
A Tucson high school teacher is under suspension after teaching students that males with a certain intersex disorder were actually females.
Marana High School reportedly suspended physics teacher Les Beard after a recording of his lecture on androgen insensitivity syndrome (AIS) went public.
Beard’s suspension occurred following an investigation by independent journalist James O’Keefe through the O’Keefe Media Group (OMG) and Citizen Journalism Foundation (CJF). O’Keefe publicized a recording of Beard’s lecture on AIS captured by a student, along with O’Keefes subsequent phone calls to the head of public relations for Marana Unified School District.
JUST IN : Mr. Les Beard has been suspended from Marana High School after @OKeefeMedia released a recording of the Physics teacher telling his students that men can be women if they have androgen immunodeficiency syndrome. https://t.co/VASNdoqpIE
— James O'Keefe (@JamesOKeefeIII) January 29, 2025
Beard’s lecture is reproduced below:
“All of them have a condition called androgen immoficiency [sic] syndrome. And all of them have an XY chromosome. Now, women, probably everybody in here, all the females have XX chromosomes, and all you guys have XY chromosomes, probably. But all of these women have female sex organs. And what happened is when they were babies, fetuses I guess, this condition that’s supposed to — androgen, if your body is sensitive to androgen and you’ve got XY chromosomes, you develop male sex organs. And if you’re an XX, you develop female sex organs, but if you’re not sensitive to androgen, the male organs will not develop and the female organs don’t quite develop either. But usually all of these women have female sex organs, they do have male sex organs as well. So if you take an x-ray of them, you’ll see what guys have. But if you look, if you were to look at them, they look quite ordinary. So what are they? Are these guys? Mr. Trump says so. None of them found out until adulthood. You usually don’t find out that you’re an XY chromosome person until you’re an adult, and all of your friends in high school have started menstrual cycles and you never have, and so you go to the doctor and you ask, ‘Why have I not started a menstrual cycle?’ And then they give you an MRI and they find a surprise. And they tell you, ‘Well, you’re really a guy,’ but none of them really believe it because they’ve been women all their lives.”
As mentioned by Beard in his lecture, all AIS individuals have XY chromosomes. However, unlike the implication Beard made, XY chromosomes mean the individual’s biological sex is male.
AIS is a genetic disorder, one of more than 30 known intersex conditions. “Intersex” concerns conditions in which an individual has atypical sexual or reproductive anatomy.
There are two types of AIS: complete AIS (CAIS) and partial AIS (PAIS). In CAIS, individuals will have genitals that appear female, but are not; in PAIS, individuals will have genitals that may appear either female (but are not) or male (but not quite as they should be developed).
This is what makes AIS a genetic disorder: AIS individuals have either an incomplete (PAIS) or total lack (CAIS) of response to testosterone, causing the underdevelopment or lack of any development of a penis as well as fully or partially undescended testicles.
As they are males, AIS individuals do not develop a womb or ovaries.
Prior to teaching at Marana High School, Beard did stints as a senior geophysicist for Zonge International and Battelle.
The title of this article is misleading. The teacher is not discussing transgenderism. He’s discussing birth anomalies.
Be a critical thinker and consider the fact that nature is more nuanced than some politicians may want you to think. Birth anomalies are very real and it’s a biological truth that there are thousands of people in the US alone who are born with differences of sex development.
The problem isn’t his lecture, per se – which, everyone understands mutations, deviations, and anomalies – it’s the timing of his lecture. What relevance does this have on the subject of the class? Keep biology in biology class, keep physics in physics class, and – as we did in the Catholic school I went to – keep religion in religion class. A classic education will keep subjects compartmentalized where possible so _children_ can focus on the matter at hand.
On the surface, he’s not. But he’s using an exceptionally rare disorder with a long historical practice of regarding those affected as female socially and legally. They are currently females medically. He’s doing it to take a swipe at Trump’s EO aimed to stop the problematic trajectory of transgenderism where sex based rights are being shoved aside. Trump’s EO has zero to do with CAIS/PAIS females who are legally protected in reasonable accommodations under the ADA, as are ALL rare disorders catalogued at NORD, GARD, ORPHANET. EO’s cannot abrogate constitutional law or civil rights legislation. Beard was using a DSD to sneak around the prohibition on gender, to take a swipe at Trump’s EO, and push gender ideology, because these woman only know themselves as the female gender they were raised as, through no fault of their own. And us with DSDs are tired of it.
I don’t recall sex being a variable in any physics or math equation when I went to school. If he can’t or won’t stick to the subject he’s paid to teach then dismissal does seem the appropriate course of action.
A Tucson high school teacher at Marana High School, propounding gender identity in a physics course. Wonder what goes on in the lab?
I’m confused. Why is a Physics teacher giving his students a lecture on biology/anatomy? Does that mean that Tucson schools have English teachers lecturing on math? Or math teachers lecturing on history? Or maybe chemistry teachers giving lectures on English literature? The school district appears to have responded in an appropriate manner.
By the way, this is why ESA was created, to give parents more options to pick a school they believe is best for their children rather than being forced to send them to a poorly run State School.
If these so-called intersex disorders are genuine science reflecting reality (do we know?), then compassionate Americans may allow that one more tiny and peculiar human minority may have been identified. Persons interested, whether scientists, health care or private individuals, would be then free to attend to them. There are many human disorders afflicting our species, and generous hearts will always applaud those who face personal challenges with courage and dignity, without claiming victimization.
Why is a physics teacher discussing genitals at all? Using the extremely rare (nonbeneftial) mutation of the two sexes as an argument against the proven human binary is absurd.
WTH is a Physics teacher doing teaching about sex? Sounds like HE’S a genetic disorder.
Teaching devil worship.
Les Beard needs to be fired, probably put in prison as he’s also a pedophile
Wow, Why bother teaching that? Why not focus on reading, writing, math, social studies, U.S. and AZ constitution etc? What a fruit cake……
Wow, now physics is biology.
The new excuse to talk about sex! Biology is actually part of physics! Newton and Einstein were wrong!
It seems to me that he was accurately describing a human abnormality that puts those affected in a conundrum of what to do with their condition. He wasn’t advocating for sex change, he was explaining that condition. In my opinion, suspending him for this is wrong. It’s no different than the censorship the right has faced in social media. He’s a teacher and he taught accurately.
How does what he taught relate to Physics? If you are familiar with Marana, the parents have made it very clear they will not support this type of “education” when the parents overwhelming object, he should have known this was coming. If he didnt agree, change school districts.
It seems to me that he was accurately describing a human abnormality that puts those affected in a conundrum of what to do with their condition. He wasn’t advocating for sex change, he was explaining that condition. In my opinion, suspending him for this is wrong. It’s no different than the censorship the right has faced in social media. He’s a teacher and he taught accurately.
To be candid, I don’t see that he said anything wrong. He certainly wasn’t promoting that anybody without the abnormality he was describing have a sex change. It seems to me he was accurately describing a human abnormality and the conundrum that people who have it face. To me, censorship of his description is no different than the left censoring the right.
I simply don’t understand how these idiots think there is more than two sexes, regardless. The teachers that teach this crap are as sick as the students that they influence and that is exactly what they are doing, grooming our next generation of severely mentally ill kids.
I simply don’t understand how these idiots think there is more than two sexes, regardless. The teachers that teach this crap are as sick as the students that they influence and that is exactly what they are doing, grooming our next generation of severely mentally ill kids.
Unfortunately, more AZ GOPers will be very upset over this nonsense than being robbed of $$$ billions by the Dimshevik conspiracy in state government. BFD….fire the guy and get on down the road.
what it comes down to is BS is BS even if its your reality
what it comes to is this ; You want to think that.. your right and privilege – you want to teach that to my kid ; No Thanks. If that class was labeled as such and ‘hey dad I want to hear what he has to say ‘ I’d say… ahhhhhhh really??!! I suppose – go listen. Knowing is knowing – I have not that interest – nor do I want to spend my tax dollars on such dung – Its not a ‘sexual disorder class’ in which the student is the mandated participant. Maybe the instructor can find a new teaching position where that is what is sought… see yaa..