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Where Is the Harm?
On her June 2 podcast, Megyn Kelly asked this question of her listeners.
She was referencing her personal history as a journalist who adopted the use of preferred pronouns and pushing for acceptance of trans individuals and using terms like gender-affirming care, cis, assigned male at birth, etc. She assumed that advocating for people who were struggling with this aspect of their identity was the right thing to do. She felt that banning them from bathrooms, as an example, didn’t harm anyone.
Now, she feels very different. In part because she started to see her family being affected by the Trans ideology, but also because she started to recognize the harm. Harm like this:
Remember the girls' volleyball team banned from their locker rm for objecting to a trans-IDing male student watching them undress? The father of one girl was also suspended as soccer coach for "misgendering".
The family sued & won $125,000 & his job back.https://t.co/RSugHFomf7
— ♀️Jennifer Gingrich ✡️ (@fem_mb) June 3, 2023
In Vermont, a trans female in middle school was allowed into the girls’ locker room while they were changing regardless of the feeling of discomfort this caused the girls. One girl, whose father was the middle school soccer coach at the school, spoke out publicly. They were accused of misgendering the trans student and the daughter (and other girls on the volleyball team that complained) were banned from using the locker room. The father was suspended from his job without pay. Alliance Defending Freedom took up their case and they recently won a settlement.
So, where is the harm? Megyn Kelly calls it a gateway drug, and she is right. We try to be nice and accomodating, but eventually being kind starts to mean not just tolerance, but promotion of lies that are increasingly harmful. Texas just passed and Gov Abbott signed a law banning the use of puberty blockers in minors as well as surgery. In short, things that are permanent and often irreversible changes in minors. One would think that he signed a bill that made it legal to hunt down trans people from the press coverage. OK, that’s a bit hyperbolic. Here is a selection of news articles.
Some news headlines from Texas (with search terms)
From The Intercept, there was this one opening graph:
THE TEXAS SENATE passed a first-of-its-kind bill last week that would make it virtually impossible for a trans person of any age to access gender-affirming care in the state. All those invested in trans liberation have known from the jump that this has been the Republicans’ end game; the relentless attempts to ban trans children’s medical care were simply an opening salvo to a wider attack on all trans existence. Texas Senate Bill 1029 makes this genocidal agenda abundantly clear, while introducing an insidious new strategy for expanding trans health care bans to adults: financial liability.
Genocidal agenda…that isn’t charged language at all. A quick perusal of articles showed that some had them placing text at the top of their articles like this (from the Texas Tribune):
For mental health support for LGBTQ youth, call the Trevor Project’s 24/7 toll-free support line at 866-488-7386. For trans peer support, call the Trans Lifeline at 877-565-8860. You can also reach a trained crisis counselor through the Suicide and Crisis Lifeline by calling or texting 988.
Many others were dismissive of the bill saying it would cause harm and that surgery in minors was “rare.” Perhaps if using pronouns or being tolerant was truly benign then these actions wouldn’t be needed, but the harm is happening. Megyn mentioned that girls transitioning to boys used to be rare, but now make up the largest part of the trans population, and research is showing that trans and non-binary girls are often many of the same ones who, in past decades, might have engaged in cutting or had eating disorders. In short, they are trying to cope with the anxiety of growing up. If it was “a phase” and wearing clothes that might be fine. But puberty blockers, testosterone, and surgery all have lasting effects and often are irreversible. That isn’t a way to cope with puberty.
The worst part of this entire affair is that just questioning the real issues means being branded as a transphobe and can lead to the loss of a job, or other types of canceling. Look at how Riley Gaines has been treated when she tried to speak at college in CA and was shoved and screamed at until security had to remove her. The hecklers won. Megyn mentions British activist Kelly J. Keen (aka, Posey Parker) and the multiple times she has been assaulted for voicing opposition to the trans movement. We cannot have a discussion when only one side is allowed to speak, and THAT is, arguably, the root of the harm.
Published in Culture
It is tragic that so many people in positions of power and influence are, like Megyn Kelly, “concretizing thinkers.”
People with this form of arrested development are so lacking in abstract thinking skills that they cannot see the problem with complying with happy-sounding Progressivist mandates and sophistical language until the concrete consequences hit them over the head.
In the meantime, millions have suffered, and our institutions have been wrecked, so that it is too late to change direction. The Progressives have the power they sought, they will not give it back, and our defenses have been destroyed.
Here’s the entire “I Am Not A Dress” poem that Megyn Kelly brought up at the end:
I am not a dress
We are women, we are warriors of steel.
Woman is something no man will ever feel.
Woman is not a skill that any man can hone.
Woman is our word and is ours alone.
I am not a dress to be worn on a whim,
A man in a dress is nonetheless a him.
Women are not simply what we wear.
If this offends you, I don’t care.
I am not an idea in any mans mind
And my purpose in life is not to be kind.
So while my rights are trampled every day of the week,
I will not stand by being docile and meek.
I am not defined by sexist lies.
There is more to a woman than that shallow guise.
That guise of dresses, bikinis and skirts.
Those clothes are not what womanhood is worth.
I am not a bitch, a TERF, a whore, a slag,
Hysterical, a witch, a slut, a slag.
NO! I am a woman, I am a female,
Who will not let her rights be put up for sale.
I am not defined by what men are not.
So to hell with cis misogynistic rot.
I am a woman, I am not a subset of my sex.
If this makes me a dinosaur, so be it, I’m a T-Rex!
I am not a bleeder nor a menstruator,
A womb carrier or uterus haver.
Those words and phrases are such a sham.
Just call me a woman, it is who I am.
We are women, we are warriors of steel.
Woman is something no man will ever feel.
Woman is not a skill that any man can hone.
Woman is our word and is ours alone.
https://goneroad.com/?p=57179
I like that term concretizing thinkers. It works for so many who don’t want to be called bad names or have their friends think ill of them because, how does two people of the same sex hurt my marriage? Don’t like SSM, don’t get one. Don’t like same sex attraction, well did you choose to be straight? Don’t like drag shows for children, don’t go. But, at some point it starts to actually affect each of us. Then, we see that our acceptance of what we knew was wrong enabled each step. The road to hell is paved with good intentions (and politically correct speech).
Later in the episode, Rich Lowry mentioned that National Review had an internal debate about whether to use the phrase “biological man,” “biological woman,” etc. This is a particular pet peeve of mine and it drives my crazy to read or hear people on the Right use these phrases. Using these terms concedes the argument before it has even begun. If there is such thing as a “biological man” then there are also “non-biological men.” See the problem? As Rich stated, just say “man” or “woman.” Nothing else is needed. Megyn Kelly acknowledged the point, but seemed to not understand fully how important it is, at least in the moment. But it’s just as important as the pronoun game.
You are either a man or a woman. Unless science and biology have changed in my almost 70 years, it’s one or the other. (Yes I know there are a microscopic number of anomalies.) A man who is pretending to be a woman is still a man.
Dear Megyn, welcome to the party (pal).