"Freedom is the freedom to say that two plus two makes four. If that is granted, all else follows."
--- George Orwell, 1984
Let me begin by saying that I honestly, sincerely do NOT care if you 'identify' as a leprechaun or a seahorse. If you also don't care that I identify as a realist and have my own personal concepts of reality, have my own worldview and beliefs, we'll get along just fine.
I won't push my agenda, you won't expect me to convert to yours. The scales will balance, as all scales should.
Mutual respect, which some say must be 'earned', is necessary to a sane, rational, peaceful and successful society.
Where total agreement with others is impossible, "agreeing to disagree" solves a lot of conflict. We shake hands, hug, and go down our chosen paths realizing our paths may cross again, but if/when they do, we have already resolved the issue and can meet as respectful members of the same society of humankind.
EVERYONE HAS THE RIGHT TO HIS OR HER OWN OPINION.
Facing the reality that others don't see things as we do can hurt, but, for most, reality is NOT a weapon of mass destruction and disagreements don't lead to violence or hatred or ill intent. Recognizing and facing hard truths can be life-saving, perhaps especially in the medical profession.
OUR CHILDREN IN A CHANGING WORLD.
I recently came across what may or may not be an overblown situation that occurred in a middle school in Ohio. It involved a young man whose friend was transitioning from male to female and was possibly about to undergo hormone therapy.
My mind immediately went back to the day my son lost his best friend in grade school to sudden cardiac death. He asked me where his friend was, wanted to see him again, could not quite resolve the sudden loss in his 6-year-old mind.
I imagined that, most likely, the students in the article were all similarly emotionally challenged at the idea of their friend's sexual transition. It's not exactly a common situation young people encounter every day, nor is it something every parent or every teacher is properly equipped to address.
Being 'retired from medicine', having a background in psychology, I admit, I wondered if and hoped that the transitioning child was given ample counseling, was made fully aware of the long-term effects of the transition and mature enough to make this choice. No two children mature at the same rate, biologically or emotionally.
While one child in a family can cope with loss, things like divorce, death of a family member or a beloved friend or pet, moving away from family and friends, etc., others just cannot do so as easily. For some, loss of a favorite toy is incredibly traumatic, while others shrug and go on.
As I read the (perhaps 'hyped') article <HERE> originally, I noticed the subtle, and not so subtle, hostility, even a bit of 'gloating' by the authors and some involved in the situation at both sites that reported it. I questioned their intent and their reasons for expanding on a simple enough story.
"FIRST, DO NO HARM"
Mostly, I felt concerned for ALL the children. In every situation where any harm at all, of any type, might come to a child, I will stand with the children, for the children.
The headline used is quite telling as to what the article intends to promote, what their stance is:
"Sixth grader dragged out of class for saying gender-confused boy ‘is a boy’"
No, no one "dragged" him. And I see no one listed as contributors with qualifying credentials that would allow them to diagnose "Boy A" as "gender-confused". That child was NOT even interviewed.
"In a redacted letter to the school district, Liberty Counsel said 'Boy A' had started publicly identifying as a female this spring. It became “heavily discussed at the school, particularly by a group of girls” in John’s classes who quickly started treating Boy A as a girl and frequently discussed his transition with him in art class.
John is also in that class, and considers Boy A a friend. He was “subjected to conversations about these issues constantly, on at least a weekly or semi-weekly basis,” because the girls and Boy A sat directly behind him.
On May 13 the girls claimed that “taking girl hormones” and eventually getting his “male private parts removed” would turn Boy A into a girl.
John “disagreed as a factual matter” and said Boy A was “not a girl.” Another boy agreed that sex is “what you’re born with,” and cannot be changed by hormones and surgery, and a third boy “may have said something to a similar effect,” according to Liberty Counsel.
Their art teacher overheard the conversation and reported John and the boys to the assistant principal, claiming they were “bullying” Boy A and that the third boy called him a “homosexual.”
The assistant principal, who is not named, called John into her office the next day and warned him “there might be consequences” because he called Boy A a boy and used male pronouns. She pulled him out of his physical education class that afternoon “in front of his friends” and apparently warned him again that he could be punished if he refuses to refer to Boy A as a girl.
According to Liberty Counsel, John learned “the other boys received in-school suspension” that day for their participation in the conversation, and out-of-school suspension the following day.
The assistant principal called John’s mother that day and said he was suspended only from gym class because though he misgendered Boy A, she didn’t believe that John was participating in the “bullying.”
Liberty Counsel told the school district it was not legally allowed to “silence students who respectfully disagree” with their classmates that “castration is a good thing” for Boy A.
It can’t force John to “encourage” Boy A in his gender identity, because that could play a role in the student deciding to taking “[potentially] harmful cross-sex hormones” and seeking what can be described as “non-medically necessary” [and irreversible] surgery.
Citing the Supreme Court’s Tinker ruling, which bans schools from suppressing the peacefully expressed beliefs of students, Liberty Counsel told the school district it was singling out John for participating “in conversation during school time where students may talk” about “otherwise permissible subjects of discussion.”
It emphasized that John was “repeatedly subjected” to these conversations in art class, with the teacher apparently allowing students to affirm Boy A’s gender identity but not allowing anyone to disagree with it.
Liberty Counsel threatened to sue if the school district did not expunge John’s record for the incident, agree not to punish or coerce students for “respectful disagreement” with transgender ideology and allow students to use gender pronouns correctly, the letter said.
In a response letter, the school district’s law firm denied that John had been formally disciplined, that his “temporary removal” from class was not recorded, and that the Board of Education does not punish students for “respectful disagreement on any topic.”
The letter stated, "The Board of Education does not discipline students for using certain pronouns in referring to students or coerce any student to use a particular pronoun. Staff may inform students that a particular student prefers to be referred to as a particular pronoun. However, that would only occur with consent of the student and his or her parents, but no student would be required to use the preferred pronoun."
WHO KNOWS IF THAT'S THE END OF THAT STORY, BUT IT SHOULD HELP MAKE US AWARE THAT THERE IS, INDEED, A WHOLE NEW WORLD OUT THERE AND ONE THAT FEW, ESPECIALLY CHILDREN, ARE PROPERLY EQUIPPED TO DEAL WITH.
SEEMS TO ME THAT THE 'ADULTS' INVOLVED AT THE SCHOOL AND IN THE REPORTING MAY HAVE EXACERBATED THE PROBLEM OF DEALING WITH THIS RELATIVELY RARE SITUATION FOR ALL CHILDREN INVOLVED.
WHO AMONG THE ADULTS LOOKED AT THIS FROM BOTH 'BOY A' AND JOHN'S EYES?
DID ANYONE SAY, "LET'S TRY FACTS AND LOGIC"?
WHAT ABOUT A 4-YEAR-OLD HAVING SEX-REASSIGNMENT SURGERY?
(SEE ARTICLE CITED NEAR THE END OF THIS BLOG)
FIRST, THERE IS A DIFFERENCE BETWEEN THE SEXES/GENDERS OF A HUMAN AND A HUMAN'S 'SEXUAL ORIENTATION'. THIS IS WHERE SO MUCH CONFLICT STEMS FROM.
THERE IS NOTHING WRONG WITH MAKING THAT DISTINCTION.
CAN ONE BE "BORN MALE/FEMALE" BUT NEVER BE COMFORTABLE OR CONTENT WITH THAT GENDER ASSIGNMENT?
OBVIOUSLY SO.
I'VE HAD PATIENTS TELL ME IT'S LIKE LIVING A NEVER-ENDING NIGHTMARE.
BIOLOGICALLY/SCIENTIFICALLY SPEAKING, MOST RECOGNIZE THREE POSSIBLE HUMAN SEXES: FEMALE, MALE AND INTERSEX, FORMERLY REFERRED TO AS HERMAPHRODITES, OR THOSE WHO CAN BE BORN WITH BOTH THE SEX ORGANS AND SEX-DOMINANT HORMONES OF A FEMALE AND A MALE.
"Some intersex persons may be assigned and raised as a girl or boy but then identify with another gender later in life, while most continue to identify with their assigned sex."
[SEE: Furtado P. S.; et al. (2012). "Gender dysphoria associated with disorders of sex development". Nat. Rev. Urol. 9 (11): 620–627]
VETERINARIANS SPEAK OF ONLY TWO GENDERS/SEXES, MALE AND FEMALE.
BOTANISTS AND ZOOLOGISTS SEE MALE, FEMALE AND ASEXUAL.
NONE OF THOSE ADULTS IN THE ABOVE ARTICLE SEEM TO BE AWARE OF IMPORTANT NEW STUDIES THAT HAVE REVEALED JUST HOW "GENDER-SPECIFIC" OUR AMAZING HUMAN BODIES ARE.
WHAT WE ARE RECENTLY DISCOVERING INVOLVES 'WHOLE-BODY SEXUALITY', AND WE'LL BE USING THAT FINDING TO TREAT DISEASE BY "BIRTH GENDER" IN ORDER TO PROMOTE BETTER HEALTH OUTCOMES, BECAUSE RESEARCHERS HAVE FOUND THAT "EVERY CELL HAS A SPECIFIC SEX".
THIS SHOULD LEAD TO INCREDIBLE NEW METHODS OF TREATMENT OF HUMAN DISEASE, HOPEFULLY, TO CURES THAT WERE ONCE SEEN AS ELUSIVE OR 'IMPOSSIBLE'.
HOW?
BY RECOGNIZING THE SEX OF EACH CELL IN EACH ORGAN OF OUR BODIES AND THEIR PREVALENCE TO GENDER-TARGETED DISEASE AND ILLNESS. .
There are more than 6,500 very unique differences at the DNA level between the sexes which CANNOT be changed by hormone therapy or any amount of surgery.
A study by Weizmann Institute of Science professor Shmuel Pietrokovski and Dr. Moran Gershoni, both researchers from the institute’s Molecular Genetics Department, “looked closely at around 20,000 protein-coding genes, sorting them by sex and searching for differences in expression in each tissue. They eventually identified around 6,500 genes with activity that was biased toward one sex or the other in at least one tissue, adding to the already major biological differences between men and women.”
Every Cell Has a Sex
"These findings argue that there are multiple, ubiquitous differences in the basic cellular biochemistry of males and females that can affect an individual's health. Many of these differences do not necessarily arise as a result of differences in the hormonal environment of the male and female but are a direct result of the genetic differences between the two sexes.
Viewed from a purely reductionist standpoint, many differences between the male and female sexes are predicted to be rooted in differences between the genetic contents of male and female cells and differences in the expression of those genetic contents.
The precise composition and functioning of thousands of proteins will differ between any two individuals.
"The phenotypic differences between males and females are determined, initially, by genes on the sex chromosomes. Sex chromosome-linked genes can be expressed in both germ-line and somatic cells and could influence an individual's phenotype, including disease susceptibility, at many levels."
We’ve been taught that other than X and Y, males and females are genetically exactly the same.
They aren’t.
DOES THAT REALLY MATTER?
Dr. David Page, Director of the Whitehead Institute, professor of biology at MIT, and MacArthur 'Genius Grant' winner, says it absolutely does. He has discovered that both the X and Y chromosomes function throughout the entire body, not just within the reproductive tract.
He explained all this in 'Ted-Talk' video.
"That humans are all 99.9% identical turns out to be correct --as long as the two individuals being compared are both men.
It's also correct, if the two individuals being compared are both women.
However, if you compare the genome of a man with the genome of a woman, you'll find that they are actually only 98.5% identical.
In other words, the genetic difference between a man and a woman is 15 times the genetic difference between two men or between two women."
In his words, “Human Genome, we have a problem.”
Medicine and research fails to take into account this most fundamental difference. We are different, and our bodies know this – every cell knows it at the molecular level, according to Dr. Page's extensive research and its findings.
I SINCERELY HOPE PARENTS AND PHYSICIANS OF TRANSITIONING CHILDREN ARE MADE AWARE OF THESE FINDINGS AND PASS THE NEW KNOWLEDGE ON TO THEIR CHILDREN AND IMPRESS UPON THEM HOW IMPORTANT IT IS TO MAKE FUTURE PHYSICIANS AWARE OF BIRTH GENDER.
HOPEFULLY, IN THE NEAR FUTURE, PHYSICIANS AND HOSPITALS WILL HAVE THE 'NEW TOOL KIT' AVAILABLE THAT LETS THEM DETERMINE QUICKLY IF THE PATIENT IS CISGENDER OR TRANSGENDER.
WILL SUCH A TOOLKIT COMFORT OR HORRIFY THIS CHILD? HOW CAN WE KNOW FOR SURE IF NO ONE OFFERS COUNSEL ABOUT IT?
SURELY, IN COUNSELING, 'BOY A' HAS BEEN MADE FULLY AWARE OF THE PROBLEMS THAT CAN ARISE IF, AS A TRANSWOMAN, SHE EVER DESIRES CHILDREN.
IS THIS CHILD EMOTIONALLY CAPABLE OF MAKING SUCH A MAJOR DECISION?
CAN THIS CHILD REMOTELY IMAGINE A FUTURE DAY THAT SHE MIGHT REGRET THE DECISION TO NEVER SIRE A CHILD AND/OR HER INABILITY TO BECOME PREGNANT?
WILL CHILD "A" BE ADVISED THAT SPERM CAN BE FROZEN FOR FUTURE USE, AND CAN THE PARENTS AFFORD THIS OR EVEN AGREE TO IT?
IS THIS CHILD COMPLETELY AWARE OF CURRENT PROBLEMS THAT TRANS COUPLES FACE?
IT'S FINE TO STAND WITH CHILDREN WHO DESIRE TO TRANSITION, BUT GIVE THEM BOTH THE "GOOD AND BAD NEWS" ABOUT THE AFTERMATH OF TRANSITIONING AND EVERY WORD OF INFORMATION ABOUT THE PROCESS THAT CURRENTLY EXISTS.
The new medical findings, mentioned above, are further evidence that biological males cannot expect to become females at the molecular level and vice versa.
At the molecular level we're all stuck with what we were born with.
Physiologically speaking, there IS a gender gap between men and women that cannot be erased.
A fully transitioned, sex-reassigned (all reproductive organs and external genitalia surgically removed, plus hormone therapy, etc) male to female will not, for example, be able to produce eggs, become pregnant nor pass on mitochondria as a cisgender (born-female who accepts her birth sex assignment) can.
A fully transitioned female to male will not be able to produce sperm to impregnate a cisgender female.
HELPING TRANS FAMILIES COPE WITH STARTING A FAMILY.
"Juno Obedin-Maliver, M.D., M.P.H., an OB-GYN at the San Francisco VA and researcher at the University of California San Francisco, and founding member of the Stanford Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Medical Education Research Group (LGBT MERG), Courtney Finlayson, M.D., a pediatric endocrinologist at the Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children's Hospital of Chicago, and Dane Menkin, M.S.N., C.R.N.P., a family nurse practitioner and clinical operations manager at Mazzoni Family and Community Medicine in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania recently provided a sort of guide for trans couples who want children.
Menkin estimates that he has performed over 50 intrauterine inseminations (IUIs) for transgender individuals and their partners trying to have babies.
" In order to make a baby, you need sperm, an egg, and a uterus for the embryo to grow in."
"When an individual goes through puberty, the germ cells — what becomes eggs or sperm — mature," Finlayson says. "You have to have puberty for those cells to mature. So if we prevent puberty from occurring, the germ cells in those gonads, whether they're ovaries or testicles, are not going to mature. So in that situation, those individuals who have never gone through a natural puberty in their body — they're not going to have germ cells to use."
In other words: If a trans teen goes directly from using puberty-suppressing medication to hormone-replacement medications, they have not ever undergone puberty, and it may render them infertile in the future.
"It certainly has happened that trans people have gotten pregnant after years of taking hormones", Obedin-Maliver says. "Have there been trans women who have been on long-term estrogen and have come off of it and been able to produce sperm? Yes. But it takes a long time for the testes to recover, and we're not sure that they will. It's not guaranteed." Also, if you still have a uterus, fallopian tubes, and ovaries, you might still be able to get pregnant EVEN IF you're taking hormones.
Those who DON'T want children and don't have hysterectomies will need to take extra precaution to avoid unwanted pregnancies.
FOR PREGNANT FEMALES TRANSITIONING TO MALES, THERE IS ANOTHER POTENTIAL RISK.
"When a 32-year-old trans man arrived at hospital with severe abdominal pains, a nurse did not consider it an emergency, noting the man was obese and had stopped taking blood pressure medicine.
Sadly, that misdiagnosis resulted in the unnamed man’s baby dying before it could be delivered, and has sparked a push for awareness of trans female pregnancies among hospital staff.
The man’s case was highlighted by Dr Daphna Stroumsa in the New England Journal of Medicine on Wednesday as an example of how gender assumptions can be detrimental in hospitals. Strousma, the article’s lead author from the University of Michigan, wrote: ‘The point is not what’s happened to this particular individual but this is an example of what happens to transgender people interacting with the health care system.’
At the hospital, a nurse gave him a pregnancy test, but did not consider his problems urgent, the authors wrote. Hours later, he was evaluated and his pregnancy was confirmed, but an ultrasound showed unclear signs of heart activity and part of the umbilical cord was found to have entered the birth canal.
Doctors performed a Caesarean delivery, but no fetal heartbeat was heard in the operating room and the baby was delivered stillborn. Stroumsa and the authors wrote that if a [cisgender] woman would have arrived at the hospital with similar symptoms, she ‘would almost surely have been triaged and evaluated more urgently for pregnancy-related problems."
A DOCUMENTARY BY THE CHARLOTTE OBSERVER COULD ALSO OFFER IMPORTANT INFORMATION TO ANY TRANS INDIVIDUAL HOPING TO HAVE A BABY.
It highlights not just the physical/medical hazards a trans man can face but also the emotional 'roller coaster ride' many go through when they seek to give birth before completing total transition.
IT'S NOT ALL PROBLEMATIC NEWS FOR TRANS COUPLES.
In a medically documented first, a transwoman was able to breastfeed the baby which her transitioned partner gave birth to.
"Joshua Safer of Boston Medical Center, who was not involved with the treatment, isn’t surprised that it’s possible. “When I treat transgender women, we see good breast development” he says. There’s no reason why the cells in these breasts wouldn’t make milk the same way that those of non-transgender women do, he says, although he notes that it is unclear to what extent the drugs and hormones helped. “For all we know, breast stimulation alone might be sufficient.”
There have arisen several incidents in which a transitioning female-to-male was perhaps not properly treated after becoming pregnant. The following tragic tale speaks to the need for medical staff to be fully aware of such situations."
THE TROUBLESOME ARTICLE ABOUT THE TWO YOUNG FRIENDS AND THEIR TRIALS IN SCHOOL DIDN'T MENTION THE TRANSITIONING CHILD'S PHYSICAL MAKEUP.
IS THE CHILD VERY TALL, MUSCULAR, 'BIG-BONED'?
IF SO, MUCH OF THAT WON'T BE CHANGED BY TRANSITION, THOUGH SOME CAN BECOME LESS PRONOUNCED OVER TIME.
WILL THIS CHILD BE ABLE TO DEAL WITH SUCH DIFFERENCES, SHOULD THEY ARISE, THAT WILL NOT LINE UP WITH THE PHYSIOLOGICAL 'NORM' OF CISGENDER FEMALES?
"Ohio University biological sciences lecturer Chris Schwirian told Runner’s World:
"...[M]en, on average, have greater muscle mass – and a larger portion of it is fast-twitch, which allows them to generate greater force, speed and anaerobically produced energy."
On average, men have longer and larger bones, which gives them mechanical advantages over women, since they have greater leverage, increased height and larger frames to support muscle. Their bones are also more dense, and they have tougher ligaments, making them less prone to sports injury."
MOST IMPORTANTLY, TO ME, IS THE QUESTION OF HOW OLD SHOULD CHILDREN BE BEFORE ANYONE CONSIDERS THEM TRULY CAPABLE OF DECIDING TO EMBARK ON A FULL OR A NON-SURGICAL TRANSITION TO THE OPPOSITE SEX?
HOW CAN ANYONE KNOW THE ANSWER TO THAT?
EVERY INDIVIDUAL REALLY IS "ONE IN A BILLION", UNIQUE, RARE, AND EVERY CASE SHOULD BE RESPECTFULLY AND CAREFULLY APPROACHED AS SUCH, FOR THE SAKE OF THE CHILD.
AS TO "JOHN" IN THE ARTICLE MENTIONED ABOVE, I FOUND THIS ISSUE RAISED BY LIBERTY COUNSEL TO BE A VALID ONE.
THEY STATED:
"To punish John is to “turn classrooms into enclaves of totalitarianism” that censor the “commonly-held, mainstream, factual view” that sex is biologically determined.
A COMMENT FROM A READER ON THEIR WEBSITE REITERATED THIS:
"The child's real crime was his belief in truth and reality independent of the Left's ideology whose truth is whatever serves the totalitarian's purposes, and it will be hammered into this child's mind until he gives up and believes it."
I MIGHT HAVE IGNORED BOTH THOSE STATEMENTS HAD I NOT HEARD SIMILAR CONCERNS FROM CURRENT COLLEGE STUDENTS OVER THE PAST SEVERAL YEARS AND READ SIMILAR ARTICLES RELATING THAT DISAGREEMENT WITH WHAT SOME TERM "THE POLITICALLY CORRECT VIEWPOINT" IS NO LONGER BEING ALLOWED IN COLLEGES, UNIVERSITIES OR PUBLIC SCHOOLS AROUND THE WORLD.
MANY TEACHERS AND PROFESSORS HAVE ALSO MENTIONED THIS TENDENCY TO ALLOW BUT ONE CLASSROOM RESPONSE TO CONTROVERSIAL TOPICS OF DISCUSSION.
HERE ARE JUST THREE SUCH INCIDENTS THAT REINFORCE MY CONCERN, BUT ONE CAN DO A WEB SEARCH AND FIND LITERALLY HUNDREDS IN A VERY SHORT SEARCH.
BTW, I DO NOT USE THE GOOGLE SEARCH ENGINE, SO THE LINKS ARE TO THE FIRST NEWS MEDIA I FIND, NO BIAS INTENDED, I ASSURE YOU.
--"Addressing someone with an incorrect pronoun could get you fired or expelled from the University of Minnesota, according to the draft of a new gender identity policy, the Star-Tribune reported.
The college is considering allowing transgender men and women — and others —to use whatever pronouns they desire on campus, the paper said, adding that everyone from professors to classmates would be required to use such folks' chosen pronouns or risk disciplinary action, which could include firing or expulsion.
Jane Kirtley, a professor of media ethics and law, told the Star-Tribune the draft policy is a slippery slope: “Suppose you slip up and just accidentally use the wrong one. Is that harassment or discrimination? Does everybody get one free pass and after that, it’s harassment?”
Kirtley added to the paper, “I don’t have an issue calling a student by a name that she or he or ze prefers," but that viewing the draft "with a lawyer’s eyes, I am concerned … I frankly do not see how they could enforce something like this.”
-- "California first-grader sent to principal's office for misgendering classmate"
"An elite charter school in California has been rocked by scandal since the end of the last school year, when a kindergarten teacher read her class a pair of books advocating transgender ideology, and a male kindergartener was reintroduced to the class as a girl.
“There was a little girl who had been in class with the little boy all last year,” Karen England, executive director of the Capitol Resource Institute, a pro-family group based in Sacramento, said. “They’re in different classes now, but she saw him on the playground yesterday and called him by his name. The little girl was told ‘you can’t do that, his name is this name,’ and ‘you need to call him a “her.”’ Then she was called to the principal’s office.”
Ms. England said she has been in touch with the girl’s parents and described them as “outraged.” She said they met with school officials to discuss the matter Wednesday.
It’s not clear whether the girl was disciplined for the infraction. Rocklin Academy did not return a request for comment before press time."
HOLD IT RIGHT THERE!
DOES ANYONE TRULY EXPECT A FIRST-GRADER TO UNDERSTAND TRANGERDERISM?
PSYCHOLOGY TODAY DEFINES TRANSGENDER: "The term transgender refers to people whose sense of their own gender differs from what would be expected based on the sex characteristics with which they are born.
WILL A SIX-YEAR-OLD COMPREHEND THIS? OF COURSE NOT.
RELATIVE TO THIS STORY IS ONE IN WHICH A CHILD AT THAT SAME SCHOOL WAS TERRIFIED BY THE TEACHER READING THOSE BOOKS ABOUT TRANSGENDERS.
"A little girl who attends Rocklin Academy Gateway was “shaking and crying” about the thought that she would turn into a boy after she learned about transgender ideology and saw one of her male classmates present himself as a girl during a kindergarten class.
In an interview with Fox News’ Martha MacCallum on Monday, the moms of two children who were in class that day disclosed the mental toll that the transgender lesson plan has taken on their daughters."
“A couple of nights after, my daughter was taking a bath,” the first mom said. “And she got up out of the water, and her hair was slicked back, and she saw a reflection of herself in the drain in the bathtub, and she started shaking and crying because she thought that she looked like a boy. And she was like, ‘Mommy, I don’t want to be a boy. I turned into a boy, mommy. I don’t want to be a boy.’ “
The moms chose to remain anonymous out of fear of retaliation."
FEAR...FEAR OF RETALIATION? THINK ABOUT THAT.
WILL WE BE REQUIRED TO CHOOSE WHICH CHILD WE WANT TO PROTECT FROM BIAS, FEAR, EMOTIONAL TRAUMA?
WHICH CHILD WILL WE CHOOSE? HOW?
--Teacher kicks student out of class, argues with him for stating there are only two genders.
"When the student retorts that the belief there are genders beyond two “isn’t scientific whatsoever,” the teacher concedes the point: “Not every policy is scientific.”
“Take this somewhere else, buddy,” the fed up teacher finally tells the student. “The authority’s point of view is very clear … that we make no discrimination on the grounds of–”
“I’m not making any discrimination,” the student interrupts. “I’m simply saying there are two genders. Male and female.”
The teacher yet again refers to “the authority” by noting the student continues to push a point which is “contrary to policy.” Clearly flustered, he then lowers his voice and tells the student he is “making bad choices.”
WHOSE 'AUTHORITY'? WHO DECIDED ANYONE HAS THE ABSOLUTE AUTHORITY TO DECIDE FOR ALL PEOPLE WHAT IS 'BAD CHOICES'?
WHO DEMANDS THAT ALL HOLD THE SAME CHOICES?
REPLACE 'GENDER' WITH 'BORN AS' AND THE STUDENT ISN'T FAR FROM WRONG.
The National Collegiate Athletic Association and Olympics have instituted policies allowing transgender athletes to compete on teams that correspond with genders with which they identify, provided the athletes undergo a year of hormone replacement therapy.
WHICH 'GENDERS'? MALE AND FEMALE.
I STATED THAT SEVERAL STUDENTS HAVE DISCUSSED THIS ISSUE, OF COLLEGES PUSHING ONE CURRENT AGENDA AND DISALLOWING OTHERS, WITH ME OVER THE PAST FEW YEARS, BUT THIS YOUNG LADY MADE HER CONCERNS AND FRUSTRATION QUITE PUBLIC.
Carrie Pritt, a freshman at Princeton University studying computer science, has penned a powerful piece illustrating the stranglehold political correctness has on her Ivy League institution.
"Dysfunctional. Dystopian. Oppressive."
Writing in Quillette, the picture she paints of her campus is chilling and creepy — think a Stepford School — with militant students and scholars creating an environment that ensures people say the right things, conform, avoid 'offending' others at all costs:
"My teachers and classmates openly referred to Trump’s voters as uneducated bigots throughout the election season, while taking any criticism of Clinton as an attack against women. Anyone who dares to voice a religious opinion is regarded as unintelligent. The fear of being called racist draws our attention to a black woman’s skin instead of her character, and the fear of being called homophobic emphasizes a gay man’s sexuality over his personality. We have been trained to tiptoe around each other and distribute trigger warnings with generosity.
Where did this training start? On mandatory freshman orientation day.
Pritt wrote:
"Diversity for the Sake of Democracy"
SHE DESCRIBES HER FIRST EXPERIENCE.
“Stand up if you identify as Caucasian.”
"The minister’s voice was solemn. I paused so that I wouldn’t be the first one standing, and then slowly rose to my feet. “Look at your community,” he said. I glanced around the auditorium obediently. The other students looked as uncomfortable as I felt, and as white. ¨Thank you,” the minister said finally. After we sat down, he went on to repeat the exercise for over an hour with different adjectives in place of “Caucasian”: black, wealthy, first-generation, socially conservative. Each time he introduced a new label, he paused so that a new group of students could stand and take note of one another. By the time he was finished, every member of Princeton University’s freshman class had been branded with a demographic.
Like many other schools, Princeton has become disturbingly homogeneous because of this phenomenon. Not only that, but the pressure to respect other groups on and off campus is pushing my generation into left-wing uniformity. We are encouraged to mind our own business by mimicking politically correct values without ever thinking them through on our own. No one questioned the students and faculty members who disrespectfully walked out of Charles Murray’s lecture hall after he was invited to speak on campus this winter.
The point of diversity is not that each culture is different, but that each person must live his own life and develop his own worldview. As Whitman eloquently noted, “Not I, nor anyone else can travel that road for you. You must travel it by yourself.” But instead of letting us travel it by ourselves, Princeton limits us by constantly pressuring us to behave and think like others in our demographic."
IT'S AN EYE-OPENING READ.
BUT, I FOUND THAT WHAT SHE DESCRIBED AT PRINCETON SOUNDED MORE LIKE DESCRIPTIONS BY SURVIVORS OF COMMUNIST "RE-EDUCATION CAMPS" THAN A UNIVERSITY.
Writing about “Princeton’s Surreal ‘Diversity Training’ for Students,” Amelia Hamilton in 'Acculturated' pointed out: “Academia is openly intolerant of diversity of thought, but exercises like the one Pritt experienced at Princeton are even worse. They strip students of one of the most important things for creating genuine diversity and intellectual rigor: individuality.”
A study by the Harvard Business Review has found that mandatory diversity training in corporations also fails. Not only did the programs prove to be unhelpful, but some minority groups were eventually less well represented in the years after adoption. “When we began to interview managers to understand why popular programs don’t work, it began to make sense,” Harvard Sociologist Frank Dobin, who co-authored the study, told The College Fix. “Social scientists have long known that if you try to control people’s thoughts and behavior, they rebel. That’s what we find—programs designed to reeducate managers or stop them from discriminating directly tend to backfire.”
I remember hearing about college campuses in the 1960s as places where students pushed boundaries, defended free speech, and demanded to be treated as individuals. Today, they seek the extra boundaries safe spaces provide when free speech isn’t what they want to hear, and they embrace a form of diversity training that paradoxically serves to strip students of their individuality.
Only one school of thought is safe, despite what campuses claim about valuing diversity. “The point of diversity is not that each culture is different, but that each person must live his own life and develop his own worldview.” Academia is openly intolerant of diversity of thought, but exercises like the one Pritt experienced at Princeton are even worse. They strip students of one of the most important things for creating genuine diversity and intellectual rigor: individuality."
I FIND THAT MOST DISTURBING.
ALSO DISTURBING IS THE EVER-GROWING DEFAMATION OF RELIGION BY SOME BECAUSE MOST RELIGIONS ACKNOWLEDGE ONLY TWO 'SEXES' AND DO NOT CONDONE TRANSGENDERING.
--In Taoism, yin and yang are considered feminine and masculine, respectively. Yin is female and yang is male. They fit together as two parts of a whole.
--Hinduism speaks of but two genders, male and female, but sees both incorporated in each individual.
-- Buddhism also names only two genders and has been accused of gender bias against females.
--Islam: Sexuality as discussed in Islamic texts is generally confined to the context of heterosexual marriage between a male and a female, and in all cases modesty and chastity are strongly encouraged. Both pre-marital sex and homosexuality are forbidden.
[See: Abu Dawud 32:4087 AND Sahih Bukhari 7:72:774]
--Christianity's scripture "Male and female created he them" and others.
-- Judaism: It is well known that the Torah contains two creation accounts, both of which are contained in Parashat Bereshit: Genesis 1:1–2:3, and Genesis 2:4–3:24, each of which tells of the creation of male and female humans.
[Other sources: ILGA: Lesbian and Gay Rights in the World AND ABC's 'Pride, prejudice and punishment: Gay rights around the world'.]
WRAPPING THIS UP, I SINCERELY HOPE THE PARENTS AND PHYSICIANS OF 'CHILD A' HAVE CAREFULLY EXPLAINED THE PROCESS OF SURGICAL REASSIGNMENT, HORMONE THERAPY, FERTILITY ISSUES, SOCIAL STIGMA, NECESSARY EMOTIONAL ADJUSTMENTS, THE LEGAL ASPECTS, STATE AND FEDERAL LAWS, THE "WHOLE NINE YARDS", BUT IS THAT CHILD OLD ENOUGH TO COMPREHEND ALL THAT, 100%?
Has the child seen the video uploaded by the European Society of Urology showing a detailed example of how male-to-female gender reassignment surgery works?
Does the child know trans men retain their prostates and face a slightly higher risk of prostate cancer, and is this young person okay with that?
A 2013 case study published in the Canadian Urological Association Journal, for example, reports the case of a transgender woman who was diagnosed with metastatic prostate cancer (meaning, it had spread beyond her prostate to other parts of her body), 31 years after she transitioned. Another case study published in JAMA tells the story of a transgender woman who was diagnosed with prostate cancer 41 years after her transition.
Surgical reassignment is far more complex than simply removing the penis. It, like all surgeries, entails some serious risks.
As another article on transgendering with sex reassignment surgery explains, only about 25 percent to 30 percent of transgender people have any kind of surgery. It carries a very high price tag and not all insurance companies will pay for it.
What about cosmetic surgery? That, too, get be costly.
How many are discontent without such surgeries?
THERE IS SO MUCH, MAYBE TOO MUCH, FOR THIS SIXTH-GRADER TO CONTEMPLATE.
MANY PHYSICIANS AGREE.
"Doctors tread carefully, navigating medical interventions that carry risks that are both known and unknown. What makes treatment tricky is that there is no test that can tell whether a child experiencing distress about their gender will grow up to be transgender."
HOW MANY PHYSICIANS WOULD PERFORM SEX-REASSIGNMENT SURGERY ON A FOUR-YEAR-OLD?
FOUR YEARS OLD.
"The Department of Education in New South Wales has vowed to support a 4-year-old’s decision to undergo a sex change operation. The child is expected to finish the gender reassignment surgery prior to starting kindergarten next year and will travel to Australia to complete the procedure.
Psychologists warn that the child is still in the crucial stages of development and that forcing a change in gender may cause unknown harm, both physically and mentally, according to Metro. Transgender advocates have also voiced concern that the child is far too young to make such a life-changing decision."
“There is a huge difference between dress-ups and a child believing with every fibre of their being they are in the wrong body.”
I sincerely hope the two school friends remained friends and that both have moved past the unfortunate incident at their school. Hopefully, the school learned how to better handle such things by their mistakes.
I hope 'child A' never regrets the choice and has all the support needed to go through life.
I maintain hope that we in America, and the rest of the world, can learn to allow ALL to voice their opinions the same, EQUALLY, to feel free to respectfully speak aloud when we don't agree or when we merely want to add another opinion to the dialogue, without fear of retribution, WITHOUT FEAR, PERIOD.
WE DO NOT HAVE TO AGREE IN ORDER TO BE MUTUALLY RESPECTFUL OF ONE ANOTHER'S CHOICES, BELIEFS AND LIVES. RESPECT IS ENTIRELY POSSIBLE WITHOUT AGREEMENT.
WE ARE ALL ABOARD 'SPACESHIP EARTH' TOGETHER AND THERE IS NO SCOTTY TO BEAM US OUT OF HERE.
WE'D DO WELL TO DO ALL WE CAN TO LIVE IN PEACE WITH ONE ANOTHER, WORK ON PERFECTING SELF BEFORE WE CAST A GLANCE IN ANYONE'S DIRECTION TO SEE WHAT'S 'WRONG' WITH THEM.
HATE IS A CANCER THAT CONSUMES THOSE WHO HARBOR IT.
MAY WE ALL BE CANCER-FREE.
//WW
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