The distraction of our current political discourse today is this transgender nonsense. Most of it is NOBODY’S BUSINESS, but asking the disinterested (like myself) to not just accept but to advocate and applaud is beyond decency. And truth.
I am not a doctor. The few transgender people I have perceived to be in casual contact with in both a personal and professional setting have been civil and business-like. Which is right where I want all my casual relationships.
Adults can do what they want if it does not infringe on anyone else. Call it the American Golden Rule.
The nonsensical flashpoint then comes down to “what about the children?” This is always emotional and here it is terrifically ironic. If everyone spent their energy nurturing their own kids instead of caterwauling “for the children” we would have a
much better world for them, I think. But I digress.
The answer to “what about the children?” is simple: Parents should call the shots, and take full responsibility, until majority. Full stop.
Parents are supposed to protect, provide, and point the way.
Parents. Not teachers or social workers or legislatures.
Parenting, initiated by procreation, is inalienable and sometimes accidental, but the joy of human existence is the wonder of it all, its hopes and dreams and unpredictability. No one can tell you that you must conceive or that you can’t. The problem here is that parenting is the most difficult, frustrating, time-consuming, unforgiving, and, yes, fulfilling job in the world.
Again, I am not a doctor. There are more medical anomalies that have never become TV sit-coms or made the evening news than we can imagine. Parents are torn emotionally for the sake of their child’s suffering with the physicality and mental peace of everything from a harelip to genuine gender dysphoria. My heart aches for the parents and the child – but we know that kids are very flexible and respond to love.
I am not a shrink. The whole thing trans thing seems strange and weird to me, but it is none of my business. Yes, I resent being told I have a phobia on anything that a reasonable person might have reservations about. I know the truth when I see it. Don’t assume I will celebrate an untruth.
With minors, patience and caution and unconditional love should control in a gender dysphoria situation. Ultimately the decision to take steps like hormone blockers and “top” surgeries, leading to full and irreversible commitment of “bottom” surgeries is for the parents and medical providers to decide.
The harelip surgery is easy. Gender change surgery is not. The science is incomplete, therapy is always warranted, and most children grow out of their situation, but… the issue is for parents and medical providers to decide.
Legislatures should stay away. Teachers should support parents; doctors should proceed with an abundance of caution.
It should go without saying that parents should be involved in ALL MINOR children’s medical procedures, and that includes everything from tattoos to abortions. Most teens do not look beyond the weekend when it comes to sex or pregnancy risk or pushing ink into their skin. Feels good, looks cool.
Parents should have the final say in ALL medical decisions for their minor children. See a pattern here?
I am not a doctor. I believe that legitimate surgeries are getting lumped into a faux ideology of gender fluid thinking. It is a shame that some pseudo-journalists report a one-in-a-zillion anecdote and politicians create and wave a bloody shirt to create social and civil separation between us all.
This issue is a distraction from important policy questions: immigration, Ukraine, the debt, inflation, and parental involvement in their own children’s education.
And boys playing girls’ sports? Stop the insanity. Total nonsense, and anyone who says boys who identify as girls should play with girls’ teams is a complete idiot.
Parents must call the shots with medical care for their children. We are not perfect, but we are doing the best we can.
One final caveat, to the medical professionals who feel a need to lecture anyone on the legitimacy of gender reassignment therapies and surgeries for pre-teens and teens.
Doctors, y
ou better get it right. Much of the process is not reversible. If your motive is profit or notoriety you will have to answer to a higher power. May God have mercy on your soul.
Peace. Out.
If you are interested in doing the homework…
The Economist: April 5, 2023, “What American has got wrong about gender medicine”
American Dysphoria in Children, from the American College of Pediatricians, November 2018. Primary Author Michelle Cretella, MD
See the website: best4children.org