The left opposes non-governmental organizations (NGOs) influencing education policy—unless those NGOs align with its values. If those NGOs appear conservative, i.e., anti-union, anti-bureaucratic, or anti-LGBT, they face resistance. But if your NGO wants to teach students about the gender unicorn, education policy may just be the right place to be. Much to my discouragement, this was a painful truth I learned about my home state of Ohio.
The Ohio Healthy Youth Environment Survey (OHYES!) is a multi-NGO initiative creeping its way into Ohio’s school districts. It is a collaborative effort between multiple state government agencies and NGOs like the Drug Free Action Alliance, Ohio Youth-Led Prevention Network Youth Council, Youth M.O.V.E. Ohio Youth Council, and Ohio Suicide Prevention Foundation. The survey “empowers high-impact change by uncovering student needs at the local level … OHYES! measures the prevalence of the behaviors and experiences that pose a risk to youth wellness.” OHYES! encourages community organizations (NGOs) to get involved in local school districts. Reason why? To send a clear message to students that their voice matters. That sounds nice, but students are not so much expressing concerns about their health and wellness as they are being drawn into gender ideology.
[RELATED: Gender Ideology Is Destroying Academia]
Here are the facts:
- OHYES! is a standard 110-item multiple-choice survey. An optional 120-item version, which includes 10 questions related to sex, is also available. Schools select which version to use.
- OHYES! is voluntary. Superintendents and principals choose if they want to participate, parents can opt out their student, and students can opt out, skip any questions, or quit the survey at any time.
- OHYES! is available for grades 7-12.
- OHYES! is anonymous. Names or individual ID numbers are not used.
- District- and school-level data are private to superintendents and principals. County, board, regional, and state-level data are available to the public.
I am not discrediting the honorable efforts to reduce drug and alcohol use or prevent suicide. These are noble endeavors. But often, good intentions are a breeding ground for ulterior agendas. Look further into the Youth M.O.V.E. Ohio Youth Council, a chapter of Youth Move National. Youth Move National is a grassroots nonprofit targeting black, Native American, and LGBT youth specifically and training them to be social justice activists. They are committed to dismantling systemic oppression and “cultivating spaces and connections with affirming communities of resonance and support.” That is fancy speak for creating safe spaces and endorsing gender dysphoria. The 10 questions related to sex on the optional 120-item version of the survey are just as alarming.
[RELATED: The Trans Agenda Could Make You Choose Your Pronouns]
One question asks students about their gender identity and sexual habits in perverted detail. Remember, children are answering these questions. Students are also asked how many sexual partners they have, whether they drink alcohol or use drugs before sex, and whether they use protection. I showed the list of questions to several parents in Northeast Ohio, asking them if they knew OHYES! existed and if they would allow their children to participate. Their responses? “We didn’t know this survey was even available,” “I don’t care how many exceptions there are to this survey. I don’t want people outside our home discussing these things with my children,” “Totally inappropriate for minors to be asked these questions,” “Parents or pediatricians are the ones that should discuss sexual behaviors with children, not schools,” “Sex ed is one thing because the intent is educational. This isn’t. It crosses the line into subtle predatory behavior.” Parents, beware the wolves in sheep’s clothing. The Community Partner Toolkit tells community organizations to pitch the survey to schools in their area and reach out to teachers and administrators directly. The NGO you may have thought safe might have just been the one that suggested obscene questions be used on OHYES!.
The 120-item version of OHYES! that includes the 10 questions related to sex needs to be removed. Parents think it is vastly inappropriate, and the questions were likely included because of an NGO with a malicious agenda. The report, Waste Land: The Education Department’s Profligacy, Mediocrity, and Radicalism, documents the instances in which gender ideology infiltrated American schools, often through third-party NGOs. The report also lists the Biden Administration’s executive orders abusing Title IX law, most of which have now been rescinded, and the Trump Administration’s interpretation of Title IX applying to sex, not gender, is a step forward in ridding schools of crazed gender ideology. But to eradicate it completely, it needs to be identified, exposed, and brought to the attention of parents and taxpayers.
Cover designed by Jared Gould using screenshots from the OHYES! survey.
Very interesting — I just stumbled across something known as the Okanagan Charter, “[i]ts purpose is to guide colleges and universities, using their unique positions and roles in research, teaching and service to their communities, to be leaders for the world in developing and modeling health-promoting strategies in their campus settings. Local communities could then learn from their example and modeling, thus influencing global health and wellbeing strategy. The key is moving beyond traditional approaches of influencing individual behavior, and moving upstream to systems level and environmental strategies that influence the health and wellbeing of person, place and planet.”
Proper acceptance of the 57 genders is, of course, part of health promotion — and Ohio State is a member of this organization. I am not saying that there is a direct connection between this organization and the folks behind the OHYES survey, but I’d be very surprised if they didn’t know each other.
The charter itself states that {h]ealth promoting universities and colleges infuse health into everyday operations, business practices and academic mandates. By doing so, health promoting universities and colleges enhance the success of our institutions; create campus cultures of compassion, well-being, equity and social justice; improve the health of the people who live, learn, work, play and love on our campuses; and strengthen the ecological, social and economic sustainability of our communities and wider society.”[emphasis added]
Big sister has seen the writing on the wall — they knew that it was only a matter of time until things like the SFFA decision would come down, and the people would elect a President like Trump to enforce it — so most of DEI (aka “equity and social justice”) has been shifted into private entities which just happen to consist of the key administrators at the various IHEs.