I very much appreciate the substance of the piece, and understand you were writing for a certain audience, but I have to mirror some of the other comments and say that I REALLY hate for this to be framed as a "conservative" issue. It is not. 90% of people agree with you. It should have nothing whatsoever to do with right versus left or democrat versus republican. It is science and common sense versus fantasy.
My fear is that there are MANY liberals and democrats who hate this stuff, but they also do NOT want to be associated in any manner with conservatives or Republicans. They are already terrified to speak up -- if this gets painted as an issue solely for right-wing religious fundamentalist crazies, they will become even more cowed. I appreciate you teaching conservatives how to tell themselves come off as common sense rather than like right-wing religious fundamentalist crazies, but we need this issue to simply be framed as NOT at all about right versus left and rather as something that unites all practical people. This country is far too polarized to allow one party to capture the issue, and the more people think of it as a conservative position, the more it will send liberals who are truly concerned about medical exploitation and trans madness into hiding.
I agree with the call to action here and also agree, as a life long of-the-left liberal who is now politically homeless, that the audience for those who agree with protecting kids from a harmful ideology crosses the political divide.
There are many of us .. but our position is so nuanced that any attempt at an alliance will fall apart, even amongst ourselves .. Bill Maher comes closest to encapsulating a movement of citizens who are able to hold two different thoughts at once .. the problem comes in articulating it at large. (In our current "system" if one can be passionately against abortion (eg against subsidizing with taxes or scrubbing the culture of judgement) AND equally passionate against the idea of anyone but the Mother herself being in control of the actual decision to have one -- then neither the Pro-Life or Pro-Choice side knows how to even describe you, much less welcome you, EVEN THOUGH that might actually be the silent majority opinion. And that is an example of an issue thoroughly and freely discussed for 50 years, and in an era where free expression and battle of ideas was respected. Today I immediately see every debate quickly degenerating into one that conflates ends with means. One can be against child abuse and also against installing the government monitoring cameras in homes to stamp it out.
Thanks for saying this. I'm on the left (not the weird American 'leftish' though) and my heart sank when Abigail made this a call to arms for the right.
Excellent point and I agree. Sadly though, this is how it's being framed in the media. Abigail could rewrite the piece without referring to political parties specifically.
“My fear is that there are MANY liberals and democrats who hate this stuff, but they also do NOT want to be associated in any manner with conservatives or Republicans.”
Fear? That’s part of the strategy: Demonize conservatives and Republicans as racist, misogynist, homophobic, transphobic Nazis ... then label anyone who doesn’t agree with your far left ideology as a conservative or Republican rather than discuss the issue. Label the enemy rather than debate an enemy you can’t defeat. It’s a great way to get moderate Democrats and independents to self censor and toe the line.
As a lifelong liberal, I have left the Democratic party over this madness. As an independent, the Dems can no longer count on my vote. I support truly gender dysphoric children and trans people but dragging kids into the mix has gone too far. The media is complicit.
This left v. right broken record is purposeful misdirection. Pitting us against each other, creating a divide and conquer strategy has worked out very well for what I now see as the corporate uniparty that it is. If you truly want to align with truth, become a real American. tasa dot americanstatenationals dot org ... Not sure if allowed to place an actual link so this seems to be the way to do it while being respectful. America is a (constitutional) republic, not the mob rule democracy we see or the Marxist style road we are headed down currently. What is great - being an actual American slashes this left v. right division we see today. DYOR, you will thank yourself for it.
At some point, principled liberals will realize that they can no longer associate with the people pushing this madness. Then they will take an honest look at conservatives and Republicans and realize that they are not the monsters that the left and Democrats paint them to be.
I was the Jewish lawyer at the Christian Coalition of America. I had my disagreements with Pat Robertson, but I found that the average contributor to the CCA was a kind, caring, humane person who did not want to get involved in politics. They just wanted to look after their own community and neighborhood.
Much of the leadership of the GOP is problematic. There are still a lot of country-club Republicans who share more values with Democrats than they do with the conservatives in their own party. Read Angela Codevilla's book about the ruling party in America. The Democrats are the "senior partner" in the ruling party; the Republicans are the "junior partner." The GOP leaders want all the prestige and perks that the Dems have. The rest of us? We are the country party.
Exactly. This is an important point that is overlooked when conservatives assert that ultra-capitalists like Biden & the so-called 'Squad' are socialists.
At this point, weirdly, ordinary apolitical people and classic Marxists have more in common than they share with the Democrats. You won't see many commentators acknowledging this though.
I pretty much ignore any opinion piece or commentary that uses the words "communism,", "socialism," or "fascism." Most people using them have no idea what these ideologies really are and how they apply to present day circumstances.
What we are facing are different forms of authoritarianism. We have an educated elite that is trying to stay in front of their voters. This is getting hard because of the demands made by various, loud, active activists. Look at the Hidden Tribes report; it breaks the US voting population into 7 different groups. One of those groups, Progressive Activists, make up only 8% of the population. Yet they dominate much of the academic, NGO, and media world.
I agree. The vast majority of the US population does not support the radical woke agenda.
I'm a physician and it is shocking to me, how quickly, medical organizations went from being overwhelmingly rational, evidence-based and conservative, to quickly (in the past few years) becoming controlled by the Progressive Activists.
Why is this small group of Progressive Activists controlling the media, NGO and academic world, and what can the 92% of the rest of us do?
It's interesting that this is seen where you are as a 'far left' ideology when it isn't seen that way in Europe. Here it's seen as a departure from the left. Hence my branding it as 'leftish'. The actual far left sees the various strands of social justice theory as a way of dividing the workers etc.
I'll be writing about how essentially capitalist it is, in due course.
It isn’t capitalist, it is totalitarian. It isn’t capitalist to have free trade with totalitarian communist China. It isn’t capitalist to infect corporate HR offices with DIE (diversity, inclusiveness, equity) tripe. Totalitarian elites are working toward The Great Reset and one world government. The only thing standing in their war is America. Here, the far left are the useful idiots of totalitarian elites. They push an agenda where no opposition is allowed. They don’t debate and they don’t negotiate. You are either with them or the enemy. They demonize their opposition rather than debate them. You moderate Democrats and independents are the useful idiots of the far left. Most times, you are in the majority, but afraid of being labelled a fill-in-the-blank ___ist or ____phobe. As the far left continues successfully pushing the country far left, there is no room for freedom or independent thought. There will come a time when all the protections of the Constitution will be gone and the totalitarian elite, their media, their DNC, and all their useful idiots will make elections meaningless. We will go from a two party system to a one party system. Then, like voters in Venezuela, you will realize what you have done, but it will be too late. Search “Yuri Bezmenov” in YouTube. He was an ex-KGB agent and defector. We outlasted the Soviets, but the damage they did is now bearing fruit for globalists that wish to enslave us. From healthcare, to what we are allowed to eat, to where and in what we live, it will be dictated to us. As Klaus Schwab of the World Economic Forum said, “You will own nothing, and you will be happy.”
I think he meant that the promotion of trans identities, specifically, is capitalist. Ten years ago there was one youth gender clinic in the US, now there are about 1,000. And it's essentially just extreme plastic surgery and body modification, but medicalized into a treatment for a diagnosis, so that unlike all other forms of plastic surgery, insurance will sometimes pay for it.
Corporations "embrace" it, not because they believe it, but because it's a cheap way for the business to appease their young woke,, brainwashed employees.
The ideology comes first creating the demand for these clinics. Then these clinics advocate for policies that keep customers coming in their doors. One drives the other. And ... once the government steps in, everyone is eventually compelled to comply.
‘It became possible to conceptualise “gender identity” as dislocated from biological sex when new medical technologies for the first time made it possible for doctors to change the bodies of those born with indeterminate genitals and to assign them to a sex.’ In this way, he argues, ‘the availability of the treatment appears to have essentially created the demand’. --Inventing Transgender Children
"It isn’t capitalist to have free trade with totalitarian communist China."
100% Agree with this statement. Free Trade is impossible with China. The entire world follows the free trade rules set by WTO and China does not.
China lies, cheats, steals intellectual property ALWAYS, and Xi Jinping has explicitly instructed all Chinese factory owners to steal Intellectual property from foreign firms to help China. In fact, if the Chinese factory owner does not hand over foreign firms' trade secrets to the CCP, the CCP hounds them until they do. It's not even an option. If you have your factory in China, you have a 100% guarantee that you will have theft of your Intellectual property.
Let's not forget that anyone who cares about Climate Change, CANNOT buy something Made in China, because Chinese factories take toxic waste & dump it directly into the Pacific Ocean. China generates 2/3 of the world's Carbon/Coal/Fossil Fuels. They are the world's biggest polluters.
Anyone who supports Human Rights CANNOT buy something Made in China, because they have unpaid slave labor, child labor, and forced labor.
I should mention that myself & my whole extended family has not bought one single thing made in China since March 2020. Not one single thing. Their purposeful unleashing of COVID unto the world is unforgivable.
I'm gonna put this here, since no one bothered to mention that this article was originally posted in the Washington Examiner, a politically conservative news outlet. I'm sure that Shrier knew her audience and played specifically to them in this specific context. She has rarely mentioned specific political orientations in other publications, so it seems that she uniquely tailored this article to who would hear it first.
It should go without saying that this Substack and the others like it have value beyond political affiliation. Let's focus on the issues, please... although I'd love to hear from others if more editing would be appropriate in an instance like this.
That's right. The Washington Examiner specifically commissioned a piece on "what conservatives should think about the transgender movement." So I wrote a piece on what I thought conservatives had gotten wrong and what they ought to do instead. :)
I appreciate your intentions here, but disagree that the radical trans-activist agenda is the province of "the Left" and that those opposing it are "conservatives," which you identify with by using "we" throughout this essay. There are some of us on the Left -- the real Left, genuine socialists and feminists -- who are fighting this nonsense too. The Georgia Green Party was recently disaffiliated from the Green Party of the United States for standing up for women's sex-based rights. I resigned from the Illinois Green Party in protest and others are fighting back in various ways and are in the process of building a new Green Alliance for Sex-Based Rights. There are various feminist groups that are furiously resisting this agenda as well that would hardly identify as conservative. I realize that you are writing for the Washington Examiner here but please do not tar "the" Left with the same broad brush. Genuine Leftists are materialists and recognize biological reality. The "Left" that supports the trans-activist agenda consists of liberals, neo-liberals and faux "Leftists" who are simply posturing as "radical" without grasping what is really needed to build social progress.
The piece was requested by the Washington Examiner, which specifically asked for a piece about what conservatives should think about this issue. That was the reason I framed it as I did.
Abigail, will you consider submitting this piece to the ny times or Washington Post? Mainstream media is only printing articles supporting this madness. I'm a lifelong liberal yet I'm searching conservative news outlets to find an opposing opinion. There needs to be dialogue on this without accusations of transphobia.
The NY times refused an op Ed by the president of uspath. A medical expert from UCSF. Check out the article on the New York Times at the Pitt substack.
They only publish things equating calls for caution as being similar to anti gay or anti abortion. Saying only conservatives mind. They are lying. Ask them to speak up.
Bari actually resigned her position at the NYTimes over a year ago due to hostility from the young woke cult of Times employees. Bari has her own very popular substack and Abigail has posted a couple of articles there. Here's a link to one of those articles.
I do appreciate that, but I think you can still acknowledge that not everyone on "the Left" supports the TA agenda. Just like a male doesn't become a woman by calling himself one, neo-liberals and Democrats are not "the Left" simply because they have appropriated that label.
I think the point she is trying to make is that this movement has emerged on the left and has not been condemned as harmful by the left. You can believe that you are left leaning with good intentions, but it has festered uninhibited for decades by the left to the degree it is now. That's why I left the Democratic party 10 years ago, for these exact same social agendas that I saw emerging.
The new York times will not report those on the left who disagree. They refused an op ed from Anderson, as Shrier reported in her fantastic article. Those who disagree in comments are often censored and the articles themselves are full of false insinuations. They don't respond to fact checks. They cast those who want scrutiny and caution regarding treatment of gender dysphoria as anti transgender and as republican.
They have never reported that most young people grow out of gender dysphoria or that many develop it in response to trauma, brintg on the spectrum, anxiety, etc. All they do is push lies about suicide risk, not helped by medical intervention by the way, and about care being only the drugs and surgery ASAP.
I have never heard of this person. The point is that it is not enough people on the left have spoken out against it ie academia, media, political party. The same would be true if the KKK started to gain power and support on the right. I am sure they would would attempt to attach themselves to the right. And if the right didn't condemn the actions or assisted in the growth I would feel the same way. It's the same analogy.
They condemn it. But soon the only political party that you can join to have a chance of fighting it will be the Republican Party. We will have to throw out the current leadership…which really shares the values of the Dem party leaders. Schumer, McConnell, and Pelosi deep down share the same values. They will say what they need to in order to make their party faithful stay engaged. Then they will do as little as possible. Except that now the Dems are being forced to enact the progressive agenda. The Dems are being dragged by the extremists in their own party.
Of course, many Dems truly hate the GOP. Just read about how Harry Truman described Republicans. Hell, he called Andrew Dewey and the GOP of 1948 NAZIs. And now Harry Truman is a political saint.
"Schumer, McConnell, and Pelosi deep down share the same values. They will say what they need to in order to make their party faithful stay engaged. Then they will do as little as possible.
Except that now the Dems are being forced to enact the progressive agenda. The Dems are being dragged by the extremists in their own party."
This is true. Dem & Rep leaders share the same values of taking as much $$$$ as possible from lobbyists & doing whatever lobbyists want. They don't do anything for the people.
Which is why I voted Trump. There are many things I disagreed with Trump on, but I LOVED that he actually did what he said he would do. And he didn't give a s*** about lobbyists/lobbyist agenda.
He set out to lower prescription drug prices but Big Pharma came after him. Pharma had finished the COVID vaccine in September & could have released it, but those a***holes waited until Election was called for Biden. Countless people died, could have been saved had vaccine been released in September. Pharma didn't care, they hated Trump for lowering drug prices.
What he did in the Middle East: 5 peace treaties between Israel & 5 Arab nations. No one else could do it. John Kerry told Trump "don't do it" but Trump got it done & it was Awesome.
I have four -- count them, four -- friends at work who started out as liberals and whom I've watched move farther and farther to the right, because that's where they hear messages consistent with "raising their families in a normal society with good values." It's sad the number of people the left is losing, just because people perceive that the left has lost it's way and is focusing on niche issues irrelevant to their lives.
More importantly, trans activists, like all on the far left, frame all their opponents as conservatives rather than debate their opponents. That’s how Larry Elder is a racist, Ben Shapiro is a Nazi, and Dave Rubin is a homophobe, and so on ... it’s how those who don’t believe in “consensus science” are labeled “deniers”.
I think Abigail also cast conservatives in a poor light because they're hardly the ones to support women's rights generally. It's like bathrooms are the low hanging shiny object when the conversation needs to be way more nuanced without fear of being cancelled. Doctors, therapists, professors are all saying privately this is a fad yet cannot speak publicly for fear of recrimination, or worse.
Agreed, but I would not want her to change what she wrote. This simply highlights the boxes we find ourselves in that I do not recall existing until recently. Watch an old William Buckley roundtable .. people really did not self-censor as they do now, and it was harder to know what "side" even advocates and activists were on unles they told you .. so strange we have devolved from a rich political and cultural arena with many sides down to just two dumb ones and you HAVE to choose .. you are either team TRANS or team TRUMP. (If you are anti-racist you must go in the Pro-Trans box .. if you think you are anti-racist but value free speech over anti-racism, then you must be in the TRUMP box. No other option. And you must not again mention those other values you sacrificed to remain in this box .. of course one can always choose to be homeless.
the current "anti racist" CRT BLM agenda is actually very racist. As Ibram Kendi states "the remedy for past racism is to enact current and future racism".
Which is the current agenda. They fired all the volunteers at Illinois Art Institute because they were white. They are firing people left & right across all industries because of the color of their skin. They are psychologically damaging and traumatizing our children in schools, telling them that they are evil because they have light skin.
I have decided I'm an Independent because that's where nuance resides. This, after a lifetime of being a progressive democrat. That party can no longer count on my vote.
We've all left the Democrat party. My whole extended family used to vote Democrat & switched in 2015. Many of my friends did too. Dem party has completely changed, for the worse, and seeks to destroy the country.
I understand why you framed it like you did, but I don't agree with it. You are helping divide this issue into a left v. right thing and to make it political. Surely you could have framed the issue better and not be a tool. Thanks.
You aren't her editor .. but if her effort INSPIRES you to write the article you wish she had written .. then she would have done a good deed. Also most folks who see her article also see your comments.
Furthermore, you are part of the problem. I am often told that I'm making a right talking point because of people like you so say this is a right-sided opinion. It is not. Stop dividing this into a right v. left thing. Stop giving people ammo to stay I belong with conservatives because I think a specific way. Just stop. Frame better. Do better.
She is not part of the problem. Stop submitting to the temptation to find someone to blame .. put that energy into shaping the discussion .. I was actually listening to you until I ran into your insult, now I'm thinking maybe you are not a serious person but just a gainsaying troll looking to derail rather than add to a debate. If so, then I just took the bait. Well done. THAT is part of the problem.
Yup there are a lot of us who no longer have a political home. I'm an environmentalist and fiscally liberal, but I'm a mom & I can't support this crazy Woke CRT & Trans agenda. I no longer vote for Democrat party. I think there are many people who feel the same way.
The genie is out of the bottle with public and private schools, and the media, encouraging and sowing confusion for our children. Therapists are seeing an explosion of cases with children presenting this way and internet searches for parents almost exclusively say to affirm. It's insane considering 0.2% of the world's population is actually transgender, yet clinics are seeing a 4000% increase in cases, mostly young girls. What steps can be taken to reverse the policies in place? Speaking out only gets you labeled as transphobic. That is false. I'm a lifelong Democrat yet am planning to vote Republican to stand with fellow parents who are dealing with what can only be described as a serious mental health crisis with our kids.
Science actually supports gender dysphoria. The problem is that it's spreading to our youth via social contagion, fueled by social media, and peer culture. I support transgender individuals but I vehemently disagree with introducing the concept to ALL kids and to only provide gender affirming advice. It's clearly a mental health issue for most of the explosion of cases.
"Gender" is a sociological academic theory/framework. It's nothing to do with science.
Mental illnesses that are exclusive to one sex or the other are not evidence of someone being of the opposite sex that he or she is. Since, again, that is a logical impossibility.
Most of us pediatricians feel the same, this is literally destroying our kids.
Rapid Gender Dysphoria. Typical case: Normal 13 yo girl, happy being a girl, wears dresses, etc. Goes on social media & sees Trans influencers. Meets a glitter mom who grooms her. One day, she announces she is Trans & wants meds/surgery right away. 1 year after the transition, she regrets it, wishes she could go back. Tries to go back but can't. Has permanent disfigurement. Permanent destructive changes. Becomes depressed. Commits suicide.
Science also used to "support" other nonsense like phrenology, too. The universities and even medical schools have been captured by gender and other types of woke ideologues. Medical science has been corrupted. Today's medical students are no longer even being taught the basic ways in which diseases manifest themselves in biological men vs. biological women.
Lobotomies got a nobel prize i believe. The scientific process can find mistakes, it has a method to correct errors. but the process of examining the evidence with logic and presenting evidence accurately is not happening. Claiming something is true and setting mobs against those who challenge your evidence is not science. It's mob rule.
Well, well, well. Wikipedia just happens to list phrenology as one of the "superseded theories in science." That is, "In science, a theory is superseded when a scientific consensus once widely accepted it, but current science considers it inadequate, incomplete, or debunked (i.e., wrong)." But don't take my word for it. Here's the link:
As far as med schools and med students go, I suggest you read the following article, Med Schools are Now Denying Biological Sex, posted on Bari Weiss's substack.
Here's what one medical student at the University of California said about the current trend to deny biological sex in medicals schools today.
“Take abdominal aortic aneurysms,” Lauren says. “These are four times as likely to occur in males than females, but this very significant difference wasn’t emphasized. I had to look it up, and I don’t have the time to look up the sex predominance for the hundreds of diseases I’m expected to know. I’m not even sure what I’m not being taught, and unless my classmates are as skeptical as I am, they probably aren’t aware either.”
Here's what one former dean of a leading medical school had to say:
“How male and female members of our species develop, how they differ genetically, anatomically, physiologically, and with respect to diseases and their treatment are foundational to clinical medicine and research. Efforts to erase or diminish these foundations should be unacceptable to responsible professional leaders.”
As a physician, Yes it is happening. When I was in medical school only 10 years ago, we were taught everything and things were normal. Everything was evidence-based.
Now my friends/colleagues there tell me that they no longer learn sex-based differences (which is extremely important in medicine!) nor race-based differences. It is no longer evidence-based, factual or rooted in empirical evidence, but rather the current Woke agenda.
It is scary how the medical organizations themselves have been held hostage. They have changed overnight. When a leader challenges a notion, based on facts/evidence, they are fired if it does not fit the Woke agenda. They are fired after Twitter/Instagram activists come after them. These activists know nothing about science or medicine.
If I were Rip Van Winkle and woke up in 2021, I would never believe how our most important institutions, including medicine, caved in without a fight. It's like a cancer that grew for years unnoticed and then metastasized overnight and spread disease to every cell in the body.
Jennifer Bilek's 11th Hour blog, which I discovered a few days ago, follows the money to a stealthy group of healthcare billionaires ("transgender"} who donated millions to create a brave new world that's abolished biological sex.
They're not in it to help people. They're in it to suck as many kids and teens into a lifetime of dangerous cross sex hormones and surgeries that will make these billionaires even richer. Late capitalism run amok.
Yesterday, I read one of the goals was to implant a biological woman's womb into a biological man, so the man could carry a pregnancy to term. This is the future they're working towards.
I am also a concerned lifelong Democrat, but voting Republican is not going to help, because (as Abigail says) the Republicans are doing nothing but flailing uselessly.
Instead, press your Democratic reps (state and federal) on this. Oppose the Equality Act. Let them know that these are issues that you care deeply about.
Demand parental rights to make medical decisions for under-18 chidren.
Pressure your local school board on parental rights.
I live in an extremely liberal VA college town and there is no point in arguing this point locally. I actually think if the republican running for governor in Virginia wins the northern Virginia counties and the parent's support, it might serve as a wakeup call. I agree we all have to speak out without fear of being fired from our jobs.
You can call your school board members and ask them if they support parental rights to decide on medical care for their children. Better: raise the question at a school board meeting. These tactics are effective.
Dare to raise the question at a school board meeting, and Merrick Garland will have you investigated by the FBI as a "domestic terrorist." Incidentally, Garland's son-in-law owns a high tech company called Panorama Education that collects intrusive psychological data from school children about their personal lives and their relationship with their parents. The year 2021 is starting to read like the first few chapters of The Handmaid's Tale, only this time the bad guys are the progressives.
Good luck with that. It no longer matters how the public votes; what matters is who counts the votes. I hope I am wrong. But if you end up having lots of mail in ballots show up without authenticated signatures, there will be no effort to see if there was any vote fraud. The media will declare McCauliffe the victor and will condemn anyone who questions the vote as a conspiracy theorist. Mind you…what did we have from 2016 to 2021 (and still today)? Dems kept saying that Trump was put in by vote fraud and Russian collusion. Who cares if it was not true.
The mail in ballots have to stop. I personally know many people who live in solid Blue states, who mailed in ballots (voting Democrat) into swing states. These are folks who have apartments/condos/vacation homes in swing states. If I personally know dozens, then there are likely 1000's who did so.
When you have to physically go to the polls, you are likely to go to the poll where you actually live. But mail in ballots are easy to mail into swing states, even if you don't live there. Unfortunately the vast majority doing this live in NY, CA and IL.
I received a mail in ballot (which I did not request) for a swing state where we have a condo. I never requested it. I threw it out. I did the right thing and voted, in person, at home.
Hard to prove it without getting in trouble. Actual fact, I voted 3 times. I retired from the military in Portland Oregon, and Oregon automatically registers you and sends you a ballot. I've always been registered in Texas so I got a ballot from them too. My third vote involved forging my non-voting son's signature on his ballot, so I'm not going to confess that. (Note, this all fell in my lap, although I am certainly not on board with cynical Trump Won movement, it does make one think what if someone was TRYING to do this).
The Republicans are flailing, because Democrats and moderates are afraid to join the fight. The far left labels all their opponents as Republicans and conservatives rather than debate the issue ... and the DNC and the media, but I repeat myself, let them get away with it.
I agree with you about pressing all the Democratic reps (state & federal) and local school board. We do that.
That being said, my entire extended family of lifelong Democrats switched over in 2015 because the Democrat party changed, for the worse. We didn't change. They changed.
It's a truly horrible story. A young girl in the ninth grade was raped and sodomized in the girl's bathroom at her school. The rapist was a biological male student who had an intact penis and was wearing a dress. The school did nothing. A couple of weeks later the same biological male student dragged another girl into an empty classroom and attacked her.
This is a dystopian nightmare. No one is protecting teenage girls (or boys) from being sexually assaulted in the school bathrooms. Just sweep the violence and sexual perversion under the rug, and deny they ever happened. Loudon County, the state of Virginia, the Democratic party and the entire country have lost their way.
I agree with Abigail. The anti-woke movement needs to become more strategic, and the way to do that is to focus on standing up for biological women.
A biological girl on testosterone who uses the boy's bathroom is the wrong battle to fight. But a ninth grade biological girl who gets raped and sodomized by a biological boy who sneaked into the girl's bathroom while wearing a dress is the kind of violent sexual crime that makes everyone's blood boil. If Abigail could interview the girl or her father, I think it would have a tremendous impact.
I'm a straight woman, but I feel it's vitally important to stand up for lesbians who are now being coerced into having sex with biological men with intact penises who claim to be "transgender lesbians." The men threaten to expose the women as "transphobes."
And how can anyone's heart not break for the women inmates in California's prisons who are now forced to share their jail cells with violent biological men who have gamed the system by claiming to be "transgender" despite having intact penises. These women, most of whom are in for nonviolent offenses like shoplifting, have been beaten raped and impregnated by their cellmates. And if they complain, they are labeled as "transphobic," and their sentences are lengthened. Perhaps Abigail could interview one of these unfortunate women after she's released.
What kind of sick, sordid Black Mirror world have we entered? I grow sick to my stomach just thinking about it.
Absolutely. Parents must have the right to control the medical care their children receive, especially when it comes to controversial areas like "transgender." The schools must not usurp that right.
Abigail, if you explore the items mentioned in the above comment, also try to find out more about the Washington State woman reportedly raped shortly after male convicts (who say they're women) arrived.
Thank you Abigail for speaking up about this madness. I too, thought this would never come knocking on my door. Until my teenage daughter one day declared in a letter that she is non binary, cut her hair off, and asked to be called he/they/ them. I am a life long democrat who always supported the right for all people to live as they wish. However, the social breakdown sponsored by the democrats is something I can no longer support. It is now in my backyard. Keep up the great work Abigail! Your book was sad but I loved it the truth shall prevail.
There is an explosion of teenage girls claiming to be non binary. It's sad to think they are rejecting femininity at such a young age, and I hope they will reclaim it by the time they hit their 20s. We, their grandmothers and mothers, have fought misogyny our entire lives and it's heartbreaking to think we've lost the battle, and that these girls have given up.
I am so sorry this happened to your daughter Leyla.
This is called Rapid-onset Gender Dysphoria & it is spreading like wildfire among pre-teen and teen girls. They do not have actual gender dysphoria. These are girls who consumed social media of Trans Influencers & Glitter moms groomed them into this. Sadly the vast majority of these girls greatly regret their decisions, but it is too late. Once you take the drugs/surgery, there are many harmful irreversible adverse effects.
I'm about as (sane) a liberal as they come. I have never identified myself as a conservative nor a republican. I have never even voted Republican, though I did vote independent, green, and even libertarian. I guess, in a way it is people like me that can be partially blamed for what's happening. I'm sure a lot of us were blindsided by other, what at the time seemed like more.. Umm.. Important issues.
I have been trans "ally" and I guess I still am but I cannot be an ally to the insanity that's going on in trans "movement"
I don't see this as a right vs left issue. Or a Democrat vs Republican issue. I see it as a fantasy vs reality issue. Pseudoscience vs science issue. Common sense vs dogma issue.
What has been most rewarding, about joining a grassroots organization to fight this ideology, is connecting with women across the political spectrum. It has been enlightening to listen to what brought each woman into our group. We bond over our rejection of the authoritarian and anti-truth mantra that trans women are women. It is heartening to connect with women (in lieu of twitter ranting) and discuss our perspectives. I am thankful for this. We will continue to fight the dogma of Canada's Bill C16 and the supposed (anti-woman) Human Rights Code that was produced by these ideologues. Thanks for what you do Abigail.
Ms. Shrier's call-to-arms banner "WE MUST WIN THE GENDER WAR" is a wimpy way to go about winning. In fact, the real war we are fighting is not about an ambiguous thing called gender. Using the opponent’s words will never win this war. Why not instead go for the jugular under the unambiguous banner “WE MUST DEFEAT SEX-CHANGE BELIEF.”
I completely agree with you that the word gender is preposterous nonsense. In place of the word gender, I use the word "sex." But whenever I do write the word "transgender" I put it within quotation marks to indicate I don't agree with the use of that term because it's physically impossible for a biological male or a biological female to ever change their sex.
I never, ever use the phrases "transgender male" or "transgender female." To replace "transgender male," I write something like "a biological male who claims to be a woman." I also use the phrase cross-sex hormones in place of "transgender" hormones. Finally, I never use vague and cutesy propaganda terms like"top surgery," "gender affimation surgery," or "gender confirmation surgery." Instead I use the actual medical terms such as"double mastectomy," "penectomy," or "phalloplasty" because these graphic terms tell the reader exactly what the surgeon chops off.
Thank you for the affirmation and for contributing to a table I'm building which translates misleading terms used by promoters of belief in sex change to unambiguous terms. I'm also assembling evidence that pre-school children are being indoctrinated into the belief that they can change sex. I think that the book "I am Jazz" will be one example.
How wonderful that you're creating a table to reveal the true meaning behind these vague and confusing euphemisms. The latest phrase I've come across is called "gender nullification surgery," in which the surgeon simply removes the genitals "to create a smooth look" and doesn't try to replace them with those of the opposite sex. There's a "male to nullo" and a "female to nullo."
Here are a few more words you might (or might not) want to consider: dismemberment, dismember, castrate, castration, castrato, castrati, amputate, amputation, amputee, mutilate, mutilation, self-mutilation, self harm, female genital mutilation, male genital mutilation, male eunuch, female eunuch, Munchausen syndrome, Munchausen syndrome by proxy (Jazz's mother), cross-dressers, autogynephilia, autogynephile, delusion. mass psychosis, moral panic, gender fluidity, "transgender lesbian."
It's outrageous that young children are being indoctrinated with dangerous nonsense about unicorns and mermaids during drag queen story hour in the children's room at the local public library. "I am Jazz" is one book, but there are many, many others. Amazon lists hundreds under the search term I used, "transgender books for children."
Here's a particularly disturbing one I just stumbled on "Being You: A First Conversation About Gender." This book is aimed at innocent three year old toddlers who are probably still drinking from sippy cups and wearing pull up paper diapers. The book is jam packed with so much "transgender" propaganda, George Orwell must be rolling in his grave.
Wow, is this really a thing? People are aspiring to mold their bodies to look like a living Ken Doll, with no genitals whatsoever?? That is WILD! I have to be say, in some sort of highly abstracted, biology rejecting way, "gender nullification" is sort of more honest, and gets more to the point, than an elaborate masquerade of trying to appear like something one is not with faux surgically created genitals and an accompanying metaphysical rationale.
Yes. "Gender nullification surgery" is really a thing, but it's very new in the US. As far as I can tell, only two surgical groups offer it, both in the San Francisco Bay Area. Here's a link to the before and after photos, but they'll probably turn your stomach, as they did mine.
... all of which suggests the whole "bathroom debate" may not be entirely trivial, and that conservatives may well have a point!
That said, the narrow restriction of the much larger gender war to the "bathroom debate" has indeed been counterproductive (both tactically and morally).
Hmmm, allowing men to indiscriminately "identify" as women and enter their changerooms and bathrooms? Men commit more than 80% of violent crimes. Women who are the overwhelmingly victims.
A point?
How ideologically possessed must one be to think it is a good idea to allow men to say "i am a woman" and by law provide their unfettered access to women's changerooms/rape shelters/ showers/ prisons/psych wards?
I have had enough men grope me, jack off in front of me, expose themselves, proposition me, leer at me, and gawk at my daughter to know this was a BAD idea - has zero to do with being conservative, green, liberal, democrat, republican, libertarian.
Males and females are the same on many dimensions but importantly different on some very KEY dimensions and this truth must be recognized.
Boys and men DO care about females in the bathroom with them, especially in middle school and high school. But also as adults. (I know 2 men who have told me how uncomfortable they are with the sudden opening of their men's rooms to women who are pretending to be men.) Moreover sacrificing the boys, paves the way for sacrificing the girls. Once you've said, Fine, we'll ignore the truth here (i.e. that this person calling herself HE is a she), you can't insist on it over here (where a boy is calling himself she.)
Also, as a left-wing person, I want to point out that there are tons of us on the left who see what's being done under the banner of the Left as unacceptable. It contradicts everything we stand for. I've been enjoying working with conservative people on these issues. We all see some way forward that unites us as working people..... The oligarchs have been calling the shots for eons, pitting so-called Left against so-called Right, but on many vital issues, working people can and must unite.
"I've been enjoying working with conservative people on these issues. We all see some way forward that unites us as working people..... The oligarchs have been calling the shots for eons, pitting so-called Left against so-called Right, but on many vital issues, working people can and must unite."
Absolutely! Working people need to stand up, for our communities, for our families. The CEOs, billionaires, corporations, politicians, lobbyists & media promote hatred of Left vs Right, hating the other side, because they don't want us working together for the common good. The news media gets people riled up about random nonsense, rather than what's actually important for our communities. The oligarchs want to maintain power & money
Media: when Trump signed the Great American Outdoors Act, $3 billion/year to conservation projects, maintenance of national parks & public lands, with overwhelming approval by both parties in Congress, the media focused on "Trump mispronounces Yosemite"..... seriously? Or when Trump signed 5 Middle East peace treaties, media focused on "Trump wasn't wearing a mask".
There has to be a way to support truly gender dysphoric individuals without asking every young child to think deeply about whether they are a boy or a girl. Young children don't need to be thinking about this. I can't believe this is the liberal response to conversion therapy. And therapists and pediatricians should absolutely be questioning this harmful fad and screaming about it from every rooftop.
Us pediatricians are very concerned but no one wants to lose their jobs.
Social media, unfortunately, has created an environment where anything anyone does is broadcast publicly, to lunatic Woke Activists whose entire life is based around getting people cancelled.
The term "biological female" is redundant. Females are female because of their biology. Male and female are sexed categories. Please stop using the gobbledygook language of the Woke. There are only 2 sexes, male or female. "Trans" is not a sex. "Trans" is either a persona, a body dissociative disorder, or the cry-bully arm of the ca$h cow "sex/gender reassignment" industry. No drugs or surgeries can "reassign" a little boy's body into a "girl" body or vice versa, therefore no child can "trans" to the sex they are not. "Gender reassigned" children just means life-long, sterilized, medical patient. Our sex is stamped on every cell in our bodies. The Woke have made the word - gender, meaningless. #SexNotGender
Yes. I agree the term "gender" is meaningless nonsense.
I also agree the term "biological female" is linguistically redundant. It's a shame that many of us who oppose this "transgender" nonsense feel we must use the phrase "biological female" for emphasis and clarity to a wide range of people, some of whom never took high school biology. But the woke crowd hates the term. The only words they allow people to use are "woman," "transwoman," "cisgender woman" or "ciswoman."
To refer to any woman (especially if they're a "transgender man") as a "biological female" drives the woke language police crazy because it reminds everyone that you can pump yourself full of hormones and hack off your genitals with a machete, but you can never change your sex, your "biological sex."
Magnificent! You're exactly right: we conservatives always fight on the left's turf and so we lose every battle. Surely it's common sense on both sides that surgery and drugs that cause irreversible damage shouldn't be the immediate response to a gender-confused teenager, and yet the far-left is winning.
No, we lose because conservatives stand alone. The far left labels their opponents as far right conservative Republicans rather than debate the issue and the media is clearly on their side. This keeps moderate Democrats and independents from joining the fight.
We are going to end up with a generation of non-cis children who have been castrated and/or sterilized. If you tried to impose these medical treatments as punishment they would be condemned as crimes against humanity.
Yes. What young American girls have been brainwashed into doing to their bodies is far worse than the female genital mutilation carried out by the Taliban. And we're all supposed to "celebrate" this. The "transgender" mass psychosis never ceases to amaze me.
Recent events in Loudoun County, Virginia, will change this debate. Scott Smith, a parent of a high school girl, was arrested June 22, 2021, at a school board meeting. It turns out he was there to ask the board what they were doing about his daughter being raped in the girls bathroom by a boy in a dress in May. This arrest was cited in the letter to Attorney General Garland, which lead Garland to call on the FBI to investigate unhappy parents as domestic terrorists.
In the meeting that Smith was arrested at, the school board said there were no incidents connected with their transgender policy. The alleged rapist was quitely transferred to another school, where he allegedly raped another girl in October.
Smith's arrest was designed to cover up the story. I can't think of anything that will inflame parents more than this story.
Except that not a single mainstream/left leaning news organization is reporting on it. The sole article in any such institutional media is from the Washington Post, and it does not mention even once that the assailant was a boy wearing a skirt who identified as non-binary, or that the issue under discussion at the school board meeting was "gender free" bathrooms. It just describes it as a cause of parents being mad that sexual assault wasn't taken more seriously.
Funny how in this single instance where it involves sexual assault, the perpetrator is referred to repeatedly as a "male". Not as a "boy" or a "girl" or a "him" or a "her" or as "they" or "them" or as trans (though normally they consider non-binary to be under that umbrella). As soon as there is something negative attached, they totally ditch all their normal language standards and just refer to biological sex. Really quite amazing. In any other article that wasn't about a violent criminal offense, this boy would be referred to by his preferred gender identity and pronouns, and absolutely not by his biological sex.
In spite of the ongoing Cultural Revolution, the US is still a long way from Red China. The anti-woke Soccer Moms exchange information. This news can be suppressed for 5 months, but not forever.
Coverups of the ongoing disaster of the Biden Administration are removing much of the credibility of censored news and social media. Cheers of "Let's go Brandon!" only emphasize how filtered the news is. (The actual cheer was F Joe Biden! but the announcer "heard" it differently.) CNN has lost over half its audience. That's why sites like this one are rising in viewers.
I very much appreciate the substance of the piece, and understand you were writing for a certain audience, but I have to mirror some of the other comments and say that I REALLY hate for this to be framed as a "conservative" issue. It is not. 90% of people agree with you. It should have nothing whatsoever to do with right versus left or democrat versus republican. It is science and common sense versus fantasy.
My fear is that there are MANY liberals and democrats who hate this stuff, but they also do NOT want to be associated in any manner with conservatives or Republicans. They are already terrified to speak up -- if this gets painted as an issue solely for right-wing religious fundamentalist crazies, they will become even more cowed. I appreciate you teaching conservatives how to tell themselves come off as common sense rather than like right-wing religious fundamentalist crazies, but we need this issue to simply be framed as NOT at all about right versus left and rather as something that unites all practical people. This country is far too polarized to allow one party to capture the issue, and the more people think of it as a conservative position, the more it will send liberals who are truly concerned about medical exploitation and trans madness into hiding.
I agree with the call to action here and also agree, as a life long of-the-left liberal who is now politically homeless, that the audience for those who agree with protecting kids from a harmful ideology crosses the political divide.
There are many of us .. but our position is so nuanced that any attempt at an alliance will fall apart, even amongst ourselves .. Bill Maher comes closest to encapsulating a movement of citizens who are able to hold two different thoughts at once .. the problem comes in articulating it at large. (In our current "system" if one can be passionately against abortion (eg against subsidizing with taxes or scrubbing the culture of judgement) AND equally passionate against the idea of anyone but the Mother herself being in control of the actual decision to have one -- then neither the Pro-Life or Pro-Choice side knows how to even describe you, much less welcome you, EVEN THOUGH that might actually be the silent majority opinion. And that is an example of an issue thoroughly and freely discussed for 50 years, and in an era where free expression and battle of ideas was respected. Today I immediately see every debate quickly degenerating into one that conflates ends with means. One can be against child abuse and also against installing the government monitoring cameras in homes to stamp it out.
Thanks for saying this. I'm on the left (not the weird American 'leftish' though) and my heart sank when Abigail made this a call to arms for the right.
Excellent point and I agree. Sadly though, this is how it's being framed in the media. Abigail could rewrite the piece without referring to political parties specifically.
“My fear is that there are MANY liberals and democrats who hate this stuff, but they also do NOT want to be associated in any manner with conservatives or Republicans.”
Fear? That’s part of the strategy: Demonize conservatives and Republicans as racist, misogynist, homophobic, transphobic Nazis ... then label anyone who doesn’t agree with your far left ideology as a conservative or Republican rather than discuss the issue. Label the enemy rather than debate an enemy you can’t defeat. It’s a great way to get moderate Democrats and independents to self censor and toe the line.
As a lifelong liberal, I have left the Democratic party over this madness. As an independent, the Dems can no longer count on my vote. I support truly gender dysphoric children and trans people but dragging kids into the mix has gone too far. The media is complicit.
This left v. right broken record is purposeful misdirection. Pitting us against each other, creating a divide and conquer strategy has worked out very well for what I now see as the corporate uniparty that it is. If you truly want to align with truth, become a real American. tasa dot americanstatenationals dot org ... Not sure if allowed to place an actual link so this seems to be the way to do it while being respectful. America is a (constitutional) republic, not the mob rule democracy we see or the Marxist style road we are headed down currently. What is great - being an actual American slashes this left v. right division we see today. DYOR, you will thank yourself for it.
At some point, principled liberals will realize that they can no longer associate with the people pushing this madness. Then they will take an honest look at conservatives and Republicans and realize that they are not the monsters that the left and Democrats paint them to be.
I was the Jewish lawyer at the Christian Coalition of America. I had my disagreements with Pat Robertson, but I found that the average contributor to the CCA was a kind, caring, humane person who did not want to get involved in politics. They just wanted to look after their own community and neighborhood.
Much of the leadership of the GOP is problematic. There are still a lot of country-club Republicans who share more values with Democrats than they do with the conservatives in their own party. Read Angela Codevilla's book about the ruling party in America. The Democrats are the "senior partner" in the ruling party; the Republicans are the "junior partner." The GOP leaders want all the prestige and perks that the Dems have. The rest of us? We are the country party.
https://www.tabletmag.com/sections/arts-letters/articles/angelo-codevilla
https://www.independent.org/publications/article.asp?id=4725
Exactly. This is an important point that is overlooked when conservatives assert that ultra-capitalists like Biden & the so-called 'Squad' are socialists.
At this point, weirdly, ordinary apolitical people and classic Marxists have more in common than they share with the Democrats. You won't see many commentators acknowledging this though.
I pretty much ignore any opinion piece or commentary that uses the words "communism,", "socialism," or "fascism." Most people using them have no idea what these ideologies really are and how they apply to present day circumstances.
What we are facing are different forms of authoritarianism. We have an educated elite that is trying to stay in front of their voters. This is getting hard because of the demands made by various, loud, active activists. Look at the Hidden Tribes report; it breaks the US voting population into 7 different groups. One of those groups, Progressive Activists, make up only 8% of the population. Yet they dominate much of the academic, NGO, and media world.
I agree. The vast majority of the US population does not support the radical woke agenda.
I'm a physician and it is shocking to me, how quickly, medical organizations went from being overwhelmingly rational, evidence-based and conservative, to quickly (in the past few years) becoming controlled by the Progressive Activists.
Why is this small group of Progressive Activists controlling the media, NGO and academic world, and what can the 92% of the rest of us do?
Hard agree here. Thanks for the Hidden Tribes tip - I'll look for that
It's interesting that this is seen where you are as a 'far left' ideology when it isn't seen that way in Europe. Here it's seen as a departure from the left. Hence my branding it as 'leftish'. The actual far left sees the various strands of social justice theory as a way of dividing the workers etc.
I'll be writing about how essentially capitalist it is, in due course.
It isn’t capitalist, it is totalitarian. It isn’t capitalist to have free trade with totalitarian communist China. It isn’t capitalist to infect corporate HR offices with DIE (diversity, inclusiveness, equity) tripe. Totalitarian elites are working toward The Great Reset and one world government. The only thing standing in their war is America. Here, the far left are the useful idiots of totalitarian elites. They push an agenda where no opposition is allowed. They don’t debate and they don’t negotiate. You are either with them or the enemy. They demonize their opposition rather than debate them. You moderate Democrats and independents are the useful idiots of the far left. Most times, you are in the majority, but afraid of being labelled a fill-in-the-blank ___ist or ____phobe. As the far left continues successfully pushing the country far left, there is no room for freedom or independent thought. There will come a time when all the protections of the Constitution will be gone and the totalitarian elite, their media, their DNC, and all their useful idiots will make elections meaningless. We will go from a two party system to a one party system. Then, like voters in Venezuela, you will realize what you have done, but it will be too late. Search “Yuri Bezmenov” in YouTube. He was an ex-KGB agent and defector. We outlasted the Soviets, but the damage they did is now bearing fruit for globalists that wish to enslave us. From healthcare, to what we are allowed to eat, to where and in what we live, it will be dictated to us. As Klaus Schwab of the World Economic Forum said, “You will own nothing, and you will be happy.”
I think he meant that the promotion of trans identities, specifically, is capitalist. Ten years ago there was one youth gender clinic in the US, now there are about 1,000. And it's essentially just extreme plastic surgery and body modification, but medicalized into a treatment for a diagnosis, so that unlike all other forms of plastic surgery, insurance will sometimes pay for it.
Thanks, yes. And it's obvious that corporations embrace it. Which is a reliable acid test for whether something is 'far left' or not.
Corporations "embrace" it, not because they believe it, but because it's a cheap way for the business to appease their young woke,, brainwashed employees.
No, not since corporations have teamed up with government and the HR departments of major corporations have been infected with wokeness.
The ideology comes first creating the demand for these clinics. Then these clinics advocate for policies that keep customers coming in their doors. One drives the other. And ... once the government steps in, everyone is eventually compelled to comply.
‘It became possible to conceptualise “gender identity” as dislocated from biological sex when new medical technologies for the first time made it possible for doctors to change the bodies of those born with indeterminate genitals and to assign them to a sex.’ In this way, he argues, ‘the availability of the treatment appears to have essentially created the demand’. --Inventing Transgender Children
"It isn’t capitalist to have free trade with totalitarian communist China."
100% Agree with this statement. Free Trade is impossible with China. The entire world follows the free trade rules set by WTO and China does not.
China lies, cheats, steals intellectual property ALWAYS, and Xi Jinping has explicitly instructed all Chinese factory owners to steal Intellectual property from foreign firms to help China. In fact, if the Chinese factory owner does not hand over foreign firms' trade secrets to the CCP, the CCP hounds them until they do. It's not even an option. If you have your factory in China, you have a 100% guarantee that you will have theft of your Intellectual property.
Let's not forget that anyone who cares about Climate Change, CANNOT buy something Made in China, because Chinese factories take toxic waste & dump it directly into the Pacific Ocean. China generates 2/3 of the world's Carbon/Coal/Fossil Fuels. They are the world's biggest polluters.
Anyone who supports Human Rights CANNOT buy something Made in China, because they have unpaid slave labor, child labor, and forced labor.
I should mention that myself & my whole extended family has not bought one single thing made in China since March 2020. Not one single thing. Their purposeful unleashing of COVID unto the world is unforgivable.
It is not 'far left' ideology. It is a brand of liberalism.
Semantics. A brand of illiberal liberals? They are far lest as they call all opposition right wing.
Indeed they do. Including left wing people, such as Glenn Greenwald along with anyone who holds Marxist views on the primacy of class.
Rather than 'semantics' this is how we know (at least here in Europe) that this ideology is not 'far left'. It is a peculiar strand of capitalism
I'm gonna put this here, since no one bothered to mention that this article was originally posted in the Washington Examiner, a politically conservative news outlet. I'm sure that Shrier knew her audience and played specifically to them in this specific context. She has rarely mentioned specific political orientations in other publications, so it seems that she uniquely tailored this article to who would hear it first.
It should go without saying that this Substack and the others like it have value beyond political affiliation. Let's focus on the issues, please... although I'd love to hear from others if more editing would be appropriate in an instance like this.
That's right. The Washington Examiner specifically commissioned a piece on "what conservatives should think about the transgender movement." So I wrote a piece on what I thought conservatives had gotten wrong and what they ought to do instead. :)
Helpful context - thank you.
I appreciate your intentions here, but disagree that the radical trans-activist agenda is the province of "the Left" and that those opposing it are "conservatives," which you identify with by using "we" throughout this essay. There are some of us on the Left -- the real Left, genuine socialists and feminists -- who are fighting this nonsense too. The Georgia Green Party was recently disaffiliated from the Green Party of the United States for standing up for women's sex-based rights. I resigned from the Illinois Green Party in protest and others are fighting back in various ways and are in the process of building a new Green Alliance for Sex-Based Rights. There are various feminist groups that are furiously resisting this agenda as well that would hardly identify as conservative. I realize that you are writing for the Washington Examiner here but please do not tar "the" Left with the same broad brush. Genuine Leftists are materialists and recognize biological reality. The "Left" that supports the trans-activist agenda consists of liberals, neo-liberals and faux "Leftists" who are simply posturing as "radical" without grasping what is really needed to build social progress.
The piece was requested by the Washington Examiner, which specifically asked for a piece about what conservatives should think about this issue. That was the reason I framed it as I did.
Abigail, will you consider submitting this piece to the ny times or Washington Post? Mainstream media is only printing articles supporting this madness. I'm a lifelong liberal yet I'm searching conservative news outlets to find an opposing opinion. There needs to be dialogue on this without accusations of transphobia.
If The NY Times tried to publish this piece, their reporters would defenestrate the editors and the publishers.
they should fire those reporters. And should stop hiring woke reporters.
The NY times refused an op Ed by the president of uspath. A medical expert from UCSF. Check out the article on the New York Times at the Pitt substack.
They only publish things equating calls for caution as being similar to anti gay or anti abortion. Saying only conservatives mind. They are lying. Ask them to speak up.
Yeah ... perhaps she could submit a version of it to Bari Weiss, I heard she's an editor there.
Bari actually resigned her position at the NYTimes over a year ago due to hostility from the young woke cult of Times employees. Bari has her own very popular substack and Abigail has posted a couple of articles there. Here's a link to one of those articles.
https://bariweiss.substack.com/p/top-trans-doctors-blow-the-whistle
The nyt actually refuses to publish many comments I've submitted on the subject and I hardly am bashing trans people
Yes. The NYT usually refuses to publish my reader comments, too.
I do appreciate that, but I think you can still acknowledge that not everyone on "the Left" supports the TA agenda. Just like a male doesn't become a woman by calling himself one, neo-liberals and Democrats are not "the Left" simply because they have appropriated that label.
I think the point she is trying to make is that this movement has emerged on the left and has not been condemned as harmful by the left. You can believe that you are left leaning with good intentions, but it has festered uninhibited for decades by the left to the degree it is now. That's why I left the Democratic party 10 years ago, for these exact same social agendas that I saw emerging.
The new York times will not report those on the left who disagree. They refused an op ed from Anderson, as Shrier reported in her fantastic article. Those who disagree in comments are often censored and the articles themselves are full of false insinuations. They don't respond to fact checks. They cast those who want scrutiny and caution regarding treatment of gender dysphoria as anti transgender and as republican.
They have never reported that most young people grow out of gender dysphoria or that many develop it in response to trauma, brintg on the spectrum, anxiety, etc. All they do is push lies about suicide risk, not helped by medical intervention by the way, and about care being only the drugs and surgery ASAP.
I'm left wing liberal.
This is false. Plenty of people on the left (eg Freddie deBoer, an avowed socialist and communist with a very worthwhile substack) condemn it.
I have never heard of this person. The point is that it is not enough people on the left have spoken out against it ie academia, media, political party. The same would be true if the KKK started to gain power and support on the right. I am sure they would would attempt to attach themselves to the right. And if the right didn't condemn the actions or assisted in the growth I would feel the same way. It's the same analogy.
Listen to Blocked and Reported podcast. Katie and Jesse are all over this madness in a really funny, gonzo style.
They condemn it. But soon the only political party that you can join to have a chance of fighting it will be the Republican Party. We will have to throw out the current leadership…which really shares the values of the Dem party leaders. Schumer, McConnell, and Pelosi deep down share the same values. They will say what they need to in order to make their party faithful stay engaged. Then they will do as little as possible. Except that now the Dems are being forced to enact the progressive agenda. The Dems are being dragged by the extremists in their own party.
Of course, many Dems truly hate the GOP. Just read about how Harry Truman described Republicans. Hell, he called Andrew Dewey and the GOP of 1948 NAZIs. And now Harry Truman is a political saint.
"Schumer, McConnell, and Pelosi deep down share the same values. They will say what they need to in order to make their party faithful stay engaged. Then they will do as little as possible.
Except that now the Dems are being forced to enact the progressive agenda. The Dems are being dragged by the extremists in their own party."
This is true. Dem & Rep leaders share the same values of taking as much $$$$ as possible from lobbyists & doing whatever lobbyists want. They don't do anything for the people.
Which is why I voted Trump. There are many things I disagreed with Trump on, but I LOVED that he actually did what he said he would do. And he didn't give a s*** about lobbyists/lobbyist agenda.
He set out to lower prescription drug prices but Big Pharma came after him. Pharma had finished the COVID vaccine in September & could have released it, but those a***holes waited until Election was called for Biden. Countless people died, could have been saved had vaccine been released in September. Pharma didn't care, they hated Trump for lowering drug prices.
What he did in the Middle East: 5 peace treaties between Israel & 5 Arab nations. No one else could do it. John Kerry told Trump "don't do it" but Trump got it done & it was Awesome.
agree
my whole family used to vote Democrat but switched over in 2015. I have friends who did too
We just want to raise our families in a normal society with good values
I have four -- count them, four -- friends at work who started out as liberals and whom I've watched move farther and farther to the right, because that's where they hear messages consistent with "raising their families in a normal society with good values." It's sad the number of people the left is losing, just because people perceive that the left has lost it's way and is focusing on niche issues irrelevant to their lives.
yup! so true
More importantly, trans activists, like all on the far left, frame all their opponents as conservatives rather than debate their opponents. That’s how Larry Elder is a racist, Ben Shapiro is a Nazi, and Dave Rubin is a homophobe, and so on ... it’s how those who don’t believe in “consensus science” are labeled “deniers”.
Yes the logical fallacy: ad hominem attacks rather than discussion of substance.
I think Abigail also cast conservatives in a poor light because they're hardly the ones to support women's rights generally. It's like bathrooms are the low hanging shiny object when the conversation needs to be way more nuanced without fear of being cancelled. Doctors, therapists, professors are all saying privately this is a fad yet cannot speak publicly for fear of recrimination, or worse.
Agreed, but I would not want her to change what she wrote. This simply highlights the boxes we find ourselves in that I do not recall existing until recently. Watch an old William Buckley roundtable .. people really did not self-censor as they do now, and it was harder to know what "side" even advocates and activists were on unles they told you .. so strange we have devolved from a rich political and cultural arena with many sides down to just two dumb ones and you HAVE to choose .. you are either team TRANS or team TRUMP. (If you are anti-racist you must go in the Pro-Trans box .. if you think you are anti-racist but value free speech over anti-racism, then you must be in the TRUMP box. No other option. And you must not again mention those other values you sacrificed to remain in this box .. of course one can always choose to be homeless.
the current "anti racist" CRT BLM agenda is actually very racist. As Ibram Kendi states "the remedy for past racism is to enact current and future racism".
Which is the current agenda. They fired all the volunteers at Illinois Art Institute because they were white. They are firing people left & right across all industries because of the color of their skin. They are psychologically damaging and traumatizing our children in schools, telling them that they are evil because they have light skin.
I have decided I'm an Independent because that's where nuance resides. This, after a lifetime of being a progressive democrat. That party can no longer count on my vote.
We've all left the Democrat party. My whole extended family used to vote Democrat & switched in 2015. Many of my friends did too. Dem party has completely changed, for the worse, and seeks to destroy the country.
I understand why you framed it like you did, but I don't agree with it. You are helping divide this issue into a left v. right thing and to make it political. Surely you could have framed the issue better and not be a tool. Thanks.
You aren't her editor .. but if her effort INSPIRES you to write the article you wish she had written .. then she would have done a good deed. Also most folks who see her article also see your comments.
Furthermore, you are part of the problem. I am often told that I'm making a right talking point because of people like you so say this is a right-sided opinion. It is not. Stop dividing this into a right v. left thing. Stop giving people ammo to stay I belong with conservatives because I think a specific way. Just stop. Frame better. Do better.
She is not part of the problem. Stop submitting to the temptation to find someone to blame .. put that energy into shaping the discussion .. I was actually listening to you until I ran into your insult, now I'm thinking maybe you are not a serious person but just a gainsaying troll looking to derail rather than add to a debate. If so, then I just took the bait. Well done. THAT is part of the problem.
Most of the people I know fighting this are on the traditional left; not the new wokie Dem left, though.
Yup there are a lot of us who no longer have a political home. I'm an environmentalist and fiscally liberal, but I'm a mom & I can't support this crazy Woke CRT & Trans agenda. I no longer vote for Democrat party. I think there are many people who feel the same way.
"I moved my daughter to a school in a small, rural town that does not participate in anything controversial."
this is the best, and safest option. Rural schools teach kids good values. They teach kids to be good people. We are thinking of doing the same.
But if everyone moves there, it will no longer be rural.
The genie is out of the bottle with public and private schools, and the media, encouraging and sowing confusion for our children. Therapists are seeing an explosion of cases with children presenting this way and internet searches for parents almost exclusively say to affirm. It's insane considering 0.2% of the world's population is actually transgender, yet clinics are seeing a 4000% increase in cases, mostly young girls. What steps can be taken to reverse the policies in place? Speaking out only gets you labeled as transphobic. That is false. I'm a lifelong Democrat yet am planning to vote Republican to stand with fellow parents who are dealing with what can only be described as a serious mental health crisis with our kids.
0% of the population is "actually transgender" because it's a logical impossibility.
Science actually supports gender dysphoria. The problem is that it's spreading to our youth via social contagion, fueled by social media, and peer culture. I support transgender individuals but I vehemently disagree with introducing the concept to ALL kids and to only provide gender affirming advice. It's clearly a mental health issue for most of the explosion of cases.
"Gender" is a sociological academic theory/framework. It's nothing to do with science.
Mental illnesses that are exclusive to one sex or the other are not evidence of someone being of the opposite sex that he or she is. Since, again, that is a logical impossibility.
You don't have to swallow all their BS.
Most of us pediatricians feel the same, this is literally destroying our kids.
Rapid Gender Dysphoria. Typical case: Normal 13 yo girl, happy being a girl, wears dresses, etc. Goes on social media & sees Trans influencers. Meets a glitter mom who grooms her. One day, she announces she is Trans & wants meds/surgery right away. 1 year after the transition, she regrets it, wishes she could go back. Tries to go back but can't. Has permanent disfigurement. Permanent destructive changes. Becomes depressed. Commits suicide.
This tragedy never should have happened. The "transgender" activists have blood on their hands.
Science also used to "support" other nonsense like phrenology, too. The universities and even medical schools have been captured by gender and other types of woke ideologues. Medical science has been corrupted. Today's medical students are no longer even being taught the basic ways in which diseases manifest themselves in biological men vs. biological women.
Lobotomies got a nobel prize i believe. The scientific process can find mistakes, it has a method to correct errors. but the process of examining the evidence with logic and presenting evidence accurately is not happening. Claiming something is true and setting mobs against those who challenge your evidence is not science. It's mob rule.
No, science never supported phrenology. You do not know what you're talking about regarding med schools and medical science.
Well, well, well. Wikipedia just happens to list phrenology as one of the "superseded theories in science." That is, "In science, a theory is superseded when a scientific consensus once widely accepted it, but current science considers it inadequate, incomplete, or debunked (i.e., wrong)." But don't take my word for it. Here's the link:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Superseded_theories_in_science#Medicine
As far as med schools and med students go, I suggest you read the following article, Med Schools are Now Denying Biological Sex, posted on Bari Weiss's substack.
Here's what one medical student at the University of California said about the current trend to deny biological sex in medicals schools today.
“Take abdominal aortic aneurysms,” Lauren says. “These are four times as likely to occur in males than females, but this very significant difference wasn’t emphasized. I had to look it up, and I don’t have the time to look up the sex predominance for the hundreds of diseases I’m expected to know. I’m not even sure what I’m not being taught, and unless my classmates are as skeptical as I am, they probably aren’t aware either.”
Here's what one former dean of a leading medical school had to say:
“How male and female members of our species develop, how they differ genetically, anatomically, physiologically, and with respect to diseases and their treatment are foundational to clinical medicine and research. Efforts to erase or diminish these foundations should be unacceptable to responsible professional leaders.”
https://bariweiss.substack.com/p/med-schools-are-now-denying-biological
You believe nonsense.
As a physician, Yes it is happening. When I was in medical school only 10 years ago, we were taught everything and things were normal. Everything was evidence-based.
Now my friends/colleagues there tell me that they no longer learn sex-based differences (which is extremely important in medicine!) nor race-based differences. It is no longer evidence-based, factual or rooted in empirical evidence, but rather the current Woke agenda.
It is scary how the medical organizations themselves have been held hostage. They have changed overnight. When a leader challenges a notion, based on facts/evidence, they are fired if it does not fit the Woke agenda. They are fired after Twitter/Instagram activists come after them. These activists know nothing about science or medicine.
If I were Rip Van Winkle and woke up in 2021, I would never believe how our most important institutions, including medicine, caved in without a fight. It's like a cancer that grew for years unnoticed and then metastasized overnight and spread disease to every cell in the body.
Jennifer Bilek's 11th Hour blog, which I discovered a few days ago, follows the money to a stealthy group of healthcare billionaires ("transgender"} who donated millions to create a brave new world that's abolished biological sex.
They're not in it to help people. They're in it to suck as many kids and teens into a lifetime of dangerous cross sex hormones and surgeries that will make these billionaires even richer. Late capitalism run amok.
Yesterday, I read one of the goals was to implant a biological woman's womb into a biological man, so the man could carry a pregnancy to term. This is the future they're working towards.
I am also a concerned lifelong Democrat, but voting Republican is not going to help, because (as Abigail says) the Republicans are doing nothing but flailing uselessly.
Instead, press your Democratic reps (state and federal) on this. Oppose the Equality Act. Let them know that these are issues that you care deeply about.
Demand parental rights to make medical decisions for under-18 chidren.
Pressure your local school board on parental rights.
I live in an extremely liberal VA college town and there is no point in arguing this point locally. I actually think if the republican running for governor in Virginia wins the northern Virginia counties and the parent's support, it might serve as a wakeup call. I agree we all have to speak out without fear of being fired from our jobs.
You can call your school board members and ask them if they support parental rights to decide on medical care for their children. Better: raise the question at a school board meeting. These tactics are effective.
Dare to raise the question at a school board meeting, and Merrick Garland will have you investigated by the FBI as a "domestic terrorist." Incidentally, Garland's son-in-law owns a high tech company called Panorama Education that collects intrusive psychological data from school children about their personal lives and their relationship with their parents. The year 2021 is starting to read like the first few chapters of The Handmaid's Tale, only this time the bad guys are the progressives.
Alexis, I just saw your comment on the Dave Chappelle article in today's NY Times. I'm team TERF, too!
Good luck with that. It no longer matters how the public votes; what matters is who counts the votes. I hope I am wrong. But if you end up having lots of mail in ballots show up without authenticated signatures, there will be no effort to see if there was any vote fraud. The media will declare McCauliffe the victor and will condemn anyone who questions the vote as a conspiracy theorist. Mind you…what did we have from 2016 to 2021 (and still today)? Dems kept saying that Trump was put in by vote fraud and Russian collusion. Who cares if it was not true.
This is a fact.
The mail in ballots have to stop. I personally know many people who live in solid Blue states, who mailed in ballots (voting Democrat) into swing states. These are folks who have apartments/condos/vacation homes in swing states. If I personally know dozens, then there are likely 1000's who did so.
When you have to physically go to the polls, you are likely to go to the poll where you actually live. But mail in ballots are easy to mail into swing states, even if you don't live there. Unfortunately the vast majority doing this live in NY, CA and IL.
I received a mail in ballot (which I did not request) for a swing state where we have a condo. I never requested it. I threw it out. I did the right thing and voted, in person, at home.
Hard to prove it without getting in trouble. Actual fact, I voted 3 times. I retired from the military in Portland Oregon, and Oregon automatically registers you and sends you a ballot. I've always been registered in Texas so I got a ballot from them too. My third vote involved forging my non-voting son's signature on his ballot, so I'm not going to confess that. (Note, this all fell in my lap, although I am certainly not on board with cynical Trump Won movement, it does make one think what if someone was TRYING to do this).
Yup
this is the problem with automatic registration and mailed in ballots
there is no centralized system checking that people did not vote many times in many states
The outcome of the 2020 election was not at all shocking to poll watchers. Put it to rest man Trump just lost.
The Republicans are flailing, because Democrats and moderates are afraid to join the fight. The far left labels all their opponents as Republicans and conservatives rather than debate the issue ... and the DNC and the media, but I repeat myself, let them get away with it.
I agree with you about pressing all the Democratic reps (state & federal) and local school board. We do that.
That being said, my entire extended family of lifelong Democrats switched over in 2015 because the Democrat party changed, for the worse. We didn't change. They changed.
Arguably sensible.
But now we have one, maybe two, bathroom rapes by a "trans" male of a teenage girl.
Maybe we need to stop coddling this nonsense.
A society becomes insane when it lacks the gumption to enforce sane behavior.
It's a truly horrible story. A young girl in the ninth grade was raped and sodomized in the girl's bathroom at her school. The rapist was a biological male student who had an intact penis and was wearing a dress. The school did nothing. A couple of weeks later the same biological male student dragged another girl into an empty classroom and attacked her.
https://wiredailynews.com/2021/10/13/father-dragged-out-of-loudon-school-board-meeting-reveals-his-daughter-was-raped-by-fake-trans-student-and-school-board-did-nothing/
Loudon County Public Schools also declined to report another sexual assault in a locker room in 2018: https://www.dailywire.com/news/exclusive-loudoun-schools-did-not-record-multiple-alleged-sexual-assaults-over-a-period-of-years-despite-state-law-records-show https://www.loudountimes.com/news/more-three-teens-charged-in-tuscarora-high-school-assault/article_f2a64a4a-d8a0-11e8-b495-8396fc7e603a.html
Virginia Democrats Voted to Allow Schools to Refrain from Reporting Sexual Battery in 2020: https://www.yahoo.com/news/virginia-democrats-voted-allow-schools-125752632.html
This is a dystopian nightmare. No one is protecting teenage girls (or boys) from being sexually assaulted in the school bathrooms. Just sweep the violence and sexual perversion under the rug, and deny they ever happened. Loudon County, the state of Virginia, the Democratic party and the entire country have lost their way.
Not the first, that's for sure. The public did not find out about this until after the governor got the legislation he wanted. Look at the date: 2011.
https://patch.com/connecticut/stamford/stamford-transvestite-arrested-for-sexually-assaultin97e95e3e5e
I agree with Abigail. The anti-woke movement needs to become more strategic, and the way to do that is to focus on standing up for biological women.
A biological girl on testosterone who uses the boy's bathroom is the wrong battle to fight. But a ninth grade biological girl who gets raped and sodomized by a biological boy who sneaked into the girl's bathroom while wearing a dress is the kind of violent sexual crime that makes everyone's blood boil. If Abigail could interview the girl or her father, I think it would have a tremendous impact.
I'm a straight woman, but I feel it's vitally important to stand up for lesbians who are now being coerced into having sex with biological men with intact penises who claim to be "transgender lesbians." The men threaten to expose the women as "transphobes."
And how can anyone's heart not break for the women inmates in California's prisons who are now forced to share their jail cells with violent biological men who have gamed the system by claiming to be "transgender" despite having intact penises. These women, most of whom are in for nonviolent offenses like shoplifting, have been beaten raped and impregnated by their cellmates. And if they complain, they are labeled as "transphobic," and their sentences are lengthened. Perhaps Abigail could interview one of these unfortunate women after she's released.
What kind of sick, sordid Black Mirror world have we entered? I grow sick to my stomach just thinking about it.
Another winning strategic move is demanding parental rights over the medical care of their children.
Absolutely. Parents must have the right to control the medical care their children receive, especially when it comes to controversial areas like "transgender." The schools must not usurp that right.
Abigail, if you explore the items mentioned in the above comment, also try to find out more about the Washington State woman reportedly raped shortly after male convicts (who say they're women) arrived.
Thank you Abigail for speaking up about this madness. I too, thought this would never come knocking on my door. Until my teenage daughter one day declared in a letter that she is non binary, cut her hair off, and asked to be called he/they/ them. I am a life long democrat who always supported the right for all people to live as they wish. However, the social breakdown sponsored by the democrats is something I can no longer support. It is now in my backyard. Keep up the great work Abigail! Your book was sad but I loved it the truth shall prevail.
The tragic irony is that in their desire to avoid labels, girls are boxing themselves in with more narrow labels.
There is an explosion of teenage girls claiming to be non binary. It's sad to think they are rejecting femininity at such a young age, and I hope they will reclaim it by the time they hit their 20s. We, their grandmothers and mothers, have fought misogyny our entire lives and it's heartbreaking to think we've lost the battle, and that these girls have given up.
I am so sorry this happened to your daughter Leyla.
This is called Rapid-onset Gender Dysphoria & it is spreading like wildfire among pre-teen and teen girls. They do not have actual gender dysphoria. These are girls who consumed social media of Trans Influencers & Glitter moms groomed them into this. Sadly the vast majority of these girls greatly regret their decisions, but it is too late. Once you take the drugs/surgery, there are many harmful irreversible adverse effects.
https://www.parentsofrogdkids.com/
I'm about as (sane) a liberal as they come. I have never identified myself as a conservative nor a republican. I have never even voted Republican, though I did vote independent, green, and even libertarian. I guess, in a way it is people like me that can be partially blamed for what's happening. I'm sure a lot of us were blindsided by other, what at the time seemed like more.. Umm.. Important issues.
I have been trans "ally" and I guess I still am but I cannot be an ally to the insanity that's going on in trans "movement"
I don't see this as a right vs left issue. Or a Democrat vs Republican issue. I see it as a fantasy vs reality issue. Pseudoscience vs science issue. Common sense vs dogma issue.
It doesn’t matter how you see it. The far left portrays any opponents as right wing Republicans rather than debate opponents. That’s how we got here.
What has been most rewarding, about joining a grassroots organization to fight this ideology, is connecting with women across the political spectrum. It has been enlightening to listen to what brought each woman into our group. We bond over our rejection of the authoritarian and anti-truth mantra that trans women are women. It is heartening to connect with women (in lieu of twitter ranting) and discuss our perspectives. I am thankful for this. We will continue to fight the dogma of Canada's Bill C16 and the supposed (anti-woman) Human Rights Code that was produced by these ideologues. Thanks for what you do Abigail.
What group are you a member of?
Canadian Women's Sex-Based Rights
Ms. Shrier's call-to-arms banner "WE MUST WIN THE GENDER WAR" is a wimpy way to go about winning. In fact, the real war we are fighting is not about an ambiguous thing called gender. Using the opponent’s words will never win this war. Why not instead go for the jugular under the unambiguous banner “WE MUST DEFEAT SEX-CHANGE BELIEF.”
I completely agree with you that the word gender is preposterous nonsense. In place of the word gender, I use the word "sex." But whenever I do write the word "transgender" I put it within quotation marks to indicate I don't agree with the use of that term because it's physically impossible for a biological male or a biological female to ever change their sex.
I never, ever use the phrases "transgender male" or "transgender female." To replace "transgender male," I write something like "a biological male who claims to be a woman." I also use the phrase cross-sex hormones in place of "transgender" hormones. Finally, I never use vague and cutesy propaganda terms like"top surgery," "gender affimation surgery," or "gender confirmation surgery." Instead I use the actual medical terms such as"double mastectomy," "penectomy," or "phalloplasty" because these graphic terms tell the reader exactly what the surgeon chops off.
Thank you for the affirmation and for contributing to a table I'm building which translates misleading terms used by promoters of belief in sex change to unambiguous terms. I'm also assembling evidence that pre-school children are being indoctrinated into the belief that they can change sex. I think that the book "I am Jazz" will be one example.
You're very welcome.
How wonderful that you're creating a table to reveal the true meaning behind these vague and confusing euphemisms. The latest phrase I've come across is called "gender nullification surgery," in which the surgeon simply removes the genitals "to create a smooth look" and doesn't try to replace them with those of the opposite sex. There's a "male to nullo" and a "female to nullo."
Here are a few more words you might (or might not) want to consider: dismemberment, dismember, castrate, castration, castrato, castrati, amputate, amputation, amputee, mutilate, mutilation, self-mutilation, self harm, female genital mutilation, male genital mutilation, male eunuch, female eunuch, Munchausen syndrome, Munchausen syndrome by proxy (Jazz's mother), cross-dressers, autogynephilia, autogynephile, delusion. mass psychosis, moral panic, gender fluidity, "transgender lesbian."
It's outrageous that young children are being indoctrinated with dangerous nonsense about unicorns and mermaids during drag queen story hour in the children's room at the local public library. "I am Jazz" is one book, but there are many, many others. Amazon lists hundreds under the search term I used, "transgender books for children."
Here's a particularly disturbing one I just stumbled on "Being You: A First Conversation About Gender." This book is aimed at innocent three year old toddlers who are probably still drinking from sippy cups and wearing pull up paper diapers. The book is jam packed with so much "transgender" propaganda, George Orwell must be rolling in his grave.
https://smile.amazon.com/dp/B08KVQG1N3/ref=docs-os-doi_0
Wow, is this really a thing? People are aspiring to mold their bodies to look like a living Ken Doll, with no genitals whatsoever?? That is WILD! I have to be say, in some sort of highly abstracted, biology rejecting way, "gender nullification" is sort of more honest, and gets more to the point, than an elaborate masquerade of trying to appear like something one is not with faux surgically created genitals and an accompanying metaphysical rationale.
Yes. "Gender nullification surgery" is really a thing, but it's very new in the US. As far as I can tell, only two surgical groups offer it, both in the San Francisco Bay Area. Here's a link to the before and after photos, but they'll probably turn your stomach, as they did mine.
https://www.alignsurgical.com/gallery/gender-expansive-bottom-surgery/
Oy. I honestly couldn't tell which was supposed to be the before and which the after, it was such a scary gallery.
Coincidentally, just today some rather shocking news has come out of Loudon County ....
See here: https://thepostmillennial.com/loudon-county-school-sexual-assault?utm_campaign=64470
https://www.dailywire.com/news/loudoun-county-schools-tried-to-conceal-sexual-assault-against-daughter-in-bathroom-father-says
... all of which suggests the whole "bathroom debate" may not be entirely trivial, and that conservatives may well have a point!
That said, the narrow restriction of the much larger gender war to the "bathroom debate" has indeed been counterproductive (both tactically and morally).
"conservatives may well have a point"
Hmmm, allowing men to indiscriminately "identify" as women and enter their changerooms and bathrooms? Men commit more than 80% of violent crimes. Women who are the overwhelmingly victims.
A point?
How ideologically possessed must one be to think it is a good idea to allow men to say "i am a woman" and by law provide their unfettered access to women's changerooms/rape shelters/ showers/ prisons/psych wards?
I have had enough men grope me, jack off in front of me, expose themselves, proposition me, leer at me, and gawk at my daughter to know this was a BAD idea - has zero to do with being conservative, green, liberal, democrat, republican, libertarian.
Males and females are the same on many dimensions but importantly different on some very KEY dimensions and this truth must be recognized.
It is shocking.
Boys and men DO care about females in the bathroom with them, especially in middle school and high school. But also as adults. (I know 2 men who have told me how uncomfortable they are with the sudden opening of their men's rooms to women who are pretending to be men.) Moreover sacrificing the boys, paves the way for sacrificing the girls. Once you've said, Fine, we'll ignore the truth here (i.e. that this person calling herself HE is a she), you can't insist on it over here (where a boy is calling himself she.)
Also, as a left-wing person, I want to point out that there are tons of us on the left who see what's being done under the banner of the Left as unacceptable. It contradicts everything we stand for. I've been enjoying working with conservative people on these issues. We all see some way forward that unites us as working people..... The oligarchs have been calling the shots for eons, pitting so-called Left against so-called Right, but on many vital issues, working people can and must unite.
"I've been enjoying working with conservative people on these issues. We all see some way forward that unites us as working people..... The oligarchs have been calling the shots for eons, pitting so-called Left against so-called Right, but on many vital issues, working people can and must unite."
Absolutely! Working people need to stand up, for our communities, for our families. The CEOs, billionaires, corporations, politicians, lobbyists & media promote hatred of Left vs Right, hating the other side, because they don't want us working together for the common good. The news media gets people riled up about random nonsense, rather than what's actually important for our communities. The oligarchs want to maintain power & money
Media: when Trump signed the Great American Outdoors Act, $3 billion/year to conservation projects, maintenance of national parks & public lands, with overwhelming approval by both parties in Congress, the media focused on "Trump mispronounces Yosemite"..... seriously? Or when Trump signed 5 Middle East peace treaties, media focused on "Trump wasn't wearing a mask".
https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/cnn-weirdly-focuses-on-mask-shaming-while-covering-historic-middle-east-peace-agreement
https://www.cnn.com/2020/09/15/politics/donald-trump-middle-east-agreement-coronavirus/index.html
https://ktla.com/news/nationworld/trump-signs-3-billion-a-year-plan-to-boost-conservation-parks/
There has to be a way to support truly gender dysphoric individuals without asking every young child to think deeply about whether they are a boy or a girl. Young children don't need to be thinking about this. I can't believe this is the liberal response to conversion therapy. And therapists and pediatricians should absolutely be questioning this harmful fad and screaming about it from every rooftop.
Us pediatricians are very concerned but no one wants to lose their jobs.
Social media, unfortunately, has created an environment where anything anyone does is broadcast publicly, to lunatic Woke Activists whose entire life is based around getting people cancelled.
The term "biological female" is redundant. Females are female because of their biology. Male and female are sexed categories. Please stop using the gobbledygook language of the Woke. There are only 2 sexes, male or female. "Trans" is not a sex. "Trans" is either a persona, a body dissociative disorder, or the cry-bully arm of the ca$h cow "sex/gender reassignment" industry. No drugs or surgeries can "reassign" a little boy's body into a "girl" body or vice versa, therefore no child can "trans" to the sex they are not. "Gender reassigned" children just means life-long, sterilized, medical patient. Our sex is stamped on every cell in our bodies. The Woke have made the word - gender, meaningless. #SexNotGender
Yes. I agree the term "gender" is meaningless nonsense.
I also agree the term "biological female" is linguistically redundant. It's a shame that many of us who oppose this "transgender" nonsense feel we must use the phrase "biological female" for emphasis and clarity to a wide range of people, some of whom never took high school biology. But the woke crowd hates the term. The only words they allow people to use are "woman," "transwoman," "cisgender woman" or "ciswoman."
To refer to any woman (especially if they're a "transgender man") as a "biological female" drives the woke language police crazy because it reminds everyone that you can pump yourself full of hormones and hack off your genitals with a machete, but you can never change your sex, your "biological sex."
Magnificent! You're exactly right: we conservatives always fight on the left's turf and so we lose every battle. Surely it's common sense on both sides that surgery and drugs that cause irreversible damage shouldn't be the immediate response to a gender-confused teenager, and yet the far-left is winning.
No, we lose because conservatives stand alone. The far left labels their opponents as far right conservative Republicans rather than debate the issue and the media is clearly on their side. This keeps moderate Democrats and independents from joining the fight.
We are going to end up with a generation of non-cis children who have been castrated and/or sterilized. If you tried to impose these medical treatments as punishment they would be condemned as crimes against humanity.
Yes. What young American girls have been brainwashed into doing to their bodies is far worse than the female genital mutilation carried out by the Taliban. And we're all supposed to "celebrate" this. The "transgender" mass psychosis never ceases to amaze me.
Recent events in Loudoun County, Virginia, will change this debate. Scott Smith, a parent of a high school girl, was arrested June 22, 2021, at a school board meeting. It turns out he was there to ask the board what they were doing about his daughter being raped in the girls bathroom by a boy in a dress in May. This arrest was cited in the letter to Attorney General Garland, which lead Garland to call on the FBI to investigate unhappy parents as domestic terrorists.
In the meeting that Smith was arrested at, the school board said there were no incidents connected with their transgender policy. The alleged rapist was quitely transferred to another school, where he allegedly raped another girl in October.
Smith's arrest was designed to cover up the story. I can't think of anything that will inflame parents more than this story.
Except that not a single mainstream/left leaning news organization is reporting on it. The sole article in any such institutional media is from the Washington Post, and it does not mention even once that the assailant was a boy wearing a skirt who identified as non-binary, or that the issue under discussion at the school board meeting was "gender free" bathrooms. It just describes it as a cause of parents being mad that sexual assault wasn't taken more seriously.
Funny how in this single instance where it involves sexual assault, the perpetrator is referred to repeatedly as a "male". Not as a "boy" or a "girl" or a "him" or a "her" or as "they" or "them" or as trans (though normally they consider non-binary to be under that umbrella). As soon as there is something negative attached, they totally ditch all their normal language standards and just refer to biological sex. Really quite amazing. In any other article that wasn't about a violent criminal offense, this boy would be referred to by his preferred gender identity and pronouns, and absolutely not by his biological sex.
In spite of the ongoing Cultural Revolution, the US is still a long way from Red China. The anti-woke Soccer Moms exchange information. This news can be suppressed for 5 months, but not forever.
Coverups of the ongoing disaster of the Biden Administration are removing much of the credibility of censored news and social media. Cheers of "Let's go Brandon!" only emphasize how filtered the news is. (The actual cheer was F Joe Biden! but the announcer "heard" it differently.) CNN has lost over half its audience. That's why sites like this one are rising in viewers.