A roundup of news and commentary from around the interwebs.
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What harm will same-sex marriage do? Critics demanded to know for decades when social conservatives opposed redefining a millennia-old institution. R.R. Reno gives one answer in First Things.
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In Florida, Ron DeSantis’ agenda is holding steady. For the second time in month, LGBT challenges to a law—deceitfully dubbed “don’t say gay” by the press—that prohibits teaching about sexuality to children third grade and below, have been tossed out of court.
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The press is so in the can for the transgender movement that even when they’re attempting to highlight the ludicrousness of that movement, they still feel compelled to accept the fundamental tenets of gender ideology. Consider this headline, from the Daily Mail: “Moment transgender singer strips naked live on Channel 4 and plays the keyboard with her penis.” The craziest thing about that headline isn’t the event that it describes which, I’m sure you’ll agree, is pretty nuts. The craziest thing is that the Daily Mail still used the phrase “her penis” which, as we all used to know, is not a thing.
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World Magazine has an eye-popping report on Revoice, an organization that has sought to bring together Christians with same-sex attraction and has proven controversial over the past several years. Now, like so many other organizations, it has begun the inexorable journey to “affirming” sexual identities. Affirming behavior is likely to follow. An excerpt:
Revoice has changed, too. Speakers have always emphasized homosexuality as an identity, not just a behavior. But this year, such assertions from the dais seemed more insistent, with speakers assiduously using civil-rights language to present radical change as settled truth. That identity rhetoric extended to transgender ideology. Speakers frequently referred to “sexual and gender minorities” and used preferred pronouns, along with terms such as women “assigned female at birth.” The group’s reach and influence are growing, but leaders now emphasize parachurch activities. Speakers frequently referenced ongoing rejection within the church and encouraged attendees to form their own spiritual communities in local Revoice chapters.
Now, where do we think this sort of thing is going to lead? From the Glinner Update: “Transgender Programmer Designs Game About Slaughtering Women Critical of Gender Ideology.” Violence against women by trans activists is rising, and I suspect that will continue. (From the same source, there’s this horrifying story: “Toddler Rapist Now Award-Winning Trans Rights Activist.”)
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The National Post has an important piece on the chilling effect of Trudeau’s “conversion therapy” ban and why it is so bad for patients. An excerpt:
Sherwin Nuland, surgeon and best-selling author, wrote in The Uncertain Art: Thoughts on a life in medicine, “The process is one of sifting, weighing, and judging … Disease never reveals all of itself; the path toward healing may appear visible, but it is always poorly lit and subject to changes in direction.”
Gender-affirming care inverts this paradigm. Doctors must not probe or ask. Questions could be construed as unsupportive, even subversive. Gender is identity, not diagnosis. Asking about gender could be a sneaky way to inject “conversion therapy” on the sly.
Most doctors have little knowledge or interest in conversion therapy. It plays no part in modern medical education. The vast majority of physicians would shudder at accusations of trying to convert, no matter how unfounded the charge. Even so, when patients tell their family doctors that their gender observed at birth is wrong, doctors today tend to play it safe and refer. No questions asked.
Gender dysphoria has a well-documented association with mental illness. With other mental illnesses, counselling helps patients learn to limit symptoms, develop coping skills and maintain a productive life. Counselling for gender dysphoria seems to aim at opposite ends. It offers guidance for “coming out as transgender,” help finding “resources to assist with changing outward appearances,” or referral for “speech therapy to help match vocal characteristics … with gender identity.” This approach presupposes, with scant evidence, that it will help long-term. What if it causes harm?
With medical therapy, there also seems to be only one treatment path. Asking about untreated mental illness has become verboten. Federal law bans conversion therapy. It was designed to quash the (alleged) pandemic of conversion therapists. Instead, it quashed questioning in clinics — doctors have gone silent.
I’ve covered every imaginable reason to stay away from porn (or quit!) on this blog over the past several years, but here’s another one from Evie Magazine: “Porn Is Actually Making People Dumber—Here’s The Science To Prove It.”
