transgender

Supreme Court Hears Case on Protecting Children from ‘Transgender’ Sterilization and Mutilation

As Dietrich Bonhoeffer famously said, “If I sit next to a madman as he drives a car into a group of innocent bystanders, I can’t, as a Christian, simply wait for the catastrophe, then comfort the wounded and bury the dead. I must try to wrestle the steering wheel out of the hands of the driver.”

While Bonhoeffer was talking about stopping Hitler and the Nazis, his statement applies to us today as we combat “gender ideology” and the damage done to children who are irreparably harmed by the catastrophe of “transgender” madness.

It’s time to wrestle the steering wheel from those who sterilize and mutilate children.

The Supreme Court has the opportunity to do this, as the justices hear arguments December 4 in the case United States v. Skrmetti. The court will rule on the constitutionality of Tennessee’s Senate Bill 1, a measure which prohibits medical procedures “enabling a minor to identify with, or live as, a purported identity inconsistent with the minor’s sex.”

Gender ideology tells children lies about who they are, including: “You may be born into the wrong body,” “Your gender may be different from your sex,” and “Drugs, hormones and surgeries can somehow transform you into the opposite sex.”

We all know that there are two sexes, male and female, and no one can change to the opposite sex. But gender dogma asks us to believe that what’s in a person’s head trumps biological truth.

These beliefs are a flight into unreality and fantasy.

Dr. Paul McHugh, the former director of the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, used this strong language in a well-known 2004 article published in First Things. He called these beliefs a “fabrication, both surgical and social.”

McHugh stated, “We psychiatrists have been distracted from studying the causes and natures” of sexual confusion, and he concluded:  

We have wasted scientific and technical resources and damaged our professional credibility by collaborating with madness rather than trying to study, cure, and ultimately prevent it.

Many state legislatures have decided it’s time to stop collaborating with madness, and they’ve wrestled the steering wheel away from those who harm children and passing laws to safeguard minors.

Tennessee passed SB 1 in February 2023, but LGBT activists and allies, including the American Civil Liberties Union, the ACLU of Tennessee and Lambda Legal sued to block the law just two months later.

The Biden administration filed suit against the legislation as well, and “the Supreme Court consolidated the ACLU & Biden’s US DOJ into one case against Tennessee Attorney General, Jonathan Skrmetti,” as political commentator, world-renowned DEI instructor and children’s author Matt Walsh explains.

Many legislators, conservative organizations, and Christian individuals and groups were instrumental in drafting and passing SB 1, but Walsh played a key role in fostering support for the bill.

In 2022, Walsh announced on X that he and his team had investigated the Vanderbilt transgender clinic, posting:

[ENTER TEXT HERE]

BREAKING: My team and I have been investigating the transgender clinic at Vanderbilt here in Nashville. Vanderbilt drugs, chemically castrates, and performs double mastectomies on minors. But it gets worse. Here is what we found. Let’s start at the beginning.

In a lengthy thread, Walsh said Vanderbilt’s Dr. Shayne Taylor “convinced Nashville to get into the gender transition game.” In a video-taped talk, the doctor stated that transgender procedures where “ a ‘big money maker,’ especially because the surgeries require a lot of “follow ups.”

Walsh demonstrated that the clinic offered “Trans Buddies” to walk people through the medical process, and these Buddies were “available to children, too.” The clinic advertised “lots of ‘services’ available to children, including chemical castration.”

One video showed that the clinic “will give and have given irreversible hormone drugs to children as young as 13,” while another video presentation explained that “plastic surgeon Julien Winocour and Physician’s Assistant Shalyn Vanderbloemen – will happily perform double mastectomies on adolescent girls.”

After these revelations, Walsh said:

The public was outraged, TN politicians demanded answers, and Vanderbilt promised to “pause” and “review” their surgeries for removing the breasts of healthy teenage girls.

Explaining the significance of the case, he wrote:

On December 4, 2024, TN AG Skrmetti will stand before the Supreme Court, against the ACLU and the Biden Admin, and make the case for Tennessee, and by extension all states seeking to protect healthy children from castration, sterilization, and mutilation.

Along with other pro-children activists, Walsh will be speaking at a Stop the Harm rally on the steps of the Supreme Court on December 4, from 8:00 to 12:30. Representatives from The Family Foundation, a Focus on the Family-affiliated family policy council, will also be in attendance.

The more we learn about so-called gender-affirming care for minors, the more we understand the devastating affects on young, growing bodies and minds. Such procedures are experimental and have great risks and harms,

A 2023 Washington Post-KFF poll found that “a majority of Americans oppose access to puberty blockers [68%] and hormone treatments [58%] for children and teenagers.”

Sex is biologically determined, and “gender” is not “assigned” at birth. Instead of mutilating healthy bodies, parents, clinicians and concerned citizens should help children embrace their God-given sex.

Let’s pray the court agrees with Tennessee – and most of our country – and stops the gender madness.

Related articles and research:

If you or someone you know need assistance dealing with the transgender issue, check out Focus on the Family’s Transgender Resources page here.

Focus on the Family’s Counseling Department offers help from licensed or pastoral counselors. To request a conversation with Focus on the Family’s Counseling Department, call 1-855-771-HELP (4357) weekdays from 6:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m. (Mountain Time), or complete our Counseling Consultation Request Form. Please be prepared to leave your contact information for a counselor to return a call to you as soon as possible. The consultation is available at no cost to you due to generous donor support and will be with one of our licensed or pastoral counseling specialists.

Court Victory in Tennessee Case to Protect Children From ‘Transgender’ Drugs, Hormones and Surgeries

Doctor Refuses to Publish Major Study Finding Puberty-Blocking Drugs Don’t Help Children

England’s NHS Stops Dispensing Puberty Blockers for Children – Not Safe or Effective

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

Supreme Court Must Allow States to Protect Children From Transgender Medical Interventions

Tennessee and Mississippi Pass Bills to Protect Children from Harmful ‘Sex Change’ Procedures

Tennessee Considering Legislation Banning ‘Sex-Change’ Procedures on Minors After Vanderbilt Scandal

The WPATH Files – Transgender Interventions Are ‘Unethical Medical Experiments’

Image from Shutterstock.

NCAA and San Jose State ‘Transgender’ Volleyball Player Usurp Women’s Rights

Boise State forfeited the semifinal game of the 2024 Mountain West Women’s Volleyball Championship tournament rather than play San Jose State, which had a “transgender” volleyball player on its team.

The school’s courageous stand for women-only sports and private spaces demonstrates the high cost of the NCAA’s “Transgender Student-Athlete Participation Policy,” which allows participation in sports based on an athlete’s “gender identity.”

The policy threatens women’s accomplishments and rights, but the Boise team is part of a growing backlash against transgender ideology that claims a man can become a woman through clothing and makeup, drugs, hormones and surgeries. Or just by proclaiming it so.

Boise teammates and sisters Kiersten and Katelyn Van Kirk explained the decision to Fox News’ sports outlet OutKick, with Katelyn saying:

And in the end, I guess we all had to come to terms with the idea that this is bigger than ourselves and a championship has to be given up for this fight [to protect women’s sports] to actually keep going.

Boise State forfeited twice to SJSU during the regular season. Southern Utah, the University of Wyoming and Utah State also withdrew from games with the Spartans due to the presence of Blaire Fleming, who was born male but attempts to live as a woman.

Nine players filed a lawsuit to block Fleming from playing in the tournament, but Denver Judge S. Kato Crews ruled against them.

SJSU went on to lose to Colorado State for the championship in four sets.

But the tournament highlights harms when males are allowed to play women’s  sports, including:

  • Girls and women lose scholarships and positions on teams. Fleming received a full scholarship that should have gone to a woman.
  • After working for years to achieve athletic success, 717 female athletes have lost more than 1,055 competitions and 518 medals to boys and men, reports the website SheWon.org. SJSU’s inclusion of a male brought losses to dozens of women throughout the season and in the championship tournament.
  • Male athletes endanger women athletes. A Title IX complaint from SJSU Associate Head Coach Melissa Batie-Smoose said, “Even defenders on Fleming’s own team, concerned for their safety, now sometimes turn away during practice matches when Fleming is winding up for a kill – a fear response … virtually unheard of in women’s volleyball.”
  • Teachers and coaches have been fired for not kowtowing to transgender policies and ideology. Batie-Smoose was suspended from her coaching position after filing her complaint in defense of the women she coached.
  • Athletes and teams have been banned from competition for opposing males in girls and women’s sports.
  • When males enter female-only restrooms, locker rooms, showers and lodging rooms, girls and women lose their privacy and are unwillingly exposed to male bodies. SJSU’s co-captain Brooke Slusser was forced to share rooms with Fleming – without being told her teammate was male. 

In addition to these harms, women who speak out against transgender policies are often targeted by transgender-identified activists and their allies. Slusser was threatened after she spoke out against Fleming’s presence on the team, leading to a police presence and metal detectors at a Spartan game against Colorado.

Thankfully, there is a growing backlash against men in women’s sports and private spaces.  A 2023 Gallup poll showed that 69% of Americans believe transgender athletes “should only be allowed to play on sports teams that match their birth gender’ – an increase from 62% in 2021.

Along with refusing to compete against males, women are also fighting back with lawsuits. Swimmer and women’s rights activist Riley Gaines, along with more than a dozen other female athletes, sued the NCAA in May 2024 over its policy that permits men to compete against them and use female locker rooms.

Earlier this month, the Van Kirks and ten other women sued the Mountain West Conference for violating their Title IX and First Amendment rights.

The forfeiture was painful for the Boise State women. But Kiersten explained its importance, as the team fights for women athletes across the nation. She told OutKick:

It’s just disheartening and heartbreaking that it had to come to this. But I know that we are all working towards future generations being able to have a safe place for female athletes to compete and putting that above ourselves, which is a really hard thing to do because obviously our goal was to win a championship. And I think that it’s extremely unfair and really terrible that it had to come to that.

The Daily Citizen applauds these women for their courageous, costly stance. We too want future generations of girls and women to have access to female-only sports, privacy and safety.  

Related articles and resources:

Counseling Consultation & Referrals

Transgender Resources

Canadian Powerlifter Faces Two-Year Ban for Protesting Males in Her Sport

Four Women’s Volleyball Teams Forfeit – Won’t Play Team with a Man

San Jose Coach Suspended for Filing Discrimination Complaint Against Transgender Player

#SaveGirlsSports – New Campaign Launched by Family Policy AllianceCanadian Powerlifter Faces Two-Year Ban for Protesting Males in Her Sport

Image from Getty.

Kindergarteners Taught Gender Ideology in New York School District

This is the first in a two-part series examining the New York State Education Department’s (NYSED) systematic indoctrination of its students. Part 1 reveals a New York school district’s adoption of gender ideology. Part 2 explores the NYSED’s intentional perpetuation of Critical Theory.

A New York elementary school found itself in hot water shortly before Thanksgiving after it allegedly introduced a new “gender curriculum” for kindergartners. But Superintendent William S. McKersie says it’s nothing new — the whole school district has been teaching gender ideology for years.

The popular X account @LibsofTikTok outed Hillside Elementary School for teaching gender ideology after it obtained a copy of its kindergarten “gender curriculum.” The program synopsis, which Hillside reportedly emailed to parents, endeavors to “center [kindergarten students’] discussions on gender identity” by introducing concepts like:

  • “Identity is who you are.”
  • “Identity includes your gender and the pronouns that you use.”
  • “There is no right or wrong way to be any gender.”

The curriculum teaches that gender isn’t linked to biological sex. The five- and six-year-olds learn to use “cisgender,” “transgender” and “non-binary” to describe a person whose internal sense of being male or female matches their biological sex, a person whose feeling of being male or female doesn’t match their biological sex, and a person who doesn’t feel male or female, respectively.

Unlike the alphabet or addition, Hillside’s kindergarten gender lessons don’t teach students how to perceive or navigate reality. Instead, it perpetuates a philosophical belief system that denies the importance and, in some cases, the existence of biological sex.

But don’t worry, parents — educators will introduce this vocabulary in a “developmentally appropriate way.”

@LibsofTikTok’s original post suggested that Hillside hadn’t yet implemented the curriculum. Superintendent McKersie’s internal response to the backlash claims gender ideology has been a district-wide mainstay for years.

“The gender lessons have been in place for several years and are rooted in Hillside’s core values of respect and fostering dignity for all students,” he wrote.

McKersie claims the brouhaha began when his district, Hastings-on-Hudson, “notified elementary families that Curriculum Synopses for all subjects were available on the website.” By his reckoning, parents should not have been surprised:

The gender lessons have been well received by the vast majority of students and families. We have made annual presentations to families about the lessons. I also have made a point to meet with parents regarding the gender lessons.

A third-grade gender curriculum obtained by @LibsofTikTok supports McKersie’s claim that gender ideology is an established part of the district’s teaching material. The synopsis suggests the school’s 8- and 9-year-olds learn to use people’s “preferred pronouns” as soon as they learn what a pronoun is.

McKersie promises HOH’s gender lessons “do not address sex education or sexuality.” But gender ideology is intimately tied to sexual expression and behavior. Consider this “resource” design to help students determine their “gender identity”:

Regardless, teaching gender ideology defeats the purpose of sending children to school. Taxpayers pay for public schools so kids can become productive members of society. Perpetuating gender ideology diminishes their creative potential.

Teaching children they can “choose” their gender exponentially increases their likelihood of experiencing gender confusion. Natural bodily discomforts become indications a child was “born in the wrong body.” Gender-confused children learn to interpret their bodies as worthless errors, rather than intentional gifts.

Though research shows gender confusion is a socially sensitive, often temporary phenomenon, some of these children will undergo irreversible opposite-sex hormone treatments and surgeries to “affirm” their “gender identity.” These interventions occur before the legal age of consent but consign the recipient to a lifetime of medical complications. “Gender affirming treatments” do not demonstrably improve mental health, but frequently result in sterilization.

Prioritizing “gender identity” over biological sex effectively eliminates sex-based protections for women. Men who “identify” as women can access women’s sports, bathrooms, locker rooms and other private spaces. Biological differences that can make women vulnerable to men, like men’s greater strength and bone density, are minimized or ignored.

In other words, gender ideology has the educational benefit of a beginner’s course in Klingon and the social benefit of “Armed Robbery 101.”  The fact that a New York school district has been hawking gender ideology for years — apparently without some parents’ knowledge — is unconscionable.

Even worse? The tax-funded body responsible for more than 2.4 million public school students explicitly endorses it.

Stay tuned for Part 2.

Additional Articles and Resources

Court Sides With parents Over Teaching First Graders ‘Transgender Ideology’

The Shifting Ground of ‘Gender-Affirming Care’

‘Transgender’ Means Many Different Things — and Nothing

Here’s What Happens When Good People Don’t Connect Gay and Trans Ideology

U.K.’s Review of Child Gender Policy Reveals Profound Failures that U.S. Still Defends

The WPATH Files Exposes ‘Surgical and Hormonal Experiments on Children’

England’s NHS Stops Dispensing Puberty Blockers for Children — Not Safe or Effective

Former ‘Transgender Clinic’ Worker Blows the Whistle, Becomes First to Speak Out Against ‘Transitioning’ Minors

Gaines, Women’s Rights Groups Support Women Appealing Case of man Joining Sorority

New Research Confirms Gender Dysphoria Usually Temporary in Children and Young Adults

‘Transgender’ Means Many Different Things — and Nothing

When we think about the phenomenon of transgenderism, we must consider all the permutations this involves. They are endless; literally, as varied as the human imagination. It is certainly not one thing, and it is not all what most people assume.

First, we must appreciate that the American Psychiatric Association holds the term “transgender” is a generalized “umbrella term” for anyone whose “inner sense or gender” is different than their body. That is so elastic it includes almost anything. They also explain it is a “non-medical term” without any scientific specificity.

Transgender as Cosplay

There is gender exploratory behavior that is essentially cosplay, demonstrated in make-believe play-actors like Dylan Mulvaney and ideological groomers like Jeffery Marsh. You can be whatever you want to be, and if you call it “trans” then that’s what you are. And the ideology demands everyone else play along. But no one should feel compelled to change their understanding of reality to make someone feel good about him- or herself.

In that regard, it is a social psychosis.

Trans as Social Contagion

We must also understand the role of social media capture and contagion in youth and young adults, persuading them to make claims they are the sex opposite their biological sex, or simply non-binary, which is not a thing. Abigail Shrier documented this well in her book, Irreversible Damage: The Transgender Craze Seducing Our Daughters.

This is what is driving Rapid Onset Gender Dysphoria (ROGD) with untold numbers of young people, largely young girls, swept up in it. It is not rooted in any objective clinical condition beyond impressionable adolescents and young adults persuaded by peers and online influences. Of course, trans activists claim ROGD is not real because it undercuts their “this is just the way nature made me” sympathy narrative.

Part-Time Transgender

It is important to note that a minority of people who consider themselves “transgender” identify with and present as their alternative gender 100% of the time. Most are merely part-time identifiers in public. Most (62%) “trans” identifying people imprecisely define themselves as “non-binary” or “gender non-confirming.” Only 12% define themselves as the binary “trans man” and 22% identify as “trans woman.” You can see how fluid all this is in a major Washington Post survey.

Genuine Debilitating Gender Dysphoria

What is more, the number of “transgender” people saying they have severe or debilitating distress over a misalignment between their self-perception of their sex and their objective physical body is not large at all, only 0.6% of the U.S. population. Compare this with 5% of young adults in the U.S. who identify as some category of “transgender.”

Very few people who identify as “transgender” suffer from what clinicians refer to as diagnosable gender dysphoria (GD). This condition can be truly excruciating for the patient, and can be understood as a sex-based “body identity integrity disorder” or BIID. This is where the individual does not identify with a perfectly healthy part of their body. They desire deeply to have that body part removed and will go to great and damaging lengths to have it do so. Published scientific research shows notable similarities between GD and BIID, here, here and here.

Autogynephilia

Finally, there is autogynephilia, which is a paraphilia. It is described in the academic literature as “a male’s propensity to be sexually aroused by the thought of himself as a female.” Or as Anne Lawrence, a leading scholar on the topic and autogynephilic individual himself explains, it is a man’s effort to “become what he loves” or desires. In more academic parlance, Lawrence explains,

Autogynephilia exemplifies an unusual paraphilic category called “erotic target identity inversions”, in which men desire to impersonate or turn their bodies into facsimiles of the persons or things to which they are sexually attracted.

The academic literature reports that “nearly 3% of men in Western countries may experience autogynephilia” making it a leading reason for “trans” identity and behavior.

Michael Bailey, a professor of psychology at Northwestern University, and one of the world’s longest and leading experts on autogynephilia, strongly supposes that Bruce Jenner is autogynephilic rather than gender dysphoric. Bailey explained on a 2015 podcast,

I believe it is very likely that Caitlyn Jenner’s transition was motivated by intense autogynephilia. I believe this because the best science suggests there are two completely different reasons why natal males become women: because they are feminine androphiles (lovers of men) or because they are autogynephilic. Jenner’s history shows none of the former and is very consistent with the latter. I refer specifically to his previous heterosexual marriages and secretive crossdressing.

Of course, this means these are men entering women’s private spaces because of their sexual desire to “become” that which they sexually desire. And we are told we are to fully accept them as actual “women.”

This means many “trans women” (i.e., men presenting as women) that you interact with at work, school or shopping centers are actually men who dress as women because they get a sexual thrill from it. It is a fetish.

This fact should deeply concern all women, girls and the men who seek to protect the women in their lives.

Conclusion

It is important that we understand what people mean when they use the term “trans” to get what they want in society. Few have said it better than liberal feminist Kara Dansky in her book, The Abolition of Sex: How the “Transgender” Agenda Harms Women and Girls,

Here is the truth we cannot speak: “gender identity” does not exist in any real, material sense, and “transgender” is simply a made-up concept that is used to justify all kinds of atrocities. It is in effect, a men’s rights movement intended to objectify women’s bodies and erase us a class. It is left-wing misogyny on steroids. I say this as a leftist and a Democrat.

Be properly discerning as loved ones, forces in your workplace, school, media and cultural elites try to convince you that “transgender” is natural and harmless. It is not.

It is an illusion that turns reality on its head.

Related articles and resources:

If you or someone you know is struggling with transgenderism or other sexuality issues, and you don’t know where to turn, Focus on the Family is here to help.

Focus offers a one-time counseling consultation with a licensed or pastoral counselor free of charge thanks to generous donor support. If you would like to request a consultation with Focus’ Counseling Department, call 1-855-771-HELP (4357) weekdays from 6:00 AM to 8:00 PM (Mountain Time) or complete our Counseling Consultation Request Form.

American Academy of Pediatrics Captured by Gender Ideology; Mainstream Professionals Are Calling Them Out

Transgenderism and Minors: What Does the Research Really Show?

What Does it Mean to Be Trans, Anyway?

Transgenderism and Minors: What Does the Research Really Show?

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

How to Defeat Gender Ideology, Protect Children and End ‘Trans America’

New Research Confirms Previous Findings: Most Gender Confused Kids Desist

The Shifting Ground of ‘Gender-Affirming Care’

How the “Trans” and Gender Redefinition Issue Attacks the Family

How to Respond to “Trans” and Gender Ideology? Simple: Live Not by Lies

Are Sex and Gender Different Things?

No, Trans Rights Are Certainly NOT Human Rights

The Embarrassing Crack-Up of the LGBT Project

Yes, Transgenderism is a False Belief System

Image from Shutterstock.

President Trump to Medically Discharge ‘Trans’ Soldiers

According to major news outlets, defense sources suggest President-elect Donald Trump will issue an executive order banning “transgender” troops. The order is expected shortly after Trump is sworn into office January.

Trump spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt tempered expectations, telling Newsweek, “No decisions on this issue have been made. No policy should ever be deemed official unless it comes directly from President Trump or his authorized spokespeople.”

During his first administration, the 45th president enacted a similar policy, but allowed other sexually confused military personnel to remain in their positions. Sources suggest this latest order will be wider reaching, impacting upwards of 15,000 individuals.

President Biden previously reversed the first Trump ban just days after taking office in 2021. During his latest campaign for president, Donald Trump made clear his intentions on the issue, lamenting the evolving wokeness of our armed forces:

“I will ban the Department of Veterans Affairs from wasting a single cent to fund transgender surgeries or sex change procedures,” President-elect Trump said.  “Those precious taxpayer dollars should be going to care for our veterans in need, not to fund radical gender experiments for the communist Left.”

He added, saying, “I’ll also restore the Trump ban on transgender in the military.”

In addition to covering the cost of sexual mutilation surgeries, our tax dollars are being spent to cover the travel costs of those who are transported out of state for an abortion.

Other examples of wokeness in the United States military include forcing recruits to watch videos on “proper pronoun usage” and the need for using “inclusive language” in day-to-day operations. CRT books have been added to the Navy Professional Reading Program, including, How to Be Antiracist by Ibram X. Kendi. The author suggests, “The only remedy to past discrimination is present discrimination” and “capitalism is essentially racist.”

American citizens have also funded military trips to annual “pride” events. The Navy even enlisted the help of Yeoman 2nd Class Joshua Kelley, who is also a drag queen, to serve as a “Navy Digital Ambassador.”

Critics of the ban suggest it will undermine military readiness and harm recruitment – claims they make with a straight face. Those who oppose President Trump’s plans are quick to point out that a mass exodus will harm an already depleted and struggling military. As of last year, the Marine Corps were the only branch that met its recruiting goals.

It never seems to occur to supporters of a woke military that current policies actually keep good people away, putting the military as a whole in jeopardy.

America’s storied military cannot afford to be hobbled by sexually confused individuals who leverage the platform to carry out a disastrous and ill-conceived social experiment.

The Transgender revolution has backfired spectacularly on the Left, but many seem either oblivious or disinterested in reconsidering their devotion to it.

Our men and women in uniform deserve better.

Image from Getty.