Each school year, more Massachusetts public school students are identifying as non-binary.
Since the start of the 2019-2020 school year, the Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education’s public school enrollment data has broken down gender into three categories: male, female, and non-binary. In this instance, “non-binary” is an umbrella term used for anyone who identifies as a gender other than male and female.
The state recently released its enrollment data for the 2023-2024 school year, based on student enrollment on October 1, 2023. It found that while students identifying as non-binary is rare, the number is increasing.
The number of non-binary students in Massachusetts schools increased by 5.7 percent from the 2022-2023 school year to the 2023-2024 school year — from 1,608 last school year to 1,700 this school year.
Since the 2019-2020 school year, there has been a 393 percent increase in the number public school students identifying as non-binary in the Commonwealth.
When the state reported the number of non-binary students in public schools (2019-2020), the number was 345 out of the 948,828 kids in public schools (0.0364 percent), according to the state.
The next year, the number increased despite a drop in public school enrollment. During the 2020-2021 school year, 478 of the 911,465 public school students identified as non-binary (0.0524 percent), the state said.
One school year (2021-2022) later, 994 of the 911,529 public schoolers identified as non-binary (0.109 percent), the state’s data shows. And in the 2022-2023 school year, 1,608 of the 913,735 students identify as non-binary (0.176 percent), according to the state.
Meanwhile, this school year, 1,700 of the 914,959 students identify as non-binary (0.186 percent), according to the state.
That’s an increase of 1355 non-binary students from the 2019-2020 school year to the 2023-2024 school year.
Massachusetts Family Institute communications director Mary Ellen Siegler told NewBostonPost that public school officials in Massachusetts are actively contributing to the increase.
“It is not surprising to learn there has been a rise in students identifying as non-binary in MA,” Siegler wrote in an email message. “Children are being confused about their gender through social media, books in school libraries, lessons in sex education classes, storybooks being read to elementary students, school programs and assemblies, social contagion, and more. The social contagion piece is significant.
“Add to this the fact that MA schools actively promote and affirm this psychological and social dysfunction and hide students’ gender identities from their parents, and it’s no wonder the numbers are on the rise,” she added. “When children are separated from their parents in this way they are more vulnerable to negative influence by peers and indoctrination by school officials.”
School enrollment data is not the only place where Massachusetts recognizes the non-binary gender identity. Since 2019, Bay State residents have been able to identify as non-binary on their driver’s licenses. In addition to “M” or “F” for male or female, licenses can also have an “X” for non-binary.
The Massachusetts Senate unanimously voted in September 2021 to let people change their birth certificates so they can identify as non-binary instead of male or female. If the bill one day becomes law, it would also let minors change the gender on their birth certificate if they provide an affidavit from a parent or guardian. The Massachusetts House of Representatives has never voted on this measure.
A spokesman for the Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Second Education could not be reached for comment on Monday or Tuesday.
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