On Thursday, March 30, a BYU professor revealed to her SFL200 “The Eternal Family” class that her eight-year-old son was “diagnosed with gender dysphoria” after taking him to a professional as he would frequently play with Barbies and dress in girls’ clothes.
According to our sources, throughout the class, Professor Sarah Coyne presented photos of her son doing such things as evidence of his gender dysphoria. Julie Jarvis, a junior at BYU, described herself as “shocked and saddened” by the class. Julie added, “As someone studying families and hoping to work with children both professionally and personally for the rest of my life, my heart went out to this little boy and all those like him whose parents are confusing them in the most destructive way.”
Coyne concluded the class by inviting everyone to sing the children’s hymn “I’ll Walk With You” while continuing to present the slides of her young, cross-dressing son. Notably, the hymn describes a child walking with someone who feels left out as a demonstration of their Christ-like love towards others. Julie told of her confusion about the singing, and stated:
“There were students crying and hugging while I sat in shock, still trying to wrap my mind around what was so casually presented to us. Another student noticed I wasn’t singing and asked what was wrong… When I pointed out that she had, in essence, told us that her son was transgender, he was surprised. He, like so many others in the class, had been distracted by the professor’s virtue signaling and didn’t even realize what had been shown and taught to us not five minutes prior.”
In subsequent classes, the she continued to describe herself as the parent of a “transgender child,” also referring to her son as “they.”
In July 2021, BYU News reported on this professor’s groundbreaking research, which found that “children who engaged with princess culture were more likely to later hold progressive views about women and subscribe less to attitudes of hegemonic masculinity.” Coyne and her study have been covered by Cwic Media. Additionally, a Reddit post on r/BYU from June 2021 described her as having a “queer child.” It is unclear as to whether the student was referencing the young boy from last month’s class or another child.
SLF200 fulfills “The Eternal Family” religious course required by BYU and is also offered as a religious elective class. The class intends to teach “The Family Proclamation,” “teachings of latter-day prophets,” and “relationship science shown to contribute to the formation of healthy marriages and families.”
Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints states in its General Handbook that the “intended meaning of gender in the family proclamation is biological sex at birth” and, therefore, is an eternal characteristic. Members are counseled against social transitioning, or “presenting oneself as other than his or her biological sex at birth.”
Editor’s Note: The mission of The Cougar Chronicle is to articulate and spread the conservative perspective to the BYU community through the lens of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. We believe this includes calling attention to problems we see at BYU violating our conscience. We make this report and others with the intent to heal the wounds of the psyche with the truth, not to “damage another’s reputation with pathetic and pithy barbs” as President Nelson said. We desire, and call on those reading this, to save others who may become permanently damaged by gender theory, not to damage them more.
Senior Contributor and Managing Editor at The Cougar Chronicle
Jacob Christensen
The Cougar Chronicle is an independent student-run newspaper and is not affiliated with Brigham Young University or The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
This is one of the more bigoted and biased articles I’ve read. This is a heartless cyberbullying attack on this professor for doing what is best for her child and you justify the reception of the message only with the opinion of one or two attendees. It seems the entire message of the class was missed as you continue to refuse to walk with individuals that aren’t like you. The American Academy of Pediatrics has clear recommendations for how to help transgender individuals (https://www.aap.org/en/news-room/news-releases/aap/2018/aap-policy-statement-urges-support-and-care-of-transgender-and-gender-diverse-children-and-adolescents/). I suspect the tune of your article would change if you had a transgender child, especially if they were to suffer from depression or suicidal ideation, as so many of them do. But you don’t, and you continue to respond with harsh judgment on those you should be loving and serving, which is the opposite of what you claim to believe. Shame on the author of this article and those that agree with it.
The child is 8 years old! This is clearly the child’s mother projecting her fantasies on to him. To use him as a prop to engender sympathy from the class she teaches is just sick and quite frankly abusive. She should be excused from her role at BYU immediately.
What is best for a child. This is an interesting statement. I always ask this to people who claim to be experts in the field of radical acceptance, what they often confuse with inclusion and kindness, instead of the actual reality that perpetuating the Transgender Defense movement has done more to damage the future of humanity than perhaps any initiative in modern history. In that, they are literally encouraging and fast tracking the permanent destruction of self, the inherent divinity with which all children are born and which allows for true personal beauty, joy, and the pursuit of meaningful, lasting, and wholesome future relationships. There is no happily ever after for these people under current treatment protocols and definitely not for an 8-year-old who is barely old enough to start to determine right from wrong, let alone understand the blessings and power of gender understanding.
To pull from the AAP for their biased and absurd “treatment recommendations” clearly shows that you don’t understand the shortcomings and dangers of the politicization and monetization of gender fluid objectives. These “Doctors” have distanced themselves from science and facts perhaps more than you or this BYU professor have and no one is calling them out on it. Who has the most to benefit from such a baseless and missleeding study than the Doctors trying to grow a practice on self-pay/cash-pay emotionally confused individuals feeding into the Gender Studies contagion. Don’t confuse self-proclaimed kindness and over-acceptance with the fact that the Transgender Movement will do more to destroy the future of humanity and the children that humanity should do everything to protect, than any other current division of truth and error.
Shame on you! Reading this ‘article’ made me sick, what a thoughtless attack on someone you barely know on a situation you know nothing about. You are deceived if you think you are acting in a Christ-like matter. Your words are not helping anyone, they are hurtful. Figure out a better venue to have a conversation about transgender issues and have your concerns and questions answered and heard. You quote President Nelson saying your intent with the article was not to ‘damage another’s reputation with pathetic and pithy barbs’. Well, you failed because that’s exactly what you did. Shame on you!
Her and her kid are sick? Period? She’s got an 8-year-old-“trans” (= liar and budding psychopath) there is no way she should be teaching any “family” class. She failed at it
A couple of articles down you highlight President Nelson’s talk about the need for peacemakers yet here you are using nothing more than opinion and insinuation mixed with scant facts to minimize what is likely an extremely difficult experience for a family. These are actual human beings.
You are despicable.
I don’t expect this comment to hit home since you’re unlikely capable of the level of consideration, compassion and introspection asked for by President Nelson.
I had to respond to this article because it violated my conscience as a person who believes in love and family, as well as science and logic. This article demonstrates a lack of understanding of all of these things.
So, based only on the information that her professor has a trans child who she has decided to love and acknowledge at the advice of a trained professional, this student was “shocked and saddened.” And then she somehow concluded that the child was being harmed by their parents without any evidence except that the parents have decided to accept and support their trans child despite all the pressure of the LDS community otherwise? And you print this obviously biased viewpoint without digging any deeper? Did you offer Dr. Coyne the opportunity to comment on this article before printing? Isn’t that the most basic of journalism ethics? Considering that she is an accomplished scholar with a phd and the actual mother of the child in question, wouldn’t it be logical to assume that she is more qualified to speak about the situation?
And referring to her use of the primary song as “virtue signaling” is hypocritical when the LDS church claims to love and “walk with” all people as children of God. Why should that not apply to LBGT children? Where exactly is the place in the LDS church for trans children? I found this article painful to read because of how harmful these kinds of attitudes are to LGBT children. There is a lot of actual research on this if you take the time to read the science. The vast majority of transgender individuals have considered suicide and 40% have attempted it due to being marginalized. Attitudes like what is expressed here make these worse. Yet, living in families, communities, and churches that are gender affirming help to reduce these statistics. There is research to back this up – not just opinion. I’m pasting some sources below in case you are willing to learn more. If you want to claim that “gender theory” has caused anyone to be “permanently damaged”, please feel free to provide peer-reviewed research to support this view.
If you truly believe in LDS values of supporting families, please take some time to reflect on how you would feel if you had a child who was trans and you were told by church leaders to just keep pretending they weren’t and denying their requests to live socially as the gender they feel inside, no matter how much their depression, self-harm, and suicidal thoughts increased. If you still can’t empathize, maybe take the time to actually speak to Dr. Coyne and find out about her journey.
https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/how-anti-lgbtq-rhetoric-fuels-violence/
https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/why-anti-trans-laws-are-anti-science/
Gibbs, J. J., & Goldbach, J. (2015). Religious conflict, sexual identity, and suicidal behaviors
among LGBT young adults. Archives of Suicide Research, 19(4), 472–488
Barnes, D. M., & Meyer, I. H. (2012). Religious affiliation, internalized homophobia, and mental
health in lesbians, gay men, and bisexuals. American Journal of Orthopsychiatry, 82(4),
505–515.
You are sick, the 8 year old is sick and the mother has no fitness to be teaching a family class? Its fundamentally inverted and people are naturally repulsed waving an 8 year old budding psychopath nobody wants around. You’re just a phony and a liar, period.
I think this article is irresponsible. As a former visiting faculty member in Sarah’s department and a current active and believing member of the church, I can tell you that teaching in the School of Family Life at BYU is like walking on egg shells. Sarah shares her heart and soul with her students. She made a choice to share her struggles in the ambiguity of raising a child “who is different” in the church. Then her students decided to go to the media instead of talking to her directly.
So back to my point. This article is irresponsible in how it reports this information. First of all, if you know anything about research, you always gather a bunch of data. Demographic information like sex, age, race, income, etc. are common demographic factors. Sarah’s princess and boys finding is just one of those surprising things you find in your data and as a scholar, you have an ethical obligation not to suppress findings if they don’t line up with what you would think.
Secondly, this story is clearly trying to fit this situation into a box building on LGBT vs BYU issues. Sarah and her family will be caught in the cross fires of this situation. Sarah is top five of the loveliest people I know with a deep connection to Jesus Christ and our faith. For those who read my comment, please do not spread this article around.
And to the BYU student who made a fuss, imagine if anytime you did something your coworker didn’t agree with, you immediately went to the media. I know you are probably only twenty. But I appeal to that empathetic soul inside of you to make changes going forward. I’m sure you are a decent person trying to live a good life and I briefly had very, very angry feelings towards you, but I know these issues are so hard so I’m going to give you the benefit of the doubt.
How does it feel to be filled with so much hate? This teacher and child’s choices do not affect you in the smallest amount. Hare dare you judge them, when they have done nothing but good and kindness in this world? What have you done? You have spread hate and intolerance through the shield of your religion. Truly a despicable and saddening state of higher education that such a trivial thing, like one’s personal religion, is used as an excuse to condemn the choices of others. Why can’t you just love and accept those around you… And then live your own life how you want? This professor is doing nothing wrong by asking others to only accept her choices? She accepts yours. These choices do not concern one other single person, except God. Every Christian that believes they can judge someone else before God is heretical, and needs to sit down. And shut up.
Editor: exactly how are you NOT damaging another with barbs? You are blatantly putting a mother down for how she is choosing to love and raise her child. As President Nelson speaks of in the talk you quoted, maybe just allow yourself and Julie to disagree and leave it at that. Why must you try to harm another?
This article and the student who responded so reactively do not understand gender dysphoria. Dismissing it as playing with Barbies and wearing girl clothes suggests that the student failed to comprehend what was being shared. Gender dysphoria is a well-researched diagnosis with children showing significantly poorer mental health outcomes when they are pressured to live as their natal sex. Parents of children with gender dysphoria who follow their children’s lead are not confusing them at all. It’s much more likely that the parents feel confused until they see their child emotionally coming back to life as the child decides how to address the gender dysphoria in their own way. When parents see their child smile again, laugh again, join in family interactions again as the child moves into gendered life in a more authentic way for them, parents recognize that their child knows something about their gendered selves that the parents need to pay attention to. Gender dysphoria is a valid mental health issue that encourages parents to set aside their own certainties about how the child should be in a gendered way.
They are budding psychopaths and its facilitating a future suicide after it does god knows what to others. It figures you would fly a phd with a bunch of word salad that is toxic and broken at the bottom line.
When I was eight years old I was a complete tomboy. Many children go through this and without interference grow up to live a life in line with The Proclamation on the Family.
I am kind to transgender people but that doesn’t mean I think it should be promoted in a class that is supposed to sustain that Proclamation.
To put Woke counselors over the Lord and His prophets is leading to apostasy and/or members who no longer believe the prophets receive true revelation. Either the Church is true or it isn’t. This is a day of decision.
Ask yourself, if you still believe the Church is true … what is the purpose of our time on earth? Is there eternal life or is it all about temporal gratification here and now?
Congratulations. You have officially reached even lower than I thought possible. You are implying 1. This professor made her son transgender 2. She is teaching contrary to the church’s teaching, which last time I checked loving one another was still a tenant of the gospel and 3. She was by anyway teaching and encouraging someone to be transgender- like it is a choice. I’ve never been so happy to be a University of Utah graduate.
If you feel it necessary to put an editors note saying your not going against the prophet’s direction to not be contentious, you’re probably going against the prophet’s direction to not be stone throwers. I’d expect better from students at BYU then to blatantly ignore the direction we’ve received to be Stone catchers not stone throwers
Id expect better than flaunting 8 year old psychopaths??? But? Bible said you would be like “the days of noah” when it caught up to you. They need legit professors and probably just hired this one because its a woman.
The Church leaders have been asking members to help defend the Church for years now. They have said they can’t do it alone.
We are living in a new day when if a conservative gives an opinion on an issue, they are called a hater and other such labels. This is a direct attack on our first amendment rights. Why do the Woke believe that if someone disagrees with them on an issue, we have no right to address that issue?
This article was not disrespectful. A professor who is supposed to be teaching the Proclamation on the Family is teaching the opposite. That needs to be addressed. It is solid doctrine that gender is eternal.
To use hurt feelings as an excuse to personally attack someone who is courageously supporting the Church’s stance is simply wrong. You are now the arbiter of truth, God is. She was not ugly about the professor, just straight forward.
That professor is breaking the honor code and this needed to be brought out.
Having the students sing while the photos were shown is emotionally manipulative and was done to effect change.
“How long will ye halt between two opinions?”
The Lord will not change His mind when He has spoken through His authorized prophets to make this clear. How can any believing member cherry pick which eternal principles to follow? I’m not talking about policies, I’m talking doctrine.
This student was not going against the prophet’s talk. You just think anyone is disrespectful if they disagree with you and they should be muted. The professor knew what she was doing when she signed the honor code. If she doesn’t want to abide by that code she can choose to teach elsewhere.
That pesky Proclamation again dragging us away from the vanity of our own minds and the idols of our own creation. Prophets are good when they point out the flaws in other people but oh so inconvenient when they speak about my weaknesses.
Folks let’s not cherry pick President Nelson. He said we cannot compromise on the truth and he was one of the signers of the Proclamation on the Family. The greatest kindness anyone can ever experience is a heaping dose of truth.
As an aside, I do have to admire this faculty member and her skill at manipulating the emotions of the woke by exploiting her child. I understand that it is kind of a thing there at BYU but I thought it was confined to the religion faculty.
How do these people get these jobs and then, still keep them when they become the antithesis of what they allegedly teach? A transgender 8 year old?? This one isn’t cut out for parenting and is teaching a family class….
To the editor and to that student. You are the 1%. Dont let anyone sway your awareness and observation of whats wrong and whats right. Everything has been infiltrated by this Woke agenda, schools, hospitals, medical studies, pretty much every institution and corporation in this country. Thank you for standing up for whats right and speaking out. You give me hope for humanity.
This is straight child abuse in the guise of “acceptance”. Do we really need to wait a generation for the mutilated survivors to come forward and expose what was and always has been so obviously wrong?
Professor is employed by BYU. It is her responsibility to teach the curriculum set forth by the school. She should not be promoting or justifying herself to the students in her classes of teachings contrary to the curriculum set forth by the school. Not a matter of kind or unkind. Tolerance or intolerance. There are many schools she can teach at that she can express herself as she feels. Her classroom was not the place to sharing her acceptance of transgenderism. Every school has a choice of what is acceptable or unacceptable to their values, morals, teachings. If you don’t like BYU – there are other schools to choose from. Plain and simple.