I am a liberal whose views on this issue have changed substantially in the past five years. I believed the stories about kids knowing who they are, about the science supporting this. Then I saw how easily confused my then 4 year old was when a nonbinary preschool teacher gave gender identity lessons. She didn't care at all that the male teacher wore dresses and painted their nails. But she struggled with the idea that she, herself, needed to choose a gender identity that she was told would impact every aspect of her future happiness. Then I met trans kids. Lots of them. At least 3 classmates of my kids in a small district. 10 more who are children of friends. Some were like Jazz, transitioned at 3 or 4, seemingly happy but with clouds looming and anxious parents. Others came out in middle grades after family trauma. Others shifted back and forth or seemed to adopt the identity for social reasons. And I realized, this is way more complex than I thought. Data is badly needed. And I don't think kids can make these kinds of decisions at these ages. And then I thought about history and how we lived all these years as a species without medical transition and it didn't lead to mass suicide. And I thought about psychic epidemics and the way bad ideas spread. And my views changed. I will NEVER support the anti-LGBTQ views of some members of the republican party. But I can and do talk to both them and fellow liberals about finding common ground here, grounded in reality and data.
Many Republicans are not anti-LGB! We need to stop the conflation of LGB with TQ+, which is promoted by those who support gender identity. The "alphabet" "community" is a very successful PR forceteaming stunt. Even some LGB people have fallen for it.
T is a hoax. Same sex attraction is not. Read the text of the complaint of Isabelle M Ayala in her malpractice lawsuit against Dr. Forcier, Dr. Rafferty et al. Conspiracy at the AAP to protect themselves from exactly these malpractice suits.
You said it perfect-"T" is a hoax. I believe trans is another name for being gay and children who are gay are confused because our cultlure encourages this hoax. Liberal parents and the school system (see drag queen story hour) thinking this is just so freeing. Not true! This is a horrible and tragic time in our society that this "hoax" is perpetrated on young children pushed by adults with their own agendas. You can be gay, you can dress up like the opposite sex but you cannot change your gender. It is science.-full stop.
Because unfortunately it has become lucrative for-profit indu$try, like fertility clinics, opposite side of same coin & no I am NOT comparing them, even though both change lives if successful.
I was ignorant of this issue until Rowling asked not to be identified as person who menstruates & have become HUGE fan since, killingly funny also. Her views totally jive with my life experience & those of other survivors & detransitioners who are sterile, mutilated & literally unfeeling for the rest of their days (I was just brutalized until puberty affected its natural transition) - children cannot drive, drink, vote or be drafted but they are given autonomy on this? As many have pointed out it is conversion therapy under a different name, just as gender-critical is actually gender accepting. Again, as Rowling states, Orwellian (recent headline called her his heir). #terfisaslur & cis ideology, UDHR🌈♥
Everything you said is correct and important to consider.
First, young kids who naturally are more feminine boys or more masculine girls are NOT the opposite sex, not "trans," not anything other than children who gravitate toward the feminine or the masculine. If we as a society accept their natural leanings (rather than chastising them and telling them these things are for girls/boys), I highly doubt that any of them will feel the burning need to medically alter their appearance to that of the opposite sex and lie about their sex in order to have any semblance of happiness. Rather, the majority of them will end up gay, lesbian or bisexual, and others will not, but all of them will simply be themselves - in their healthy bodies. It is cruel to lie to young children, telling them they are or can be the opposite sex. Accepting them as they are means accepting that they are the sex they are and have the natural leanings that they have.
Second, for the older kids, teens, and young adults (some of whom are also non-conforming to stereotypes and/or gay, lesbian, bisexual, and/or autistic, borderline, anxious. suffered trauma, etc.) who "realize" they "really" are the opposite sex, often after internet binging or spending time with other people who have similar false epiphanies, we simply need to let them know that almost everyone, to varying degrees, will go through a time of feeling discomfort with their sexed body. This does not mean they are "really" the opposite sex. There is no such thing as being born in a body that must be chemically and/or surgically altered to appear as the opposite sex in order to have any semblance of happiness, and nobody needs the world to lie about their sex to have any semblance of happiness. That is a basic fact that we cannot shy away from. We also need to accept the natural leanings of these older children, teens and young adults, allowing them to dress and express themselves in ways they feel comfortable with (but adhering to the same requirements the rest of us must contend with, such as having to dress a little nicer at a wedding - could be a nice pants suit or a dress - not wearing a bathing suit to school, etc.).
Third, as to mentally healthy adults, hopefully age 25 and up, who have lived in their healthy bodies without deception for a number of years, if they should decide to chemically and/or surgically alter their bodies to appear as the opposite sex, that is a choice they can make and we should not shame them for it or make it illegal. However, it is a very drastic set of choices, and must be taken seriously by the medical community, who must make sure the person deciding to do this is mentally competent and is not ill informed. For instance, the person must be told this is not medically necessary, despite prior statements to that effect by the medical community. The person must be told these are purely cosmetic procedures, and that there is absolutely no medical basis for a claim that they will make the person happier or more at peace with their existence. If the person believes these procedures will make them actually the opposite sex, that person should not be given such treatments. These procedures must also be paid for out of pocket, as is the case for any other cosmetic procedures.
Most importantly as a response to your question, you still have a very important role, as the world has been lied to and needs to continue to hear the truth. Many people will not trust anything done by Trump, the Republican Party or the Supreme Court, so the changes in laws will not change hearts and minds. You and other reasonable journalists, psychologists, doctors, philosophers, politicians, etc. must continue to speak out and inform the world of the truth - please!
Further to your point about adults aged 25 who want to disguise their sex: they should be told that doing so *in no way* entitles them to behave as if they actually *are* the opposite sex, and they must understand that they cannot infringe on other people’s human rights where sex is concerned. They should be told, “You might not pass, and if you don’t, you maybe shouldn’t try to use facilities intended for the sex you wish you were,” “Lesbians don’t want to date male people, even males who think they’re female and have attempted to disguise their sex,” and vice versa.
And MDs should tell them that no one has measured the long term regret or detransition rate but that attempts to measure long term benefit or hormones and surgery haven't found anything.
And I'd say that the MDs should also find out what has happened to all the adults they've treated and enter the new ones in a data base. Why after thousands being medically and surgically transitioned can they still sat it's too early to say?
1 reason Graham Linehan, in trying to protect his daughter, has been canceled is he names names, of @ risk youth who have died & individuals pushing agendas, many are calling for criminal charges based on "gender affirming" abuse & harm.
So well-said! I agree with most, though in your third point, I've been starting to see that even medically and surgically transitioning an adult (25 and up, as you said) is probably only a choice by those who have unaddressed mental health issues, probably very deep in some cases. I also think a doctor or surgeon who's willing to perform these treatments and procedures has their own serious ethical issues. Not that it should be made illegal, I'm not really for that, but being willing to have drastic, unnecessary, sexed-body altering measures done on your natural body or to be willing to perform these on another person -- well, why did it become legal in the first place...? A difficult issue for sure, though, and your way of looking at it is still practical, socially responsible, and basically very ethical.
“If we really want reform, if we really want a nation to heal, we have to depolarize. So we still need liberals to come around.” Agree with this completely. I am glad to see a few chinks in the armor, and one thing we can do is to reach out and thank those Democrats who have at least opened the door to discussion. Most recently, that includes Tom Suozzi and Seth Moulton. If anyone here wishes to join in on that, Suozzi’s ## is (202)225-3335 and Moulton’s is (202)225-8020. (If you are in-district, you can also email them.)
Yes! Please, everyone, take a very few minutes to call each of these numbers. You will of course get a recording telling you to leave a message, and your message can be very short, simply thanking them for coming out publicly against boys and men (males!) in female sports.
Thank you for your continued and sane work on this Lisa, I appreciate you. I hope you will take a listen to Sam Harris's latest podcast, really good on most fronts from my perspective and he digs into this issue. There's one piece I believe he could use some help understanding--the small children who think they are the opposite sex. Which you and all of us are concerned about too, but he implies that this phenomenon persists, when from my understanding the studies show that in most cases it does not when kids hit puberty. With those who continue to have this issue into adulthood (which of course we have no way of knowing which ones they will be), we need much more understanding, not sterilization and destruction of sexual function. If you know him or can reach him, you may want to share some info there. Here is the link: https://www.samharris.org/podcasts/making-sense-episodes/391-the-reckoning
Indeed,and even in the studies,the ones who persisted insisting they were the opposite sex, rather than just being nonconforming, I believe many had comorbidities that nowadays get helped with therapy rather than drugs.
It’s so sad. Those who have been told that transing children is the civil rights struggle of our era will hold on to that more tightly in the face of Trump.
Although there might be a strong reaction (black market hormones, etc) to bans (state or federal), I see a silver lining.
Just removing this treatment from insurance coverage will reduce the number of young people suffer iatrogenic harm. Allowing injured patients to sue will reduce the number of providers. And removing gender curriculum from schools will reduce (but not end) social contagion.
There will always be true believers, and they will fight, but reducing the possibility of medicalization would still be a huge win.
This is a fantastic analysis of our current situation. At the risk of approaching the issue from an overly theoretical perspective, I'd like to suggest that the North Star be the eradication of gender itself. Sex is real, of course, but gender is just an idea that's inescapably built upon stereotypes. 'Old School' feminists (I can never remember which wave did what) were aiming at this Star, first by uncoupling social roles/tasks from sex, which were gender constructs, and in so doing, eliminated a major part of the gender universe. What remains is an gendered 'aesthetic,' the belief that there are particular ways for males and females to appear, to act, and to be treated by the world. This is the problem.
Now it may be that there's an evolutionary base for these categories, I don't know, but if there is, we can see it for what it is and work around it as much as possible. But the desire to appear, act, and be treated as the stereotype that is opposite to, or different than, your biological sex is, in part, an attempt to do to gender aesthetics what was done to gendered social roles/tasks. One of the basic mistakes trans ideology makes is that instead of treating non-conformity to gender stereotypes as an opportunity to do away with gender aesthetics, it elevates those aesthetics to a holy status (reification) and forces people to situate themselves in that esoteric framework.
I wonder if our North Star should be undermining that framework as much as possible, and not merely making it more acceptable for individuals to play with their position within that framework. We can, however, see the latter as a step toward the former.
"...that kids like Jazz Jennings really are “born that way.” ... I mean that some kids emerge as extremely gender nonconforming, performing the gender role associated with the opposite sex."
Jazz Jennings was NOT "extremely gender nonconforming" when, as a young child (preschool), he wanted to play dressup by wearing dresses and was told by his parents that "only girls" could wear dresses in public. It was then that his parents apparently decided to suggest to him that he WAS REALLY a girl born in the wrong body, and could/should publicly present as was expected of girls, if he wanted to behave as they said only girls behave: play, dress, imagine his future.
We speculate that Jazz was would have grown up to be an effeminate gay man, and Jazz himself has recounted as a teenager dreaming that he was, but some "effeminate" boys grow up to be heterosexual or bisexual men, and even those who turn out to be homosexual once puberty onsets do not usually cultivate "effeminacy".
Jazz's parents are responsible for how Jazz is now and for what they did to Jazz, not least of which was cashing in on him by making him the subject of a reality TV show. He never had a chance to become the man he otherwise would have become. He never will have that chance, with his mutilated anatomy and ravaged endocrine system, and an apparent complete lack of sexual feelings due to the puberty blockers he was given.
Trans lived as trans without surgery, chemicals or $ for generations, Quentin Crisp didn't need a label (though I've become huge fan of the word queer in its traditional non-sexual British meaning).
I’m a liberal former Democrat and what I’ve seen from friends and talking to other parents is that the red pill came when states tried to ram policy through the schools that they can socially trans a child behind the backs of parents. Someone I was acquainted with on FB wrote about how angry she was that it was struck down in her school system (in NJ) and I wrote, “How would you feel if the school withheld important information from you?”
Well, the attacks were incredible. Everything from if you don’t believe your child you deserve to lose custody to you are a bigot to parental rights are nothing more than a homophobic/transphobic cover.
I also believe the Republican Party is changing. I have gay and minority friends who are staunch Republicans. Trump just appointed a married gay man to his cabinet. Are there still conservatives who are bigots? Yes, but are those women who attacked me on FB bigots? I would say yes. People who are hard core democrats tell me that republicans are a bunch of holy rollers who hate everyone. Considering the shift to the right from working class and most minority communities, statements like those seem rooted in the 1980s religious right and not reflective of how both of these parties have massively shifted.
I understand what you're saying, but why Trump? He and a lot of his associates, they scare me as much as the crazy Democratic ones, like Biden, Richard (Rachel) Levine and others. Somehow I think the two party system has to go -- it's kind of narrow and meaningless to so many voters, but what to replace it with... maybe coalition governing or a parliamentary system like the UK, at least w/o the imperial presidency that the US has. Too much power and influence in the hands of one man (and yes, man, since I think the US has an unaddressed aversion for the idea of a woman as president).
I really believe it was less about Trump and more about voting against the current administration.
If you look at the voting map of NYC, the red areas are primarily where crime is rampant and migrant shelters were placed. I’ve spoken to women who live in a Queens neighborhood and they told me the neighborhood now has rampant prostitution trafficked from South America and they do not feel safe coming home after work late at night in the subway anymore. This is just a small example but if this were your day to day experience and a vote for Harris means four more years of your neighborhood getting worse, what would you do? I’ve spoken to other people in Queens and Staten Island with the same experience.
But according to people I know on FB, these women are misogynist and racist for voting for Trump. This from predominantly wealthy people who don’t take the subway home late at night into a neighborhood that was once good and is now failing. It’s a class divide that not enough people are acknowledging.
These are small examples of what I think has happened here, Mildred. I know a lot of people who were blue their entire lives who voted for Trump not because they’re in love with him but they voted against four more years of nonsense.
Careful what you wish for. A parliamentary system can act essentially as an elected dictatorship if the party in power has a majority. In Canada at least (don’t know about the UK) there are no checks and balances like we have in the US: the (unelected!) Senate is essentially a rubber stamp on whatever bills are passed by Parliament.
I get that, sure. But that doesn't defend the American system either. We have an imperial presidency, now and in the past, a politicized Supreme Court, and legislators who are more often than not bought and paid for by big money. What checks and balances are there on that, other than the voters, who can be ignorant and as foolish as their leaders? Sorry for sounding so cynical, I'm old and have seen and heard it all before.
Ironic that you refer to the "red" pill when the pill is being shoved down our throats in "blue" states by "blue" controlled state and local governments and "blue" controlled schools.
Along with the dem party. Di-ag is a big voice. Every incoming representative and congressperson, mayor, council member, needs to know that supporting what they call "trans kids " is the opposite of gender affirming care. That gender affirming care is bad medicine, actually, not medicine, not as practiced in this century at least!
We are so far from done.
Your writing is so important and I hope you will keep going!
Our blue states need to learn that to fight for these young people means they should get rid of gender affirming care. So do our medical societies. They appear to keep wanting to lie....we need to keep going!
"instance, for the teacher to explain that boys and girls can look and act all kinds of ways."
That would be the diversity everyone says they want, yes!
There's a lot of learning still needed....thank you for all you've done!
What you said about being the ‘liberal whisperer’ was great! Thank you for all your efforts. My feeling is that those that haven’t woken up to the problem with identity politics by now, aren’t for a reason.
Transgenderism is so obviously dysfunctional that those that double down are really just a lost cause. They are heavily embedded in the cult for various reasons and some have transed their child so they can never leave.
The trans army is so aggressive and unhinged that the only way to handle them is with strength. What is happening to children in schools is entrapment and gender affirming “care” is a child abuse scandal that is yet to be totally revealed.
There is no such thing as a transkid and that is where we need to keep our focus. It is our duty to safeguard children that cannot consent.
‘Love the skin you are in’ and ‘free to be you and me’ were worked out in the 1970’s, so this transing of children permissiveness has been a tragic scam. We need strength to combat this mess and set the course straight.
The new Democrats are now just activists that can’t be trusted in leadership management positions. They have taken the terms ‘excessively sympathetic’ (bleeding heart), and ‘intense uncritical devotion’ (fanatical) to a ridiculous level and it’s ruining children's and families lives.
For the sake of children, we cannot wait for ‘depolarization’ or for the ‘liberals to come around’. Maybe your new North Star could be about safeguarding children and continue to not normalize the word or theory of transgender.
Social media has been the megatrans superhighway marketing tool for all things woke, and is filling the void of an increasingly rudderless society. These young people want to be led by grownups that set boundaries, not progressives that want to have lots of circular conversations. Kids are raising each other online now like Lord of the Trans Flies. Something else needs to fill the void that transactivists are currently filling.
I would say, continue not being afraid to set some standards and have strong convictions. Those that are repelled may not be very helpful to the cause in the long run anyway, and those that are open will still show up due to the fact that your ‘brand’ is on the right side of history and genuine.
It is admirable to be looking out for an entire vulnerable generation of young people. It is okay to say NO and even goodbye to the machine that is better at spearheading activism than it is at running a country and crucial institutions.
My fear is what the radical activists will be doing underground and behind the scenes. Push back seems to embolden their resistance. They are scary and unsafe and that's what we need to understand.
Poor Jazz Jenning had a homophobic dad and a mom who kept peace in the familty by "transing away the gay". Your flat-out assertion that "kids like Jazz Jennings really are “born that way"" is truly shocking. There is no evidence for this at all.
Kids mess around with gender norms (which differ from society to society). There is zero evidence that this results from some sort of specific congenital condition.
IMO, we should all be totally fine with messing around with gender norms (whatever they happen to be at that time and place), but should hold firm to two specific principles:
1) NO medicalization: no puberty blockers, no cross-sex hormones, no surgeries before the legal age of consent.
2) NO violation of single-sex spaces, no matter how good your medicalized cosplay is at fooling people into believing that you are something that you are not.
To whom you are attracted sexually is purely subjective and therefore cannot reasonably be contested by an outside observer.
Where you decide to live your life on a spectrum of superficial, stereotypical male to female attributes (and we all do) is also purely subjective and similarly cannot be questioned.
However, your biological sex reflects an objective reality which cannot be changed by your subjective personal view and futile attempts to do so can result in serious health impacts to you as well as harms to members of the sex you are impersonating (primarily women).
Others who are grounded in objective reality should never be forced to accept your subjective version of your actual biological sex.
Finally, it's past time for the LGB community to separate themselves from the trans activists who are trying to take away the rights of women to fairness in sports and to privacy and safety in their restrooms, locker rooms and prisons. They also advocate for the chemical and surgical mutilation of children many of whom would grow up gay.
Their actions are evil and the
understandable negative reaction to the harm they are causing is spilling over to innocent people who are just going about their business, marrying and leading their lives.
Don't hold your breath waiting for polarization to go away. The election result will make it worse, not better! So brace yourself for a black market that sells chest binders, tucking garments, hormones and other instruments of pediatric gender transition. Hopefully there'll be more legal resources available for detransitioners and more institutional support for them, but right now we just don't know. In the short run, it's important to push back against misogyny (which, I'm sorry, WAS a factor in Kamala Harris's defeat), rekindled homophobia and rampant body shame among young people (especially girls). And, we reality-based liberals who feel increasingly uncomfortable among genuinely transphobic (and misogynistic) conservatives will have to carve out a political space for ourselves.
The homophobia is coming from the "progressive" Left, which is telling lesbians and gay men that we are "transphobic" if we do not accept male "lesbians" and female "gay men" into our dating pools and our social organizations. Denial of sex and insistence on gender identity is denial that sexual orientation is based on sex, not gender identity. Homosexuality is NOT homogenderality!
I really think there’s not been nearly enough effort put forth to make “progressives” realize how *regressive* and homophobic gender identity ideology is. I will shout it from the rooftops until this trans mania goes away. If we can’t exclude people of one sex or the other from our dating pool, then sexual orientation ceases to exist, and we’ve basically brought back the old homophobia (“You just haven’t met the right girl yet. Here, try this one: she’s cut off her breasts, her voice sounds like that of a pubescent boy, and she’s calling her vagina a ‘front hole’! Doesn’t that sound appealing, Steve?”)
The problem is WHAT kind of effort would make progressives realize how regressive gender identity ideology is! The moment they realize someone is not in agreement with them, they dismiss that person as "transphobic" and proudly refuse to even just listen to what someone wants to say to them.
You'd think pointing out the example of the Islamic Republic of Iran, where they force trans people in order to keep them from being gay, would clarify this point, but some progressives seem really impressed with that totalitarian society these days.
And of course the other direction the homophobia is coming from is internal, in the case of very butch girls or very feminine men who don’t think they can move through life as lesbians or gay men, so they might as well just “transition” and become “straight”. Eye roll…
As Rowling stated recently, follow the $, trans part of human history (indigenous called it Third Spirited, as depicted in 1970 film Little Big Man), it's only since it became for profit industry with surgeries, lifetime hormonal prescriptions & new wardrobes & makeovers that it has been corrupted. Oh, & non-binary trying to redefine binary, or women being unable to say no to men invading their spaces & personal choice.
I think you mean "two spirit", a term coined in the 21st century by a "white" man. There are MANY indigenous peoples in the Americas, with very different cultural takes on "effeminate" males. Some developed a category and social role for such males, most of whom were homosexual. They were NEVER considered to be women and never permitted to participate in women's rituals or expected to play women's social roles EXCEPT they were expected to be available to men for sex.
It was the cultures which had the most rigid "gender" roles for male and female who created the third category for males who were deemed insufficiently masculine and so not worthy of being considered men. None of these cultures was ever confused about male v. female.
As Rowling says, "Citation?" Not challenging, curious.Third Spirited exists on Google, but Wikipedia agree Two Spirited have usurped use of the term since 1990. This is another instance of non-binary becoming exclusionary & controlling with consequent complaints of homophobia. I'm a 20th century old queen & there are reasons inclusionary 🌈 served us well for so long. Third spirited I always thought was equivalent to our use of bisexual (which some deny exists) but obviously that is too limiting & another example of human sexuality being on a spectrum. I've been trying to stop using labels since 2016 election campaign demonstrated hate can be used for profit, now where gender is concerned I also stick to male & female (NOT v.) If it's not about how we ALL got here, tmi (& hugely saddening as young people fall prey to abusive gender "support"). Closest thing I have to a faith form us UDHR & millions had to die for it to exist. Headlines seem to suggest we are coming @ risk to it happening again, glad I'm old.
Neither Third Spirited nor Two Spirit is the indigenous term, of course. They seem to be slightly different concepts: Two Spirit suggests an individual who has both a female spirit and a male spirit. Third Spirited suggests that in addition to people with a male spirit and others with a female spirit, there is a third type of spirit embodied in some individuals. I was actually not aware of the term Third Spirited, so thanks for the heads up on it.
I am a liberal whose views on this issue have changed substantially in the past five years. I believed the stories about kids knowing who they are, about the science supporting this. Then I saw how easily confused my then 4 year old was when a nonbinary preschool teacher gave gender identity lessons. She didn't care at all that the male teacher wore dresses and painted their nails. But she struggled with the idea that she, herself, needed to choose a gender identity that she was told would impact every aspect of her future happiness. Then I met trans kids. Lots of them. At least 3 classmates of my kids in a small district. 10 more who are children of friends. Some were like Jazz, transitioned at 3 or 4, seemingly happy but with clouds looming and anxious parents. Others came out in middle grades after family trauma. Others shifted back and forth or seemed to adopt the identity for social reasons. And I realized, this is way more complex than I thought. Data is badly needed. And I don't think kids can make these kinds of decisions at these ages. And then I thought about history and how we lived all these years as a species without medical transition and it didn't lead to mass suicide. And I thought about psychic epidemics and the way bad ideas spread. And my views changed. I will NEVER support the anti-LGBTQ views of some members of the republican party. But I can and do talk to both them and fellow liberals about finding common ground here, grounded in reality and data.
Many Republicans are not anti-LGB! We need to stop the conflation of LGB with TQ+, which is promoted by those who support gender identity. The "alphabet" "community" is a very successful PR forceteaming stunt. Even some LGB people have fallen for it.
T is a hoax. Same sex attraction is not. Read the text of the complaint of Isabelle M Ayala in her malpractice lawsuit against Dr. Forcier, Dr. Rafferty et al. Conspiracy at the AAP to protect themselves from exactly these malpractice suits.
https://www.cmppllc.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/1303610/2023/12/202310231612AyalaOriginalComplaint.pdf
You said it perfect-"T" is a hoax. I believe trans is another name for being gay and children who are gay are confused because our cultlure encourages this hoax. Liberal parents and the school system (see drag queen story hour) thinking this is just so freeing. Not true! This is a horrible and tragic time in our society that this "hoax" is perpetrated on young children pushed by adults with their own agendas. You can be gay, you can dress up like the opposite sex but you cannot change your gender. It is science.-full stop.
Here's a better approach, which succeeded, for a confused teen boy.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tz0Zy-J5OYc&t=13s
Many of the MDs pushing this who are gay men have fallen for it.
It's not about them but they think it is.
Because unfortunately it has become lucrative for-profit indu$try, like fertility clinics, opposite side of same coin & no I am NOT comparing them, even though both change lives if successful.
I was ignorant of this issue until Rowling asked not to be identified as person who menstruates & have become HUGE fan since, killingly funny also. Her views totally jive with my life experience & those of other survivors & detransitioners who are sterile, mutilated & literally unfeeling for the rest of their days (I was just brutalized until puberty affected its natural transition) - children cannot drive, drink, vote or be drafted but they are given autonomy on this? As many have pointed out it is conversion therapy under a different name, just as gender-critical is actually gender accepting. Again, as Rowling states, Orwellian (recent headline called her his heir). #terfisaslur & cis ideology, UDHR🌈♥
Everything you said is correct and important to consider.
First, young kids who naturally are more feminine boys or more masculine girls are NOT the opposite sex, not "trans," not anything other than children who gravitate toward the feminine or the masculine. If we as a society accept their natural leanings (rather than chastising them and telling them these things are for girls/boys), I highly doubt that any of them will feel the burning need to medically alter their appearance to that of the opposite sex and lie about their sex in order to have any semblance of happiness. Rather, the majority of them will end up gay, lesbian or bisexual, and others will not, but all of them will simply be themselves - in their healthy bodies. It is cruel to lie to young children, telling them they are or can be the opposite sex. Accepting them as they are means accepting that they are the sex they are and have the natural leanings that they have.
Second, for the older kids, teens, and young adults (some of whom are also non-conforming to stereotypes and/or gay, lesbian, bisexual, and/or autistic, borderline, anxious. suffered trauma, etc.) who "realize" they "really" are the opposite sex, often after internet binging or spending time with other people who have similar false epiphanies, we simply need to let them know that almost everyone, to varying degrees, will go through a time of feeling discomfort with their sexed body. This does not mean they are "really" the opposite sex. There is no such thing as being born in a body that must be chemically and/or surgically altered to appear as the opposite sex in order to have any semblance of happiness, and nobody needs the world to lie about their sex to have any semblance of happiness. That is a basic fact that we cannot shy away from. We also need to accept the natural leanings of these older children, teens and young adults, allowing them to dress and express themselves in ways they feel comfortable with (but adhering to the same requirements the rest of us must contend with, such as having to dress a little nicer at a wedding - could be a nice pants suit or a dress - not wearing a bathing suit to school, etc.).
Third, as to mentally healthy adults, hopefully age 25 and up, who have lived in their healthy bodies without deception for a number of years, if they should decide to chemically and/or surgically alter their bodies to appear as the opposite sex, that is a choice they can make and we should not shame them for it or make it illegal. However, it is a very drastic set of choices, and must be taken seriously by the medical community, who must make sure the person deciding to do this is mentally competent and is not ill informed. For instance, the person must be told this is not medically necessary, despite prior statements to that effect by the medical community. The person must be told these are purely cosmetic procedures, and that there is absolutely no medical basis for a claim that they will make the person happier or more at peace with their existence. If the person believes these procedures will make them actually the opposite sex, that person should not be given such treatments. These procedures must also be paid for out of pocket, as is the case for any other cosmetic procedures.
Most importantly as a response to your question, you still have a very important role, as the world has been lied to and needs to continue to hear the truth. Many people will not trust anything done by Trump, the Republican Party or the Supreme Court, so the changes in laws will not change hearts and minds. You and other reasonable journalists, psychologists, doctors, philosophers, politicians, etc. must continue to speak out and inform the world of the truth - please!
Further to your point about adults aged 25 who want to disguise their sex: they should be told that doing so *in no way* entitles them to behave as if they actually *are* the opposite sex, and they must understand that they cannot infringe on other people’s human rights where sex is concerned. They should be told, “You might not pass, and if you don’t, you maybe shouldn’t try to use facilities intended for the sex you wish you were,” “Lesbians don’t want to date male people, even males who think they’re female and have attempted to disguise their sex,” and vice versa.
And MDs should tell them that no one has measured the long term regret or detransition rate but that attempts to measure long term benefit or hormones and surgery haven't found anything.
And I'd say that the MDs should also find out what has happened to all the adults they've treated and enter the new ones in a data base. Why after thousands being medically and surgically transitioned can they still sat it's too early to say?
1 reason Graham Linehan, in trying to protect his daughter, has been canceled is he names names, of @ risk youth who have died & individuals pushing agendas, many are calling for criminal charges based on "gender affirming" abuse & harm.
So smart and well-considered. Thank you.
So well-said! I agree with most, though in your third point, I've been starting to see that even medically and surgically transitioning an adult (25 and up, as you said) is probably only a choice by those who have unaddressed mental health issues, probably very deep in some cases. I also think a doctor or surgeon who's willing to perform these treatments and procedures has their own serious ethical issues. Not that it should be made illegal, I'm not really for that, but being willing to have drastic, unnecessary, sexed-body altering measures done on your natural body or to be willing to perform these on another person -- well, why did it become legal in the first place...? A difficult issue for sure, though, and your way of looking at it is still practical, socially responsible, and basically very ethical.
It should be considered on the same level as lobotomies, frankly.
"I'd rather have a bottle in front of me than a frontal lobotomy."
I agree with you entirely.
“If we really want reform, if we really want a nation to heal, we have to depolarize. So we still need liberals to come around.” Agree with this completely. I am glad to see a few chinks in the armor, and one thing we can do is to reach out and thank those Democrats who have at least opened the door to discussion. Most recently, that includes Tom Suozzi and Seth Moulton. If anyone here wishes to join in on that, Suozzi’s ## is (202)225-3335 and Moulton’s is (202)225-8020. (If you are in-district, you can also email them.)
Yes! Please, everyone, take a very few minutes to call each of these numbers. You will of course get a recording telling you to leave a message, and your message can be very short, simply thanking them for coming out publicly against boys and men (males!) in female sports.
Thanks for noting this! Just a thank you for speaking out can work. The point is to drive up the number of calls.
Done! And I never do stuff like this generally. I’m like a long-time listener, first-time caller.
Thanks!
Yes, thank you for that info! I was going to look them up, now I don't have to. Will tell them how appreciated they are by many of us "blue" voters.
Thank you for your continued and sane work on this Lisa, I appreciate you. I hope you will take a listen to Sam Harris's latest podcast, really good on most fronts from my perspective and he digs into this issue. There's one piece I believe he could use some help understanding--the small children who think they are the opposite sex. Which you and all of us are concerned about too, but he implies that this phenomenon persists, when from my understanding the studies show that in most cases it does not when kids hit puberty. With those who continue to have this issue into adulthood (which of course we have no way of knowing which ones they will be), we need much more understanding, not sterilization and destruction of sexual function. If you know him or can reach him, you may want to share some info there. Here is the link: https://www.samharris.org/podcasts/making-sense-episodes/391-the-reckoning
Indeed,and even in the studies,the ones who persisted insisting they were the opposite sex, rather than just being nonconforming, I believe many had comorbidities that nowadays get helped with therapy rather than drugs.
It’s so sad. Those who have been told that transing children is the civil rights struggle of our era will hold on to that more tightly in the face of Trump.
Although there might be a strong reaction (black market hormones, etc) to bans (state or federal), I see a silver lining.
Just removing this treatment from insurance coverage will reduce the number of young people suffer iatrogenic harm. Allowing injured patients to sue will reduce the number of providers. And removing gender curriculum from schools will reduce (but not end) social contagion.
There will always be true believers, and they will fight, but reducing the possibility of medicalization would still be a huge win.
So practical, so clear sighted, so reality based. Thanks for this great comment.
THIS.
A foundation policy tenet is that you get what you incentivize.
This is a fantastic analysis of our current situation. At the risk of approaching the issue from an overly theoretical perspective, I'd like to suggest that the North Star be the eradication of gender itself. Sex is real, of course, but gender is just an idea that's inescapably built upon stereotypes. 'Old School' feminists (I can never remember which wave did what) were aiming at this Star, first by uncoupling social roles/tasks from sex, which were gender constructs, and in so doing, eliminated a major part of the gender universe. What remains is an gendered 'aesthetic,' the belief that there are particular ways for males and females to appear, to act, and to be treated by the world. This is the problem.
Now it may be that there's an evolutionary base for these categories, I don't know, but if there is, we can see it for what it is and work around it as much as possible. But the desire to appear, act, and be treated as the stereotype that is opposite to, or different than, your biological sex is, in part, an attempt to do to gender aesthetics what was done to gendered social roles/tasks. One of the basic mistakes trans ideology makes is that instead of treating non-conformity to gender stereotypes as an opportunity to do away with gender aesthetics, it elevates those aesthetics to a holy status (reification) and forces people to situate themselves in that esoteric framework.
I wonder if our North Star should be undermining that framework as much as possible, and not merely making it more acceptable for individuals to play with their position within that framework. We can, however, see the latter as a step toward the former.
Many contemporary (and past) radical feminists consider themselves to be "gender abolitionists", seeking the eradication of "gender"= prescribed roles and behavior for individuals, according to their sex. "Free to Be You and Me" was a feminist song for children during the 70s, the height of so-called second wave feminism. There have always been feminists in all "waves" who have taken this position. The idea of designating "waves" creates more problems than it resolves since at any given time there have always been widely divergent views on a range of issues among women who consider themselves to be feminists. Link to song Free to Be You and Me: https://www.google.com/search?gs_ssp=eJzj4tLP1TcwTMsyMMo2YPQSTStKTVUoyVdISlWozC9VSMxLUchNBQC11Aq8&q=free+to+be+you+and+me&oq=free+to+be+you+and&gs_lcrp=EgZjaHJvbWUqCggBEC4Y1AIYgAQyCggAEAAY4wIYgAQyCggBEC4Y1AIYgAQyCggCEC4Y1AIYgAQyBwgDEAAYgAQyBggEEEUYOTIHCAUQLhiABDIHCAYQABiABDIHCAcQLhiABDIHCAgQABiABDIHCAkQABiABNIBCTkwMTVqMGoxNagCCbACAQ&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8
Good comment! Scary long link though... what is it to? Not that I don't trust commenters here, but a heads up would be nice.
It’s basically a Google search result page for “Free to Be You and Me”.
"...that kids like Jazz Jennings really are “born that way.” ... I mean that some kids emerge as extremely gender nonconforming, performing the gender role associated with the opposite sex."
Jazz Jennings was NOT "extremely gender nonconforming" when, as a young child (preschool), he wanted to play dressup by wearing dresses and was told by his parents that "only girls" could wear dresses in public. It was then that his parents apparently decided to suggest to him that he WAS REALLY a girl born in the wrong body, and could/should publicly present as was expected of girls, if he wanted to behave as they said only girls behave: play, dress, imagine his future.
We speculate that Jazz was would have grown up to be an effeminate gay man, and Jazz himself has recounted as a teenager dreaming that he was, but some "effeminate" boys grow up to be heterosexual or bisexual men, and even those who turn out to be homosexual once puberty onsets do not usually cultivate "effeminacy".
Jazz's parents are responsible for how Jazz is now and for what they did to Jazz, not least of which was cashing in on him by making him the subject of a reality TV show. He never had a chance to become the man he otherwise would have become. He never will have that chance, with his mutilated anatomy and ravaged endocrine system, and an apparent complete lack of sexual feelings due to the puberty blockers he was given.
My "like" button is broken but I agree 100%.
Trans lived as trans without surgery, chemicals or $ for generations, Quentin Crisp didn't need a label (though I've become huge fan of the word queer in its traditional non-sexual British meaning).
And no one was trying to get minors to declare their "gender" or to say they were not the sex that they were or alter their bodies.
I’m a liberal former Democrat and what I’ve seen from friends and talking to other parents is that the red pill came when states tried to ram policy through the schools that they can socially trans a child behind the backs of parents. Someone I was acquainted with on FB wrote about how angry she was that it was struck down in her school system (in NJ) and I wrote, “How would you feel if the school withheld important information from you?”
Well, the attacks were incredible. Everything from if you don’t believe your child you deserve to lose custody to you are a bigot to parental rights are nothing more than a homophobic/transphobic cover.
I also believe the Republican Party is changing. I have gay and minority friends who are staunch Republicans. Trump just appointed a married gay man to his cabinet. Are there still conservatives who are bigots? Yes, but are those women who attacked me on FB bigots? I would say yes. People who are hard core democrats tell me that republicans are a bunch of holy rollers who hate everyone. Considering the shift to the right from working class and most minority communities, statements like those seem rooted in the 1980s religious right and not reflective of how both of these parties have massively shifted.
I understand what you're saying, but why Trump? He and a lot of his associates, they scare me as much as the crazy Democratic ones, like Biden, Richard (Rachel) Levine and others. Somehow I think the two party system has to go -- it's kind of narrow and meaningless to so many voters, but what to replace it with... maybe coalition governing or a parliamentary system like the UK, at least w/o the imperial presidency that the US has. Too much power and influence in the hands of one man (and yes, man, since I think the US has an unaddressed aversion for the idea of a woman as president).
I really believe it was less about Trump and more about voting against the current administration.
If you look at the voting map of NYC, the red areas are primarily where crime is rampant and migrant shelters were placed. I’ve spoken to women who live in a Queens neighborhood and they told me the neighborhood now has rampant prostitution trafficked from South America and they do not feel safe coming home after work late at night in the subway anymore. This is just a small example but if this were your day to day experience and a vote for Harris means four more years of your neighborhood getting worse, what would you do? I’ve spoken to other people in Queens and Staten Island with the same experience.
But according to people I know on FB, these women are misogynist and racist for voting for Trump. This from predominantly wealthy people who don’t take the subway home late at night into a neighborhood that was once good and is now failing. It’s a class divide that not enough people are acknowledging.
These are small examples of what I think has happened here, Mildred. I know a lot of people who were blue their entire lives who voted for Trump not because they’re in love with him but they voted against four more years of nonsense.
Careful what you wish for. A parliamentary system can act essentially as an elected dictatorship if the party in power has a majority. In Canada at least (don’t know about the UK) there are no checks and balances like we have in the US: the (unelected!) Senate is essentially a rubber stamp on whatever bills are passed by Parliament.
I get that, sure. But that doesn't defend the American system either. We have an imperial presidency, now and in the past, a politicized Supreme Court, and legislators who are more often than not bought and paid for by big money. What checks and balances are there on that, other than the voters, who can be ignorant and as foolish as their leaders? Sorry for sounding so cynical, I'm old and have seen and heard it all before.
Ironic that you refer to the "red" pill when the pill is being shoved down our throats in "blue" states by "blue" controlled state and local governments and "blue" controlled schools.
And people spit the blue pill out and voted red! My county in NJ flipped 21 towns to red. That has never happened.
I have never in my lifetime been more grateful to be 🇨🇦, good luck!
Nowhere near done!
It will be like abortion.
The blue states need to learn they've been had.
Along with the dem party. Di-ag is a big voice. Every incoming representative and congressperson, mayor, council member, needs to know that supporting what they call "trans kids " is the opposite of gender affirming care. That gender affirming care is bad medicine, actually, not medicine, not as practiced in this century at least!
We are so far from done.
Your writing is so important and I hope you will keep going!
Our blue states need to learn that to fight for these young people means they should get rid of gender affirming care. So do our medical societies. They appear to keep wanting to lie....we need to keep going!
"instance, for the teacher to explain that boys and girls can look and act all kinds of ways."
That would be the diversity everyone says they want, yes!
There's a lot of learning still needed....thank you for all you've done!
What you said about being the ‘liberal whisperer’ was great! Thank you for all your efforts. My feeling is that those that haven’t woken up to the problem with identity politics by now, aren’t for a reason.
Transgenderism is so obviously dysfunctional that those that double down are really just a lost cause. They are heavily embedded in the cult for various reasons and some have transed their child so they can never leave.
The trans army is so aggressive and unhinged that the only way to handle them is with strength. What is happening to children in schools is entrapment and gender affirming “care” is a child abuse scandal that is yet to be totally revealed.
There is no such thing as a transkid and that is where we need to keep our focus. It is our duty to safeguard children that cannot consent.
‘Love the skin you are in’ and ‘free to be you and me’ were worked out in the 1970’s, so this transing of children permissiveness has been a tragic scam. We need strength to combat this mess and set the course straight.
The new Democrats are now just activists that can’t be trusted in leadership management positions. They have taken the terms ‘excessively sympathetic’ (bleeding heart), and ‘intense uncritical devotion’ (fanatical) to a ridiculous level and it’s ruining children's and families lives.
For the sake of children, we cannot wait for ‘depolarization’ or for the ‘liberals to come around’. Maybe your new North Star could be about safeguarding children and continue to not normalize the word or theory of transgender.
Social media has been the megatrans superhighway marketing tool for all things woke, and is filling the void of an increasingly rudderless society. These young people want to be led by grownups that set boundaries, not progressives that want to have lots of circular conversations. Kids are raising each other online now like Lord of the Trans Flies. Something else needs to fill the void that transactivists are currently filling.
I would say, continue not being afraid to set some standards and have strong convictions. Those that are repelled may not be very helpful to the cause in the long run anyway, and those that are open will still show up due to the fact that your ‘brand’ is on the right side of history and genuine.
It is admirable to be looking out for an entire vulnerable generation of young people. It is okay to say NO and even goodbye to the machine that is better at spearheading activism than it is at running a country and crucial institutions.
My fear is what the radical activists will be doing underground and behind the scenes. Push back seems to embolden their resistance. They are scary and unsafe and that's what we need to understand.
Agree with every word here, Shelly. Thank you.
"... no matter what, no matter who’s in power, we have to make cultural room for gender nonconforming kids."
A true North Star. Thanks again, Lisa.
Poor Jazz Jenning had a homophobic dad and a mom who kept peace in the familty by "transing away the gay". Your flat-out assertion that "kids like Jazz Jennings really are “born that way"" is truly shocking. There is no evidence for this at all.
Kids mess around with gender norms (which differ from society to society). There is zero evidence that this results from some sort of specific congenital condition.
IMO, we should all be totally fine with messing around with gender norms (whatever they happen to be at that time and place), but should hold firm to two specific principles:
1) NO medicalization: no puberty blockers, no cross-sex hormones, no surgeries before the legal age of consent.
2) NO violation of single-sex spaces, no matter how good your medicalized cosplay is at fooling people into believing that you are something that you are not.
DIAG (di-ag.org) is standing with you, Lisa. Liberal whisperers, unite! :)
To whom you are attracted sexually is purely subjective and therefore cannot reasonably be contested by an outside observer.
Where you decide to live your life on a spectrum of superficial, stereotypical male to female attributes (and we all do) is also purely subjective and similarly cannot be questioned.
However, your biological sex reflects an objective reality which cannot be changed by your subjective personal view and futile attempts to do so can result in serious health impacts to you as well as harms to members of the sex you are impersonating (primarily women).
Others who are grounded in objective reality should never be forced to accept your subjective version of your actual biological sex.
Finally, it's past time for the LGB community to separate themselves from the trans activists who are trying to take away the rights of women to fairness in sports and to privacy and safety in their restrooms, locker rooms and prisons. They also advocate for the chemical and surgical mutilation of children many of whom would grow up gay.
Their actions are evil and the
understandable negative reaction to the harm they are causing is spilling over to innocent people who are just going about their business, marrying and leading their lives.
Don't hold your breath waiting for polarization to go away. The election result will make it worse, not better! So brace yourself for a black market that sells chest binders, tucking garments, hormones and other instruments of pediatric gender transition. Hopefully there'll be more legal resources available for detransitioners and more institutional support for them, but right now we just don't know. In the short run, it's important to push back against misogyny (which, I'm sorry, WAS a factor in Kamala Harris's defeat), rekindled homophobia and rampant body shame among young people (especially girls). And, we reality-based liberals who feel increasingly uncomfortable among genuinely transphobic (and misogynistic) conservatives will have to carve out a political space for ourselves.
The homophobia is coming from the "progressive" Left, which is telling lesbians and gay men that we are "transphobic" if we do not accept male "lesbians" and female "gay men" into our dating pools and our social organizations. Denial of sex and insistence on gender identity is denial that sexual orientation is based on sex, not gender identity. Homosexuality is NOT homogenderality!
I really think there’s not been nearly enough effort put forth to make “progressives” realize how *regressive* and homophobic gender identity ideology is. I will shout it from the rooftops until this trans mania goes away. If we can’t exclude people of one sex or the other from our dating pool, then sexual orientation ceases to exist, and we’ve basically brought back the old homophobia (“You just haven’t met the right girl yet. Here, try this one: she’s cut off her breasts, her voice sounds like that of a pubescent boy, and she’s calling her vagina a ‘front hole’! Doesn’t that sound appealing, Steve?”)
The problem is WHAT kind of effort would make progressives realize how regressive gender identity ideology is! The moment they realize someone is not in agreement with them, they dismiss that person as "transphobic" and proudly refuse to even just listen to what someone wants to say to them.
You'd think pointing out the example of the Islamic Republic of Iran, where they force trans people in order to keep them from being gay, would clarify this point, but some progressives seem really impressed with that totalitarian society these days.
And of course the other direction the homophobia is coming from is internal, in the case of very butch girls or very feminine men who don’t think they can move through life as lesbians or gay men, so they might as well just “transition” and become “straight”. Eye roll…
As Rowling stated recently, follow the $, trans part of human history (indigenous called it Third Spirited, as depicted in 1970 film Little Big Man), it's only since it became for profit industry with surgeries, lifetime hormonal prescriptions & new wardrobes & makeovers that it has been corrupted. Oh, & non-binary trying to redefine binary, or women being unable to say no to men invading their spaces & personal choice.
I think you mean "two spirit", a term coined in the 21st century by a "white" man. There are MANY indigenous peoples in the Americas, with very different cultural takes on "effeminate" males. Some developed a category and social role for such males, most of whom were homosexual. They were NEVER considered to be women and never permitted to participate in women's rituals or expected to play women's social roles EXCEPT they were expected to be available to men for sex.
It was the cultures which had the most rigid "gender" roles for male and female who created the third category for males who were deemed insufficiently masculine and so not worthy of being considered men. None of these cultures was ever confused about male v. female.
As Rowling says, "Citation?" Not challenging, curious.Third Spirited exists on Google, but Wikipedia agree Two Spirited have usurped use of the term since 1990. This is another instance of non-binary becoming exclusionary & controlling with consequent complaints of homophobia. I'm a 20th century old queen & there are reasons inclusionary 🌈 served us well for so long. Third spirited I always thought was equivalent to our use of bisexual (which some deny exists) but obviously that is too limiting & another example of human sexuality being on a spectrum. I've been trying to stop using labels since 2016 election campaign demonstrated hate can be used for profit, now where gender is concerned I also stick to male & female (NOT v.) If it's not about how we ALL got here, tmi (& hugely saddening as young people fall prey to abusive gender "support"). Closest thing I have to a faith form us UDHR & millions had to die for it to exist. Headlines seem to suggest we are coming @ risk to it happening again, glad I'm old.
Neither Third Spirited nor Two Spirit is the indigenous term, of course. They seem to be slightly different concepts: Two Spirit suggests an individual who has both a female spirit and a male spirit. Third Spirited suggests that in addition to people with a male spirit and others with a female spirit, there is a third type of spirit embodied in some individuals. I was actually not aware of the term Third Spirited, so thanks for the heads up on it.