Disorder (GID), is a recognized mental disorder in the most recent edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of the American Psychiatric Association (DSM-V)…

According to the DSM-V, as many as 98% of gender confused boys and 88% of gender confused girls eventually accept their biological sex after naturally passing through puberty.

“Conditioning children into believing that a lifetime of chemical and surgical impersonation of the opposite sex is normal and healthful is child abuse,” the College asserts.

Lafferty believes many Americans are dismissing this issue as secondary, and don’t understand the tremendous impact the left’s narrative is having on children in public spaces and in schools.

“Title IX was designed to prevent discrimination on the basis of sex,” she explains, adding that President Obama – in his effort to “fundamentally transform” the country – has now tasked his “minions – whether at the Departments of Labor – the Equal Employment Opportunities Division – Justice, or the Department of Education…to go after people who take a common-sense approach to this.”

She states:

We’ve seen this in other places in the country where the Department of Education has come in and said, “If you don’t add gender identity to your policies, we’re going to pull your federal money,” because there’s something called Title IX. Title IX is often thought of as protecting girls and allowing girls to be in sports…but the Obama administration has twisted and distorted the clear intent of Congress on many fronts – Title IX which impacts schools and other public spaces.

Lafferty said the Obama administration’s distortion and manipulation of the intent of policies such as Title IX are now having an impact on children’s public changing places, class trips, and other situations.

As Education Week reports, a federal appeals court’s recent decision in favor of a transgender student whose restroom access was restricted by his school is likely to have “far-reaching implications for schools around the country.”

“The decision was called ‘a major turning point’ by the Gay, Lesbian & Straight Education Network [GLSEN], and it could help set the tone for discussions about accommodations for transgender students nationwide, school law experts said,” the report observes.

Education law professor Suzanne Eckes at the University of Indiana said the ruling ultimately “could set a pattern for schools to follow.”

Education Week continues:

Title IX prohibits sex discrimination but, under a regulation, schools may have sex-segregated facilities. The school district had interpreted that regulation to refer to biological sex, while the federal Education Department has defined it as applying to gender identity. Because both could be viewed as valid interpretations of the law, the lower court was obligated to side with the department, the 4th Circuit panel wrote. “We conclude that the regulation is susceptible to more than one plausible reading because it permits both the board’s reading—determining maleness or femaleness with reference exclusively to genitalia—and the department’s interpretation—determining maleness or femaleness with reference to gender identity,” the ruling says…

The ruling may come into play in the ongoing controversy over pending state bills that restrict restroom access for transgender students. North Carolina is the only state to have such a measure become law, and the ACLU of North Carolina has already challenged the measure in court on behalf of plaintiffs at the state’s universities, who argue that it violates Title IX.

Boyle asked Lafferty how the progressive left’s embrace of this agenda affects American children.

Lafferty replied that in Fairfax County, Virginia, a consultant who is pushing gender identity has said that “the best practices would be if a boy thinks he’s a girl, he gets to try out for the girls’ track team.”

“When the girls’ track team travels to another city for a meet, the boy who thinks he’s a girl gets to sleep in the hotel room with a girl because that is a part of the social experience, whether it’s sports or band or drama,” she continues. “When kids go on overnight field trips, the child who suffers from this issue would get to stay with the sex they identify with.”

“These are psychologically unhealthy people,” Lafferty stressed, pointing out that some transgenders engage in “gender fluidity,” in which they claim at any given moment of the day they can change their gender to whatever they feel is right for them.

Lafferty said, “We need to rally around people like Curt Schilling and others, and we need to go after elected officials” who have caved to the culture of political correctness.

“This problem was created by Obama and will have to be fixed by the next administration,” she maintains.

Trump said Thursday on NBC’s Today Show that people should use the bathroom they feel is appropriate for them. North Carolina, he added, had “paid a big price” for requiring transgenders to use the restroom that corresponds with their biological sex.

North Carolina Gov. Pat McCrory (R) signed the privacy and public safety bill into law after an ordinance in Charlotte was passed that allowed men who simply identify as a woman to use women’s restrooms. The ordinance was pushed forward by registered sex offender Chad Sevearance.

Trump later told Sean Hannity on Fox News that North Carolina’s “bathroom law” is “causing them some problems” and that “we have to take care of everybody,” while also arguing “local communities and states should make the decision.”

“I truly believe that if Mr. Trump understood the issue and others understood the real impact, they would take a different position,” Lafferty said.