I could say "we told you so"
but I feel sad and angry that this is where we are and so many of our leaders and schools are pushing for more of it
I believe the first time I was called transphobic on a public platform was over three years ago. I forget exactly when. I just remember it was someone I considered a friend. She also abruptly blocked me on Twitter. My crime? Comparing the amount of media coverage of transgender students and school bathrooms to the coverage of our reading and literacy crisis. It’s reasonable to object or disagree with me making the comparison but transphobic? Obviously not —but that was an important foreshadowing of what was to come.
After I posted this tweet, which I still stand by today, a professional colleague with whom I had a friendly relationship privately messaged to say that she was cutting off all social media connections with me because I wanted to deprive her child of civil rights.
In the couple minutes it took me to draft a short response saying that while I didn’t see it that way, I appreciated her letting me know, I had already been blocked and was unable to send the message. That was on Facebook.
Today a story was published in The Free Press that is understandably shocking the conscience of readers. Much of the information is not new but because it is coming from someone very much on the left who spent years working in a gender clinic and is part of the “LGBTQ” community, it seems to be landing differently than the truckloads of testimony that already exists from patients and parents very familiar with transgender “medicine.”
The author describes herself this way:
Below is just an excerpt to give you a sense of what she shares in her brave effort to expose what is really happening to children across our country and being aggressively pushed not only by the Biden administration but also by the American Academy of Pediatrics.
Upon reading the whole piece, my conscience is less shocked than many but only because I was already aware of most of what the author describes—the topic most prevalent in my work at Parents Defending Education over the past year has been the transgender activism, gender ideology and queer theory that has steamrolled its way into our K-12 schools, including in the very early grades, by way of state standards, school curriculum, official district policies, partnerships with local gender clinics, school counseling, extra-curricular clubs as well as resource lists that provide students a direct line from school to gender clinics that prescribe puberty blockers and cross sex hormones. Often the school is the first stop on the way to medicalization at a gender clinic.
And whether in California, Iowa, Idaho or Rhode Island, policies passed by school boards require that parents be kept in the dark—even lied to—about their own children’s gender transition if that’s what the minor child wants. Being their parent is not considered “a legitimate reason to know” that their child has changed their name and is using the restroom and locker room of the opposite sex.
Needless to say that when the wheels come off down the road—which they almost always do— and the child realizes they were never transgender but that the problem(s) lay elsewhere— none of the school employees who pushed them down that road are ever around to help pick up the pieces.
What pieces?
Shame.
Fear.
Guilt.
Decreased bone density.
A beard that won’t stop growing.
A low voice that will never return to the way it was.
Sterility and infertility.
Inability to ever breastfeed a child because their breasts are gone.
The loss of their penis and testicles.
Inability to ever have an orgasm.
Untreated mental health conditions.
A mutilated body.
More from the piece:
I have been astounded and saddened by the many smart people I know and respect who jumped aboard the gender bandwagon in order to signal their progressive cred and stay in the good graces of their “tribe.” Of course there are some who are so deep into the social justice ideology behind trans activism that they sincerely believe they are doing the right thing. It will be painful for them when they come to terms with what is really going on. Most others, across the political spectrum, know it’s wrong but choose to say nothing for a variety of reasons including fear of being called “transphobic” or losing their job. And don’t even get me started on how virtually zero Democrats (it may literally be zero) in office are willing to stand up and say NO to this madness. Partisanship is a poisonous drug but I still find it hard to believe that all our elected officials in one party have decided to let countless children be destroyed instead of stand up to the activists that apparently own them.
I have a few friends who tell me that if a girl is not comfortable with a boy in her bathroom or locker room, it’s her problem and she needs to find alternative accommodations. Others use the word bigotry to describe the high school and college female athletes who don’t think they should have to see a man’s penis in their locker room. What does one say to that other than, are you f****** kidding me? And honestly, boys also deserve the right to change in the locker room without a girl watching them. The physical safety concerns are far greater for girls but I’m on the team that believes boys and girls both deserve single sex spaces to pee, shower and change their clothes.
Honestly, the best thing to do is take the time to read the whole piece by Jamie Reed which is linked below. But brace yourself—in this case, the tired cliché “the truth hurts” is an understatement. The courage it took for her to write and publish this cannot be overstated.
I have also listed a small sampling of articles, resources and a video interview with a mom that can help you get a sense of what is really happening.
What Americans Need to Know About How Western Europe Is Protecting Children from Gender Ideology
Kettle Moraine School District attempted to transition sixth grade student against objection of parents (Wisconsin)
12-year-old student invited to after-school art club finds herself in a meeting about trans and queer identity where she is told to keep secrets and that parents aren’t safe
Billboard Chris
Don't fail to note that our brave whistleblower remains firmly in the cult; she calls herself a queer woman married to a trans man.
No, she's a lesbian married to a lesbian simulating a man, and she's just gotten a little squeamish about the kids now. But she's demonstrating to the kids she herself gave birth to, and to the three she hopes to adopt, that it's possible to *be* trans; after all, Daddy is, right?
And do please further note that she stayed a Good German for a good long time; as she says, her employer provides tuition assistance for the kids of employers and she didn't want to risk those benefits by speaking out earlier. After all, she tried, right? She kept communicating her unease, right? Until the smoke from the ovens began burning her throat?
Sorry. Mental illness is a dreadful thing; for those suffering from intractable forms, their lives are crippled; for those managed on medication, there are still many challenges in trying to get through life.
But there's quite the trend now of suggesting that there are "good" trans people who only want adults to have the right to mutilate themselves, and the "bad" trans people who want to start early on manufacturing little synthetic children to stock the cult with.
It's not a political fight, though too many make it so; any person identifying as trans has very serious emotional problems, at the least, and they aren't good resources for anyone trying to make sense of this phenomenon.
And the desisters' and detransitioners' publicity tours are equally troubling. These people remain in a highly emotionally toxic world; they've just changed horses, and if they have the history of trauma and mental health struggles they claim, they too are not perhaps the best source of advice here. They're still trying to get validation from others.
Sure, it's a horror for everyone touched by it, which is everyone, in one way or another, but we all need to be as clear-eyed as possible and give no collaborator or facilitator any intellectual quarter.
Erika, thank you for being brave and standing against this horrific injustice. This was an important piece you put together, bringing us both your words and the words of others who have significant things to say on the issue of the dangers of radical gender ideology.