transgender

Gender Ideology Activists Don’t Experience the Consequences of Their Actions, Rowling Observes

People who advance gender ideology rarely experience the practical consequences of their activism.

Harry Potter author J.K. Rowling expertly articulated this point last week in an X post addressing tension between herself and actress Emma Watson, who played Hermione in the Harry Potter movie franchise.

Watson is among the professional and personal allies Rowling has lost for refusing to accept that men can “identify” as women.

“I wasn’t a multimillionaire at fourteen,” Rowling wrote in the post. “I lived in poverty while writing the book that made Emma famous.”

“I therefore understand from my own life experience what the trashing of women’s rights in which Emma has so enthusiastically participated means to women and girls without her privileges.”

Watson publicly distanced herself from Rowling in 2020. Days after Rowling publicly articulated her position on gender ideology, Watson took to social media and declared:

Trans people are who they say they are and deserve to live their lives without being constantly questioned or told they aren’t who they say they are.

“I want my trans followers to know that I and so many other people around the world see you, respect you and love you for who you are,” Watson followed up, implying Rowling’s belief in science meant she didn’t — or couldn’t — respect the inherent dignity of people experiencing sexual identity confusion.

Rowling refused to address Watson’s ongoing comments for five years until Watson professed to “love and treasure” her on the Jay Shetty podcast in September.

“Adults can’t expect to cozy up to an activist movement that regularly calls for a friend’s assassination, then assert their right to the former friend’s love,” Rowling explained.

But the crux of the author’s post focused less on the women’s personal relationship and more on the crucial fact that Emma Watson will likely never face the real-world impacts of her activism.

“Emma has so little experience of real life she’s ignorant of how ignorant she is,” Rowling began, continuing:

She’ll never need a homeless shelter. She’s never going to be placed on a mixed sex public hospital ward … Her ‘public bathroom’ is single occupancy and comes with a security man standing outside the door.

She further asked:

Has [Watson] had to strip off in a newly mixed-sex changing room at a council-run swimming pool? Is she ever likely to need a state-run rape crisis center that refuses to guarantee an all-female service? To find herself sharing a prison cell with a male rapist who’s identified into a women’s prison?

Watson isn’t alone; many of the most vocal gender ideology proponents will never experience the real-world consequences of their chosen ideology

The politicians who allow men to live in women’s prisons do not have to share cells with violent offenders, like female inmates in Washington do.

The school administrators who equate sex-segregated bathrooms and locker rooms with “sexual harassment” will never have to change in front of a member of the opposite sex.

The coaches who groom girls to help integrate boys onto girls sports teams will never take second place to a male athlete in a high school championship.

Believers should take two points away from Rowling’s argument. First, activists should always concern themselves, not just with the intentions or aspirations of a given ideology, but the practical consequences of implicating them.

Second, we should be fundamentally wary of powerful people who espouse beliefs that do not affect them personally. There is political and social incentive for leaders to uncritically push whatever view they deem “empathetic.”

But true kindness requires more than nice-sounding lip-service. It necessitates the hard work of determining policy impacts and opposing those that harm people — even if it’s unpopular.

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SCOTUS May Hear Colorado Family’s Case: Can Schools Secretly Transition Students?

On Monday, the United States Supreme Court met privately to consider cases for the new term beginning next week. Among them is a case involving a Colorado family whose daughter was secretly transitioned by a public school district.

The case has garnered national attention in the ongoing debate over parental rights in education. The family is hoping the Court will take the case and use it to affirm parental rights against school districts that attempt to usurp the authority of fit parents to direct the care, upbringing and education of their children.

Background

The case, Lee v. Poudre School District R-1, involves complaints from two families, the Lees and the Juriches, in Colorado. They allege that the school district’s policies on gender identity intentionally excluded parents from critical decisions involving their children.

According to their lawsuit, the Lees’ 12-year-old daughter was invited to attend an “art club,” but the meeting turned out to be a Gender and Sexuality Club.

In an exclusive interview with the Daily Citizen, Erin Lee explained, “At the meeting, adults told her daughter that if she wasn’t entirely comfortable in her biological sex, she was trans. Activists informed her she was queer if she wasn’t sure who she was sexually attracted to, and they advised the kids that it was ok to lie to her parents about the meeting.”

The families argue that the school district’s policies fostered an environment that discourages disclosure to parents and even promotes secrecy. They allege that these policies and practices violate the constitutional right of parents to control the upbringing and care of their children.

Lower Court Rulings

The district court dismissed the case, finding that there was no plausible constitutional violation.  

The Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed the lower court’s decision, concluding that the families did not sufficiently link the alleged harms to official district policy.

Legal Theories

The families claim the school district’s actions violate the Fourteenth Amendment’s Due Process Clause, which the courts have interpreted as securing the rights of parents to direct the upbringing and education of their children.

They argue that the Constitution presumes parents are the natural guardians of their children and that the state cannot displace them from this role without compelling justification.

The school district maintains that its policies are designed to protect student privacy and foster a supportive environment. They claim that the policies are administrative choices, and the school district has ultimately discretion over their policies.

Lee Family Remarks

Erin Lee spoke with the Daily Citizen about standing up for her family and for all the families that have had their rights infringed,

I’ve connected with so many other parents who’ve had their children, their families and their rights violated by public schools keeping secrets and encouraging their children to keep those secrets from parents. This is such a ubiquitous issue that has harmed thousands.

I feel blessed that we were able to rescue our daughter from the throes of wrong-sex confusion and protect her from the harms of chemical & surgical mutilation. This lawsuit is for our girls and our families. But it is also about every other parent who has been in our shoes.

Impact

If the Supreme Court agrees to hear this case, the implications could be far-reaching.

A decision in favor of the families could reestablish the presumption that the parents, not schools, have the right to direct their children on sensitive topics like identity and religion.

A ruling against the school district would force school districts to be more transparent about their policies.

A holding in favor of parents could also give more parents the confidence to challenge other educational debates in public schools, including curriculum content, religious accommodations, health decisions and parental opt-outs.

A decision about whether the court will take the case this term is expected on Monday, October 6.

The Daily Citizen will continue covering this developing story.

Related Articles and Resources

Erin and Jon have a documentary, Art Club, telling their story. Watch online for free.

To learn more about Erin’s advocacy for children and parents, visit her account on X or her website.

‘Art Club’ Documentary — One Family’s Escape from Gender Ideology, and the Bigger Trend Sweeping the Nation

Exclusive Interview: Colorado Parents Expose ‘Gender Cult’ at Public School in New Documentary

Focus on the Family Urges Congressional Leaders to Respect Parental Rights

Focus on the Family exists to help families, and that includes help navigating the issues of homosexuality and transgenderism. Focus offers a free, one-time counseling consultation with a licensed or pastoral counselor. To request a counseling consultation, call 1-855-771-HELP (4357) or fill out our Counseling Consultation Request Form.

Homosexuality Resources

Transgender Resources

Understanding Homosexuality

Image from Shutterstock.

Transgender Ideology is Inherently Destructive Part 2

(For Part 1, read “Transgender Ideology is Inherently Destructive“)

Transgender ideology is a false belief system that sets itself against reason, science and biblical truth.

It is an ideology that insists, when it comes to human identity as either male or female, that biological reality doesn’t matter – only subjective, internal thoughts and feelings do. Transgender dogma says that drugs, hormones and surgeries can turn a boy into a girl, or a girl into a boy.

These beliefs are all demonstrably false, and the lies from this ideology have caused innumerable harms.

Transgender ideology is at war with reality – who we are as humans, who God made us to be and how the world actually works. Those who believe in this dogma have worked hard to spread this teaching and force agreement with it. 

The first article in this series explored some of the harms from imposing the lies of transgenderism, including damage to families, a nationwide assault on parents’ rights, and the destruction of children’s bodies, souls and minds.

But there are even more negative consequences from this insidious belief system.

Transgender ideology harms girls and women’s sports. Despite lies from transgender activists and their allies, everyone knows that males and females are physiologically different, with testosterone giving males competitive advantages in sports.

Men’s bodies are different from women’s. This means that men, in general, can out-compete women. That’s why we’ve always had separate sports categories for men and women. Even if a man believes he’s a woman, he competes in sports with his male body. Women have been injured by men playing their sport, and men who do so steal opportunities, titles, records and victories from women.

Transgender ideology leads to the invasion of privacy for girls and women (and boys and men, too). As the homosexual and transgender movements gained political and social power, states changed nondiscrimination laws to include “sexual orientation” and “gender identity” (SOGI), and sometimes “gender expression.”

Courts and federal agencies followed suit, redefining “sex” – being male or female – to include homosexuality and transgenderism.

Those SOGI ordinances often included public accommodations, such as restrooms, showers, locker rooms and changing rooms. Opening those sex-segregated spaces to boys and men who claim to be female harms girls and women.

Men are allowed to invade women’s private spaces because sex – being male or female – is redefined by a false ideology.

Transgender ideology has brought attacks on free speech and religious freedom. Because states added “gender identity” and “gender expression” to nondiscrimination laws, basic rights are threatened. When the Supreme Court redefined sex to include homosexuality and transgenderism, employers lost their religious freedom.

Teachers are told they must use a student’s “chosen name and pronouns,” violating free speech laws. Some have lost jobs over this, leading to lengthy and expensive lawsuits. Individuals have lost jobs for speaking out against – or simply questioning – transgender dogma.

The Biden administration even unveiled a plan to advance LGBT issues in the U.S. and around the world. The proposal called for the elimination of “broad religious exemptions” for individuals and organizations who disagree with LGBT ideology. The plan said this was a “misuse” of religious liberty, and opponents of religious freedom call these exemptions a “license to discriminate.”

Christians and faith-based organizations have been forced to spend huge amounts of time, money and energy to fight for free speech and religious freedom in the wake of the LGBT juggernaut.

Transgender ideology has led to violence against girls and women. As states allowed men who claim to be women into women’s sports, restrooms, locker rooms, homeless shelters and prisons, violence from those men has increased.

In sports, male athletes have inflicted severe injuries on women athletes. Transgender-identified males have spied on, filmed and assaulted women in restrooms and changing rooms.

Because of transgender ideology, California opened women’s prisons to men claiming to be women in 2021 – all based on the false idea that “trans women are women.” This led to hundreds of male offenders transferring from male to female prisons.

Men housed in women’s prisons have preyed on women, harassing, intimidating, sexually assaulting and physically attacking them.

Transgender ideology denies the scientific and biblical truth that there are two types of humans, male or female, and individuals are either one or the other. No medical interventions or internal, subjective identity can transform a man into a woman – or vice versa. Nor are there an infinitude of “genders,” as transgender dogma proclaims.

As Christians, we must stand for truth. Lies are destructive, and false transgender ideology has led to great destruction in our world.

As Christians, too, we are called to love others and point them toward God’s deep love, forgiveness and healing. This includes those struggling with sexual identity confusion and those caught in the lies of transgender ideology.

It’s not always easy, but we must do both at the same time – love people while standing firmly for the truth.

Related Articles and Resources

Focus on the Family exists to help families, and that includes help navigating the issues of homosexuality and transgenderism. Focus offers a free, one-time counseling consultation with a licensed or pastoral counselor. To request a consultation, call 1-855-771-HELP (4357) or fill out our Counseling Consultation Request Form.

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Chloe Cole: Good News in the Fight Against Transgender Mutilation of Children  

Chloe Cole, a brave young “detransitioner” from transgenderism, had a double dose of good news last week in her battle to keep other children from being harmed by “transgender” medical interventions.

First, on September 18, Senator Marsha Blackburn and Congressman Bob Onder introduced into Congress the Chloe Cole Act, also called The Victims of Chemical or Surgical Mutilation Act.

The federal legislation would “ban the chemical and surgical mutilation of children and provide detransitioners whose healthy body parts have been damaged by these procedures with legal recourse.”

The next day, Cole received more good news, learning that her lawsuit against Kaiser Permanente could move forward. The California Court of Appeal, Third Appellate District, ruled in her favor, allowing the case to go to trial.

Chloe Cole’s complaint against Kaiser Foundation Hospitals, Permanente Medical Group, and individual physicians, was filed in February 2023. It explains that she was 12 years old when “she wrote a letter to her parents telling them that she wanted to be referred to as ‘Ky’ or ‘Chi,’ and that she wanted to be treated as a boy.”

Her parents were unsure how to respond and sought the guidance of medical professionals. Cole was struggling with a variety of issues, including “anxiety, depression, social anxiety, shyness, limited friends, and feeling disgusted with her hips, chest, and thin arms.”

Rather than receiving counseling and moving toward healing for these issues, Cole was rapidly placed on the “‘conveyer belt’ of mimicry sex change,” as her suit explained.

She received puberty blockers and testosterone at age 13 and underwent a double mastectomy when she was 15.

Those interventions permanently damaged her body and brought no healing to her underlying mental, emotional and relational issues. According to her lawsuit:

As occurs in most gender dysphoria cases, Chloe’s dysphoria was not persistent and resolved when she was close to reaching adulthood. Consequently, she detransitioned and no longer identifies as a male.

Unfortunately, as a result of the so-called transgender “treatment” that Defendants performed on Chloe, she now has deep physical and emotional wounds, severe regrets, and distrust of the medical system. Chloe has suffered physically, socially, neurologically, and psychologically.

Rather than facing a public trial, Kaiser sought to bring the medical malpractice suit into private arbitration. But that option has been shut down.

Cole is represented by Limandri and Jonna, LLP, Dhillon Law Group, and the Center for American Liberty. Her legal team celebrated the victory with a post on X, saying, “See You In Court, Kaiser!”

Mark Trammell, CEO of the Center for American Liberty, said, “Today’s decision is tremendous news. Chloe will not be silenced. She will have her day in court, and the truth will come out.”

Chloe Cole’s fight to protect other children from the damage she experienced has borne more good fruit with the introduction of the eponymously named congressional measure.  

She posted on X:

“I’m so humbled by @RepBobOnder’s decision to name this extremely important bill after me. This bill will prevent further gender mutilation in The United States and also allow we, detransitioners to achieve justice and hold our doctors, and institutions who failed us to account.”

In a press release, Representative Onder said, “As a member of Congress, a doctor, a parent, and an American, I am committed to protecting our nation’s children. That’s why I am proud to introduce the Chloe Cole Act, a landmark bill that will put a permanent stop to one of the most dangerous and barbaric medical procedures in modern history.”

The legislation was proposed by the U.S. Department of Justice and endorsed by Attorney General Pam Bondi.

Bondi stated, “The Department of Justice has heard from far too many families who have been devastated by mutilative medical procedures that fly in the face of basic biology. While we continue our ongoing legal battle to protect children, we appreciate our colleagues in Congress who are working diligently alongside us to end these abusive procedures once and for all.”

Senator Blackburn explained the importance of the act. “No child should be pushed into irreversible chemical and surgical mutilation under the guise of so-called ‘gender-affirming care.’ The Chloe Cole Act would put a stop to this barbaric abuse of children and give those who have suffered the consequences of these harmful procedures the chance to fight back.”

Transgender ideology is inherently harmful, with its false belief that anyone can change from one sex to the other. This has led to irreversible damage for thousands. Cole has courageously told her story about being damaged by transgender interventions, and she’s been a terrific spokeswoman, as she battles for truth against “gender” ideology.

It’s vital that doctors and hospitals be held accountable for previous actions to “transition” minors and that this federal legislation is passed by Congress to protect children from the devastating effects of puberty blocking drugs, opposite-sex hormones and surgeries.

Chloe Cole’s lawsuit is Brockman v. Kaiser Foundation Hospitals.

Read The Victims of Chemical or Surgical Mutilation Act here.

Related Articles and Resources

To learn more about Chloe Cole’s story, you can watch the new documentary Truth Rising.

Focus on the Family exists to help families, and that includes help navigating the issues of homosexuality and transgenderism. Focus offers a free, one-time counseling consultation with a licensed or pastoral counselor. To request a consultation, call 1-855-771-HELP (4357) or fill out our Counseling Consultation Request Form.

Chloe Cole: Gender Reassignment Surgery Regret

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Expert in ‘Transitioning’ Children Admits ‘We Were Wrong’ About Puberty Blockers

Important New Journal Article Calls Out Doctors for Harming Youth with Medicalized Gender Ideology

Four Brave Young Women File Lawsuits Alleging Harm from ‘Transgender’ Interventions

God’s Amazing Grace in a Transgendered Person’s Life

Pam Bondi Directs DOJ Attorneys to Investigate Transgender Procedures for Minors

President Trump Signs Order Protecting Children From Transgender Medical Interventions

Questioning Drugs, Hormones and Surgery for Youth Confused about Their Sexual Identity

Support for Parent Whose Adult Child Identifies as Transgender

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Transgender Ideology is Inherently Destructive

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Transgender Resources

Image Credit: Truth Rising

Transgender Ideology is Inherently Destructive

The assassination of Charlie Kirk by an accused shooter with numerous ties to transgenderism has placed a spotlight on violence from transgender–identified individuals and their allies.

But transgenderism’s harms don’t just come from individuals. Transgender ideology, in and of itself, is inherently damaging and it has led to great destruction.

Ideas have consequences and transgender dogma, rooted as it is in falsehood and the destruction of the body, has wreaked incredible damage on all of society. It has reaped a dark, dismal harvest across the West.

To be clear, most transgender-identified individuals are not violent. Many wrestle with deep emotional, spiritual and psychological issues, but they still choose not to commit crimes. Many simply want to live in peace – without political engagement or even imposing their beliefs on others.

Scripture calls us to love those caught in the transgender web of deceit.

At the same time, as Paul said, we pull down strongholds, “casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God” (2 Corinthians 10:4-5).

That’s why we must understand and courageously speak the truth: Gender ideology is innately harmful, and it has fostered and led to great destruction.

The harms from gender ideology stem, first of all, from its originators, men with twisted thinking and actions who founded the transgender movement, creating and fostering a false dogma.

Instead of trying to help people (usually men) struggling with disorders like cross dressing or sexual identity confusion, men like Magnus Hirshfeld and Harry Benjamin, who believed someone could change from male to female with hormones and surgeries. The two were early “sexologists” who helped perform experimental – sometimes deadly – medical procedures on men.

John Money, the disgraced researcher who is lauded as the father of modern transgender theory blatantly lied about a failed attempt to change a boy’s “gender identity” from male to female.

Money invented the term “gender identity,” using it to differentiate between sex – being male or female, a biological reality – and “gender” – a completely internal, subjective construct. “Gender” now refers to what people believe about themselves as male, female, neither, both or something completely different.  

These men were forerunners, laying the rotted foundations for the transgender movement.

The belief that sex is somehow less important than and separate from “gender” is a key component of gender ideology, which is built out of other falsehoods and contradictory ideas. These include:   

  • Male and female are “social constructs” not rooted in physical reality.
  • Some people are neither male nor female; others are a combination of the two.
  • “Gender” is fluid and changeable, and there are an infinitude of “genders.” 
  • “Gender” is innate and immutable, and it is damaging to help someone embrace their bodily reality. 
  • Drugs, hormones and surgeries can be used to change a person’s body to match their internal “gender.”
  • Others must agree with gender ideology, or they are hateful, transphobic bigots.
  • Those who disagree with transgenderism cause suicidality and violence against transgender-identified individuals.

These lies, having no basis in medicine, science or reality, have brought incalculable harm to millions. Here are some examples.

Transgender ideology harms children. Teachers and librarians have introduced transgender books, curriculum and classroom readings to children, inappropriately sexualizing and confusing them.

The federal government, state legislatures, departments of education and local school boards are guilty of harming children as they mandated the teaching of gender dogma and the implementation of school “transgender policies.”  

Even more damage is done when children do what they’re taught – and embrace a false identity as something other than their innate sex.

Transgender ideology leads to the devastation of children’s bodies, minds and souls. At a recent conference, a young woman described how she embraced transgender ideas and had a double mastectomy and hysterectomy in her early 20s.

Transgender beliefs affirmed her adolescent discomfort with her body and taught her she could turn into a boy. She’s now become a follower of Jesus Christ, but her body remains damaged, ravaged by medical professionals with the completely unscientific belief that drugs, hormones and surgeries can change a woman into a man.

Multiply the damage done to her healthy body by tens of thousands of other children, adolescents, teens and young adults and it’s clear how many lives are affected.

Transgender ideology destroys families. Children with sexual identity confusion are told, by schools, clinicians and online influencers not to trust their parents. Parents are the enemy and therefore transgender involvement should be hidden from them.

Children are encouraged to live with one identity at home and a different one at school. They pursue body-damaging chest binders, puberty blockers and opposite-sex hormones without parental consent or knowledge.

Parents are falsely told, “affirm them or they will die,” and blackmailed into helping a child attain destructive medical interventions – often against their intuitive understanding that these procedures are not good. If they don’t agree, those caught in transgender deceit are told to shun their parents – and any other family members who won’t affirm their “true identity.”

Transgender ideology tramples on parental rights. Schools have lied to parents and hidden children’s sexual identity confusion from them. State child protective service agencies and courts have removed children from their parents because the parents refuse to allow their children’s bodies to be mutilated and irreparably injured.

There’s much more to say, but ultimately, transgender ideology is an assault on reality. It’s undeniable that humans are sexually dimorphic: Individuals are either male or female, with innate differences. Transgenderism seeks to replace truth with fictitious ideology.

Despite recent advances in protecting children, education and parental rights, all right-thinking people must continue to speak the truth and do battle against this pernicious false belief system.

Related Articles and Resources

Cakegender? Genderfaun? Orbgender?

California Family Harassed After Trying to Opt-Out of Activities Teaching Gender Ideology

Charlie Kirk’s Accused Assassin and His Links to Transgenderism

Do Not Fall for the ‘Affirm Them or They Will Die’ Lie

Free Speech Victory for Virginia Teacher Fired Over ‘Transgender’ Pronoun Policy

Liberal Father Seeks to Disprove Concerns Over Sexually Explicit Books in Schools, Becomes Convinced These Books Are Not for Children

National Day of Reading Celebrates ‘Stories Supporting Transgender and Non-Binary Youth’

Minnesota Government Helps Provide “Sex Change” for Teen – Without Parent’s Consent

One Mom’s Journey Advocating for Children and Parental Rights

Teaching Deception? School District Adopts Gender Policy, Keeps Parents in the Dark

‘Transgender Means Many Different Things’ — And Nothing

What Are Male and Female in God’s Story?

Why a Trans Woman is a Not a Woman

Image from Getty.