And the fact that he doesn’t believe what I believe isn’t hateful — just as it isn’t hateful when Americans question some of the views espoused by progressive transgender activists.

Over the past decade, the transgender movement has gone from seeking representation and access to health care to imposing its own supposed truths on American society. Like the idea that gender is fully mutable. That people born male but identifying as women can safely and fairly play in women’s sports. That it’s dangerous to tell parents when their children are changing their gender at school. That it’s even more dangerous to deny life-altering medical care to children confused about their gender.

There are no doubt people who feel they have been born in the wrong body and who lead more fulfilling lives by adopting characteristics of the opposite gender. Adults should have the right to pursue that kind of life. They deserve respect and inclusion, like any other person, and we should teach children that respect as well.

But the belief that anyone can be born in the wrong body is just that — a belief. It’s neither the product of scientific research nor the outcome of a democratic debate. It’s a statement of faith.

Anyone is entitled to that belief, but they aren’t entitled to impose it on others. And trans ideology goes further in public institutions, like schools, than modern organized religion legally can.

Even some trans people are uncomfortable with how dogmatic the activism has become. It “is truly about a messianic vision of dismantling the role of gender and sex in America, which, forgive my language, is just insane,” says Brianna Wu, a trans woman and progressive activist who advocates for transgender health care.

In Arlington public schools, teaching materials for fourth- and fifth-graders said that one’s gender is determined by “what’s in their head and heart.” Per a teacher handout, males aren’t men, they’re “people who have a penis.” And the so-called “pink tax” does not mean that men pay less for their razors — it’s that “people with vaginas” pay more.

When religion is taught in public schools, it’s often presented through a historical or sociological lens. Here’s what a group of people believe, and here’s how it all started. Public school teachers can’t force students to recite “Our Father” when they get to the life of Jesus in world history classes.

But some schools do readily assert that gender is fully mutable and biological sex is insignificant. And they do pressure students’ speech by supporting a pronoun culture whereby everyone has to label themselves according to a fluid gender spectrum.

“This is gender ideology as religion,” Wu told me.

Activists no doubt believe that by pushing transgender ideology into schools, they’re helping build a more just society. But the Catholics trying to open the nation’s first religious charter school, in Oklahoma, probably think they’re doing the same thing. That hasn’t stopped the progressive American Civil Liberties Union from arguing that Oklahoma taxpayers shouldn’t “be forced to fund a religious public school that plans to … indoctrinate students into one religion.”

The Supreme Court continues to grapple with the fuzzy line between freedom of speech and worship and the separation of church and state. The court has discouraged school-sponsored worship, while allowing accommodations for private religious expression. In the landmark 1962 ruling in Engle v. Vitale, for example, the court found that even nonsectarian prayer sponsored by public schools violated the Establishment Clause. That case was brought by a group of parents who claimed that that form of prayer violated their own family beliefs and religious practices.

Injecting transgender ideology into schools doesn’t clearly conflict with the Constitution the way sponsoring school prayer does, but it raises similar concerns: that schools are imposing beliefs on children.

A December poll from Parents Defending Education, a nonprofit that reports instances of “activists promoting harmful agendas,” found that 80 percent of parents oppose the idea that “schools should help a child change their gender identity, which may include name, pronouns, clothing, chest-binding, or other interventions, without their parents’ notification.” Another 74 percent said they are opposed to teachers “providing instruction on sexual orientation and gender identity” in elementary schools. For both questions, a majority of Democratic parents were in opposition.

Still, trans allies might reason: Sure, the activists go too far sometimes, but we’ll tolerate a little dogma in the face of a Republican offensive against transgender rights. But their dogmatism predates the crackdown on youth gender medicine and trans people in the military. In many ways, it has prompted it. There are some Republicans who are surely prejudiced against trans adults, but they aren’t winning over moderate Americans on that prejudice. They’re winning by attacking activists’ most radical positions, like trans athletes’ participation in women’s sports or policies that discourage schools from telling parents about their children’s transitions.

There’s another way to champion transgender issues without alienating wide swaths of Americans. Wu believes that transgender activism can accept biological differences while focusing on representation and access to health care — without confusing children. “Trans extremists have a very clear view. They want access to gender-affirming trans health care [for children], which, to be clear, is extreme,” she says. Wu would prefer a movement that “is asking for a seat at the table instead of flipping it over.”

In schools, that might look like a lesson in respecting one another’s differences instead of one that expects Arlington fourth-graders to be able to “differentiate sex assigned at birth, gender identity, and gender expression.” It might teach them that some people don’t feel comfortable adopting the characteristics of their birth sex and how that discomfort can make them feel isolated. Be kind to them, make them feel included. Judge people by their character, not by the way they look. And if someone asks you to use their preferred pronouns, you can be polite and do so — much the way I might use “Reverend” for a minister I don’t literally revere.

Transgender activists have chosen a radical creed. But they go further than religion would, insisting that you, and your government, must adopt their views. And they’re losing their fellow citizens because of it. Perhaps they need to be reminded that in this country, people with different beliefs are expected to get along.

Carine Hajjar is a Globe Opinion writer. She can be reached at carine.hajjar@globe.com.