![]() ![]() Instead of propping up a fictitious and harmful understanding of human masculinity and femininity, we owe it to those struggling with gender dysphoria to address compassionately their underlying mental health concerns. ![]() They, along with their families and broader society, clearly deserve better. Biological females who claim to be male are allowed the unfair advantage of competing while taking testosterone, which is considered ‘doping’ in any other circumstance.”Ĭoming to the conclusion that “no one gets hurt” whenever someone transitions is simply naïve, contradicted by the facts on the ground and by the tortuous lives of those pursuing this misguided “solution” to their gender confusion. In the sports arena, biological males identifying as transgender are competing in women’s events with an unfair biological advantage. Parents who do not agree with the trans-affirmative approach for their gender dysphoric children are faced with legal consequences. Educators who refuse to comply are losing their jobs. Monique Robles, a pediatric critical care specialist, stresses how schools and institutions of higher learning are now “enforcing the use of preferred gender pronouns and opening bathrooms and sports teams to students of the opposite biological sex. In a recent article in Public Discourse, Dr. “Taken to the extreme, self-destruction leads to suicide.”įollow-up studies of those who undergo sex-change operations have shown that they experienced highly elevated suicide rates, even many years post-surgery, revealing yet another of the grave harms associated with transitioning that brings untold heartache to family and friends, relatives and acquaintances.īeyond wreaking havoc in the life of patients and those around them, other damaging societal consequences arise in the wake of transitioning. “It occurred to me after much self-reflection that asking a surgeon to modify my appearance through a series of cosmetic procedures was simply a socially acceptable means of self-mutilation and self-destruction,” he stated. In his essay, Walt follows the trail of breadcrumbs in his own life to its logical conclusion. Virtually all the significant relationships in his life were damaged, some irretrievably. He was fired from his well-paying job as an engineer, and became practically destitute. Walt had been married for many years, but after transitioning, he and his wife divorced. Transgenders not only annihilate their birth identity, they destroy everyone and everything in their wake: family, wife, children, brothers or sisters, and career.” Gender change is at its heart a self-destructive act. “It’s a marvelous distraction for a while, but it isn’t a permanent solution when the underlying issues remain unaddressed. “Being transgender required destroying the identity of Walt so my female persona, Laura, would feel unshackled from Walt’s past, with all of its hurt, shame, and abuse,” he wrote. He has summarized the painful effects of his choices on those around him in several of his essays. Many years later, he “detransitioned,” and started writing and speaking about his experiences. Walt Heyer is one such individual who turned to hormones and surgeries to try to take on the appearance of a woman. That kind of devastation has been thoroughly catalogued by those who have gone all the way through the process of transitioning, and years or decades later come to regret it. He moved away to link up with the transgender community at his college for support, and his parents summed up his new way of thinking as the detonation of a bomb that had ravaged the whole family. They shared with me how their son no longer spoke to any of his siblings or relatives, shutting everyone out of his life. I recently spent some time with a husband and wife who had a son struggling with depression and schizophrenia and who was convinced he was a woman. Grave harms to others, in fact, follow in the wake of the radical personal decision to “switch genders.” Yet the old adage that no man is an island rings perennially true. During the question-and-answer session, one of them, a young woman, raised this difficulty: “If someone wants to transition, how does that hurt anybody else? If my friend wants to be transgender, how would that harm any of us?”īehind this line of argument, first, is the widely held notion that each of us is an isolated unit and our private choices don’t affect others. In the audience were several individuals supporting the transgender movement. A few years back, I gave a talk entitled “Thinking Through the Transgender Question” at a local parish. ![]()
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