Educated at McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario, I was naturally drawn to an article published in the local paper, The Hamilton Spectator, on Aug. 2 of this year, which focused on the supposedly anti-LGBTQ studies published in 2025 by various researchers employed by the university. While the article is not a ranting screed against those responsible for the studies, its point is clearly that there is something very sick about academics not 100% supportive of the Trans Agenda. In its 4th paragraph, it focuses specifically on Romina Brignardello-Peterson, an associate professor who was paid $34,800 in 2022 by the State of Florida for her input on the issue of gender-affirming care. Partially as a result of her opinions, we are told: “Florida went on to ban gender-affirming care for minors.” Also cited as a result of the various McMaster studies is “a U.S. Supreme Court decision that upheld Tennessee’s law banning gender-affirming care for minors.” In both cases it was “minors” who were being defended!
The article in question was written by reporter Nathan Bawaan who, strangely, never actually discusses the legitimacy of the rulings made in Florida and Tennessee! Implying those decisions to be examples of Trans Phobia, he fails to mention that it makes perfect sense to defend those considered too immature to vote or drive a car or buy alcohol, from the rhetoric of those who would have them make decisions guaranteed to utterly change the direction of their lives. At the same time, of course, the Right of Parents to care for their children until they reach a certain level of maturity, would definitely seem to be under attack by Trans zealots who feel entitled to assail young kids with the notion that their genitalia do not necessarily define their Gender.
While failing to discuss either the validity or the repercussions of the McMaster studies under scrutiny, Bawaan nevertheless cites various groups which have come to denounce their apparent Anti-Gay Bias. In 2021, he points out, the Society for Evidence-Based Gender Medicine [SEGM] funded the studies with a donation of $250,000. But SEGM, he says, has been condemned as “an anti-LGBTQ hate group by the U.S.-based Southern Poverty Law Center.” What he conveniently fails to mention, however, is that the latter is a woke, Leftist organization whose criticisms were perfectly predictable! SEGM, by the way, insists it is in no way anti-LGBTQ!
What we are dealing with, then, is a piece of journalism which in no way analyses the substance of the opinions under attack, but simply disparages them through innuendo! In his last 2 paragraphs Bawaan reintroduces the fact that Brignardello-Peterson had been paid for her contribution to Florida’s research on the impact of Trans Rhetoric on minors. The implication is clearly that she had sold her soul to make a few bucks! Such is the sleazy stratagem of so much Leftist commentary which, supported by little common sense, simply ignores the complexities of the issue at hand and resorts to vague accusations of Hatred …….. i.e., homophobia, islamophobia, racism, sexism, etc., etc., etc..
I have not a homophobic cell in my body. A person’s sexual orientation has nothing to do with my appreciation of them as Human Beings. My loathing for Trans Ideologues eager to assail 12 year old kids [i.e. minors] with their rhetoric is rooted in compassion for the latter and a moral disdain for those who apparently care about no one but themselves! The lunacy of the “compassionate” Left is that it focuses almost exclusively on the Identity of those involved in any political struggle, while generally ignoring the Integrity of the conflicting points of view. Truly Absurd!