A new report out of Maryland showing a nearly 600 percent increase in the number of students who identify as non-binary should lead parents to "stand boldly" against a "social contagion" that is impacting countless children, Christian apologist Ken Ham says.

The report shows a 582 percent increase within Montgomery County Public Schools in the number of students who identify as non-binary, from 35 students to 239. A majority (129) of the students were middle schoolers, while 92 were high schoolers, according to The National Desk/KUTV, which posted the report.

Ham, the CEO and founder of Answers in Genesis, bemoaned the stats in the report.

"Transgender and the host of other gender identities have become a social contagion, the new ‘cool thing' to be," Ham wrote on his blog. "But it's not a harmless little trend - it's incredibly dangerous. These young kids, believing they are something other than male or female, are ripe for the sexual abuse that is ‘gender-affirming' hormones and surgeries.

"These procedures can (and often do) cause permanent sterility and mutilate bodies, not to mention the health complications we don't even know about yet!" Ham wrote. "And the never-ending medical visits. This is the largest social and medical experiment on children."

The report should serve as a wake-up call to parents, Ham said.

"[C]hildren do not belong to the government nor does government or the school system have the child's best interests at heart," Ham said. "Children have been given by God to their parents (Psalm 127:3), and it is parents who know, love, and care about their child the most. It's parents who will now have to support and help their children through the painful and lifelong consequences of this gender madness long after they've moved on from the school, teachers, and media that have planted the seeds of confusion in their minds.

"What is happening in US public schools is horrifying, and we must be aware of it and stand boldly against it for the sake of precious children, made male or female in God's image, who are being sacrificed on the altar of a twisted ideology," Ham added.

God's Word alone, Ham added, must determine how Christian parents raise their children.

"No matter what cultural fads come and go, the Word of God stands forever (Isaiah 40:8), and it says we are made male and female (Genesis 1:27)," Ham wrote. "Peace and happiness will not be found in rejecting God's design for us and our bodies but rather in coming to Christ for forgiveness and new life."

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