Monday Chat: Whose Fault Is It?
Feminists? Advocacy groups? Parents? Republicans? Liberals?
As I finish up the official first draft of the book I’ve now been working on full-time for an embarrassing number of months years, I ponder the question at its center: What the fuck happened?!
Yes, I’ll take a few hundred pages to answer, but in the meantime, I’ve started recording a series of interviews called “Who’s Fault Is It?” and asking people to explain whom they think paved the way for sex denialism and the rise of gender identity theory, and the imposition of those ideas onto children. The first episodes will be out at the end of the month, talking about how much certain strains of feminism laid the groundwork—or didn’t. Yes, we will have opposing views and disagreement!
I’m curious what groups or individuals you all hold accountable. Some people say sexologist John Money is to blame, for institutionalizing—and medicalizing—the idea that one’s “gender identity” could be chosen or imposed, and the body changed to match. Others think that advocacy groups pushed these ideas into the mainstream to stay relevant, and in business, after gay marriage. Some key clinicians, like Diane Ehrensaft and Jo Olson-Kennedy, played an outsized role.
What are your theories? Whom would you like to hear from, or about? What groups do you think have been unfairly maligned or held accountable? Who hasn’t been held accountable enough? I’ll do my best to gather experts, or the people themselves, to discuss.
I want to know who was in the room and what was said at HRC the moment they decided to pivot to trans. What were the brainstorming sessions like at gay rights NGOs when they committed themselves to marketing horrible destructive ideas about “trans rights”?
As much as I want to find the lead villain in all of this, I think what's happened with gender medicine is the ultimate example of "the road to hell is paved with good intentions." I think these ideas spread by really well-intentioned people in the beginning. I, myself, created a 90 minute documentary 20 years ago about a transman's "journey." The goal truly was to bring greater acceptance for this tiny minority of trans people. Just to end truly hateful discrimination against them. But when I look back now on the story we told, it was basically the story of a gender non conforming girl who was terrified of being gay and sought solace in this new identity. How many parents of young gender non conforming girls saw that film and thought... oh this is my kid. I have no idea. I can assure you with full certainty that nobody involved with that film (including the main subject) had any idea of what was to come with "youth gender medicine." Are we villains in this story? Maybe. But I hope not. Our intentions were good but we set some of those pavers on that road to hell. How many people in the professions of therapy, medicine, education, non profits, media, etc set just one or two pavers? I think the villains capitalized on it,and exploited it; but the road itself was paved by so many do-gooders, who truly knew not what they were doing. And once the road was paved it became really hard to stop so many from running down it.