By Janet Levy, AM THINKER 8.5.23
What is a Woman? You can no longer answer the question with alacrity. In a 2022 documentary of the same name, when Matt Walsh poses that question to someone identifying as a gay male, he is told, “You should be asking a woman. I don‘t know; I‘m not a woman. Only women can define what a woman is.” Not missing a beat, and putting the absurdity into sharp relief, Walsh rejoins by asking, “Are you a cat?” and following up the “No” with “Do you know what a cat is?” The interviewee flees.
The dangerous trend to promote gender fluidity is concurrent with a movement to allow anyone to arrogate female status to himself. Gender confusion often leads to tragic, lifelong, and irreversible consequences. It must be noted, however, that the male-to-female transition by self-declaration has far greater societal impact than the reverse. Males identifying as females hijack women‘s sports and appropriate women‘s spaces, often opportunistically or predatorily. Radical ideology aims to eliminate sex distinctions under the guise of civil rights. Its most egregious part is the targeting of minors, preying on their developing and fragile sense of identity. For this reason, many states have passed or are considering legislation to safeguard minors and women.
The fightback is on four fronts: a) banning gender-transitioning surgeries and treatments for minors; b) banning age-inappropriate curricula, transition coaching, and events like drag queen story hour, often thrust on minors without parental consent; c) preventing males from using women‘s bathrooms and locker rooms; and d) ending the invasion of girls’ and women‘s sports by males identifying as females.
At least 16 states have passed or are developing laws to stop the targeting of children for transitioning. This is important because many so-called progressive states have aggressive indoctrination and transitioning programs that do not spare minors. Cases abound of individuals regretting transition once gender dysphoria is resolved; they often end up with lifelong infertility and disfigurement and may need multiple remedial interventions.
The ideological insanity is dangerously tied to the burgeoning gender surgery market, euphemistically called “gender-affirming care.” From one gender clinic in 2007, America now has over 50. In 2021, the market was valued at $1.9 billion per year; the earlier the intervention, the greater the profits. The Harvard-affiliated Boston Children‘s Hospital (BCH) led this insanity, creating the country‘s first pediatric and adolescent transgender program. In a recent video (now removed), a BCH psychologist claimed that “a good portion” of children know their gender identity “from the womb.” Activist Chris Elston (Billboard Chris) revealed BCH videos offering double-mastectomies for 15-year-olds and genital surgeries for patients as young as 17.
It‘s worse in North Carolina, where Duke University, the University of North Carolina, and ECU Health offer transgender treatments for two-, three-, and four-year-olds, respectively. These programs are precursors to aggressive medical and surgical intervention, and they propel “social transitioning” in preschoolers through dressing, acting, using self-descriptive language, and accessing facilities matching gender identities the children are probably unclear about.
States banning such intervention include North Dakota, Kentucky, Kansas, and Tennessee. Gov. Doug Burgum of North Dakota — a state set to pass a slew of such laws this year — recently signed into law a bill (HB 1254) that makes “gender-transitioning” of minors a crime punishable with $20,000 in fines and 10 years’ imprisonment. Republicans in Kentucky‘s House of Representatives have passed a bill (H.B. 470) prohibiting transgender treatment of minors. In Kansas, the House and Senate passed a bill (KS S.B. 26) to revoke licenses of doctors providing minors gender altering procedures, but Democrat governor Laura Kelly has vetoed it with other similar laws. Tennessee has banned the use of puberty-blockers, hormone therapy, or surgery for minors. Victims may sue parents and physicians who authorize transgender care.
Groups such as Parents Defending Education and the Child and Parental Rights Campaign are opposing the indoctrination of schoolchildren, pressing for laws opposing ideology-driven curricula focusing on race, sex, and sexual orientation. School programs range from a Philadelphia public school characterizing drag queen story hour as promoting literacy “with style, flair, and creativity” to a California school manipulating a seventh-grader to change her gender identity without her parents’ knowledge.
Sixteen states have filed at least 30 bills to prevent school instruction in LGBTQ matters and gender identity. Florida has banned such instruction through grades K–12, Arkansas prohibits it before the fifth grade, and Kansas allows families to keep children out of such instruction. Kansas also prohibits transgenders from rooming with students of the opposite sex on school trips. Twenty-four states have 43 bills prohibiting teachers from using pronouns that don‘t align with a student‘s birth sex without parental consent.
Women silence is DEAFENING!