There’s no such thing as being “born in the wrong body.” That entire concept is nothing more than clever marketing by pharmaceutical companies that stand to gain billions by turning an entire generation of young people into hormone junkies. It’s really that simple. And once you accept that singular truth it’s pretty easy to see all of this trans crap for what it is: sycophants with god complexes preying on vulnerable people who are looking for purpose in life.
I was with some friends a few years ago and the subject came up of transgender people in the military. Two of them saw no problem with them serving and rambled on and on about diversity, etc. When they both took a breath, I asked, "Where are they going to get their hormones? Who's going to pay for them-my tax dollars? I then had to remind them of the need for transgender people to take hormones daily whether they are in battle or in an office. How is that going to work?
There was silence. Liberals tend to spout off this nonsense about gender this and gender that and they can't bring it back to the reality that maybe a child is just an individual who is non comformist but that doesn't mean he or she wants to turn into she or he.
It saddens me that we are now at a point that a parent who complains about a teacher using the term “boys and girls” to address her students at a faith-based school is validated and supported. (Teacher told to address five year olds in gender neutral language.) This is precisely what’s happening where I work and I only see this pernicious ideology increasing in fervour and intensity. And instead of the administration pushing back, they kowtow for fear of being labeled transphobic. (No big deal in changing our language to be more “inclusive.”)
It's very disturbing that this would happen in a faith based school. England shut down Tavistock, a clinic for transgender youth; many other European nations are revisiting their policies. Here in the U.S. we are shackled by the lunatic fringe who dominate the academe and the UFT is headed by the monster Randi Whine-garten. We used to be the leader in human rights; we now have to look at others and follow their courageous examples.
Yip Federal $$$ a big pull, same thing with abortion why such a fight because we going to cut the money no need to even follow it just cut it and watch the meltdown. The Global Citizen crap, what is that, what’s a global citizen, the Clinton’s AIDS Foundation what’s that another way to exploit Federal $$$. The biggest scam was Covid look at the federal $$$ there we flat broke. You want to see the end of the above bullshit just cut the money and watch the demise of this absolute trash we have had to put up with the last couple of years.
I disagree with you. I think transgenderism is very rare, but is also real. Presumably you would ban sex change drugs and operations entirely. That is not practical. As a matter of law the right to have an operation cannot be denied to an adult.
My position is more reasonable and enforceable. No child should be allowed to make an irreversible life-changing decision.
I would ban all medical experimentation on children. Full stop. I would also ban all irreversible medical procedures for any adult unless they had completed rigorous psychological and physical exams conducted by a neutral third party.
My best friends stepdad is on dialysis. He is in desperate need of a kidney transplant. When his biological daughter stepped forward to donate hers she had to go through an unbelievable approval process: dozens of meetings with psychiatrists and physical exams galore. She had to submit all financial records and a whole “post operation” plan for how she would continue to care for her child and work during recovery. When it was discovered that her dad would likely help her with her bills if she was unable to work after a few weeks she was rejected. The transplant folks said that amounted to financial compensation for her kidney.
So the same medical community that only requires a single letter of reference from a licensed psychologist or therapist confirming “gender dysphoria” before they’ll cut the healthy breasts off a teenage girl won’t let a grown woman help save her father’s life unless she’s independently wealthy enough to take 6 months off of work in the event that something goes wrong.
My point is this: none of this crap is about saving lives or improving quality of life. It’s 100% about money. Dialysis makes money. 1 in every 5 dollars spent on healthcare in America is spent on dialysis. Transgenderism makes money. A transgender kid that’s started on puberty blockers at 10 or 11 is a potential million dollar client by the time they’re in their late 30s.
I read the linked Twitter thread from Matt Walsh about Vanderbilt with the videos of their staff talking about how much money the treatments bring in, and how there would be “consequences” for anyone who objected on religious grounds. One of the comments was, “Capitalism works with Christianity because of the moral constraints. It's less effective at reining in its worst instincts when guided by atheists and moral relativists.” Even though I am not a religious person, I have to admit that this statement (though it should not be limited to just Christianity) is true, and I believe it describes a lot of what is going wrong generally in the U.S. The only way a state can function well while giving people a relatively large amount of freedom is if the people have a moral framework to govern themselves. Fewer and fewer people have that in the U.S., and the results are not good.
“Capitalism works with Christianity because of the moral constraints. It's less effective at reining in its worst instincts when guided by atheists and moral relativists.”
I respectfully disagree with this notion, Rich. Atheists and relativists are every bit as moral or immoral as Christians. If Christianity were a moral guide, neither the Inquisition, Crusades, Catholic Church child molestation, Indian Schools of Canada and the United States, nor 2,000 years of blood-drenched Church antisemitism would have occurred.
One is moral or one is not. Religions certainly provide guides to what they consider moral--the Jewish Ten Commandments is excellent--but their morality may not be mine.
I would suggest, Sir Shane, that a more-or-less common set of moral guidelines are essential to social coherence. I think that lack is illustrated in where we are today. Do You agree?
If not, why?
If so, what? Who's?
TY. Keep in mind I'm still 50% Fundamentalist Atheist, so I don't *entirely* disagree. But if one were to apply Your logic, we should do away with Science because it perpetrated the atomic bomb. Personally, I have a problem with the Catholic Church's shameful conduct. But even with that, I can't see throwing the Religio-Spiritual baby out with the bath water.
Agree completely that a common set of moral rules is essential to any culture. I just don’t believe Christianity—or any religion—has a lock on setting them.
I wouldn’t remotely toss religions aside. Too many billions of people rely on theirs to get them through life, and I respect them for it.
My only issue was the declaration that only Christianity provides moral rules. That wrongly lets out all other religions and non-religion moral principles, and it assumes erroneously that the non-religious and atheists have no moral compass.
Religion certainly codifies moral behavior into rules to live by, but whether those rules are moral depends on your POV. Islam believes in turning the planet into a caliphate and governing by Islamic law. Christianity used to believe same with Christ at the helm, but has grown away from imposing that with terrible swift sword and toward voluntary commitment. Etc.
Naturally, jt, Religion should support what I like and condemn what I dislike 😎
Absolutely! There’s a great podcast, Good Faith Effort, hosted by a Rabbi. He talks about that very idea with some of his guests. Great pod! Highly recommend!
I've seen similar things working for the pharmaceutical companies. Insane amounts of overbearing oversight on some things, while other more dangerous things get ignored totally. It's not about the consumer at all, it's entirely about legal liability and nothing else.
Greed is a major problem but the UK's National Health System "transed out" on Radical Gender Theory before the US did. They may be coming out of it or they may just be farming it out to smaller scattered private clinics now that the Tavistock experiment is ended.
It's all about system capture. Which does not always occur at the same pace in all locations, due to a wide variety of factors.
When I was finishing up the B.A. I had abandoned in my early 20s, I was attending a small private (but not religious) university with an English department composed of professors who were almost all 50+. That department had not been captured by the Woke .
As a result, I experienced a massive shock when I went to grad school at a large state university where the English department was composed mainly of professors under 50 (a few were even younger than me), almost all of whom were Woke (although it wasn't called that yet).
Oddly enough, despite both universities being located in the same Red state, within 60 miles of each other, one had been utterly captured by the "Long March," while the other had not experienced any incursion at all.
I do agree with the vetting needing to be uniformly applied in more areas of medicine. For instance, to get a weight loss surgery, one needs to be examined by a psychiatrist, multitude of tests, they need to show they lost several pounds before the surgery is conducted, they need to sit through an overview of the surgery, etc. To top it off these surgeries are often able to be reversed while many of the gender related ones from my understanding are irreversible.
Same with your example of donating an organ, My sister donated a small piece of her liver to my father. All the due diligence you mentioned was required.
Why is this not expected for such dramatic surgery on a child or any age for that matter.
Well, Terence. You are wrong on all counts. First, transgenderism is a psychological disorder (gender dysphoria disorder). There is no scientific/medical evidence proving anything about a woman in a man’s body (or the converse) exists. The truth is that we’re simply looking at a person with a delusional belief what anyone can see is physically warrantless. What other psychological disorders do we currently respond to with mutilating a body via surgery or chemicals? None to my knowledge.
Second, there are people who believe other things about their bodies (e.g., anorexia, body dysmorphic disorder, body integrity disorder) that are also untrue. These are essentially the same as gender dysphoria and (so far) no one is pretending that their delusions are real. So, we don’t encourage anorexics to lose weight, we don’t do bizarre corrective surgeries on someone with BDD or BID). Why? Because their delusions are clear as a bell to anyone with eyes that can see and a brain that can respond rationally. So, next time you see someone who is easily discernible as a male, but says he is a female inside. Guess what? He’s not female. The only reason to single out GDD and do ridiculous things to their bodies - is money and/or stupidity. There is some level of stupidity, for sure. But the driver is money, money, and more money.
Good comments. No doubt there are a few truly transgendered people - they can sort out hormones and surgeries on their own upon reaching the age of majority. IMO This current situation fits the "mass hysteria", "social contagion" or dare I say "herd mentality" events of the past. I say this despite what US News and NBC said in August -a baloney study ; note some countries documented a 4,000% increase in trans in short period. Witch burnings of old, the 1980's-90's day care child abuse scare, the "recovered or suppressed memories sham" of the same period (contagion that went hand in hand with the child abuse scare) that destroyed so many innocent people and businesses while providng a short flicker of undeserved attention and profit to a number of charlatans bottom feeding on the hysteria. There are other events, copy cat suicides in communities, the . Like others here say - this is more about profit opportunities, and pushing social and political agendas of a segment of our population than any real concern for kids who are understandably struggling in this ever more confusing and disordered world. Note after some serious review, UK recently closed their Tavistock gender clinic. Its time the public and medical and psychological organizations take an evidence based look at this dangerous fad.
Take a look at the hijra of India and other parts of the Indochina peninsula. Gender dysmorphia eclipses the psychological explanations Westerners want to put forth about it.
Perhaps the way that Westerners get it wrong is by thinking people with gender dysmorphia still need to be sorted into the binary categories of "male" and "female." Perhaps what _really_ needs to happen is cultural recognition that these people constitute a third gender with multiple phenotypes. If that were to be the case, nobody would be conditioned to want surgery.
I believe you are speaking of hermaphrodites. The majority of Hijra have been assigned male at birth but often have “irregularity of the male genitalia” and are often castrated when they join the group. They’ve lobbied to be recognized as a third gender (not the opposite gender)and have had some success in that area. Remember that to identify as gay , lesbian or bisexual in that culture can be dangerous.
Not the same as permitting or encouraging life-altering medical procedures on children.
Some (but not all) ancient cultures have developed categories for people who don't fit in the normal binary. But those categories are seen as a type of their very own. None of them try to pretend that a man who acts like a woman is genuinely a woman, or that a woman who acts like a man is genuinely a man.
I’m not convinced it’s good for our society as a whole to allow these surgeries on anyone. And especially not to have insurance pay for it or tax payers.
if it is rare then why is it so upfront in the news. why are teens everywhere flocking to the "cause"? ALS is rare. my friends son with Gauchers has a rare disease. do you read about it everyday? nope. there are many "orphan" disease that need funding but if it has to do with "sex" it is headlines. and MONEY making
What we already know, tons of information, is that the vast majority of children who report gender dysphoria (just a note - that’s what we’re talking about here) will grow out of it. Many will realize that their confusion was actually about their sexual attraction (i.e., many come out as gay) and they move forward with life. So, back to your question, we’re seeing the ridiculous increase in reported cases because there is a ton of dark money out there supporting the activism around so-called transgenderism. Children are literally be wooed into believing that their dissatisfaction with life, low self-esteem, etc. is because they are transgender. And, then (some of) their ignorant virtue signaling parents feel like their “changing the world” and “won the gender lottery” so they promote it in the home.
Sex reassignment surgery used to be heavily gate kept. Mostly HSTS (homosexual transsexuals) were allowed to go ahead, after living in their preferred manner for a few years, after multiple psych & medical evaluations and therapy. They KNEW going in that SRS was a placebo. And that society was under no obligation to accommodate them in any way. It was an at your own risk thing. Back then there was active blocking of autogynephiles- heterosexual, cross dressing, usually porn addled men who develop a fetish for being perceived as female. AGPs want to live their female personas freely out in the world and get their fetishistic kicks from being perceived and treated as if they were female. And having "lesbian" sex. Obviously, HSTS trans women are not a big threat to women and girls in same sex spaces. They're not flooding lesbian bars or dating sites. Autogynephiles are. They are still sexually attracted to females and have other psych issues other than bodily dysphoria. And in some cases, they don't have dysphoria at all... they just want to enjoy their lives as female imposters, being able to enter (and being aroused by being in) female spaces without shame or constraint. If they win athletic competitions and take away prizes or affirmative action type positions from females, all the better.
We need to go back to the heavily regulated and "at your own risk and responsibility" model of permitting transition. If you pass and behave yourself, fine, whatever. But males cannot be be legally perceived and treated as females. They cannot compete as females. They cannot take prizes or positions reserved for females. Gender identity cannot be a protected class. That creates social chaos and puts females at risk and at disadvantage.
You make a very good point--in the rush to "affirm" every person who claims to be trans, the activists are ignoring the fact that some straight men get their kicks from doing this, and that those men can be a real hazard to women.
The image most people have of trans women is the gentle HSTS who just wants to quietly live his life presenting as female. But AGPs are entirely different, and they're the majority now. They keep their penises. (Jenner even lied about removing his!) There's a tell if there ever was one. The older AGPs just want to retire in their cross dressing personas. But the young ones are very militant and aggressive about trans rights, about being accepted as "lesbians", and they are truly frightening.
Thank you so much, Private Person. I have been trying to explain the situation to Bruce on the latest Common Sense/Free Press article but I am having trouble getting through to him. He just can't believe it. It is pretty crazy.
Actually, there are all kinds of things we don't allow adults to do. More importantly, what is the compassionate, caring thing to do?
I knew someone growing up who told everyone (and apparently believed) he was an 800 year old dragon. If I walk into the doctor's office and say, "Doc, I'm a dragon!", is the proper response a psych eval or a tail graft?
I agree with you about kids obviously (as I think everyone here does), but like Mel, I do not see how a man insisting that he's a woman is substantively different than me insisting I'm a dragon.
That said, I do think that a man who wnats to wear a dress should have a right to do so, but should also expect to be treated at arms length by most people. He has a right to his behavior; others have a right to modify their own behavior in response. This is called freedom. I certainly don't think that his wearing a dress (or even surgically modifying his body) makes him "a woman".
Hi, "transgenderism" is basically a money making cult. It's a different matter from a tiny number of people who suffer from gender dysphoria. They should have true psychological and medical (whatever it is) help. But, the idea that any adult should have any surgeries and drugs they want just like that because they claim they are a magical thing called "transgender" does not serve the patient. What happens is these kids are taught that they might be in he "wrong" body. They take hormones which harm them. They get to the magic age of 18 after being told their parents are no good and the glitter family loves them and they can have this magic transformation into the other sex (not possible). By this point they are good toys for any predator as they are so broken down mentally and physically. And, just think, children who got to the age of 18 without going through puberty are perfect for pedophiles (Minor Attracted People - we cannot shame them) with childlike bodies and legal sex which the kid cannot enjoy - having no healthy genitalia,
I agree. I feel sorry for anyone who has this naturally and is not a byproduct of social media/peer influence. They should receive the care they need. Kids who have a host of other issues that are ignored so they can be fast tracked through this are collateral damage in this movement.
“Transgenderism”, however, is not real in the sense that it is a real thing with its own unique medical root cause that requires experimental, life-long drug dependencies and body-mutilating surgery.
What is real is that a lot of kids who are dealing with the normal discomfort of growing into adults are being told lies by people scared of the woke mob as well as activists who are promoting queer theory, and the medical industry for whom this is a cash cow.
But the medical industry has decided to conflate gender (a social construct with some underpinnings in biological sex) with sex (which does drive many but not all gender expressions). Transgender ideology more correctly defined as:
“I believe I am X and I will go to varying degrees including life-long medicalization. Not only will I indulge in my fantasy, but I will force others to join my fantasy or face social martyrdom. And I won’t ever address what is going on with my psychological and emotional issues despite the historical norm of adolescents being uncomfortable in their own bodies that has been true since the dawn of mankind. Because that would be conversion therapy, [despite the fact the only conversion therapy occurring is when doctors mutilate a healthy physical body with underlying emotional and mental issues as if it was a Halloween costume].”
"As a matter of law the right to have an operation cannot be denied to an adult."
Does that mean that any adult who walks into a doctor's office and says he wants his hand chopped off should have it done just like that? Or, might there be some therapy first to find out what is behind that wish? Could there be trauma? Confused thinking? In the end maybe hormones and surgeries are right for a very tiny number of people but that doesn't make enough money for the industry. And, it does not mean that we are all born either "cis or trans". as the ideology teaches. There is no such thing as "68 genders" or people being "non-binary".
Baloney is baloney any way you slice it ,and the idea that children or adults can change their sex is the most rancid baloney possible. There's a fool born any minute and those who fall for the "transgender" propaganda are the biggest fools the world has ever seen.
A-freaking-men. I’m sure there are people who really believe, but for most this is about money, and as anyone my age knows, people can convince themselves they are righteous when there’s a lot of money at stake.
I’ve known trans people as adults. I have no issue with them. Pushing this on children is not the same as a grown adult making these decisions.
We cede far too much ground by restriction criticism of transgenderism or other mutilations to cases where the subject is underage. These trends are bad for people of all ages.
I couldn’t agree more. In another response I described the ordeal my best friends stepsister went through when she tried to donate her kidney to her very sick father on dialysis: months of psychological and physical exams (she even had to attend a therapy group for people contemplating organ donation). The process was intense and so unbelievably thorough- all under the guise of ensuring she was both 100% informed of all of the risks associated with kidney donation AND making sure she wasn’t being pressured or incentivized. Ultimately she was denied because when they asked her how she would provide for herself and her daughter should her recovery take longer than the 3 weeks estimated she said her dad would probably help her pay her bills. The transplant officials said that would amount to financial compensation.
Now just think if that kind of rigorous vetting were done to every trans person, regardless of age, prior to top or bottom surgery. How many you think would go through with it or would even qualify for it? Considering these folks melt down if you use the wrong pronouns, I highly doubt too many would make it through the pre screening.
I would disagree Mel. I think the money is just a sideshow, I think the real story here is that the radical left values individual autonomy above all, in the pursuit of pleasure, self "fulfillment," etc. Western civilization is an obstacle to complete individual autonomy because it is based on the family and on men and women uniting to beget and raise children together. When men and women come together in the family, they take on obligations and responsibilities vis-a-vis one another, and vis-a-vis their children, and children assume greater responsibility and obligations as they mature in the context of family. These are horrible things to the radical left. Western civilization also embraces concepts like honor, service, sacrifice, charity (love of neighbor), etc. None of those things promote the achievement of complete individual autonomy, in fact they too are about obligation and duty and not about indulgence and self-gratification. Horrible. By attacking the fundamental concepts of man and woman, the left destroys the basis for family. By undermining the family, the left creates autonomous individuals. What is a woman? The left cannot say (see recent Supreme Court nomination hearings). What is a man? Who knows (see the recent story about the teacher in Canada with the grotesque prosthetic breasts)? Once they have established that "man" and "woman" are arbitrary designations that have no basis in reality, identities that can be changed upon a whim (something that school children these days are encouraged to do, switching their pronouns on a daily basis in some cases, because they "feel like it,") there is no longer any basis for union, for family, and the locus of responsibility and obligation is no more. Free at last.
I think it is a perfect storm of bad things coming together: Anti-western sentiment, fetish (AGPs), Woke/DEI, major Greed (pharma probably created the opioid epidemic), kids exposed to porn, groomers, trans humanism, (techie Gnostics)...
That freedom is ushering in social chaos. And crazy unintended consequences. There was a news story recently of a FtM transgender who was at a public campground. Not wanting to be intrusive or disruptive, (s)he asked the owner which restroom to use. He said that since (s)he was female, she should use the women's. Well, (s)he walked in and freaked out the women who were in there. They yelled and screamed because they saw a male in their same sex space. Nearby men heard their shouts and came and beat up the FtM transgender. Badly. The radical left think the answer to preventing ugly scenes like that is to make all restrooms everywhere unisex. But that is unconscionable. Social norms (and evolutionary fight or flight responses, ahem) can't be remade to accommodate these people.
Thank you for this response I have just finished reading the above and I thought Oh God how do I comment on this. After reading what you posted I don’t need to, you said it all in plain and simple English.
What evidence do you have to support your claim? Have you "followed the $$" with any empirical detail? Your comment reads like a classic conspiracy theory. Sure, you could be spot on & it really is all this simple. On the other hand, you could also be missing a lot of nuance on the entire subject. For your theory to work out, the amount of organization among disparate and (more often) competitive forces would be astounding... Just something to consider.
Well most of us aren’t in a position to investigate much and we rely on our life experiences to help make sense of things that make very little sense. Typically, when it pertains to pharmaceutical companies, and the whole hierarchy that flows form them (researchers, doctors, select media) you can count on them to promote anything that will make them money. That statement is an empirical fact and history, both recent and within the last decade, including behavior during Covid, just reinforces the reality that getting sued because they do the wrong thing for money is just wrapped up in the overhead of doing business. So people are suspicious when pharmaceutical companies push drugs that were previously used to chemically castrate sex offenders, onto children.
People are also suspicious of people who, with almost no skepticism or curiosity, affirm whatever the child wants, particularly when there is a profit motive for doing so. I’m not a genius, but I know the difference between a want and a need. I know that children who are gender dysphoric may want to have what is essentially cosmetic surgery, just like my elderly mom wants to have cosmetic surgery. But they don’t need it, and aren’t old enough to understand the long term effects, or even what long term effects are because they have not been on the planet for very long. So it seems strange that anyone would allow this without more evidence based studies from nonbiased groups. When that happens, reasonable people of average intelligence look for a profit motive, because that’s almost always what would motivate someone to behave this way. That’s not a conspiracy theory. That’s justifiable skepticism combined with real world experience.
There are organizations, like the press, who could dive into this issue, but they won’t because they have decided that it will support one side over any other. They have chosen which side they are on in this, based on ideology, so the rest of us little people are left to our “conspiracy theories” based on what we know of the players involved and how they have behaved in the past and continue to behave now.
We’ll put @The Biz. I smiled at the reference to your “elderly mother”. I’m a 72 year old woman who, seriously, feels I belong in a different body...say a 40 year old one.
Cool. Where is the empirical evidence that exposes the collusion in this particular instance? It's easy to draw parallels where you want to see them but harder to prove any of these claims.
Also, what are you using to classify the case that parents and therapists, etc. simply affirm whatever a child wants with almost no skepticism or curiosity? Is it possible that the reason there's even a discussion around this is because of that skepticism and/or curiosity? Parents in this position are forced to question everything.
Actually, parents in this position are generally under a lot of pressure to affirm delusion and are offered counseling to convince them they should "accept" their son or daughter as the opposite sex with the suicide card played: "Wouldn't you rather have a live son than a dead daughter?" And, a parent who does not go along with it gets a lot of flack from the virtue signalers in the school and community who think they know your kid.
Now there is a large and growing number of detransitioners who feel that there was not gatekeeping and their lives were ruined. Look out for lawsuits.
"Analysis of Reddit detrans survey By Genspect / 12 March 2022"
I will check it out more but don't see much beyond anecdotal stories from individuals. No formal studies, etc. I will keep looking, however. Thanks for the tip.
Please do. Many personal PITT stories contain links to serious articles. There is no science saying that we can be born in the right or wrong body.
Another comment above was so good I feel the need to republish it here:
"nedweenie replied to Terence G. Gain's comment
Sex reassignment surgery used to be heavily gate kept. Mostly HSTS (homosexual transsexuals) were allowed to go ahead, after living in their preferred manner for a few years, after multiple psych & medical evaluations and therapy. They KNEW going in that SRS was a placebo. And that society was under no obligation to accommodate them in any way. It was an at your own risk thing. Back then there was active blocking of autogynephiles- heterosexual, cross dressing, usually porn addled men who develop a fetish for being perceived as female. AGPs want to live their female personas freely out in the world and get their fetishistic kicks from being perceived and treated as if they were female. And having "lesbian" sex. Obviously, HSTS trans women are not a big threat to women and girls in same sex spaces. They're not flooding lesbian bars or dating sites. Autogynephiles are. They are still sexually attracted to females and have other psych issues other than bodily dysphoria. And in some cases, they don't have dysphoria at all... they just want to enjoy their lives as female imposters, being able to enter (and being aroused by being in) female spaces without shame or constraint. If they win athletic competitions and take away prizes or affirmative action type positions from females, all the better. We need to go back to the heavily regulated and "at your own risk and responsibility" model of permitting transition. If you pass and behave yourself, fine, whatever. But males cannot be be legally perceived and treated as females. They cannot compete as females. They cannot take prizes or positions reserved for females. Gender identity cannot be a protected class. That creates social chaos and puts females at risk and at disadvantage."
I agree with Mel. Its like when Big Tobacco used Joe Camel to sell cigarettes to kids. Big Tobacco used multiple layers to society to profit. What is happening has happened before in a parallel context. Study eugenics, study the lobotomy, study repressed memory syndrome and the Satanic Panic, study anorexia of teenage girls in the 90s. Nothing new under the sun. Humans being greedy and vain and manipulating the vulnerable.
We even have a same player from Satanic Panic days, Dr. Diane Ehrensaft, who is now at UCSF saying kids indicate their "gender" by how they roll around in a diaper. I think she might be the same one who also said that if teen girls have their breasts cut off and regret it then they can just get new ones.
Diane Ehrensaft - from satanic panic to gender ideology. Episode 1
Lol is that all you have buddy? You can’t actually refute what I’ve said so instead you’re just going to repeatedly demand that I “cite my sources”? Go back to Twitter dude.
I'm not the one making a strong proclamation here. You are. I thought you would have some evidence to back it up and we could have an open discussion based on that. I realize this topic is tantamount to your religion so no need to "cite your sources" as you have none.
No one is “born in the wrong body.” Period. Your feelings, your emotions, your conscious and unconscious thoughts do not negate 5 million years worth of human evolution. This isn’t opinion, this is fact. If you’re unwilling to acknowledge this then you are correct, no debate can be had.
If you’re interested in sources re pharmaceutical companies funding the trans movement start here
Many others are following the money and I can try to dig up some sites on it. One big place money comes from is "Jennifer" Prtizker. And, Pharma gets a lot of money from lifetime customers. Get them young! Universities get grants for Gender stuff. According to this doctor -
https://thenewamerican.com/transgender-quackery-exposed-as-child-abuse-by-top-doctor/ endocrinology departments were historically underfunded & diabetes stuff is expensive so there was this great temptation to take on the cash cow that is Gender. So, it served the Endocrine Society to say it's science & other medical societies started pointing to them as there's money and alot of advocacy from organizations like WPATH.
I think that it is more a matter that disparate forces were served by the same thing and worked in the same direction. What are these competitive forces that would work against each other instead of reinforcing the problem? It doesn't have to be a conspiracy.
Here's an article that tries to look at some forces at work but many readers pointed out that it missed the impact of porn on the young (like girls wanting to check out from being girls because - like that's what it means to be a woman?): https://pitt.substack.com/p/why-is-this-happening-to-my-family
For some reason our WH and the teachers unions are way into pushing Radical Gender Theory. First Female Four Star Admiral and United States Assistant Health Secretary Richard/Rachel Levine is all in for child butchery. Why I wonder?
There are some good links at the bottom of this PITT:
The fact that you can't understand it doesn't mean it isn't real for those experiencing gender dysphoria. Better to try and understand what's really going on emotionally regarding the physical and emotional changes of adolescence, combined with the cultural dimensions of gender identity rather than just deny that the issue exists.
I don’t deny that people purporting to be trans are suffering from diagnosable mental illnesses. But “being born in the wrong body” isn’t a diagnosable mental illness- it’s a marketing gimmick invented by evil people looking to prey on vulnerable populations. It’s not only patently absurd, it’s also unimaginably cruel to tell children that “God made a mistake on you.” There is nothing kind or gracious about entertaining/confirming dangerous delusions.
Unfortunately telling people that their "feelings are wrong" doesn't generally help. Rather than railing against various "marketing conspiracies" we should be trying to understand why there is such an increase in gender-related mental health issues in young adolescents. Puberty has always been a difficult time for young people -- now it seems increasing numbers of them are fighting the entire physical maturation process, which of course puberty blockers accomplish on a short term basis. Perhaps the pervasive sexualization of our entire society -- ads, social media, popular TV shows, movies, etc. has made large number of young people anxious about the very process of maturation.
I agree with much of what you say here, Pam. Telling people "feelings are wrong" doesn't help - especially with a teenager committed to cult like doctrine. It is not what I recommend. They need lots of love, they need to get busy with things that are real in life, like a job and getting out in nature, and they do not need to be medicalized. Teachers should not jump to call them any false name and pronoun behind the backs of parents, creating a terrible cognitive dissonance. You have read the nonsense the American Girl Company promotes to girls age 8-11? And too many "gender therapists", people in pharma, planned parenthood, and surgeons leap to make $$$ off of their most likely temporary teenage certainties. Puberty has always been difficult and we should explore what is especially difficult now. The prevalence of online porn has been suggested and also the social media message teens receive that life has always been easy for everyone except them, you should always be happy, that everyone else in life is always happy, and if you are not there is a pill to take for it. I do take issue with your statement regarding "puberty blockers". They are not proven to be safe, they have all sorts of side effects including on bone denstiy and are not some sort of magic pause button - kids who take them are not maturing socially with their peers (missing out), and nearly all kids who start on that path go the whole way medically to "transition".
I do not even think we should tell confused adults that their "feelings are wrong". I do think they deserve to have real talk therapy to try to find out what lies behind their fantasies. Cross sex hormones and operations should be a last resort with adults, not a first resort with children.
We should be working to understand why there is so much adolescent mental illness -- especially among adolescent girls. Telling an anorexic or bulimic girl that she "isn't fat" doesn't help them. Telling a depressed young person to "buck up" doesn't help them. Telling a young person with gender dysphoria that there's nothing wrong doesn't help them. I totally agree that non reversible surgery should not be an acceptable therapy for young people but turning this all into culture ware fodder doesn't help either. And demonizing teachers who are doing their best to deal with kids struggling with a form of mental illness doesn't help either.
Hi Pam. We are in partial agreement. But, we never told anorexic girls that "yes, you are fat"! Let's call you "Fatty"! And I am not out to "demonize teachers" but currently they are directed to follow the teachings of Radical Gender Theory and affirm kids at school, even without telling parents. We went through this ourselves. If it even just stayed with peers rather than getting affirmed by every other adult in the students' lives it would be less damaging. Then it becomes something of an iatrogenic illness rather than a teen phase.
Well said, it is a marketing gimmick/cult that preys on the vulnerable - both those few with a body dismorphia disorder (of the mind) and the young (didn't we once protect children because they were young and vulnerable?)
""I walked into a psychologist's office, [and] in one day I have a letter in my hand saying I was transgender. I was authorized for hormones. I was authorized all this other stuff," Beck claimed, adding that he felt like he was "used," "got propagandized" and "got taken advantage of. As soon as [kids] go in and say, 'I'm a tomboy' or 'This makes me feel comfortable,' and then a psychologist says, 'Oh, you're transgender.' And then the next day, you're on hormones – the same hormones they are using for medical castration for pedophiles. Now, they are giving this to healthy 13-year-olds. Does this seem right? This is why I am trying to tell America to wake up," he said."
And look at the nonsense promoted to girls via American Girl:
The real question is what about this story do you find unnecessary or lacking in some kind of benefit? It’s hardly wasting time to address some of the most challenging social issues early in the day.
This phenomenon is exploding in the United States, that alone has to make one wonder what is really going on. If you look at a country like Israel where the kids know that they are going into the army when they turn 18, where they have a sense of purpose & a faith & family is important you can see that something is very wrong in the United States.
That this perfectly coincides with our national obsession with eliminating all pain and hardship from life isn't a coincidence. The opioid epidemic began directly on top of the "no fighting in school" epidemic that began right on top of the "everyone gets a trophy epidemic" that began right on top of the "well, obviously we have to ban "hate" speech" epidemic and they're all symptoms of the same disease. We've decided that everyone's immediate future should be as easy as possible, regardless of the long term impacts of those decisions. That we've gone so far as mutilating genitals as a response to some very short term body dysmorphia isn't really all that surprising when you look at a society who decided to treat headaches with opioids.
There is a TON of blame to go around for this stuff - but it has to start with parents. A parents job is not to make life easy for their children, in fact, it's highly beneficial to throw some arbitrary difficulty into their lives just for the sake of learning early the value of overcoming difficulty. Self esteem isn't given, it's earned, and the only way to earn it is to overcome. If, instead, everything is simply given, then how hard it is to make the leap to giving someone fake genitals so they don't have to deal with the discomfort of puberty, or figuring out where you fall on the sexuality continuum, etc...? As a society we not only take the easy route on everything, we actively encourage and amplify the value of taking the easy route (people literally get their groceries delivered to their house to save the "hassle" of walking..." and then are shocked by the outcome.
As others have said, of course we should follow the money, but we created the marketplace by deciding it was somehow a good thing to remove all difficulty and pain from life, all the con-men did was maximize the value of the market we, as society, created.
I'm afraid You've got the right of it, "Data." And I'm afraid it started with the Boomers. Well, the Greatest Generation, who let the Boomers get outta control.
To me, it seems like somehow the goal of "make sure the next generation is better off than the ours" turned into "make sure the next generation has zero problems at *all* or we're bad parents."
I think you're exactly right. That was officially the generation where the American dream transitioned from opportunity to outcome. In every previous generation in America that generation fought to create greater opportunity for prosperity for their children. The boomers fought for greater outcomes for their children, and the rest is history...
I agree with your framing of the problem; our modern (Western) avoidance of pain has turned into a pathological avoidance of discomfort or even inconvenience.
The one thing you said that I disagree with is the idea that parents should create "arbitrary difficulty" for their children. Experiencing pain and discomfort—physically, emotionally, psychologically—is all part of growing up human. It need not be artificially created. Kids can learn how to face and navigate adversity by watching how their parents manage their own challenges and by being coached through difficulties when they arise, rather than being wrapped in cotton wool or whisked to comfort and safety before any hurt can be felt. All humans learn from adversity if they're allowed to experience it, which is likely why "no pain, no gain" is such a well-recognized saying.
I certainly respect this, but I think it all depends on circumstance and how we define both "difficulty" and "arbitrary." I make my kids walk with me to the store even though they'd rather ride electric scooters or take the car. This isn't actually difficult and it isn't completely arbitrary, but given the alternative options it is less convenient, but much healthier, than driving, and I suppose walking up a hill could be considered "difficult" depending on the definition (I certainly know adults plenty akin to avoid walking up hills).
I'm not telling others how to parent, and again, it's certainly unique to every situation, but I think modern life can be SO easy for so many children that some arbitrary challenges (maybe better word that difficult) are helpful. We got chickens primarily because I want to my children to care for something and invest time/energy in a food source they consume. It's arbitrary (we have enough money to buy eggs) and harvesting eggs/cleaning the chicken coup is difficult by my suburban upbringing standard but is a joke for the people who live around me and couldn't imagine any other way, so, something like raising chickens could fall into the "arbitrarily difficult" category depending on perspective. Was this right or wrong to introduce into my kids' life? I don't know, but I certainly enjoy the eggs...
good points - maybe the biggest issue is my newly coined malady - Parental responsibility dysphoria? We have more and more "educated idiots" willing to gulp down the latest fad with no critical thinking. And a whole bunch of charlatans spewing any garbage that will get them noticed.
One man’s religious rite is another man’s genital mutilation. How is having to make the decision to have one’s dick nipped and tucked inside them the absence of pain? Sounds pretty painful and personal to me. Just like these posts about the American dream sound clichéd and grouchy.
This genuinely made me laugh out loud, so thank you for that. I’ll do my best to be less cliche in the future, and unfortunately the grouchy is in the eye of the beholder so not much I can do about that.
Also, removing your predispositions you may notice I never commented on whether or not people should be able to cut their genitals off. That’s between you, your parents and your doctor. My point, I thought obviously, was on the societal progression that allows us to get to a place where it’s normalized. Do with that whatever you’d like but don’t pretend like I took a stance on the practice just for your own arguments sake.
Now, should I have to pay into a medical system that shares costs across citizens for someone else to have their genitals cut off? You can probably guess the rational answer of a classical anarchist to that question, but that’s a completely separate question than whether or not society should regulate your personal medical decisions.
Well, we have Trans activists in all the high places (Government, Education, Medicine, Tech, Pharma) in the US and our media is "all in".
A few decades ago we were told that the Gay Pride movement was about acceptance and I believed it. I still mostly do. However, things have taken a turn. The LGBTQ movement and the likes of CA Senator Scott Wiener have clearly aligned themselves with child predation. The below new law amounts to "run away to CA, child, where we love you unlike your bad parents who take your phone away": Note the "Without Parental Consent" part.
"California Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom on Friday signed a bill to aid minor residents of other states in acquiring gender transition therapies without parental consent." https://justthenews.com/politics-policy/gavin-newsom-signs-gender-sanctuary-bill "State Democratic Sen. Scott Wiener, who led the bill, acknowledged that it would encounter likely constitutional challenges, but affirmed that it was intended to push the limits of what the state could legally do on the issue. "We may have limits under the U.S. Constitution, but we are going to go right up to the edge of what we’re able to do to protect them and say, 'Unless we are absolutely forced to send you back, we are not going to send you back,'" he told the Los Angeles Times."
Almost every detransition story I've seen implicates internet resources--and especially social media--for steering the person to believe that "gender dysphoria" was the cause of all their mental health problems. The doctors and clinics they went to were quick to reinforce that idea, ignoring the rest of their mental health issues.
The thing I find particularly distressing is that almost all these kids turn out to be gay/lesbian. Fifteen years ago, the same psychologists who are now pushing "gender identity" would have been first in line to reassure these kids that it's perfectly okay to be homosexual.
I've seen a lot of LGB people starting to fight back against a system that--in a weird twist on past practices--is basically performing "conversion therapy" in an entirely physical sense: mutilating the bodies of young gays and lesbians because the "real problem" is that they were "born in the wrong body."
Yes!! How many times have we heard that, especially young men's brains don't fully develop until they are in their mid 20's ? But suspend that concern when it comes to this gender ysphoria etc? I can't manage the wild inconsistencies of these supposed Progressives - too damned whimiscal for me.
Add to that those with ADD/ADHD have fully formed frontal lobes in their late 20s. Many trans youth are on the autism spectrum or have ADHD and other co-morbidities.
Remember when we were told that gays and lesbians had to be acknowledged and accepted and embraced because they were born that way and there was nothing they could do about it? Now with trans it’s I wasn’t born the way I should be so you need to acknowledge and accept and embrace that.
Meanwhile we are still only talking about 4-5% of the population total yet the conversation is always outsized about them. It’s like 98% of commercials have blacks even though they are only 13% of the population.
21st century alchemy. We can no more transform a person from one sex to the other than alchemists could turn base metals into gold. 16th century alchemists only experimented on metals. The modern alchemists experiment on children. They then claim that people who object are the villains.
And, oddly, obsession with anime characters. It's so obvious that these sudden onset adolescents are living in a fantasy, digital world where they can become anything they can imagine, and they can get an instant network of "friends." Friends who disappear the second that you question whether trans is for you.
So true. With anime you have to vet everything they’re seeing online because there is a ton of porn associated with it. I would never have even guessed until a friend told me.
My daughter now 20, was diagnosed with autism around age 3. We were lucky. Her symptoms were so mild they were not even certain she truly was autistic. But she had developmental delays. Even those were not severe. She was just always a few months behind hitting the milestones. They suggested speech therapy, occupational therapy and behavioral therapy.
The first speech therapy appointment the therapist played a game with her, Candy Land. The therapist stopped in the middle of the game, looked at me and said, “Why is she here? Her speech is fine.”
The so called experts are not always right, do not always agree, and sometimes just decide to toss a diagnosis and suggested treatment. Especially with little ones. There is a panic because their brains are so malleable so if you intervene early on any issue the outcome will be better. So “wait and see” is not an approach they seem to like much.
Fast forward my independent minded, march to her own drum, quirky girl started middle school. Because of her personality being off from the norm she was a bit of a misfit. It was heartbreaking. Because she was social, but could not take in that to fit in and be accepted you have to follow certain social norms. Or try to find a friend who also is a little different and maybe needs a friend.
One day she comes home from middle school and says, “All the girls at my lunch table are depressed, suicidal, and lgbt. One is a lesbian, one trans, and one is cis but has a trans boyfriend. Also I’m reading this book about 2 teens who are suicidal. Everyone is suicidal mom.”
It was a total WTAF moment as a parent.
I got her into a therapist pronto. I guess we got lucky. The therapist told her, “Kids your age are following a trend. Like being an “emo” or “goth” No everyone is not suicidal -“Are you?”
she said, “No,not really. I was jus trying to fit in with a group.”
If anyone wants to say, “Bad parenting” it’s fine. I assure you though, I tried and tried to explain to her how to be more social and fit in with healthy kids but with a kid like her it just doesn’t take easily. Social skills are still tough for her at 20! Even her Asperger’s dad at 50 struggles.
But she/we got through therapy, she pulled away from the lunch table of depressed lgbt group and just accepted she doesn’t fit in any specific group and that’s ok. As she got older she kept improving and now in college she has friends, and just joined a sorority.
Looking back from where we are as a society/culture now? I can see where our experiences with doctors, teachers, therapists -might have lead to a far more devastating and tragic outcome.
Also, as a new parent, I was way too trusting of doctors and teachers. I often felt jerked around, but yielded because “they’re the experts” but my easy going nature only goes so far. I started to push back on some things. For example one therapist told me, “She has ADHD and because of this she resists structure and routine.” But she NEEDED structure and routine. “People with ADHD find it boring” Welcome to the club! So do I!!!! That’s what vacations are for! Dislike of rules, structure, routine is NOT a brain disorder. It’s an attitude problem.
I do believe my daughter is truly, “neuro divergent” or whatever you want to call it. But I also believe she was a bit spoiled and catered to and it did her no favors. So I started implementing a bit more of an authoritative parenting style. “Love you pumpkin but it’s my way or the highway. You get on board or you get no privileges. No phone, no allowance, no TV, I give your lap top only for school work and you give it right back. You want respect and privileges you start earning them.”
“Just love and accept them” -it’s a nice platitude. But it is not all that effective in reality.
These are truly scary times for parents and children. Beyond what any prior generations experienced when it comes to parenting, education and healthcare. It’s a total shit show.
I wish I could like your comment 1,000 times. I have a grandson in the same situation as your daughter. He is brilliant in several ways, and clueless in some of the daily practical skills. But he knows he is beloved, and is happy. HAPPY.
Ok, like a thousand times a thousand! There's so much here....absolutely brilliant. Thanks for the heartfelt, intelligent and inspiring personal share, Daisy.
Daisy, wow! I feel this comment so deeply. My 16 yo daughter has knowledge of SO many of these messed up kids. I worry about her trying to “fit in” and ending up like them. So far, she stands strong but it’s always in the back of my mind. I too have spoiled her and am trying to get back on a more strict path. It’s a daily struggle.
Parenting is the hardest, scariest job there is but it is the most important. Children look for boundaries and good parents sets them and enforce them. It's call guidance.
Good for you. You and your daughter had a hard row to hoe but you came out on top.
And this is why the talking point of “well, parents gave consent” is patently ludicrous.
First of all, there are a whole host of activities to which parents can not give consent on behalf of their children (selling a minor child into sex slavery, for instance, thank God).
Secondly, consent requires being properly informed. If these gender zealots (ahem- “doctors”) are feeding parents full of trash pseudo-science, like “would you rather have a live son or a dead daughter” for which there is no basis that suicidality decreases after these butcherings (ahem- “surgeries”), informed consent can not be given.
Finally, consent can not be given under duress, and I think the threat of having child services called to have their child taken away would certainly qualify as duress for a parent. Can a women consent to sex if there is a knife at her throat? Of course not. I think most parents would agree that the threat of having their child taken away from them is not far removed from that.
There is going to be hell to pay when the victims of these monsters realize what’s be done to them...and rightfully so.
“Monsters” is right. This is a particularly American phenomenon produced by mentally ill professionals, including Medical Doctors with the skills to deform others, sanctioned by institutional greed intent on accessing an insurance-funded cash flow stream. The Europeans know these procedures have little scientific basis: “They came away alarmed at the low quality of evidence supporting the efficacy of youth medical transition, considering how little is known about the potential side effects of these treatments—including osteoporosis, delayed brain development, sexual dysfunction, increased risk of cancer and other diseases. They also found that detransition and regret about transition were higher than expected.” WPATH is a criminal conspiracy whose goal is to provide legal protection for the monsters profitably preying on disturbed children and adolescents, whose real problems are being tragically exacerbated by this truly evil abuse.
We saw how our "medical community" allowed politics to affect medicine and led to the madness of the pandemic lockdowns, mandates for vaccines that didn't prevent infection and mask of dubious efficacy. Just like the witch doctors and shamans of old, our doctors are skating on very thin ice when they allow political medicine to erode the trust of the patients they pledged to serve.
I am a physician and couldn’t agree more with this. We have lost so much credibility, and deservingly so. Our critical thinking skills and ability to directly read and interpret the original research have somehow disappeared.
This is on an institutional/collective level, and to a lesser extent at the individual level. At my former institution, those of us who had retained these skills were effectively isolated from one another, and could not even voice research-supported opinions without risking our employment.
Politicization of medicine and the natural sciences is a large scale travesty.
Thank you for that insight, Doctor. You are not alone in seeing your profession captured by the ideological left. As a lawyer, I am dismayed by the nonsense I see pouring out from the ABA and the state bar associations. The NY Bar Journal recently published a tract urging slavery reparations. Reparations? From people who never owned slaves to people who were never enslaved? Madness. Especially in our Constitutional Republic where respect for the individual and her or his rights is supposedly inviolate.
I think you have got that exactly right Celia. I’ve got a few friends like this with trans children. They love to talk about it every chance they get. Every time they start talking about it I just want to cry. Really, it just breaks my heart. It’s just the most warped, sick, tragic thing I can possibly imagine. To let these trans activists get their claws into your precious young child... how do they let that happen? I’ll never ever be able to understand that.
The mother's who transed their own children will be the last to admit this whole nightmare was a mistake because they will have to face down the fact that they harmed their own children. When they "love to talk about it" with you they are really trying to convince themselves on some level I think. Blinking in a cult.
When you are a non-believer mom and your kid hangs out with these kids and starts talking the talk - everyone is delighted to forward you to these moms to talk about it. No way!
I think that a lot of times insurance will pay for this stuff. (When they won't pay for normal stuff.) I know that many college insurance plans do so I recommend against using any college insurance unless you have looked very carefully. And even then things are constantly moving/changing so you need to have eyes open.
We sure shouldn't allow people to do this to their child, just as we would not allow someone to sell their child into slavery in this country - as someone above commented.
Oh boy, we have went a long way, sadly we took only wrong turns.
When I was young, we had goths, heavy metal and other "anarchists" rebel teenagers. I personally had a phase where as sing of rebellion dyed my hair orange and was secretly smoking, while looking for some greater meaning of life. I was 15 years old :D believed that my parents have no idea how world functions. Majority of my friends went trough same phase. Well that lasted around 2-3 years. Now all of us are "normal" people, and when we talk about that time we laughing.
it was an experience. But most importantly, we were not making ireversable changes on an impulse. You can remove tattoos, daye hair diffeent color, stop smoking and drinking.
But today, oh boy, kids are for the lack of better word "mutilating" themselves all the while some doctors, MSM and Twitter is cheering them on. And thelling them, dont worry you can always reverse puberty blockers, hormone therapy and surgeries.
Can we really? Are we really 100% sure that kids that took puberty blockers will be able fully to come back? Will boys grow all as they would naturally? Girls lose testosterone induced traits such as beard, deep voice and other changes caused by hormone therapy.
Yes you can "reconstruct" breasts, but that is like cutting healthy leg and getting prosthesis, it works but its not the same.
Buy the worst is left for the last, if you decide to sterilize yourself there are big chances that you will never be able to have family. Freezing eggs and sperm might be an option, but what is when the procedure is done on 14-15 year old kids.
In 10-20 years, we will probably watch documentaries, on how this insanity happened, with generation of (then) adults who have in moment of teenage "lunacy" made decisions that rendered them complete sterile, ruined their lives forever.
PS. I am not saying that every person that is transitioning is making mistake, but currently, numbers in the USA are simply crazy. No other part of the world if affected but "gender dysphoria". Even liberal Europe is not experiencing it these high numbers.
I always wonder how will these children treat their parents, when this thing passes, will they be angry because they neglected their duty as a parent? How will parents think about the consequences?, especially ones who were opposing it?
Strange world indeed, parent can tell kids when to go to sleep, not to eat sweets, and at the same time these same kids can request life changing treatments and surgeries with no input from parents.
Britain had crazy numbers. They investigated and the Cass Report came out. As a result, they closed the Tavistock Gender Clinic. They're gonna set up regional clinics which will prioritize treating the original mental health issues.
Amazing! I believe President Biden will go down in history as guy who demanded the opposite. Insists that if You *don't* give kids this crap, then You are guilty of conversion therapy.
In reality, it's this "gender affirming" care which is taking mostly gay and lesbian kids and converting them to straight trans kids. That was the *original* definition of conversion therapy, right? Converting gays to force them to become straight.
That’s a really important and fundamental point that is rarely made: the Trans movement is actively hostile to gay people in both a practical way (one that is horrifying) and a profound philosophical way: by rejecting the entire “coming out” narrative of discovering one’s ontological gayness. Trans ideology liquidates ontology by insisting sexual orientation has no meaningful biological ground and is merely a psychological phenomenon grounded in the imagination and the will. Gay people as a stable identity group analogous to women and people of colour are essentially canceled by the Trans worldview.
And they are beginning to fight back. The sickening thing is that the trans activists are often successful at deplatforming these gays and lesbians by painting them as--get this--homophobic. *facepalm*
The most interesting (and unfortunate) aspect to me is that it is simply not true that "...little is known about the potential side effects of these treatments," as some claim. We've known for half a century about the effects of cross sex hormones and androgen suppression on human bodies... There is a huge body of literature both in the area of sports enhancement and therapeutic cancer treatments....
It's also basic human and animal physiology (both of which I teach) that hormones have wide-ranging (body wide) effects that cannot simply be turned on or off like a switch. It astounds me that some people are writing about this as if it was some kind of new revelation. Does anybody read anything anymore? Not acknowledging this information is simply willful ignorance.
Thank you for this very interesting piece, Frederick
I always appreciate your comments. I have a questions for you: Is gender ideology taught in schools? I m going back-and-forth with a friend that doesn't think so. And rightly, she would like to see the evidence. I believe it is creeping in. My kid's school sent out a survey that asked them how they identify nd every possibility was on it.
SP, it varies by state and locality in the US. In many Commonwealth countries it is taught because of federal law.
In California it is pretty much everywhere, in states like Texas it is less common. However, a member of the State Board of Education, district 5 if you care to look her up, boasts of a fifth grade program in Austin that uses the gender-bread man to help kids “explore” their identities.
There is a tendency for left leaning localities and communities to push harder, but not all of the push comes from the left.
Also, left leaning parents living in California, for example, who watch with horror when their daughters and sons take this up often find no one in their communities, schools, churches or medical providers who will help them. In fact, even holding the line in a minor way can get their parental rights taken away by the courts.
This is an area where we need to drop the left/right tribal war and do all we can to help restore reason. Of coarse, we also recognize that most politicians supporting the insanity are left wing.
I agree. I took my youngest son — now 21 — out of public high school in his late junior year and homeschooled him for the remainder. Unfortunately, not everyone has this option... But it was life-changing (for the better) for my son. I wish I had homeschooled my other two. Interestingly, their Godmother homeschooled all three of her girls with the help of a homeschooling cooperative. They went on to be successful college students.
Thanks. I teach at the college/university level, and I'm only familiar with my department. So far, I have not come in contact with any gender ideology, per se. My colleagues are all thoughtful and reasonable people. I have heard some biologists say that whereas there are just two (human) sexes, there can be an array of genders in the sense that "gender" is simply the way that you act or manifest your sexuality. However, I do not know the extent to which gender ideology is taught in other departments. From what I read and hear from parents with younger children, it has, indeed, crept into the curriculum in the lower grades. However, I don't have any first-hand knowledge of the extent to which it has... As I said, I only know what I read on the topic.
Thank you. I got a copy of the email of the survey and gave it my friend. And I told her about my experience going through the College of Education in 2006 in the diversity class. That professor (who was also my grad school advisor) showed a short and rather graphic of two women having sex. This was in a class of 40 or so grad students. No warning, just showed us. She was trying to make the point of "sex is sex." And maybe it is. idk. What I do know is that i didn't not want to watch such a graphic video of any two people having sex, especially not in a public venue. One man walked out and many in the class heckled him. I stayed silent and to this day regret not stranding up for him . I share this because I believe it is in education and it is being encouraged from the top down. It's been humbling as a former public educator to reflect and admit how this stuff is being spread.
I would also spend time on LibsofTikTok on twitter. you don't have to have a twitter account to look at her posts. She reposts videos and pictures that idiotic teachers (preschool to HS)make outlining how they incorporate gender ideology (or other political ideology, usually BLM and Antifa, or communism) into their curriculums, even when they are not supposed to. Or how they work to subvert parents (see the video by the WA father who had NO idea his kid was on antidepressants, because the SCHOOL doc prescribed them, not his normal doc). its a rabbit hole for sure
I've seen a meme that makes a pertinent point: We shouldn't be asking why kids need to see drag performers; we need to be asking why drag performers want an audience of children.
To be honest, I enjoy well-performed drag (although from what I see in videos of so-called "family-friendly" drag shows, it seems to be *all* exhibitionism and *no* art these days).
But I am an adult. The few brushes I had with cross-dressing adults when I was a child made me very uncomfortable. It's only with adult sexual knowledge that drag becomes a *fun* performance. Kids should not have that kind of knowledge; if they do, they've been sexually abused.
It isn't just kids who are being harmed. There are men who have not had any surgery but present themselves as "female" lesbians. If real lesbians are not into "girl dick," they are considered transphobic. There have been *rapes* of lesbians by these so-called "transwomen."
Ugh. These so called trans women with penises are even ruining it for straight lesbians who aren’t into “girl dick,” as you put it. There’s no safety from these mentally ill people, they are men dressing as women. They are causing terrible problems in women’s prisons. Raping women prisoners. They should be kept away from society, they are a menace.
You know how very few people will discuss race honestly for fear of being ostracized? Well doctors face losing their medical license and being unemployed and losing everything they have worked for their whole life………so expect this to go very poorly.
You know how we let someone with anxiety take their dog on the airplane and now there are 47 dogs on every flight? This will be like that except with penises in the women’s bathroom.
You are definitely on to something there. As a society we’ve become soft on everything. Nothing matters anymore. No standards or accountability of any kind is needed. The live and let live philosophy turned up 1000%.
I like dogs on planes. better than most people who change a babies diaper on the food tray. clip their toenails and toss the trimmings in the aisle, blow their nose into their hands and wipe it on the seats. and much more.. dogs lie down. sleep and most dont snore and drool on your shoulder. of course most dogs have been subjected to castration against their will. so there is that...
It goes all the way back to Salem, Kevin. Dr. Malone called it a "mass formation psychosis." From time to time, a society goes barking mad. Like Salem. Like the revivals. Like prohibition. Like the day care "abuse" scandal. And now, progressivism generally. What else could explain the election of a senile imbecile who is literally barking mad?
How silly of me to forget that. And united us all back into a loving family with his soothing speech in a lurid red background, replete with menacing mannequins dressed as Marines.
You are right to be reminded of that. We even have a same player from Satanic Panic days, Dr. Diane Ehrensaft, who is now at UCSF saying kids indicate their "gender" by how they roll around in a diaper. I think she might be the same one who also said that if teen girls have their breasts cut off and regret it then they can just get new ones.
"Diane Ehrensaft's 1992 article on "child sex abuse linked to occult rituals at the Presidio Army Base Child Development Center," in San Francisco."
The Recovered Memory Movement. Sexual abuse forgotten by the 'victims' but, voila(!), recovered through (pseudo) therapy. And abuse not only from the hands of innocent daycare workers but from parents who apparently dozens of years before abused their children.
In looking back at that now discredited Eighties/Nineties nightmare I can see the seeds to the madness we're experiencing now in this rise of perceived victimhood.
I have been thinking the exact same thing. This whole trans surgery on minors is most definitely going to go into the same category as the lobotomy. I’m just really beginning to wonder how much longer that’s going to take. Between now and then how many children’s lives are going to be ruined?
I predict we see mass suicide of our young people after sexually altering their bodies. Menopause occurs after hysterectomy and removes the body’s ability to stay vibrant and youthful. It is nothing less than mass formation psychosis enabled by our own medical profession. If buying cigarettes and alcohol requires age 21 - then so should sexual alteration.
In my opinion, the medical profession should keep out of it completely. They didn't do all that training merely to learn how to chop off body parts and enable this delusional insanity.
My point is that when these girls have their uterus ripped out, the ovaries are obviously taken as well, since they are the source of the female hormones that are undesirable and are being replaced with testosterone injections.
This tragic situation for our children has to end. Teen years are tough, no doubt about that. Some of our teens need extra support to figure things out. I seems that medically treating their awkwardness in this one dimension merely pushes their day of reckoning to the future. De-transitioning is just the near term regret. Long term, there will be other regrets such as inability to have their own family, long term health problems, and social / physical / intellectual maturation issues. Not everyone, but definitely a good sized percentage. As the article says, these practitioners are treating what kids say their problem is, not what their actual problems are. Fast and easy money. How do they live with themselves after cutting off a kid’s sexual body parts or drugging them into a stunted puberty? Over and over again.
Anyone who has had to deal with a hysterical teenager - especially of the female variety - knows that, at times, it's almost as if an exorcism is called for. Wise parents steer their children through it. Progressives give them hormones and mutilate them.
Their inability to experience pleasure, to taste the joy of parenthood, and to fulfill natural biological impulses will translate into rage and violence. I fear that we are breeding a generation of psychopaths.
What gets me is how obviously stupid this is. Have you seen the Franken-penis “assigned” to these gullible people? It’s made of forearm skin, which leaves a horrific scar. The labia are sewn together over the hormonally engorged clitoris (ironically the only hope of sexual satisfaction). Organic penises already struggle to be perceived as attractive; imagine what looks like two stretches of pork rind sewn to the abdomen (not even where a real penis hangs) , pointing hard left (ha ha) and of course it doesn’t ejaculate or even pee properly-- leave that to the new trans accessory-- a colostomy bag! Those smiling gashes where breasts once were (exogenous zone cut off, no hope for sexual pleasure whatsoever, no stone unturned!) an apt metaphor for how “fully happy” these useful idiots are. Watch the videos put out by Exulansic-- “I’m on my 7th corrective surgery” says this big-hipped “male” with a rotting piece of “flesh” that frankly no one who’s seen a real penis would pay a dime for. Did I say this is stupid yet? At least most of the more than a thousand comments on the NYTIMES recent “More Teens are Choosing Top Surgery” useful idiot cynical promoting self harm piece unanimously call this cynical mercenary sanctioned narcissism for what it is: STUPIDITY WRIT LARGE. And what’s most shocking is all the historical parallels summarily ignored. It’s voluntary suicide courtesy of idiot compassion-- it’s more about the “therapist” with a savior complex (ironically childless sexless women most of them) than it is about the well being of a generation of autistics born to women who didn’t question the effects anti depressants they didn’t truly need on their unborn children.
FINALLY the New York Times has begun allowing comments on trans issues like medicalization of children, and males participating in girls' sports.
For YEARS, though, NYT disabled all comments on trans issues—which had the effect of thoroughly distorting the national conversation as these issues began to arise. Only after the patent unfairness of U Penn swimmer Lia Thomas's victories over female competitors did the NYT start to allow reader comments on these issues.
The NYT is thoroughly ideologically captured as an institution—along with every other significant cultural institution in the US.
Imagine if the money, time, skill put into these conversion-therapy surgeries were put instead into providing real health care in underdeveloped countries. Imagine all the women with post-childbirth pee-control problems, babies born with cleft palates, etc., whose lives could be so helped by medical care. It boggles the mind.
more people need to know this. the hard ( pun) reality of what these surgeries really look like and how they function ( or lack thereof). I think mos t think oh well they will have a penis that is the "real thing". and that clitoris will bring me all of the pleasure I could conceive of.. perhaps full page ads in the NYT of the mutilations would help ( sure the NYT will run that). but maybe here.. pictures and videos are worth millions of words. at the risk of invoking Godwins law.. I remind you of the pictures after WW2
From what I've read, if a young person has never had an orgasm before transitioning, they probably never will. Even when the constructed sex parts look perfect, they still lack the proper nerve endings to produce the same pleasure as the real thing.
There is such a world of difference between being supportive of a child's gender fluidity and doing something medically irreversible on the basis of that fluidity.
The adolescent brain is above all things impatient and impetuous; the adult brain needs to act as a brake on those tendencies.
We have a gay son and were ready and eager to embrace his sexual identity whenever he was ready to come out (which he did on the eve of going to college). So, I have not experienced a request by a child for medical intervention.
But if we had I'd like to think that we would have had the wisdom to counsel patience, even in the face of the extreme vitriolic pushback that come so naturally to adolescents about anything and everything that interferes with getting what they want.
I do not oppose medical transition generally. Only irreversible medical transition done before the person's brain is more developed and there is more certainty.
Appreciate this article. After having just gone through nine months of eating dysphoria(dissatisfaction) with our 17 year old daughter the main lesson I have learned is that parents are critical - you need to provide proper guidance. If your child is a biological girl you need to NOT give in to anything other than biology. Weather the storm and guide her through really tough social pressure and keep the faith in her to navigate through different activities. If she feels like doing what are traditionally male activities, sign her up for archery or even baseball. As a girl. You will get through it.
If you are a doctor taking money for genetically mutilating a child rather than caring for them in a truthful setting then G-d damn you. G-d damn you.
You are a great parent sounds like. If only more moms and dads(!) would commit to the hard job of raising well-adjusted kids to become well -adjusted functioning members of society.
It takes a degreed intellectual to buy into this insanity. Only years of training in how to ignore the reality staring you in the face can make you accept the delusions as fact.
There is a syndrome called, “body integrity disorder.” People with this, insist that a healthy body part MUST be removed. Any doctor who would entertain this idea would be called a “quack!” Today, we call them compassionate, caring physicians when a CHILD demands that they remove a penis or breasts. This is nonsense and needs to be stopped. The alarming rate of gender dysphoria, particularly in girls, can be directly related to social media. These troubled young women need intensive counseling and understanding. Adolescents have felt discomfort with their bodies since the beginning of time. While some of these children, may truly be transgender, the majority of them will come to a different understanding with time and maturity.
As a school nurse, I know that puberty blockers are not REVERSIBLE! They can lead to many problems if taken too long, including lack of brain development and infertility. We need to counsel and insist on patience while treating gender dysphoria in order for the brain to develop and sort out these decisions. This is the least that our children deserve. Too many of these children who have made radical decisions as a teens are having regrets as adults. They wished that someone had counseled them to wait until their bodies had sorted themselves out. Unfortunately, many of them visited today’s version of the quacks that I mentioned earlier.
Speaking of another type of body dysphoria, I remember when anorexia was the psychology issue du jour for young women. Rather than agree with these young women that they were the fat girl they saw in the mirror and giving them gastric bypasses, we hospitalized them and gave them psychological counseling and sometimes even gave tube feedings to prevent them from starving themselves to death.
The completely opposite approach to the "gender dysphoria" trend is shocking in comparison. There are social reasons for that (the rise of the Woke, for one). But I have to wonder, cynically, if part of the difference is that supporting an anorexic kid's body delusion ends with a dead kid, whereas supporting this new delusion is profitable: the need for hormone therapy for life means these kids will be patients for the rest of their lives.
There’s no such thing as being “born in the wrong body.” That entire concept is nothing more than clever marketing by pharmaceutical companies that stand to gain billions by turning an entire generation of young people into hormone junkies. It’s really that simple. And once you accept that singular truth it’s pretty easy to see all of this trans crap for what it is: sycophants with god complexes preying on vulnerable people who are looking for purpose in life.
I was with some friends a few years ago and the subject came up of transgender people in the military. Two of them saw no problem with them serving and rambled on and on about diversity, etc. When they both took a breath, I asked, "Where are they going to get their hormones? Who's going to pay for them-my tax dollars? I then had to remind them of the need for transgender people to take hormones daily whether they are in battle or in an office. How is that going to work?
There was silence. Liberals tend to spout off this nonsense about gender this and gender that and they can't bring it back to the reality that maybe a child is just an individual who is non comformist but that doesn't mean he or she wants to turn into she or he.
It saddens me that we are now at a point that a parent who complains about a teacher using the term “boys and girls” to address her students at a faith-based school is validated and supported. (Teacher told to address five year olds in gender neutral language.) This is precisely what’s happening where I work and I only see this pernicious ideology increasing in fervour and intensity. And instead of the administration pushing back, they kowtow for fear of being labeled transphobic. (No big deal in changing our language to be more “inclusive.”)
It's very disturbing that this would happen in a faith based school. England shut down Tavistock, a clinic for transgender youth; many other European nations are revisiting their policies. Here in the U.S. we are shackled by the lunatic fringe who dominate the academe and the UFT is headed by the monster Randi Whine-garten. We used to be the leader in human rights; we now have to look at others and follow their courageous examples.
It’s always cui bono: who benefits, follow the money. Sadly.
Always. Always. Always. You are completely correct. Greed so often rules over science, common sense, human rights, public policy, etc.
From 2016 re Pritzker $$:
"Follow the money: Trans billionaire makes new $1 million grant to Chicago pediatric transition clinic"
https://4thwavenow.com/2016/07/11/follow-the-money-trans-billionaire-makes-new-1-million-grant-to-chicago-pediatric-transition-clinic/
Yip Federal $$$ a big pull, same thing with abortion why such a fight because we going to cut the money no need to even follow it just cut it and watch the meltdown. The Global Citizen crap, what is that, what’s a global citizen, the Clinton’s AIDS Foundation what’s that another way to exploit Federal $$$. The biggest scam was Covid look at the federal $$$ there we flat broke. You want to see the end of the above bullshit just cut the money and watch the demise of this absolute trash we have had to put up with the last couple of years.
I disagree with you. I think transgenderism is very rare, but is also real. Presumably you would ban sex change drugs and operations entirely. That is not practical. As a matter of law the right to have an operation cannot be denied to an adult.
My position is more reasonable and enforceable. No child should be allowed to make an irreversible life-changing decision.
I would ban all medical experimentation on children. Full stop. I would also ban all irreversible medical procedures for any adult unless they had completed rigorous psychological and physical exams conducted by a neutral third party.
My best friends stepdad is on dialysis. He is in desperate need of a kidney transplant. When his biological daughter stepped forward to donate hers she had to go through an unbelievable approval process: dozens of meetings with psychiatrists and physical exams galore. She had to submit all financial records and a whole “post operation” plan for how she would continue to care for her child and work during recovery. When it was discovered that her dad would likely help her with her bills if she was unable to work after a few weeks she was rejected. The transplant folks said that amounted to financial compensation for her kidney.
So the same medical community that only requires a single letter of reference from a licensed psychologist or therapist confirming “gender dysphoria” before they’ll cut the healthy breasts off a teenage girl won’t let a grown woman help save her father’s life unless she’s independently wealthy enough to take 6 months off of work in the event that something goes wrong.
My point is this: none of this crap is about saving lives or improving quality of life. It’s 100% about money. Dialysis makes money. 1 in every 5 dollars spent on healthcare in America is spent on dialysis. Transgenderism makes money. A transgender kid that’s started on puberty blockers at 10 or 11 is a potential million dollar client by the time they’re in their late 30s.
I read the linked Twitter thread from Matt Walsh about Vanderbilt with the videos of their staff talking about how much money the treatments bring in, and how there would be “consequences” for anyone who objected on religious grounds. One of the comments was, “Capitalism works with Christianity because of the moral constraints. It's less effective at reining in its worst instincts when guided by atheists and moral relativists.” Even though I am not a religious person, I have to admit that this statement (though it should not be limited to just Christianity) is true, and I believe it describes a lot of what is going wrong generally in the U.S. The only way a state can function well while giving people a relatively large amount of freedom is if the people have a moral framework to govern themselves. Fewer and fewer people have that in the U.S., and the results are not good.
“Capitalism works with Christianity because of the moral constraints. It's less effective at reining in its worst instincts when guided by atheists and moral relativists.”
I respectfully disagree with this notion, Rich. Atheists and relativists are every bit as moral or immoral as Christians. If Christianity were a moral guide, neither the Inquisition, Crusades, Catholic Church child molestation, Indian Schools of Canada and the United States, nor 2,000 years of blood-drenched Church antisemitism would have occurred.
One is moral or one is not. Religions certainly provide guides to what they consider moral--the Jewish Ten Commandments is excellent--but their morality may not be mine.
I would suggest, Sir Shane, that a more-or-less common set of moral guidelines are essential to social coherence. I think that lack is illustrated in where we are today. Do You agree?
If not, why?
If so, what? Who's?
TY. Keep in mind I'm still 50% Fundamentalist Atheist, so I don't *entirely* disagree. But if one were to apply Your logic, we should do away with Science because it perpetrated the atomic bomb. Personally, I have a problem with the Catholic Church's shameful conduct. But even with that, I can't see throwing the Religio-Spiritual baby out with the bath water.
You do?
Agree completely that a common set of moral rules is essential to any culture. I just don’t believe Christianity—or any religion—has a lock on setting them.
I wouldn’t remotely toss religions aside. Too many billions of people rely on theirs to get them through life, and I respect them for it.
My only issue was the declaration that only Christianity provides moral rules. That wrongly lets out all other religions and non-religion moral principles, and it assumes erroneously that the non-religious and atheists have no moral compass.
Religion certainly codifies moral behavior into rules to live by, but whether those rules are moral depends on your POV. Islam believes in turning the planet into a caliphate and governing by Islamic law. Christianity used to believe same with Christ at the helm, but has grown away from imposing that with terrible swift sword and toward voluntary commitment. Etc.
Naturally, jt, Religion should support what I like and condemn what I dislike 😎
Absolutely! There’s a great podcast, Good Faith Effort, hosted by a Rabbi. He talks about that very idea with some of his guests. Great pod! Highly recommend!
I simply wanted to like you post. But the button wouldn't work.
So, I have posted to let you know I truly feel the same way.
I've seen similar things working for the pharmaceutical companies. Insane amounts of overbearing oversight on some things, while other more dangerous things get ignored totally. It's not about the consumer at all, it's entirely about legal liability and nothing else.
"First, Do No Harm"
The doctors' maxim that, sadly, is being forsaken in our capitalist enthused medical establishment that bends to the highest bidder.
Good comment, Mel..
Greed is a major problem but the UK's National Health System "transed out" on Radical Gender Theory before the US did. They may be coming out of it or they may just be farming it out to smaller scattered private clinics now that the Tavistock experiment is ended.
It's all about system capture. Which does not always occur at the same pace in all locations, due to a wide variety of factors.
When I was finishing up the B.A. I had abandoned in my early 20s, I was attending a small private (but not religious) university with an English department composed of professors who were almost all 50+. That department had not been captured by the Woke .
As a result, I experienced a massive shock when I went to grad school at a large state university where the English department was composed mainly of professors under 50 (a few were even younger than me), almost all of whom were Woke (although it wasn't called that yet).
Oddly enough, despite both universities being located in the same Red state, within 60 miles of each other, one had been utterly captured by the "Long March," while the other had not experienced any incursion at all.
Which is scary because of course older people will be phased out and everything will be run by crazy ideology unless it is put down definitively.
I do agree with the vetting needing to be uniformly applied in more areas of medicine. For instance, to get a weight loss surgery, one needs to be examined by a psychiatrist, multitude of tests, they need to show they lost several pounds before the surgery is conducted, they need to sit through an overview of the surgery, etc. To top it off these surgeries are often able to be reversed while many of the gender related ones from my understanding are irreversible.
Same with your example of donating an organ, My sister donated a small piece of her liver to my father. All the due diligence you mentioned was required.
Why is this not expected for such dramatic surgery on a child or any age for that matter.
Two reasons: money, and ideology.
Excellent points !! The incosistencies are stunning.
I agree. the like button wasn't letting me like your post!
Fantastically insightful comment! Bravo!
Well, Terence. You are wrong on all counts. First, transgenderism is a psychological disorder (gender dysphoria disorder). There is no scientific/medical evidence proving anything about a woman in a man’s body (or the converse) exists. The truth is that we’re simply looking at a person with a delusional belief what anyone can see is physically warrantless. What other psychological disorders do we currently respond to with mutilating a body via surgery or chemicals? None to my knowledge.
Second, there are people who believe other things about their bodies (e.g., anorexia, body dysmorphic disorder, body integrity disorder) that are also untrue. These are essentially the same as gender dysphoria and (so far) no one is pretending that their delusions are real. So, we don’t encourage anorexics to lose weight, we don’t do bizarre corrective surgeries on someone with BDD or BID). Why? Because their delusions are clear as a bell to anyone with eyes that can see and a brain that can respond rationally. So, next time you see someone who is easily discernible as a male, but says he is a female inside. Guess what? He’s not female. The only reason to single out GDD and do ridiculous things to their bodies - is money and/or stupidity. There is some level of stupidity, for sure. But the driver is money, money, and more money.
Good comments. No doubt there are a few truly transgendered people - they can sort out hormones and surgeries on their own upon reaching the age of majority. IMO This current situation fits the "mass hysteria", "social contagion" or dare I say "herd mentality" events of the past. I say this despite what US News and NBC said in August -a baloney study ; note some countries documented a 4,000% increase in trans in short period. Witch burnings of old, the 1980's-90's day care child abuse scare, the "recovered or suppressed memories sham" of the same period (contagion that went hand in hand with the child abuse scare) that destroyed so many innocent people and businesses while providng a short flicker of undeserved attention and profit to a number of charlatans bottom feeding on the hysteria. There are other events, copy cat suicides in communities, the . Like others here say - this is more about profit opportunities, and pushing social and political agendas of a segment of our population than any real concern for kids who are understandably struggling in this ever more confusing and disordered world. Note after some serious review, UK recently closed their Tavistock gender clinic. Its time the public and medical and psychological organizations take an evidence based look at this dangerous fad.
No, you're the one who's incorrect, Mr. Trender.
Take a look at the hijra of India and other parts of the Indochina peninsula. Gender dysmorphia eclipses the psychological explanations Westerners want to put forth about it.
Perhaps the way that Westerners get it wrong is by thinking people with gender dysmorphia still need to be sorted into the binary categories of "male" and "female." Perhaps what _really_ needs to happen is cultural recognition that these people constitute a third gender with multiple phenotypes. If that were to be the case, nobody would be conditioned to want surgery.
I believe you are speaking of hermaphrodites. The majority of Hijra have been assigned male at birth but often have “irregularity of the male genitalia” and are often castrated when they join the group. They’ve lobbied to be recognized as a third gender (not the opposite gender)and have had some success in that area. Remember that to identify as gay , lesbian or bisexual in that culture can be dangerous.
Not the same as permitting or encouraging life-altering medical procedures on children.
Some (but not all) ancient cultures have developed categories for people who don't fit in the normal binary. But those categories are seen as a type of their very own. None of them try to pretend that a man who acts like a woman is genuinely a woman, or that a woman who acts like a man is genuinely a man.
I’m not convinced it’s good for our society as a whole to allow these surgeries on anyone. And especially not to have insurance pay for it or tax payers.
I agree with your second sentence.
Gender transition should be recognized as elective surgery and financed accordingly.
if it is rare then why is it so upfront in the news. why are teens everywhere flocking to the "cause"? ALS is rare. my friends son with Gauchers has a rare disease. do you read about it everyday? nope. there are many "orphan" disease that need funding but if it has to do with "sex" it is headlines. and MONEY making
What we already know, tons of information, is that the vast majority of children who report gender dysphoria (just a note - that’s what we’re talking about here) will grow out of it. Many will realize that their confusion was actually about their sexual attraction (i.e., many come out as gay) and they move forward with life. So, back to your question, we’re seeing the ridiculous increase in reported cases because there is a ton of dark money out there supporting the activism around so-called transgenderism. Children are literally be wooed into believing that their dissatisfaction with life, low self-esteem, etc. is because they are transgender. And, then (some of) their ignorant virtue signaling parents feel like their “changing the world” and “won the gender lottery” so they promote it in the home.
It's upfront in the news because it's trendy on Twitter.
Today's journalists are lazy sods who think reporting what obvious nutjobs say on Twitter is somehow investigative journalism. 😀
And you're quite right about the money-making aspect. User Mel wrote a very good analysis of that aspect of the transgender wars somewhere above.
Sex reassignment surgery used to be heavily gate kept. Mostly HSTS (homosexual transsexuals) were allowed to go ahead, after living in their preferred manner for a few years, after multiple psych & medical evaluations and therapy. They KNEW going in that SRS was a placebo. And that society was under no obligation to accommodate them in any way. It was an at your own risk thing. Back then there was active blocking of autogynephiles- heterosexual, cross dressing, usually porn addled men who develop a fetish for being perceived as female. AGPs want to live their female personas freely out in the world and get their fetishistic kicks from being perceived and treated as if they were female. And having "lesbian" sex. Obviously, HSTS trans women are not a big threat to women and girls in same sex spaces. They're not flooding lesbian bars or dating sites. Autogynephiles are. They are still sexually attracted to females and have other psych issues other than bodily dysphoria. And in some cases, they don't have dysphoria at all... they just want to enjoy their lives as female imposters, being able to enter (and being aroused by being in) female spaces without shame or constraint. If they win athletic competitions and take away prizes or affirmative action type positions from females, all the better.
We need to go back to the heavily regulated and "at your own risk and responsibility" model of permitting transition. If you pass and behave yourself, fine, whatever. But males cannot be be legally perceived and treated as females. They cannot compete as females. They cannot take prizes or positions reserved for females. Gender identity cannot be a protected class. That creates social chaos and puts females at risk and at disadvantage.
You make a very good point--in the rush to "affirm" every person who claims to be trans, the activists are ignoring the fact that some straight men get their kicks from doing this, and that those men can be a real hazard to women.
The image most people have of trans women is the gentle HSTS who just wants to quietly live his life presenting as female. But AGPs are entirely different, and they're the majority now. They keep their penises. (Jenner even lied about removing his!) There's a tell if there ever was one. The older AGPs just want to retire in their cross dressing personas. But the young ones are very militant and aggressive about trans rights, about being accepted as "lesbians", and they are truly frightening.
Agreed
So well said, nedweenie. Thank you! - LM
Thank you so much, Private Person. I have been trying to explain the situation to Bruce on the latest Common Sense/Free Press article but I am having trouble getting through to him. He just can't believe it. It is pretty crazy.
Actually, there are all kinds of things we don't allow adults to do. More importantly, what is the compassionate, caring thing to do?
I knew someone growing up who told everyone (and apparently believed) he was an 800 year old dragon. If I walk into the doctor's office and say, "Doc, I'm a dragon!", is the proper response a psych eval or a tail graft?
I agree with you about kids obviously (as I think everyone here does), but like Mel, I do not see how a man insisting that he's a woman is substantively different than me insisting I'm a dragon.
That said, I do think that a man who wnats to wear a dress should have a right to do so, but should also expect to be treated at arms length by most people. He has a right to his behavior; others have a right to modify their own behavior in response. This is called freedom. I certainly don't think that his wearing a dress (or even surgically modifying his body) makes him "a woman".
Hi, "transgenderism" is basically a money making cult. It's a different matter from a tiny number of people who suffer from gender dysphoria. They should have true psychological and medical (whatever it is) help. But, the idea that any adult should have any surgeries and drugs they want just like that because they claim they are a magical thing called "transgender" does not serve the patient. What happens is these kids are taught that they might be in he "wrong" body. They take hormones which harm them. They get to the magic age of 18 after being told their parents are no good and the glitter family loves them and they can have this magic transformation into the other sex (not possible). By this point they are good toys for any predator as they are so broken down mentally and physically. And, just think, children who got to the age of 18 without going through puberty are perfect for pedophiles (Minor Attracted People - we cannot shame them) with childlike bodies and legal sex which the kid cannot enjoy - having no healthy genitalia,
I agree. I feel sorry for anyone who has this naturally and is not a byproduct of social media/peer influence. They should receive the care they need. Kids who have a host of other issues that are ignored so they can be fast tracked through this are collateral damage in this movement.
*Transsexualism* is both real and very rare.
“Transgenderism”, however, is not real in the sense that it is a real thing with its own unique medical root cause that requires experimental, life-long drug dependencies and body-mutilating surgery.
What is real is that a lot of kids who are dealing with the normal discomfort of growing into adults are being told lies by people scared of the woke mob as well as activists who are promoting queer theory, and the medical industry for whom this is a cash cow.
But the medical industry has decided to conflate gender (a social construct with some underpinnings in biological sex) with sex (which does drive many but not all gender expressions). Transgender ideology more correctly defined as:
“I believe I am X and I will go to varying degrees including life-long medicalization. Not only will I indulge in my fantasy, but I will force others to join my fantasy or face social martyrdom. And I won’t ever address what is going on with my psychological and emotional issues despite the historical norm of adolescents being uncomfortable in their own bodies that has been true since the dawn of mankind. Because that would be conversion therapy, [despite the fact the only conversion therapy occurring is when doctors mutilate a healthy physical body with underlying emotional and mental issues as if it was a Halloween costume].”
I recommend a look around PITT, for instance: https://pitt.substack.com/p/bat-mitzvahs-and-testosterone-the
"As a matter of law the right to have an operation cannot be denied to an adult."
Does that mean that any adult who walks into a doctor's office and says he wants his hand chopped off should have it done just like that? Or, might there be some therapy first to find out what is behind that wish? Could there be trauma? Confused thinking? In the end maybe hormones and surgeries are right for a very tiny number of people but that doesn't make enough money for the industry. And, it does not mean that we are all born either "cis or trans". as the ideology teaches. There is no such thing as "68 genders" or people being "non-binary".
Baloney is baloney any way you slice it ,and the idea that children or adults can change their sex is the most rancid baloney possible. There's a fool born any minute and those who fall for the "transgender" propaganda are the biggest fools the world has ever seen.
I agree with you 100%, Mr. Gain.
I would propose that any irreversible gender medical treatment or surgery be allowed at age 25.
A-freaking-men. I’m sure there are people who really believe, but for most this is about money, and as anyone my age knows, people can convince themselves they are righteous when there’s a lot of money at stake.
I’ve known trans people as adults. I have no issue with them. Pushing this on children is not the same as a grown adult making these decisions.
We cede far too much ground by restriction criticism of transgenderism or other mutilations to cases where the subject is underage. These trends are bad for people of all ages.
I couldn’t agree more. In another response I described the ordeal my best friends stepsister went through when she tried to donate her kidney to her very sick father on dialysis: months of psychological and physical exams (she even had to attend a therapy group for people contemplating organ donation). The process was intense and so unbelievably thorough- all under the guise of ensuring she was both 100% informed of all of the risks associated with kidney donation AND making sure she wasn’t being pressured or incentivized. Ultimately she was denied because when they asked her how she would provide for herself and her daughter should her recovery take longer than the 3 weeks estimated she said her dad would probably help her pay her bills. The transplant officials said that would amount to financial compensation.
Now just think if that kind of rigorous vetting were done to every trans person, regardless of age, prior to top or bottom surgery. How many you think would go through with it or would even qualify for it? Considering these folks melt down if you use the wrong pronouns, I highly doubt too many would make it through the pre screening.
Amen, Mei.
I cannot share this interview of Dr. Quentin Van Meter enough:
https://thenewamerican.com/transgender-quackery-exposed-as-child-abuse-by-top-doctor/
I’d never thought about this (your first sentence.) Something for me to further think about. Thanks!
I would disagree Mel. I think the money is just a sideshow, I think the real story here is that the radical left values individual autonomy above all, in the pursuit of pleasure, self "fulfillment," etc. Western civilization is an obstacle to complete individual autonomy because it is based on the family and on men and women uniting to beget and raise children together. When men and women come together in the family, they take on obligations and responsibilities vis-a-vis one another, and vis-a-vis their children, and children assume greater responsibility and obligations as they mature in the context of family. These are horrible things to the radical left. Western civilization also embraces concepts like honor, service, sacrifice, charity (love of neighbor), etc. None of those things promote the achievement of complete individual autonomy, in fact they too are about obligation and duty and not about indulgence and self-gratification. Horrible. By attacking the fundamental concepts of man and woman, the left destroys the basis for family. By undermining the family, the left creates autonomous individuals. What is a woman? The left cannot say (see recent Supreme Court nomination hearings). What is a man? Who knows (see the recent story about the teacher in Canada with the grotesque prosthetic breasts)? Once they have established that "man" and "woman" are arbitrary designations that have no basis in reality, identities that can be changed upon a whim (something that school children these days are encouraged to do, switching their pronouns on a daily basis in some cases, because they "feel like it,") there is no longer any basis for union, for family, and the locus of responsibility and obligation is no more. Free at last.
I think it is a perfect storm of bad things coming together: Anti-western sentiment, fetish (AGPs), Woke/DEI, major Greed (pharma probably created the opioid epidemic), kids exposed to porn, groomers, trans humanism, (techie Gnostics)...
That freedom is ushering in social chaos. And crazy unintended consequences. There was a news story recently of a FtM transgender who was at a public campground. Not wanting to be intrusive or disruptive, (s)he asked the owner which restroom to use. He said that since (s)he was female, she should use the women's. Well, (s)he walked in and freaked out the women who were in there. They yelled and screamed because they saw a male in their same sex space. Nearby men heard their shouts and came and beat up the FtM transgender. Badly. The radical left think the answer to preventing ugly scenes like that is to make all restrooms everywhere unisex. But that is unconscionable. Social norms (and evolutionary fight or flight responses, ahem) can't be remade to accommodate these people.
Thank you for this response I have just finished reading the above and I thought Oh God how do I comment on this. After reading what you posted I don’t need to, you said it all in plain and simple English.
What evidence do you have to support your claim? Have you "followed the $$" with any empirical detail? Your comment reads like a classic conspiracy theory. Sure, you could be spot on & it really is all this simple. On the other hand, you could also be missing a lot of nuance on the entire subject. For your theory to work out, the amount of organization among disparate and (more often) competitive forces would be astounding... Just something to consider.
Well most of us aren’t in a position to investigate much and we rely on our life experiences to help make sense of things that make very little sense. Typically, when it pertains to pharmaceutical companies, and the whole hierarchy that flows form them (researchers, doctors, select media) you can count on them to promote anything that will make them money. That statement is an empirical fact and history, both recent and within the last decade, including behavior during Covid, just reinforces the reality that getting sued because they do the wrong thing for money is just wrapped up in the overhead of doing business. So people are suspicious when pharmaceutical companies push drugs that were previously used to chemically castrate sex offenders, onto children.
People are also suspicious of people who, with almost no skepticism or curiosity, affirm whatever the child wants, particularly when there is a profit motive for doing so. I’m not a genius, but I know the difference between a want and a need. I know that children who are gender dysphoric may want to have what is essentially cosmetic surgery, just like my elderly mom wants to have cosmetic surgery. But they don’t need it, and aren’t old enough to understand the long term effects, or even what long term effects are because they have not been on the planet for very long. So it seems strange that anyone would allow this without more evidence based studies from nonbiased groups. When that happens, reasonable people of average intelligence look for a profit motive, because that’s almost always what would motivate someone to behave this way. That’s not a conspiracy theory. That’s justifiable skepticism combined with real world experience.
There are organizations, like the press, who could dive into this issue, but they won’t because they have decided that it will support one side over any other. They have chosen which side they are on in this, based on ideology, so the rest of us little people are left to our “conspiracy theories” based on what we know of the players involved and how they have behaved in the past and continue to behave now.
We’ll put @The Biz. I smiled at the reference to your “elderly mother”. I’m a 72 year old woman who, seriously, feels I belong in a different body...say a 40 year old one.
🤣🤣🤣#metoo
Cool. Where is the empirical evidence that exposes the collusion in this particular instance? It's easy to draw parallels where you want to see them but harder to prove any of these claims.
Also, what are you using to classify the case that parents and therapists, etc. simply affirm whatever a child wants with almost no skepticism or curiosity? Is it possible that the reason there's even a discussion around this is because of that skepticism and/or curiosity? Parents in this position are forced to question everything.
Actually, parents in this position are generally under a lot of pressure to affirm delusion and are offered counseling to convince them they should "accept" their son or daughter as the opposite sex with the suicide card played: "Wouldn't you rather have a live son than a dead daughter?" And, a parent who does not go along with it gets a lot of flack from the virtue signalers in the school and community who think they know your kid.
Now there is a large and growing number of detransitioners who feel that there was not gatekeeping and their lives were ruined. Look out for lawsuits.
"Analysis of Reddit detrans survey By Genspect / 12 March 2022"
https://genspect.org/analysis-of-reddit-detrans-survey/
OMG, please read the PITT substack to learn about this.
I will check it out more but don't see much beyond anecdotal stories from individuals. No formal studies, etc. I will keep looking, however. Thanks for the tip.
Please do. Many personal PITT stories contain links to serious articles. There is no science saying that we can be born in the right or wrong body.
Another comment above was so good I feel the need to republish it here:
"nedweenie replied to Terence G. Gain's comment
Sex reassignment surgery used to be heavily gate kept. Mostly HSTS (homosexual transsexuals) were allowed to go ahead, after living in their preferred manner for a few years, after multiple psych & medical evaluations and therapy. They KNEW going in that SRS was a placebo. And that society was under no obligation to accommodate them in any way. It was an at your own risk thing. Back then there was active blocking of autogynephiles- heterosexual, cross dressing, usually porn addled men who develop a fetish for being perceived as female. AGPs want to live their female personas freely out in the world and get their fetishistic kicks from being perceived and treated as if they were female. And having "lesbian" sex. Obviously, HSTS trans women are not a big threat to women and girls in same sex spaces. They're not flooding lesbian bars or dating sites. Autogynephiles are. They are still sexually attracted to females and have other psych issues other than bodily dysphoria. And in some cases, they don't have dysphoria at all... they just want to enjoy their lives as female imposters, being able to enter (and being aroused by being in) female spaces without shame or constraint. If they win athletic competitions and take away prizes or affirmative action type positions from females, all the better. We need to go back to the heavily regulated and "at your own risk and responsibility" model of permitting transition. If you pass and behave yourself, fine, whatever. But males cannot be be legally perceived and treated as females. They cannot compete as females. They cannot take prizes or positions reserved for females. Gender identity cannot be a protected class. That creates social chaos and puts females at risk and at disadvantage."
It took a lot of years to have a discussion around this and it is still not happening in the mainstream press. We are on a substack :)
I agree with Mel. Its like when Big Tobacco used Joe Camel to sell cigarettes to kids. Big Tobacco used multiple layers to society to profit. What is happening has happened before in a parallel context. Study eugenics, study the lobotomy, study repressed memory syndrome and the Satanic Panic, study anorexia of teenage girls in the 90s. Nothing new under the sun. Humans being greedy and vain and manipulating the vulnerable.
Totally.
We even have a same player from Satanic Panic days, Dr. Diane Ehrensaft, who is now at UCSF saying kids indicate their "gender" by how they roll around in a diaper. I think she might be the same one who also said that if teen girls have their breasts cut off and regret it then they can just get new ones.
Diane Ehrensaft - from satanic panic to gender ideology. Episode 1
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8CpvzUwE7mc
Many people see the similarities to the lobotomy era - where more women than men were lobotomized by the way.
And, here is one to digest:
"Echoes of Eugenics: What the Doctors Trial at Nuremberg Means for Us in the US
On the 75th anniversary of the trial of Nazi doctors at Nuremberg we examine Nazi medicine and gender-affirming care"
https://pitt.substack.com/p/echoes-of-eugenics-what-the-doctors
Germany was a very ethically and scientifically advanced society in the 1930s, just like the US is now.
Ehrensaft:
"Diane Ehrensaft's 1992 article on "child sex abuse linked to occult rituals at the Presidio Army Base Child Development Center," in San Francisco."
https://archive.org/details/ehrensaft-1992
"TMI: Genderqueer 11-year-olds can’t handle too much info about sterilizing treatments–but do get on with those treatments"
https://4thwavenow.com/tag/diane-ehrensaft/
I have. I suggest you do the same. This is a great place to start. https://www.the11thhourblog.com
You have what? Considered that you could be wrong with your proclamation made without any evidence to support it?
Lol is that all you have buddy? You can’t actually refute what I’ve said so instead you’re just going to repeatedly demand that I “cite my sources”? Go back to Twitter dude.
Don't feed the troll.
I'm not the one making a strong proclamation here. You are. I thought you would have some evidence to back it up and we could have an open discussion based on that. I realize this topic is tantamount to your religion so no need to "cite your sources" as you have none.
No one is “born in the wrong body.” Period. Your feelings, your emotions, your conscious and unconscious thoughts do not negate 5 million years worth of human evolution. This isn’t opinion, this is fact. If you’re unwilling to acknowledge this then you are correct, no debate can be had.
If you’re interested in sources re pharmaceutical companies funding the trans movement start here
https://www.fiercepharma.com/marketing/gilead-to-disburse-4-5-million-doubling-its-initial-grant-total-for-transgender-community
The Texas AG has opened an investigation into two Pharma companies over their marketing of puberty blockers here: https://www.texastribune.org/2022/03/24/transgender-texas-paxton-pharmaceutical/amp/
And Jennifer Bilek does a great job laying out all the financial ties of the Pritzker family here:
https://www.tabletmag.com/sections/news/articles/billionaire-family-pushing-synthetic-sex-identities-ssi-pritzkers
The
Many others are following the money and I can try to dig up some sites on it. One big place money comes from is "Jennifer" Prtizker. And, Pharma gets a lot of money from lifetime customers. Get them young! Universities get grants for Gender stuff. According to this doctor -
https://thenewamerican.com/transgender-quackery-exposed-as-child-abuse-by-top-doctor/ endocrinology departments were historically underfunded & diabetes stuff is expensive so there was this great temptation to take on the cash cow that is Gender. So, it served the Endocrine Society to say it's science & other medical societies started pointing to them as there's money and alot of advocacy from organizations like WPATH.
I think that it is more a matter that disparate forces were served by the same thing and worked in the same direction. What are these competitive forces that would work against each other instead of reinforcing the problem? It doesn't have to be a conspiracy.
Here's an article that tries to look at some forces at work but many readers pointed out that it missed the impact of porn on the young (like girls wanting to check out from being girls because - like that's what it means to be a woman?): https://pitt.substack.com/p/why-is-this-happening-to-my-family
For some reason our WH and the teachers unions are way into pushing Radical Gender Theory. First Female Four Star Admiral and United States Assistant Health Secretary Richard/Rachel Levine is all in for child butchery. Why I wonder?
There are some good links at the bottom of this PITT:
https://pitt.substack.com/p/the-school-board-director
Here is one from 2016:
"Follow the money: Trans billionaire makes new $1 million grant to Chicago pediatric transition clinic"
https://4thwavenow.com/2016/07/11/follow-the-money-trans-billionaire-makes-new-1-million-grant-to-chicago-pediatric-transition-clinic/
The fact that you can't understand it doesn't mean it isn't real for those experiencing gender dysphoria. Better to try and understand what's really going on emotionally regarding the physical and emotional changes of adolescence, combined with the cultural dimensions of gender identity rather than just deny that the issue exists.
I don’t deny that people purporting to be trans are suffering from diagnosable mental illnesses. But “being born in the wrong body” isn’t a diagnosable mental illness- it’s a marketing gimmick invented by evil people looking to prey on vulnerable populations. It’s not only patently absurd, it’s also unimaginably cruel to tell children that “God made a mistake on you.” There is nothing kind or gracious about entertaining/confirming dangerous delusions.
Unfortunately telling people that their "feelings are wrong" doesn't generally help. Rather than railing against various "marketing conspiracies" we should be trying to understand why there is such an increase in gender-related mental health issues in young adolescents. Puberty has always been a difficult time for young people -- now it seems increasing numbers of them are fighting the entire physical maturation process, which of course puberty blockers accomplish on a short term basis. Perhaps the pervasive sexualization of our entire society -- ads, social media, popular TV shows, movies, etc. has made large number of young people anxious about the very process of maturation.
I agree with much of what you say here, Pam. Telling people "feelings are wrong" doesn't help - especially with a teenager committed to cult like doctrine. It is not what I recommend. They need lots of love, they need to get busy with things that are real in life, like a job and getting out in nature, and they do not need to be medicalized. Teachers should not jump to call them any false name and pronoun behind the backs of parents, creating a terrible cognitive dissonance. You have read the nonsense the American Girl Company promotes to girls age 8-11? And too many "gender therapists", people in pharma, planned parenthood, and surgeons leap to make $$$ off of their most likely temporary teenage certainties. Puberty has always been difficult and we should explore what is especially difficult now. The prevalence of online porn has been suggested and also the social media message teens receive that life has always been easy for everyone except them, you should always be happy, that everyone else in life is always happy, and if you are not there is a pill to take for it. I do take issue with your statement regarding "puberty blockers". They are not proven to be safe, they have all sorts of side effects including on bone denstiy and are not some sort of magic pause button - kids who take them are not maturing socially with their peers (missing out), and nearly all kids who start on that path go the whole way medically to "transition".
I do not even think we should tell confused adults that their "feelings are wrong". I do think they deserve to have real talk therapy to try to find out what lies behind their fantasies. Cross sex hormones and operations should be a last resort with adults, not a first resort with children.
We should be working to understand why there is so much adolescent mental illness -- especially among adolescent girls. Telling an anorexic or bulimic girl that she "isn't fat" doesn't help them. Telling a depressed young person to "buck up" doesn't help them. Telling a young person with gender dysphoria that there's nothing wrong doesn't help them. I totally agree that non reversible surgery should not be an acceptable therapy for young people but turning this all into culture ware fodder doesn't help either. And demonizing teachers who are doing their best to deal with kids struggling with a form of mental illness doesn't help either.
Hi Pam. We are in partial agreement. But, we never told anorexic girls that "yes, you are fat"! Let's call you "Fatty"! And I am not out to "demonize teachers" but currently they are directed to follow the teachings of Radical Gender Theory and affirm kids at school, even without telling parents. We went through this ourselves. If it even just stayed with peers rather than getting affirmed by every other adult in the students' lives it would be less damaging. Then it becomes something of an iatrogenic illness rather than a teen phase.
Well said, it is a marketing gimmick/cult that preys on the vulnerable - both those few with a body dismorphia disorder (of the mind) and the young (didn't we once protect children because they were young and vulnerable?)
LonesomePolecat shared this on another thread - from a retired Navy Seal: https://www.ibtimes.com/transgender-ex-navy-seal-transitions-back-being-male-i-destroyed-my-life-3646182
""I walked into a psychologist's office, [and] in one day I have a letter in my hand saying I was transgender. I was authorized for hormones. I was authorized all this other stuff," Beck claimed, adding that he felt like he was "used," "got propagandized" and "got taken advantage of. As soon as [kids] go in and say, 'I'm a tomboy' or 'This makes me feel comfortable,' and then a psychologist says, 'Oh, you're transgender.' And then the next day, you're on hormones – the same hormones they are using for medical castration for pedophiles. Now, they are giving this to healthy 13-year-olds. Does this seem right? This is why I am trying to tell America to wake up," he said."
And look at the nonsense promoted to girls via American Girl:
https://pjmedia.com/culture/matt-margolis/2022/12/07/american-girl-uses-body-positivity-guide-to-groom-girls-for-transgenderism-n1651556
This is what you’re thinking about at 5:23 AM? Some people enjoy wasting time.
The real question is what about this story do you find unnecessary or lacking in some kind of benefit? It’s hardly wasting time to address some of the most challenging social issues early in the day.
Could it have occurred to you that I might be in a different time zone than you? Think before you snark
haha :)
Or they get up early. Or, they are concerned about the welfare of children.
This phenomenon is exploding in the United States, that alone has to make one wonder what is really going on. If you look at a country like Israel where the kids know that they are going into the army when they turn 18, where they have a sense of purpose & a faith & family is important you can see that something is very wrong in the United States.
That this perfectly coincides with our national obsession with eliminating all pain and hardship from life isn't a coincidence. The opioid epidemic began directly on top of the "no fighting in school" epidemic that began right on top of the "everyone gets a trophy epidemic" that began right on top of the "well, obviously we have to ban "hate" speech" epidemic and they're all symptoms of the same disease. We've decided that everyone's immediate future should be as easy as possible, regardless of the long term impacts of those decisions. That we've gone so far as mutilating genitals as a response to some very short term body dysmorphia isn't really all that surprising when you look at a society who decided to treat headaches with opioids.
There is a TON of blame to go around for this stuff - but it has to start with parents. A parents job is not to make life easy for their children, in fact, it's highly beneficial to throw some arbitrary difficulty into their lives just for the sake of learning early the value of overcoming difficulty. Self esteem isn't given, it's earned, and the only way to earn it is to overcome. If, instead, everything is simply given, then how hard it is to make the leap to giving someone fake genitals so they don't have to deal with the discomfort of puberty, or figuring out where you fall on the sexuality continuum, etc...? As a society we not only take the easy route on everything, we actively encourage and amplify the value of taking the easy route (people literally get their groceries delivered to their house to save the "hassle" of walking..." and then are shocked by the outcome.
As others have said, of course we should follow the money, but we created the marketplace by deciding it was somehow a good thing to remove all difficulty and pain from life, all the con-men did was maximize the value of the market we, as society, created.
I'm afraid You've got the right of it, "Data." And I'm afraid it started with the Boomers. Well, the Greatest Generation, who let the Boomers get outta control.
To me, it seems like somehow the goal of "make sure the next generation is better off than the ours" turned into "make sure the next generation has zero problems at *all* or we're bad parents."
I think you're exactly right. That was officially the generation where the American dream transitioned from opportunity to outcome. In every previous generation in America that generation fought to create greater opportunity for prosperity for their children. The boomers fought for greater outcomes for their children, and the rest is history...
We cripple our children by trying to make life easier for them.
I agree with your framing of the problem; our modern (Western) avoidance of pain has turned into a pathological avoidance of discomfort or even inconvenience.
The one thing you said that I disagree with is the idea that parents should create "arbitrary difficulty" for their children. Experiencing pain and discomfort—physically, emotionally, psychologically—is all part of growing up human. It need not be artificially created. Kids can learn how to face and navigate adversity by watching how their parents manage their own challenges and by being coached through difficulties when they arise, rather than being wrapped in cotton wool or whisked to comfort and safety before any hurt can be felt. All humans learn from adversity if they're allowed to experience it, which is likely why "no pain, no gain" is such a well-recognized saying.
I certainly respect this, but I think it all depends on circumstance and how we define both "difficulty" and "arbitrary." I make my kids walk with me to the store even though they'd rather ride electric scooters or take the car. This isn't actually difficult and it isn't completely arbitrary, but given the alternative options it is less convenient, but much healthier, than driving, and I suppose walking up a hill could be considered "difficult" depending on the definition (I certainly know adults plenty akin to avoid walking up hills).
I'm not telling others how to parent, and again, it's certainly unique to every situation, but I think modern life can be SO easy for so many children that some arbitrary challenges (maybe better word that difficult) are helpful. We got chickens primarily because I want to my children to care for something and invest time/energy in a food source they consume. It's arbitrary (we have enough money to buy eggs) and harvesting eggs/cleaning the chicken coup is difficult by my suburban upbringing standard but is a joke for the people who live around me and couldn't imagine any other way, so, something like raising chickens could fall into the "arbitrarily difficult" category depending on perspective. Was this right or wrong to introduce into my kids' life? I don't know, but I certainly enjoy the eggs...
The deck is stacked against parents on so many levels.
👆🙏🎯exactly right
good points - maybe the biggest issue is my newly coined malady - Parental responsibility dysphoria? We have more and more "educated idiots" willing to gulp down the latest fad with no critical thinking. And a whole bunch of charlatans spewing any garbage that will get them noticed.
One man’s religious rite is another man’s genital mutilation. How is having to make the decision to have one’s dick nipped and tucked inside them the absence of pain? Sounds pretty painful and personal to me. Just like these posts about the American dream sound clichéd and grouchy.
This genuinely made me laugh out loud, so thank you for that. I’ll do my best to be less cliche in the future, and unfortunately the grouchy is in the eye of the beholder so not much I can do about that.
Also, removing your predispositions you may notice I never commented on whether or not people should be able to cut their genitals off. That’s between you, your parents and your doctor. My point, I thought obviously, was on the societal progression that allows us to get to a place where it’s normalized. Do with that whatever you’d like but don’t pretend like I took a stance on the practice just for your own arguments sake.
Now, should I have to pay into a medical system that shares costs across citizens for someone else to have their genitals cut off? You can probably guess the rational answer of a classical anarchist to that question, but that’s a completely separate question than whether or not society should regulate your personal medical decisions.
Well, we have Trans activists in all the high places (Government, Education, Medicine, Tech, Pharma) in the US and our media is "all in".
A few decades ago we were told that the Gay Pride movement was about acceptance and I believed it. I still mostly do. However, things have taken a turn. The LGBTQ movement and the likes of CA Senator Scott Wiener have clearly aligned themselves with child predation. The below new law amounts to "run away to CA, child, where we love you unlike your bad parents who take your phone away": Note the "Without Parental Consent" part.
"California Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom on Friday signed a bill to aid minor residents of other states in acquiring gender transition therapies without parental consent." https://justthenews.com/politics-policy/gavin-newsom-signs-gender-sanctuary-bill "State Democratic Sen. Scott Wiener, who led the bill, acknowledged that it would encounter likely constitutional challenges, but affirmed that it was intended to push the limits of what the state could legally do on the issue. "We may have limits under the U.S. Constitution, but we are going to go right up to the edge of what we’re able to do to protect them and say, 'Unless we are absolutely forced to send you back, we are not going to send you back,'" he told the Los Angeles Times."
Newsom is a psychopath. He has delusions of grandeur & he’s a dictator. He’s the worst Governor California has ever had, & we have had doozies.
I think kids and young people feeling like they have a sense of purpose is very important. This may be the antidote.
Almost every detransition story I've seen implicates internet resources--and especially social media--for steering the person to believe that "gender dysphoria" was the cause of all their mental health problems. The doctors and clinics they went to were quick to reinforce that idea, ignoring the rest of their mental health issues.
The thing I find particularly distressing is that almost all these kids turn out to be gay/lesbian. Fifteen years ago, the same psychologists who are now pushing "gender identity" would have been first in line to reassure these kids that it's perfectly okay to be homosexual.
I've seen a lot of LGB people starting to fight back against a system that--in a weird twist on past practices--is basically performing "conversion therapy" in an entirely physical sense: mutilating the bodies of young gays and lesbians because the "real problem" is that they were "born in the wrong body."
I have said this before. Make the age for someone to get a sex change 21. Teenagers are not known for making sound decisions.
Yes!! How many times have we heard that, especially young men's brains don't fully develop until they are in their mid 20's ? But suspend that concern when it comes to this gender ysphoria etc? I can't manage the wild inconsistencies of these supposed Progressives - too damned whimiscal for me.
Add to that those with ADD/ADHD have fully formed frontal lobes in their late 20s. Many trans youth are on the autism spectrum or have ADHD and other co-morbidities.
Remember when we were told that gays and lesbians had to be acknowledged and accepted and embraced because they were born that way and there was nothing they could do about it? Now with trans it’s I wasn’t born the way I should be so you need to acknowledge and accept and embrace that.
Meanwhile we are still only talking about 4-5% of the population total yet the conversation is always outsized about them. It’s like 98% of commercials have blacks even though they are only 13% of the population.
The numbers of young people presenting with "gender dysphoria" are rising. I think it may be as much as 25% among girls now.
I’d put that as presenting with purported gender dysphoria. It’s a thing. It’s cool. It’s encouraged. But it’s not real.
It's gone up 4400%!
It is 100% conversion therapy! When I heard that a few months back a light went off.
Meet the New Homophobia. Same was the old one, but now with shareholder value.
It was only when I saw LGB people talking about it that I realized that that's exactly what it is.
I should have figured it out for myself, as a gay man, but I think it was here in the comments I first heard someone say that. It makes so much sense.
I thought I had heard that transgender surgery was prevalent in Iran for this very reason--because it's better in their eyes than being homosexual. Here's a report about it: https://www.pinknews.co.uk/2020/02/22/iran-gay-forced-gender-reassignment-surgery-the-sun/
This is really horrifying.
21st century alchemy. We can no more transform a person from one sex to the other than alchemists could turn base metals into gold. 16th century alchemists only experimented on metals. The modern alchemists experiment on children. They then claim that people who object are the villains.
Well said.
I think, IMHO, it has everything to do with it.
And, oddly, obsession with anime characters. It's so obvious that these sudden onset adolescents are living in a fantasy, digital world where they can become anything they can imagine, and they can get an instant network of "friends." Friends who disappear the second that you question whether trans is for you.
So true. With anime you have to vet everything they’re seeing online because there is a ton of porn associated with it. I would never have even guessed until a friend told me.
I think you mean anti-social media. 😂
Really is a better name for it!
My daughter now 20, was diagnosed with autism around age 3. We were lucky. Her symptoms were so mild they were not even certain she truly was autistic. But she had developmental delays. Even those were not severe. She was just always a few months behind hitting the milestones. They suggested speech therapy, occupational therapy and behavioral therapy.
The first speech therapy appointment the therapist played a game with her, Candy Land. The therapist stopped in the middle of the game, looked at me and said, “Why is she here? Her speech is fine.”
The so called experts are not always right, do not always agree, and sometimes just decide to toss a diagnosis and suggested treatment. Especially with little ones. There is a panic because their brains are so malleable so if you intervene early on any issue the outcome will be better. So “wait and see” is not an approach they seem to like much.
Fast forward my independent minded, march to her own drum, quirky girl started middle school. Because of her personality being off from the norm she was a bit of a misfit. It was heartbreaking. Because she was social, but could not take in that to fit in and be accepted you have to follow certain social norms. Or try to find a friend who also is a little different and maybe needs a friend.
One day she comes home from middle school and says, “All the girls at my lunch table are depressed, suicidal, and lgbt. One is a lesbian, one trans, and one is cis but has a trans boyfriend. Also I’m reading this book about 2 teens who are suicidal. Everyone is suicidal mom.”
It was a total WTAF moment as a parent.
I got her into a therapist pronto. I guess we got lucky. The therapist told her, “Kids your age are following a trend. Like being an “emo” or “goth” No everyone is not suicidal -“Are you?”
she said, “No,not really. I was jus trying to fit in with a group.”
If anyone wants to say, “Bad parenting” it’s fine. I assure you though, I tried and tried to explain to her how to be more social and fit in with healthy kids but with a kid like her it just doesn’t take easily. Social skills are still tough for her at 20! Even her Asperger’s dad at 50 struggles.
But she/we got through therapy, she pulled away from the lunch table of depressed lgbt group and just accepted she doesn’t fit in any specific group and that’s ok. As she got older she kept improving and now in college she has friends, and just joined a sorority.
Looking back from where we are as a society/culture now? I can see where our experiences with doctors, teachers, therapists -might have lead to a far more devastating and tragic outcome.
Also, as a new parent, I was way too trusting of doctors and teachers. I often felt jerked around, but yielded because “they’re the experts” but my easy going nature only goes so far. I started to push back on some things. For example one therapist told me, “She has ADHD and because of this she resists structure and routine.” But she NEEDED structure and routine. “People with ADHD find it boring” Welcome to the club! So do I!!!! That’s what vacations are for! Dislike of rules, structure, routine is NOT a brain disorder. It’s an attitude problem.
I do believe my daughter is truly, “neuro divergent” or whatever you want to call it. But I also believe she was a bit spoiled and catered to and it did her no favors. So I started implementing a bit more of an authoritative parenting style. “Love you pumpkin but it’s my way or the highway. You get on board or you get no privileges. No phone, no allowance, no TV, I give your lap top only for school work and you give it right back. You want respect and privileges you start earning them.”
“Just love and accept them” -it’s a nice platitude. But it is not all that effective in reality.
These are truly scary times for parents and children. Beyond what any prior generations experienced when it comes to parenting, education and healthcare. It’s a total shit show.
I wish I could like your comment 1,000 times. I have a grandson in the same situation as your daughter. He is brilliant in several ways, and clueless in some of the daily practical skills. But he knows he is beloved, and is happy. HAPPY.
Ditto. ‘Like’ a thousand times.
Ok, like a thousand times a thousand! There's so much here....absolutely brilliant. Thanks for the heartfelt, intelligent and inspiring personal share, Daisy.
Daisy, wow! I feel this comment so deeply. My 16 yo daughter has knowledge of SO many of these messed up kids. I worry about her trying to “fit in” and ending up like them. So far, she stands strong but it’s always in the back of my mind. I too have spoiled her and am trying to get back on a more strict path. It’s a daily struggle.
Parenting is the hardest, scariest job there is but it is the most important. Children look for boundaries and good parents sets them and enforce them. It's call guidance.
Good for you. You and your daughter had a hard row to hoe but you came out on top.
Good mama! She sounds a bit like my daughter. You are lucky you had a good therapist.
Both these girls/young women will shape the world leave them be I don’t believe they need therapists!
:-)
From your post Daisy it sounds like you have done a great job. Parenting is not easy but your daughter sounds like a joy, enjoy her!!!
Thank you!
And this is why the talking point of “well, parents gave consent” is patently ludicrous.
First of all, there are a whole host of activities to which parents can not give consent on behalf of their children (selling a minor child into sex slavery, for instance, thank God).
Secondly, consent requires being properly informed. If these gender zealots (ahem- “doctors”) are feeding parents full of trash pseudo-science, like “would you rather have a live son or a dead daughter” for which there is no basis that suicidality decreases after these butcherings (ahem- “surgeries”), informed consent can not be given.
Finally, consent can not be given under duress, and I think the threat of having child services called to have their child taken away would certainly qualify as duress for a parent. Can a women consent to sex if there is a knife at her throat? Of course not. I think most parents would agree that the threat of having their child taken away from them is not far removed from that.
There is going to be hell to pay when the victims of these monsters realize what’s be done to them...and rightfully so.
Check out my Substack here- https://www.gordoncomstock.com/
“Monsters” is right. This is a particularly American phenomenon produced by mentally ill professionals, including Medical Doctors with the skills to deform others, sanctioned by institutional greed intent on accessing an insurance-funded cash flow stream. The Europeans know these procedures have little scientific basis: “They came away alarmed at the low quality of evidence supporting the efficacy of youth medical transition, considering how little is known about the potential side effects of these treatments—including osteoporosis, delayed brain development, sexual dysfunction, increased risk of cancer and other diseases. They also found that detransition and regret about transition were higher than expected.” WPATH is a criminal conspiracy whose goal is to provide legal protection for the monsters profitably preying on disturbed children and adolescents, whose real problems are being tragically exacerbated by this truly evil abuse.
We saw how our "medical community" allowed politics to affect medicine and led to the madness of the pandemic lockdowns, mandates for vaccines that didn't prevent infection and mask of dubious efficacy. Just like the witch doctors and shamans of old, our doctors are skating on very thin ice when they allow political medicine to erode the trust of the patients they pledged to serve.
I am a physician and couldn’t agree more with this. We have lost so much credibility, and deservingly so. Our critical thinking skills and ability to directly read and interpret the original research have somehow disappeared.
This is on an institutional/collective level, and to a lesser extent at the individual level. At my former institution, those of us who had retained these skills were effectively isolated from one another, and could not even voice research-supported opinions without risking our employment.
Politicization of medicine and the natural sciences is a large scale travesty.
Thank you for that insight, Doctor. You are not alone in seeing your profession captured by the ideological left. As a lawyer, I am dismayed by the nonsense I see pouring out from the ABA and the state bar associations. The NY Bar Journal recently published a tract urging slavery reparations. Reparations? From people who never owned slaves to people who were never enslaved? Madness. Especially in our Constitutional Republic where respect for the individual and her or his rights is supposedly inviolate.
My question: do these parents pay cash? If yes, how many poor kids are getting these surgeries?
I get the impression that a trans child is the latest accessory for upper-middle-class Leftist women. Virtue points galore!
Yeah I think you're right. The trans kid some middle-aged Karen is parading around like a "get out of rich white CIS-gendered jail free" card.
I think you have got that exactly right Celia. I’ve got a few friends like this with trans children. They love to talk about it every chance they get. Every time they start talking about it I just want to cry. Really, it just breaks my heart. It’s just the most warped, sick, tragic thing I can possibly imagine. To let these trans activists get their claws into your precious young child... how do they let that happen? I’ll never ever be able to understand that.
The mother's who transed their own children will be the last to admit this whole nightmare was a mistake because they will have to face down the fact that they harmed their own children. When they "love to talk about it" with you they are really trying to convince themselves on some level I think. Blinking in a cult.
When you are a non-believer mom and your kid hangs out with these kids and starts talking the talk - everyone is delighted to forward you to these moms to talk about it. No way!
Yeah me too
I think that a lot of times insurance will pay for this stuff. (When they won't pay for normal stuff.) I know that many college insurance plans do so I recommend against using any college insurance unless you have looked very carefully. And even then things are constantly moving/changing so you need to have eyes open.
We sure shouldn't allow people to do this to their child, just as we would not allow someone to sell their child into slavery in this country - as someone above commented.
Oh boy, we have went a long way, sadly we took only wrong turns.
When I was young, we had goths, heavy metal and other "anarchists" rebel teenagers. I personally had a phase where as sing of rebellion dyed my hair orange and was secretly smoking, while looking for some greater meaning of life. I was 15 years old :D believed that my parents have no idea how world functions. Majority of my friends went trough same phase. Well that lasted around 2-3 years. Now all of us are "normal" people, and when we talk about that time we laughing.
it was an experience. But most importantly, we were not making ireversable changes on an impulse. You can remove tattoos, daye hair diffeent color, stop smoking and drinking.
But today, oh boy, kids are for the lack of better word "mutilating" themselves all the while some doctors, MSM and Twitter is cheering them on. And thelling them, dont worry you can always reverse puberty blockers, hormone therapy and surgeries.
Can we really? Are we really 100% sure that kids that took puberty blockers will be able fully to come back? Will boys grow all as they would naturally? Girls lose testosterone induced traits such as beard, deep voice and other changes caused by hormone therapy.
Yes you can "reconstruct" breasts, but that is like cutting healthy leg and getting prosthesis, it works but its not the same.
Buy the worst is left for the last, if you decide to sterilize yourself there are big chances that you will never be able to have family. Freezing eggs and sperm might be an option, but what is when the procedure is done on 14-15 year old kids.
In 10-20 years, we will probably watch documentaries, on how this insanity happened, with generation of (then) adults who have in moment of teenage "lunacy" made decisions that rendered them complete sterile, ruined their lives forever.
PS. I am not saying that every person that is transitioning is making mistake, but currently, numbers in the USA are simply crazy. No other part of the world if affected but "gender dysphoria". Even liberal Europe is not experiencing it these high numbers.
I always wonder how will these children treat their parents, when this thing passes, will they be angry because they neglected their duty as a parent? How will parents think about the consequences?, especially ones who were opposing it?
Strange world indeed, parent can tell kids when to go to sleep, not to eat sweets, and at the same time these same kids can request life changing treatments and surgeries with no input from parents.
Britain had crazy numbers. They investigated and the Cass Report came out. As a result, they closed the Tavistock Gender Clinic. They're gonna set up regional clinics which will prioritize treating the original mental health issues.
Amazing! I believe President Biden will go down in history as guy who demanded the opposite. Insists that if You *don't* give kids this crap, then You are guilty of conversion therapy.
In reality, it's this "gender affirming" care which is taking mostly gay and lesbian kids and converting them to straight trans kids. That was the *original* definition of conversion therapy, right? Converting gays to force them to become straight.
Up is down. Left is right. <puke>
That’s a really important and fundamental point that is rarely made: the Trans movement is actively hostile to gay people in both a practical way (one that is horrifying) and a profound philosophical way: by rejecting the entire “coming out” narrative of discovering one’s ontological gayness. Trans ideology liquidates ontology by insisting sexual orientation has no meaningful biological ground and is merely a psychological phenomenon grounded in the imagination and the will. Gay people as a stable identity group analogous to women and people of colour are essentially canceled by the Trans worldview.
And they are beginning to fight back. The sickening thing is that the trans activists are often successful at deplatforming these gays and lesbians by painting them as--get this--homophobic. *facepalm*
The BB always captures our reality better than any "real journalism".
The most interesting (and unfortunate) aspect to me is that it is simply not true that "...little is known about the potential side effects of these treatments," as some claim. We've known for half a century about the effects of cross sex hormones and androgen suppression on human bodies... There is a huge body of literature both in the area of sports enhancement and therapeutic cancer treatments....
https://everythingisbiology.substack.com/p/steroids-gender-and-fair-play
It's also basic human and animal physiology (both of which I teach) that hormones have wide-ranging (body wide) effects that cannot simply be turned on or off like a switch. It astounds me that some people are writing about this as if it was some kind of new revelation. Does anybody read anything anymore? Not acknowledging this information is simply willful ignorance.
Thank you for this very interesting piece, Frederick
I always appreciate your comments. I have a questions for you: Is gender ideology taught in schools? I m going back-and-forth with a friend that doesn't think so. And rightly, she would like to see the evidence. I believe it is creeping in. My kid's school sent out a survey that asked them how they identify nd every possibility was on it.
SP, it varies by state and locality in the US. In many Commonwealth countries it is taught because of federal law.
In California it is pretty much everywhere, in states like Texas it is less common. However, a member of the State Board of Education, district 5 if you care to look her up, boasts of a fifth grade program in Austin that uses the gender-bread man to help kids “explore” their identities.
There is a tendency for left leaning localities and communities to push harder, but not all of the push comes from the left.
Also, left leaning parents living in California, for example, who watch with horror when their daughters and sons take this up often find no one in their communities, schools, churches or medical providers who will help them. In fact, even holding the line in a minor way can get their parental rights taken away by the courts.
This is an area where we need to drop the left/right tribal war and do all we can to help restore reason. Of coarse, we also recognize that most politicians supporting the insanity are left wing.
OMG! Time to homeschool.
I agree. I took my youngest son — now 21 — out of public high school in his late junior year and homeschooled him for the remainder. Unfortunately, not everyone has this option... But it was life-changing (for the better) for my son. I wish I had homeschooled my other two. Interestingly, their Godmother homeschooled all three of her girls with the help of a homeschooling cooperative. They went on to be successful college students.
Thanks. I teach at the college/university level, and I'm only familiar with my department. So far, I have not come in contact with any gender ideology, per se. My colleagues are all thoughtful and reasonable people. I have heard some biologists say that whereas there are just two (human) sexes, there can be an array of genders in the sense that "gender" is simply the way that you act or manifest your sexuality. However, I do not know the extent to which gender ideology is taught in other departments. From what I read and hear from parents with younger children, it has, indeed, crept into the curriculum in the lower grades. However, I don't have any first-hand knowledge of the extent to which it has... As I said, I only know what I read on the topic.
Thank you. I got a copy of the email of the survey and gave it my friend. And I told her about my experience going through the College of Education in 2006 in the diversity class. That professor (who was also my grad school advisor) showed a short and rather graphic of two women having sex. This was in a class of 40 or so grad students. No warning, just showed us. She was trying to make the point of "sex is sex." And maybe it is. idk. What I do know is that i didn't not want to watch such a graphic video of any two people having sex, especially not in a public venue. One man walked out and many in the class heckled him. I stayed silent and to this day regret not stranding up for him . I share this because I believe it is in education and it is being encouraged from the top down. It's been humbling as a former public educator to reflect and admit how this stuff is being spread.
I would also spend time on LibsofTikTok on twitter. you don't have to have a twitter account to look at her posts. She reposts videos and pictures that idiotic teachers (preschool to HS)make outlining how they incorporate gender ideology (or other political ideology, usually BLM and Antifa, or communism) into their curriculums, even when they are not supposed to. Or how they work to subvert parents (see the video by the WA father who had NO idea his kid was on antidepressants, because the SCHOOL doc prescribed them, not his normal doc). its a rabbit hole for sure
I've seen a meme that makes a pertinent point: We shouldn't be asking why kids need to see drag performers; we need to be asking why drag performers want an audience of children.
Good Lord, can we please put drag back in the night, at seedy bars, where it belongs?
To be honest, I enjoy well-performed drag (although from what I see in videos of so-called "family-friendly" drag shows, it seems to be *all* exhibitionism and *no* art these days).
But I am an adult. The few brushes I had with cross-dressing adults when I was a child made me very uncomfortable. It's only with adult sexual knowledge that drag becomes a *fun* performance. Kids should not have that kind of knowledge; if they do, they've been sexually abused.
It isn't just kids who are being harmed. There are men who have not had any surgery but present themselves as "female" lesbians. If real lesbians are not into "girl dick," they are considered transphobic. There have been *rapes* of lesbians by these so-called "transwomen."
Ugh. These so called trans women with penises are even ruining it for straight lesbians who aren’t into “girl dick,” as you put it. There’s no safety from these mentally ill people, they are men dressing as women. They are causing terrible problems in women’s prisons. Raping women prisoners. They should be kept away from society, they are a menace.
You know how very few people will discuss race honestly for fear of being ostracized? Well doctors face losing their medical license and being unemployed and losing everything they have worked for their whole life………so expect this to go very poorly.
You know how we let someone with anxiety take their dog on the airplane and now there are 47 dogs on every flight? This will be like that except with penises in the women’s bathroom.
You are definitely on to something there. As a society we’ve become soft on everything. Nothing matters anymore. No standards or accountability of any kind is needed. The live and let live philosophy turned up 1000%.
I like dogs on planes. better than most people who change a babies diaper on the food tray. clip their toenails and toss the trimmings in the aisle, blow their nose into their hands and wipe it on the seats. and much more.. dogs lie down. sleep and most dont snore and drool on your shoulder. of course most dogs have been subjected to castration against their will. so there is that...
I love the puppy and would prefer a plane with only dogs………but everyone with an emotional support animal is full of poop.
🤣🤣
This reminds me of the daycare sexual abuse moral panic in the 80s except this time the daycare workers are unionized and it’s actually happening.
It goes all the way back to Salem, Kevin. Dr. Malone called it a "mass formation psychosis." From time to time, a society goes barking mad. Like Salem. Like the revivals. Like prohibition. Like the day care "abuse" scandal. And now, progressivism generally. What else could explain the election of a senile imbecile who is literally barking mad?
He has healed our souls and united our allies, Bruce.
How silly of me to forget that. And united us all back into a loving family with his soothing speech in a lurid red background, replete with menacing mannequins dressed as Marines.
but no mean tweets
Yip 🤣🤣🤣
Barking mad in fact rabid Bruce and this is what they keep telling us we voted for.
You are right to be reminded of that. We even have a same player from Satanic Panic days, Dr. Diane Ehrensaft, who is now at UCSF saying kids indicate their "gender" by how they roll around in a diaper. I think she might be the same one who also said that if teen girls have their breasts cut off and regret it then they can just get new ones.
"Diane Ehrensaft's 1992 article on "child sex abuse linked to occult rituals at the Presidio Army Base Child Development Center," in San Francisco."
https://archive.org/details/ehrensaft-1992
Diane Ehrensaft - from satanic panic to gender ideology. Episode 1
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8CpvzUwE7mc
And
Ehrensaft:
"TMI: Genderqueer 11-year-olds can’t handle too much info about sterilizing treatments–but do get on with those treatments"
https://4thwavenow.com/tag/diane-ehrensaft/
I can't believe she still has a job at all.
Ahh..
The Recovered Memory Movement. Sexual abuse forgotten by the 'victims' but, voila(!), recovered through (pseudo) therapy. And abuse not only from the hands of innocent daycare workers but from parents who apparently dozens of years before abused their children.
In looking back at that now discredited Eighties/Nineties nightmare I can see the seeds to the madness we're experiencing now in this rise of perceived victimhood.
I cannot believe this is a question any sane person needs to ask.
We've become an insane society where the insane are running it
Hey… is your kid misbehaving? Bring them in for a lobotomy. Fixes everything.
Instead of confronting issues, many people want a quick fix to avoid all the work associated with dealing with problems.
I suspect that this surgical trend may end up in the same bad-medicine garbage heap that lobotomy did.
I have been thinking the exact same thing. This whole trans surgery on minors is most definitely going to go into the same category as the lobotomy. I’m just really beginning to wonder how much longer that’s going to take. Between now and then how many children’s lives are going to be ruined?
I predict we see mass suicide of our young people after sexually altering their bodies. Menopause occurs after hysterectomy and removes the body’s ability to stay vibrant and youthful. It is nothing less than mass formation psychosis enabled by our own medical profession. If buying cigarettes and alcohol requires age 21 - then so should sexual alteration.
In my opinion, the medical profession should keep out of it completely. They didn't do all that training merely to learn how to chop off body parts and enable this delusional insanity.
A hysterectomy is the removal of the uterus. That does nothing to induce menopause. An oophorectomy is the removal of ovaries which induces menopause.
What makes you think that the ovaries are not also removed?
I didn’t say anything about what I “think.” If we are going to discuss this topic the proper medical terminology needs to be used.
My point is that when these girls have their uterus ripped out, the ovaries are obviously taken as well, since they are the source of the female hormones that are undesirable and are being replaced with testosterone injections.
Sometimes they leave the uterus and the ovaries hence the theory “Men fall pregnant “ madness!
Spot on. 😢
This tragic situation for our children has to end. Teen years are tough, no doubt about that. Some of our teens need extra support to figure things out. I seems that medically treating their awkwardness in this one dimension merely pushes their day of reckoning to the future. De-transitioning is just the near term regret. Long term, there will be other regrets such as inability to have their own family, long term health problems, and social / physical / intellectual maturation issues. Not everyone, but definitely a good sized percentage. As the article says, these practitioners are treating what kids say their problem is, not what their actual problems are. Fast and easy money. How do they live with themselves after cutting off a kid’s sexual body parts or drugging them into a stunted puberty? Over and over again.
Anyone who has had to deal with a hysterical teenager - especially of the female variety - knows that, at times, it's almost as if an exorcism is called for. Wise parents steer their children through it. Progressives give them hormones and mutilate them.
Their inability to experience pleasure, to taste the joy of parenthood, and to fulfill natural biological impulses will translate into rage and violence. I fear that we are breeding a generation of psychopaths.
What gets me is how obviously stupid this is. Have you seen the Franken-penis “assigned” to these gullible people? It’s made of forearm skin, which leaves a horrific scar. The labia are sewn together over the hormonally engorged clitoris (ironically the only hope of sexual satisfaction). Organic penises already struggle to be perceived as attractive; imagine what looks like two stretches of pork rind sewn to the abdomen (not even where a real penis hangs) , pointing hard left (ha ha) and of course it doesn’t ejaculate or even pee properly-- leave that to the new trans accessory-- a colostomy bag! Those smiling gashes where breasts once were (exogenous zone cut off, no hope for sexual pleasure whatsoever, no stone unturned!) an apt metaphor for how “fully happy” these useful idiots are. Watch the videos put out by Exulansic-- “I’m on my 7th corrective surgery” says this big-hipped “male” with a rotting piece of “flesh” that frankly no one who’s seen a real penis would pay a dime for. Did I say this is stupid yet? At least most of the more than a thousand comments on the NYTIMES recent “More Teens are Choosing Top Surgery” useful idiot cynical promoting self harm piece unanimously call this cynical mercenary sanctioned narcissism for what it is: STUPIDITY WRIT LARGE. And what’s most shocking is all the historical parallels summarily ignored. It’s voluntary suicide courtesy of idiot compassion-- it’s more about the “therapist” with a savior complex (ironically childless sexless women most of them) than it is about the well being of a generation of autistics born to women who didn’t question the effects anti depressants they didn’t truly need on their unborn children.
FINALLY the New York Times has begun allowing comments on trans issues like medicalization of children, and males participating in girls' sports.
For YEARS, though, NYT disabled all comments on trans issues—which had the effect of thoroughly distorting the national conversation as these issues began to arise. Only after the patent unfairness of U Penn swimmer Lia Thomas's victories over female competitors did the NYT start to allow reader comments on these issues.
The NYT is thoroughly ideologically captured as an institution—along with every other significant cultural institution in the US.
I write polite right of center comments in the NY Times all the time just top see them NOT APPROVED - reminding me it only allows left wing propaganda
Imagine if the money, time, skill put into these conversion-therapy surgeries were put instead into providing real health care in underdeveloped countries. Imagine all the women with post-childbirth pee-control problems, babies born with cleft palates, etc., whose lives could be so helped by medical care. It boggles the mind.
more people need to know this. the hard ( pun) reality of what these surgeries really look like and how they function ( or lack thereof). I think mos t think oh well they will have a penis that is the "real thing". and that clitoris will bring me all of the pleasure I could conceive of.. perhaps full page ads in the NYT of the mutilations would help ( sure the NYT will run that). but maybe here.. pictures and videos are worth millions of words. at the risk of invoking Godwins law.. I remind you of the pictures after WW2
From what I've read, if a young person has never had an orgasm before transitioning, they probably never will. Even when the constructed sex parts look perfect, they still lack the proper nerve endings to produce the same pleasure as the real thing.
🎯
There is such a world of difference between being supportive of a child's gender fluidity and doing something medically irreversible on the basis of that fluidity.
The adolescent brain is above all things impatient and impetuous; the adult brain needs to act as a brake on those tendencies.
We have a gay son and were ready and eager to embrace his sexual identity whenever he was ready to come out (which he did on the eve of going to college). So, I have not experienced a request by a child for medical intervention.
But if we had I'd like to think that we would have had the wisdom to counsel patience, even in the face of the extreme vitriolic pushback that come so naturally to adolescents about anything and everything that interferes with getting what they want.
Amen, young adults usually can't even rent a car until they are 25 yet we permit bodily mutilization to start at 14, 16 - holy cow its insane.
You can't be simultaneously supportive of gender fluidity and oppose medical transition because they are the same illogical argument.
I do not oppose medical transition generally. Only irreversible medical transition done before the person's brain is more developed and there is more certainty.
Appreciate this article. After having just gone through nine months of eating dysphoria(dissatisfaction) with our 17 year old daughter the main lesson I have learned is that parents are critical - you need to provide proper guidance. If your child is a biological girl you need to NOT give in to anything other than biology. Weather the storm and guide her through really tough social pressure and keep the faith in her to navigate through different activities. If she feels like doing what are traditionally male activities, sign her up for archery or even baseball. As a girl. You will get through it.
If you are a doctor taking money for genetically mutilating a child rather than caring for them in a truthful setting then G-d damn you. G-d damn you.
You are a great parent sounds like. If only more moms and dads(!) would commit to the hard job of raising well-adjusted kids to become well -adjusted functioning members of society.
It takes a degreed intellectual to buy into this insanity. Only years of training in how to ignore the reality staring you in the face can make you accept the delusions as fact.
There is a syndrome called, “body integrity disorder.” People with this, insist that a healthy body part MUST be removed. Any doctor who would entertain this idea would be called a “quack!” Today, we call them compassionate, caring physicians when a CHILD demands that they remove a penis or breasts. This is nonsense and needs to be stopped. The alarming rate of gender dysphoria, particularly in girls, can be directly related to social media. These troubled young women need intensive counseling and understanding. Adolescents have felt discomfort with their bodies since the beginning of time. While some of these children, may truly be transgender, the majority of them will come to a different understanding with time and maturity.
As a school nurse, I know that puberty blockers are not REVERSIBLE! They can lead to many problems if taken too long, including lack of brain development and infertility. We need to counsel and insist on patience while treating gender dysphoria in order for the brain to develop and sort out these decisions. This is the least that our children deserve. Too many of these children who have made radical decisions as a teens are having regrets as adults. They wished that someone had counseled them to wait until their bodies had sorted themselves out. Unfortunately, many of them visited today’s version of the quacks that I mentioned earlier.
Speaking of another type of body dysphoria, I remember when anorexia was the psychology issue du jour for young women. Rather than agree with these young women that they were the fat girl they saw in the mirror and giving them gastric bypasses, we hospitalized them and gave them psychological counseling and sometimes even gave tube feedings to prevent them from starving themselves to death.
The completely opposite approach to the "gender dysphoria" trend is shocking in comparison. There are social reasons for that (the rise of the Woke, for one). But I have to wonder, cynically, if part of the difference is that supporting an anorexic kid's body delusion ends with a dead kid, whereas supporting this new delusion is profitable: the need for hormone therapy for life means these kids will be patients for the rest of their lives.
Brain swelling. Osteoporosis. The side effects of puberty blockers are just beginning to be understood, and it's quite frightening.
weak. weak bones at 15? walk more. that will do it