Middle school tobacco survey asks students to reveal gender

TRENTON, NJ – The Biden administration wants to know your pre-teen’s sexual preference in a new survey geared toward middle school students in New Jersey and beyond.

The National Tobacco Youth Survey for this year has introduced additional questions concerning sexual orientation and gender identity for middle and high school students. Administered by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Office on Smoking and Health, the survey aims to monitor the effectiveness of youth tobacco prevention and control programs across the United States.

The survey took a new turn in 2020 when it began asking students to identify as gay, lesbian, bisexual, or “something else.” Fast forward to this year, the questionnaire delves deeper into transgenderism, asking students if their gender identity aligns with their biological sex.

The survey states, “Some people describe themselves as transgender and/or nonbinary when the way they think or feel about their gender is different from their sex assigned at birth,” and proceeds to ask, “Do you identify as transgender and/or nonbinary?”

Michael Chamberlain, Director of Protect the Public’s Trust, expressed concern that the survey, originally intended to understand and address youth smoking, might be diverted for other purposes. He questioned the appropriateness of integrating controversial social topics into taxpayer-funded surveys on youth tobacco use.

Additionally, the survey provides a definition of “sexual orientation” and invites students to specify their romantic preferences, offering various identification options such as “straight or heterosexual,” “Gay or lesbian,” “Bisexual, pansexual, or queer,” or “Asexual.”

Earlier in February 2022, the CDC proposed a “Non-Substantive change request” to the Office of Management and Budget, seeking to update existing queries and include new ones concerning racial or ethnic discrimination experiences.

The CDC maintains that slight modifications to the survey are crucial to keep pace with evolving tobacco use behaviors among the youth.

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