VICTOR JOECKS: Why transgender ideology isn’t dead yet

Major victories feel great, but they aren’t the same thing as winning a war.

On Monday night, the Supreme Court reinstated an injunction that prevented “schools from ‘misleading’ parents about their children’s gender presentation at school and their social transitioning efforts.”

A dozen years ago, that sentence wouldn’t have made any sense. But here’s what some parents today have faced when their children go to school. Whether from in-school indoctrination or social contagion, some students begin to believe their sex isn’t accurate. A boy claims to be a girl. A girl claims to be one of the dozens of genders leftists now insist that everyone else pretend are real.

If a child has persistent delusions, school officials should let his or her parents know. Parents have the ultimate responsibility for raising their children. But in some blue areas, school officials hide social transitions from parents. Leftists are worried that parents might not affirm their child’s fantasies. Parents may even question what school officials are teaching their kids.

Many voters have trouble believing that school officials would do such a monstrous thing. But they do. In some districts, it has been actual policy. It gets worse. In 2024, California Gov. Gavin Newsom signed a law that banned schools in his state from requiring teachers to tell parents if their child suffers from gender delusions.

The Supreme Court’s decision is great news, especially its robust defense of parental rights.

California’s “policies cut out the primary protectors of children’s best interests: their parents,” the majority ruled. Further, “the injunction here promotes child safety by guaranteeing fit parents a role in some of the most consequential decisions in their children’s lives.”

This is another victory for those who support reality over transgender ideology. Last June, the Supreme Court upheld Tennessee’s ban on gender mutilation surgeries. Under pressure from the Trump administration, hospitals around the country have stopped providing cross-sex hormones. Some have stopped performing gender mutilation surgeries. A detransitioner won a $2 million verdict against the doctors who chopped her breasts off when she was 16 years old. In February, the American Society of Plastic Surgeons recommended that “surgeons delay gender-related chest, genital and facial surgery until a patient is at least 19 years old.”

Even the propaganda press occasionally lets the truth out. Last June, The Atlantic featured an article titled “The liberal misinformation bubble about youth gender medicine.” The subhead read, “How the left ended up disbelieving the science.”

These are victories worth celebrating, but they don’t mean success is assured. Look at the Protect Girls’ Sports initiative spearheaded by Gov. Joe Lombardo. Likely Democrat gubernatorial candidate Aaron Ford begrudgingly said he didn’t support boys in girls’ sports. He then attacked Lombardo for bringing up the issue. Ford’s flip-flop appears to be based on electoral convenience, not a true change of heart.

This is the strategy of most leftists. They aren’t repudiating their beliefs. They’re hiding them behind clichés and platitudes. Aided by inverse journalism, they don’t want the public to know that they define fairness as boys dominating girls’ sports.

Be encouraged, but continue the fight. Transgender ideology isn’t dead yet.