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A Michigan education official is under fire after her response to a Republican state representative asking her how many genders there are went viral.
Michigan Chief Deputy Superintendent Dr. Sue Carnell found herself between a rock and a hard place when Republican Rep. Jay DeBoyer pointedly asked her how many genders exist, video shared on X by Libs of TikTok showed.
“How many genders are there?” DeBoyer asked Carnell, who is seen smiling in the clip that has since racked up more than 2.4 million views.
When she didn’t answer, he pressed her again.
“Different people have different beliefs on that,” Carnell responded.
“Well, you can believe what you want but science says there’s two,” DeBoyer said.
A firestorm of backlash quickly ensued online after the clip of Carnell’s response went viral.
“UNREAL. Michigan State Superintendent Sue Carnell doesn’t know how many genders there are. Watch as she draws a complete blank then refuses to answer when asked this simple question,” Libs of TikTok wrote while sharing the clip.
“This is the person responsible for Michigan kids’ education. Crazy as hell.”
“She is caught in the grips of an institutionalized mania,” political commentator Wesley Yang added on X.
Republican Michigan state Sen. Aric Nesbitt also commented on the exchange.
“3/4 Michigan kids can’t read at grade level. When you realize these are the people in charge of education in Michigan, that number starts to make a lot more sense,” he wrote on X.
Nesbitt is referencing results from the Michigan Student Test of Educational Progress that were released in August and specifically highlighted plummeting reading scores among third- and fourth-graders whose early education was warped by the coronavirus pandemic.
“What I want people to know about gender identity is what’s in the update to the Michigan Health Education Standards Guidelines. It’s not about gotcha questions,” Carnell told Fox News Digital after the backlash.
“It’s about providing local school districts with research-based information about health topics and including a few standards about gender identity areas for consideration by local schools,” she wrote in her statement.
Carnell elaborated on the guidelines and explained that by the end of eighth grade, students should be able to “define gender identity, gender expression, and sexual orientation, and explain that they are distinct components to every individuals identity” and also “explain how biological sex, gender identity, and gender expression are distinct concepts and how they interact with each other,” her statement added.
A new set of state sex education standards was approved by the Michigan State Board of Education last week. It includes the guidelines Carnell mentioned in her statement.
The standards Carnell was defending in the viral clip of the hearing were also adopted in a swift 6-2 vote.
The Post reached out to Carnell for comment.
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