Publicity over story times for children featuring transvestites provoked the citizenry in one large Louisiana city, while it largely elicited a yawn in the state’s largest city. In Lafayette, many in the public expressed concern over the concept, and opposition by Mayor-President Joel Robideaux led to the resignation of his appointee to the board that runs parish libraries. By contrast, similar events in New Orleans haven’t generated any real controversy.
A board of appointees from local government entities
govern Lafayette’s libraries. It receives about $1.4
million in general fund money from the city and another $14
million from the parish, mostly from a dedicated property tax. In New
Orleans, a dedicated property tax is forecast to pump over $18 million
into its libraries, governed by a board of mayoral appointees.
This creates starkly divergent political environments. In Lafayette, many elected officials bear some accountability for board actions, and also they can influence it marginally through appropriations. In New Orleans, with an entirely independent source of funding, as long as Mayor LaToya Cantrell doesn’t mind what goes on (and even she has a limited scope of action, as she appoints one board member a year for nine-year terms), it can do what it wants free from any accountability.
So, one might expect cancelling the Lafayette
story time, scheduled in mid-October, should the public lobby elected officials
sufficiently for that. And, as long as the New Orleans board doesn’t object and
it hasn’t so far, a continuation of the same in that city.
Regardless, whether public dollars should
facilitate such events is the real question. Both sides of the argument to some
degree declare it a matter of community standards. Opponents say it makes the
idea of transvestitism, if not transgender behavior or identification,
acceptable to youth. Supporters claim it’s over-the-top performance art that
promotes self-acceptance.
Thus, the discussion turns on whether the community
ought to subsidize this form of expression as an option for youth to emulate.
Behavioral science argues against that proposition.
Research consistently has demonstrated a link
between a person of a biological gender, including children, who
wish to dress in raiment consistent with the opposite sex (if not conceive of
themselves as that opposite sex) and mental illness. Simply, people who like to
cross dress suffer a much
higher incidence of such illness than in the general public. This suggests
that cross dressing often serves as a symptom of some kind of underlying
problem.
The same appears true in children. The most recent study on
this matter found much higher rates of select mental illnesses among children
who exhibited transgender behavior as young as three. And while the authors
erred on the side of political correctness by stating possibly societal
pressure against one sex identifying as another could contribute to this
pattern, that seems highly unlikely in children that young with such conditions
as autism spectrum disorder.
Worse, approaches that put ideology ahead of
science can pressure children into indulging in a desire to display oneself in
ways associated with the biological gender they are not, which can proceed
further into gender ennui if not outright causing reassignment psychologically
and/or physically. Not only does this ignore a potential mental health issue,
it validates it and could cause even more mental health issues in the future,
much less force reversal
of the entire process.
Of course, some people who cross dress have no psychological
issues and no mental illness. But children, with their less-developed
personalities and decision-making ability, ought not have society endorse to
them a behavior that may disguise and lead to ignoring a deeper issue. Additionally,
for many such
desires prove transitory by the time they reach adulthood.
Adults can make up their own minds over how they
want to appear and act, but with children more vulnerable to fad and fashion
they don’t need society to stand down from guarding against what could deflect
from a real issue and cause future them psychological pain. By acting as if
transvestitism were a mainstream model to follow, libraries increase the chance
of sowing deleterious confusion among children. Spending tax dollars this way neither
is appropriate nor helpful.
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