As I have said repeatedly, I don’t think the terms Left and Right render an accurate perspective on the contemporary political landscape, inasmuch as the “conservatism” to which I subscribe is decidedly of the centre. Whereas Reason demands one take into account the complexities of Reality in formulating one’s views, the Left consistently ignores those complexities while denouncing those who refuse to do so as “hateful.” Allow me to use the controversial issue of Transgenderism to illustrate my point.
In March of 2023, Bill Lee, the Republican governor of Tennessee, signed a bill banning both physical and chemical gender-altering procedures on minors. When trans-activists challenged the bill, it was temporarily suspended, only to have an appeals Court reinstate it. The issue is presently before the Supreme Court of America where Democratic Justice Sotomayor, in response to the charge that the procedures in question could have devastating effects on the lives of kids too young to understand them, ridiculed such concerns by pointing out that taking an aspirin in some cases could also have devastating results. Her insinuation, of course, was that the parents in favour of the Tennessee bill were “transphobes” not so much interested in protecting their children as in trying to rationalize their loathing for those suffering from gender dysphoria.
There have been several lawsuits lodged by individuals who were submitted to gender altering procedures when under the age of 18, only to discover it had been a terrible mistake. British girl Keira Bell, now 27, underwent 3 interviews at the country’s Tavistock gender centre as a 16 year old which led to her being treated with puberty blockers, testosterone, and ultimately the removal of her breasts. By 2020, however, she decided she was definitely female, albeit a lesbian, and joined a number of other complainants in condemning the Tavistock centre and indeed all those given to so-called Transgender Rights for inflicting their simplistic views of a complex issue on kids far too young to understand the possible ramifications. As several former staff members at Tavistock testified they were appalled that life-altering drugs had been given to kids as young as the age of 12, it was ordered closed by the British government in 2022.
Of course I must begin by asserting that I fully empathize with those suffering from the affliction of gender ambiguity. But this, in spite of the rhetoric spewed by the woke Left, in no way disqualifies me from criticizing various aspects of the contemporary Trans agenda, an agenda that ignores certain inconvenient truths while actually violating the rights of others out of the sheer self-interest of its proponents. Refuting the traditional notion of two Sexes as the Human Norm, Trans Ideologues argue that Gender is actually no more than a “social construct” rooted in ignorance rather than Biology. But this is a preposterous simplification intended to validate the right of individuals to be viewed as the gender of their choice in spite of the obvious biological evidence to the contrary. Hence the absurdity of a world in which 200 lb. individuals with penises are allowed to destroy biological females in athletic competitions because they now insist they are just another girl!
Aside from the biological fact that gender altering procedures do Not make individuals exact replicas of their gender of choice, many of the identity related anxieties suffered by young people are utterly beyond the understanding of Trans Ideologues. On Dec. 8 The Blaze published a piece by one Hunter Ash, a 31 year old man who, having undergone facial surgery and breast augmentation in order to become a Woman, discovered as he matured that he was 100% a Heterosexual Male. Now engaged to the love of his life, he explains that it was ironically his admiration of Female Beauty that led him to find himself physically repulsive. The point of his article, clearly, is that the chemical and surgical solutions readily endorsed by Trans Activists often have nothing to do with the complex stresses of youngsters who don’t quite know who they are.
This is the thesis of a Dec. 7 article also published by The Blaze concerning the evolution of Jamie Reed who, after working 4 years at the transgender clinic affiliated with The Children’s Hospital of St. Louis, now says she is appalled by much of what she saw there. Her main point is that Puberty is essential to the human maturation process and that the many Boards of Education allowing Trans Ideologues to not only address kids who are still in the midst of that process, but to terminate it by treating them with puberty blockers, is an abomination. In stark contrast to her assessment is that of Chase Strangio, a Trans lawyer appointed by the ACLU to testify before the Supreme Court as it considers the Tennessee ban on the transitioning of minors. Strangio, evidently, feels that children as young as 2 may in some cases need surgical or chemical procedures. The ACLU, it seems, is passionately concerned with the “civil liberties” of Trans radicals, but somewhat indifferent to the rights of parents who up until recently no doubt thought that they, and not some cadre of ambiguously motivated fanatics, were primarily responsible for the well-being of their kids.
Leftists’ tendency to side with Trans advocates is typical of their response to every issue involving those deemed to belong to an “oppressed minority.” The latter includes Women, who are oppressed by Men; People of Colour, who are oppressed by Whites; The Poor, who are oppressed by the Rich; Gays, who are oppressed by Straights, etc., etc.. The problem with such a world-view, of course, is that it precludes its adherents from focusing on the complexities of any given issue. The problem is that it yields political opinions that are comically superficial. Hence the Left’s canonization of George Floyd who was a career criminal. Hence its support for BLM which destroyed 2 billion dollars worth of property in 2020. Hence its willingness to accept every Transsexual as the Gender of his/her choice, in spite of the obvious biological factors which make such declarations mere wish fulfillment. How absurd is a Culture that is rightly appalled by any Male impervious to the Rights of Women, while nevertheless perfectly comfortable with Trans individuals bearing Male genitalia invading Women’s locker rooms, washrooms, etc..
The Marxist vision of Reality is demonstrably absurd. That Western Culture has succumbed to its sentimental delusions is even more so. Those deemed to be “oppressed” are not always innocent victims. Conservatism is the common-sense answer to a human dynamic that cannot be simplistically resolved to black and white. And yet that is what our absurdly misnomered “progressives” tend to do, anyone who disagrees with them, of course, being dismissed as mere Haters.