Disclaimer: This post and its accompanying video may not be appropriate for younger audiences.
Before I dive into transgenderism and its effects on children, it’s important for me to say that I believe there are individuals who experience or have experienced gender dysphoria. Some of those people have transitioned to the other gender as adults and are glad that they did. I believe that the choice of consenting adults to transition should be respected even by people who do not personally support the idea of gender transitioning.
The problem I want to address here does not concern these trans-people, but rather the ways in which some have high-jacked transgenderism for political and social purposes. In doing so, these particular trans-activists (known to some as “groomers”) push kids into treatments and physical transformations that are often irreversible, psychologically damaging, limit or eliminate future sexual function/ pleasure, and cause future infertility.
Minors who cannot consent to anything else without parental permission are told that they have the right to transform themselves in radical ways, and anyone who questions this a bigot. And kids are being bombarded with this sexualized, political messaging in schools and by formerly family friendly media giants like Disney and Nickelodean.
Childhood Cognitive Development and Gender
Many critics of trans-activism point out that targeting and transitioning young children is unethical, especially when it’s done without parental notification, let alone parental consent. But I think it’s worth considering why trans-activists push their agenda on pre-schoolers and kindergarteners. My suspicion is that it’s easier to shape a child’s conception of their own gender at this age because during this stage of development, children are just beginning to understand what gender means.
As anyone who has been around young children knows, children have some trouble grasping what gender is until they are in kindergarten. While two- and three-year-olds are able to assign gendered pronouns to boys and girls, it’s not until a child is six or seven that they understand “gender permanency.”
In other words, a four or five-year-old thinks that if a person conforms to a gender stereotype, that person must be a member of that gender. So, if mommy wears dresses and is a girl, anyone else who wears a dress must also be a girl.
It is my humble opinion that trans-activists know that it’s easier to convince young children that they have gender dysphoria, or that it’s easier to at least plant the seeds of gender confusion during this stage of childhood development. I believe that this explains much of the backlash against Florida’s recent law banning sexual instruction for kindergartners through third graders.
If a mature person (i.e., a consenting adult) decides that they are biologically the wrong gender, that’s their business. However, highly impressionable children who barely understand gender, let alone sexuality, should not be exposed to transgenderism because they don’t have the capacity to make independent, informed decisions about any of this. And that’s what trans-activists count on.
Gender: Social Construction vs. Biological Reality
The funny thing is that the people who tell us our gender is not tied to our biology but is a social construct also say that social constructions are a means of control, such as the gender roles that serve the hegemonic patriarchy. Ironically, the very people who rail against the oppressive nature of gender stereotypes use those same stereotypes to justify changing children’s biology. So much for being born that way.
So, if a girl likes to play with trucks, run around outside, climb trees, and wants to go fishing, she is exhibiting boy-like behavior. Likewise, if a boy wants to play with dolls, bake with his mom, and enjoys arts and crafts, he’s acting like a girl. Some children who behave in ways more consistent with the opposite gender are told that they must not be their biological gender.
In this way, trans-activists believe that the social construction of gender, which evolves over time and varies from culture to culture, is superior to the static, engrained, scientifically testable biological markers of gender. And the latter must be changed in service of the former.
This discounts the possibility that attaching gendered labels to things like fishing or baking isn’t useful. It also assumes that one’s behavior, interests, and inclinations are determined by one’s identity, which undermines the argument that girls and women should be encouraged into traditionally male fields like STEM.
If women didn’t have the inclination to enter STEM fields before, that must mean those fields run counter to female nature. And if a girl likes science more than the boys in her class, well, she’s acting male and should become a boy. I believe all of that is nonsense, but that’s the rational conclusion to these positions championed by today’s radical trans-activists.
This leads to another problem. In a world run by trans-activists, we can no longer say what it is to be a woman. Women aren’t the only ones who can have periods or get pregnant because transmen (born as female, transitioned to male) can do those things, too. And transwomen cannot. We cannot exclude trans swimmer Lia Thomas from women’s sports or from the women’s locker room even though Thomas still has male genitalia and is attracted to women. Mother’s Day is now Birthing Person’s Day. And let’s not forget that men can “chest feed” their children, too.
According to Biden’s Supreme Court pick Kentaji Jackson Brown, only biologists can define what a woman is. But when gender isn’t based on biology but rather how a person decided to identify, those biologists better keep their mouths shut. Those bigots are just using white man’s science to exclude those who are oppressed.
To be clear, consenting adults who transition to the other gender should be respected and treated the way they present themselves to the world. That being said, we should not pretend than a trans person is biologically identical to men and women who have not transitioned. Nor should we demean the over 99% of population who are “non-trans” in the name of inclusion because doing so excludes everyone else.
Following Ideology Over Science
In an era in which science is proclaimed to be the one true god, trans-activism ideology is one of the only positions of faith that can defy the deity of science. Ironically, gender transitions still require scientific expertise, so some science is permitted.
By now anyone with any sense knows that the line “follow the science” is just a way for some to invalidate any legitimate criticism of their policies and positions. The problem is that the ways in which gender dysphoria, or a person’s belief that their true gender does not match their physical manifestation of gender, is treated and diagnosed is anything but scientific.
In most clinical settings, a patient seeks counseling or treatment from a professional, and the latter is responsible for providing the diagnosis, treatment plan, alternatives, and prognosis. This is not the case for those who claim they are suffering from gender dysphoria. Therapists are now obligated to confirm their patient’s feelings of gender dysphoria instead of diagnosing their patient with that condition after a patient undergoes sufficient analysis.
While I don’t doubt that there are legitimate cases of gender dysphoria, that is something for a qualified, competent professional to determine, not the patient. Many of these patients are told they have gender dysphoria by groomers at school, online, or through other media outlets. Needless to say, these sources know little to nothing about the child they are “diagnosing,” nor are they qualified to do so in the first place.
Another problem with this approach is that when experts are compelled to accept a patient’s self-diagnosis, alternative explanations to a patient’s distress are not explored. For instance, some diagnosed with gender dysphoria at a tender age later realized that they were gay, not transgendered. Unfortunately, some people didn’t figure this out until they underwent extensive, unnecessary gender reassignment treatments.
There are also social factors that may induce a false sense of gender dysphoria for some. Dr. Jordan Peterson’s discussion with Abigail Shrier unpacks some of these, as well as the larger concerns surrounding transitioning minors:
Since we live in the age of Obamacare, the government will undoubtedly stick its ideological nose in our private medical business. And that’s just what Biden’s Department of Justice has done in this case. So, while Arkansas became the first state to ban transgender and puberty blocking treatments for minors, the Biden Administration threw its support behind gender altering surgeries and puberty blockers for minors while ignoring the potential harm of these treatments.
Parting Thoughts
It’s vitally important that we balance the innocence of children with respect for those who choose to transition as adults. Let kids be kids without the burdens more suited for adults.
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