Magic the gathering can be a fun activity to pass the time when camping but certainly should never be used as an excuse to not go hiking. I have happy memories playing magic at camp, but it was always in the off times.
It's not just the boys' troops in BSA - it's also the girls' troops in BSA that are dealing with this. National policy is that youth are allowed to participate in a troop of the gender with which they identify. It is a very difficult situation for troop leadership to navigate. There are limitations on tenting arrangements. This is protective of privacy and physical safety. However if leaders don't use the pronoun and name preferences of youth, they put themselves at odds with national policy and can be considered to be harassing youth. We are expected to educate youth about personal safety and grooming behavior, but the organization has remained silent on this aspect of potential grooming.
This is a massive development with powerful people, institutions, and money behind it. In our circle of Scouts, church, and the school where we taught, I can name seven transgender individuals, with two more that I suspect will declare themselves such shortly. Only two of them are adults over the age of 21. I'm sure there are more that I'm unaware of, since our own children are older and out of school.
I think all of us will be dealing with this cultural development soon, if we're not already doing so. There are many teachers, mentors and other leaders who want to protect youth from undue influence while respecting their personal choices. The trans pressure is coming from many directions, and non-discrimination policies are being issued in many institutions at a dizzying rate. It is a quagmire of legal and peer pressure.
What a shock and horrible realization for you and your family. It seems that our children are not safe anywhere from being influenced and brainwashed. There are too many secrets being kept from parents and our innocent children are being caught up in the crosshairs. I am saddened by your news. I think we all have felt our intuitions spring into high alert at one time or another and then we go against the warning only to later learn that we were right. Do not blame yourself. The gender ideology cult likes to trick parents into thinking they are wrong or confused because the lies are what hooks our children - and the more lies that are told the more innocent people believe them. The gender ideology lies shock me every day - how is our society buying into this cult? The more I read the more angry I become. We cannot give up this fight and we must continue to expose the lies so the truth will prevail. You are not alone! Stay strong! Praying that God will help us before its too late.
As a parent of a trans identifying kid and as a former scout, I find this outrageous and ridiculous. As an atheist, I feel some schadenfreude that the scouts have been reduced to this without the "corrosive" influence of atheists.
Magic the Gathering is basically a card version of Dungeons and Dragons. It's not inherenty a gateway to anything gender bending the way anime might be. It's just nerd culture. I do see signs that trans ideologues are trying to infiltrate nerd culture, no doubt to predate on the socially awkward and insecure kids who are deeply into nerd culture. And as a nerd at heart, it makes me sad.
Yeah, maybe a helpful way to look at it is that games like Magic the Gathering are like any other intensely social activity that teens participate in (like TikTok, etc) and as such can serve as yet another echo chamber in which they teens hear gender ideology reinforced and normalized.
And while card games and role playing games can be great fun, I agree that they are not good substitutes for hands-on activities like hiking, camping, cooking.
In general, I have learned that more time spent outdoors and learning new things means less time spent ruminating and obsessing about gender angst. And these are all great opportunities for you to strengthen your bond with your kid.
As a mother of a desisted young man, one of the things that has helped him conquer his PTSD around this experience (which I've written about here) has been playing Magic: The Gathering. I hadn't heard that it is a gateway into the gender cult, it's been just the opposite, for our son this game has been a wonderful outlet in the most positive way. I am so gutted to hear that there are Magic groups that pave the way to the dark side.
It is a crock of &^%$#*! Women's intuition is always sound. I'm so sorry this has happened. Transgenderism is a cult supported by rich and influential people who seek to pervert and ruin children and teens' lives; they're lab rats. More and more from every background have got to wake up! Thankfully, detransitioners are coming forward with their horror stories, and suing! We need more of all of this which is more or less what Hillier's medical doctors did to Jews and even their own.
" I couldn't understand why everyone was buying into it---" (gender).
One reason established for many decades of women's history is with every man made breath, that women are born to look after them, and (2) women are not meant to have a voice unless its about babies, clean homes and freshly ironed shirts etc, etc.
Smacking of ice edged sarcasm I know, but it's all in the detail while screaming of headlines.
Males bring home the wherewithal of bacon and bread, etc, etc, including a biology which reeks of ownership over domestic and world dominion.
Fundamentally it's about the pink and blue syndrome, which we are fed from our first intake of breath; outrageous nonsense.
Without this societal, ancient and doddery construction, women would be free to be one wholly formed human being---
The word for all this, is the poisoned and reinforced chalice of STEREOTYPES, absolutely relied upon to reinforce the trans dream; a woman's nightmare strewn with the trip ups we are meant to swallow whole.
In my observations, it's women who buy into trends and social contagions. The fathers in so many of these trans cases are the henpecked voices of reason. It's a status symbol to wield your "trans" child with their pricey surgeries that vaunt how well off and progressive you are. Case in point: It wasn't men who ordained the bone-crushing corsets of the early 20th century -- it was women. Men were concerned -- and logically so -- that the corsets would cause birth defects. But the women persisted in wearing them, just as they insisted on the arsenic-laden green wallpaper of the mid-19th century that was making them sick. And what transpired after that? It became FASHIONABLE to look sick -- and if it didn't come naturally, there was a pale face paint one could purchase. This transgender nonsense is something only a matriarchy on steroids could dream up. Note its 'idiot compassion' underpinnings. FEELINGS over facts. Unfortunately, the domain of women, generally speaking of course.
Exactly. Where did gender studies come from that led to this? Women. Then, you treat men like crap and call them toxic and men don't want to be men. You tell women that they're oppressed victims and all the "toxic" men are gonna get then and they're scared to be women.
When Boy Scouts is done as it was intended, it is wonderful for boys. My husband says his scout master had the biggest influence on him as a teen. He was a scout master for 4 years and has made an impact in the lives of several young men. Then the scouts adopted gays, our church dumped their support, my husband is now in a church position where is basically doing the same thing he was before with our youth-activities and camping. These are such good things. It’s so sad to see organizations get infiltrated with ideology and we lose all the good. My husband lives by the scout motto and has been trying to do a good turn daily for the last 40 years.
Boys need boy only spaces and men who are good men to be mentors to them.
In the not too distant past, the Boy Scouts were supported by churches and would not accept gay leaders. They caved to pressure and many churches cut their support. If you usher in gay you apparently usher in the T and next will come “Minor Attracted Persons”.
The Boy Scouts should have stood their ground and sought cover under 1st amendment religious protection.
Distressing to see one of the last all-boy spaces in the US being dismantled like this. I would like to point out, though, troops are quite different from one another depending on the adults involved, so I’d like to gently push back on condemning all of BSA. We were fortunate to participate in a “high adventure“ troop with a lot of military families, so it was the real deal. But other troops in our area sound more like the one described above. As with anything, buyer beware.
Some may not like this answer, but when it comes to where can we go to avoid this ideology, there’s no godless secular escape route. I’ve heard it said It’s not whether or not a society or institution will have a religion/God, but which one will it follow. Every person, every society and institution has an idea of what’s right and wrong, what’s loving and just (and what’s not) based on what they believe about God and mankind. There are always laws, rules and morality. This is ‘religion’ regardless of whether or not one is a part of an organized group. The trans cult is religious!
If we just evolved randomly from amoebas and there is not a transcendent Creator God who determines good and evil and gives us value outside of our own opinions, then anything goes. When we say it’s wrong to tell an insecure girl that she’s a boy, it must be based on the fact that she was created by God in His image as a woman and he declares it is good per the Bible. If you reject God, then the question is ‘Says who? By what standard?’
I have great sympathy for non believing parents who rightly want to protect their children and I’m grateful for the wisdom God has given you in recognizing the evil. I would happily work alongside you to combat it but without a robust biblical understanding, I don’t see a way forward.
The idea of individuals having inherent dignity including women and children is a distinctly biblical idea that Christianity spread to much of the world. Enslaving people (which before Christianity was done throughout the world by people of every skin color) was an obvious moral failure that is contrary to the faith. The Bible explicitly forbids ‘man stealing’ with the punishment of death.
If you truly believe Christianity is the cause of evil, please read more world history!
I’d love for you to address my point - without a transcendent Creator God who has the authority to act as lawgiver and judge, on what basis can you claim anything is immoral? Why not radical self autonomy even for children? Why not celebrate their ‘transition’ if they say it makes them happy?
I appreciate your final paragraph of summation. You have seen the truth about this hideous cult, and we who see the truth need to continue to fight the insanity being pushed on our children and on our society. However, I do not appreciate your lengthy diatribe on Christians. I do not feel that the safe place of PITT is the location to vent your ill opinions on Christianity. I believed this gathering to be where we tell our stories about how our lives and the lives of our loved ones have been impacted by the madness. I believed we are here to support one another and share our truths, and to find ways to help end the wrongs being done. In what way did your message help anything or anyone? I am a follower of Jesus the Christ; He gives me peace in the midst of chaos. I wish you His peace.
I can guarantee you that a group of Social Scientists, Developmentalists, Neuroscientists etc from around the world have gotten together in secret meetings to work all of this out over the last 50 years. This isn't organic or natural in any way, shape or form. You know, in 1969, the Ford Foundation and Carnegie foundation came together to create Sesame Street. During the same time, MacArthur, Ford and Johnson and Johnson were in the home studying neglecting mother infant pairs. Johnson and Johnson was one of the big players in the Opioid crisis (and studying neglect for a decade was a big help because infants who are severely neglected become alcohol and opioid addicted adults). Johnson and Johnson also patented the first Puberty Blocker. It's about creating a market and breaking people is how it's done. The corporations use our Scientists and Research to understand us far better than we understand ourselves.
And now they're using tech to track everything we do, when we do it, etc. They give our kids tech for school and track them. They survey our kids and tinker in their brains in schools. They even con ppl into giving their DNA and they track all of that. They're creating the consumers to manipulate.
"I knew nothing about transgender at the time but I soon learned what a crock of shit the whole gender ideology is." MY GOD YES. Thanks for the belly laugh.
Stella O'Malley & Sasha Ayad's podcast Gender: A Wider Lens just dropped an episode today that might be helpful to you, OP, and to many other parents. It features another PITT essayist (pseudonym Dr. Maggie Goldsmith) whose daughter desisted a year ago, and has lots of ideas for parents of trans-ID'd kids. She makes the point that trans-ID often appears at a time when adolescents are searching for peer groups/identities, and the importance of connecting kids to sensible groups that foster reasonable boundaries (as opposed to the gender "crock of shit").
Someone PLEASE tell me the groups and organizations that are NOT a gateway to trans! I can't find a counselor who doesn't automatically call my SON "they" or "she" immediately! And how come I didn't know about anime? Where is this information? I was just happy my son was reading, now I find this out?! WE need to save our sons! SOS!!!!
I know about anime because I grew up as a gamer that was tangental to that... subculture.
Japanese cartoons have a wide range of genres, unlike American animation which we still associate with Bugs Bunny. It runs the gambit from wonderful children's movies to the most depraved of pornography.
Crossdressing is fairly common in Anime, from what I recall (and I'm talking 20 years ago). Usually as part of a comedy. Maybe it got more intense over the years.
Counselors are another problem. There has been a push to end "conversion therapy" which seems to be defined as anyone with LGBT proclivities that doesn't like them. If a married man (or woman) goes to a therapist and says: "I've been experience sexual desires for people of my own sex, but I want to overcome that and stay faithful to my spouse" they will have trouble finding a therapist to support them. If they say: "I want help coming out and embracing homosexuality" they'll get plenty of support.
Same with trans. "Can you help me transition?" you get all the support you want. "Can you help me feel comfortable with the gender of my birth?" Crickets.
They may well be afraid of losing their license.
There was a group some years ago, JONAH, which was a Jewish-organized therapy group that helped people out of unwanted same sex attractions or transgender inclination. They were sued into oblivion by activists and were forced to disband. I doubt that's the only one.
I think you have to make your own judgments & decisions on a case-by-case basis. Sadly so many thoughtless people believe they're just "being kind," when they're holding the door open to all kinds of predators and emotional vampires.
If you're not part of a church or other faith community, something you might try is connecting your son to volunteer work in your community, where he'll meet and interact with people of all ages (mostly older people), and frequently people with disabilities (physical and intellectual). Getting kids involved in whole communities with people from all walks of life is good for helping them pull their heads out of their own asses.
As far as I can tell...... You've got w/e groups you can cobble together in your community and some religious institutions that have remained constant. If you're an atheist you kind of don't really have a "non-woke" spot in the US that I know of.
Being new in this, what is w/e groups? So many churches won't touch this topic :( I am trying to find a Christian counselor, and there are so few in my area!
Clearly neither boys or girls are safe from being groomed into the gender cult in Scouts or Girl Guides.
I appreciate the fact that all of these institutions have a sketchy past regarding the sexual abuse of children and the promulgation of both homophobia and lesbophobia - however, this can never be atoned for by allowing gender nonconforming &/or autistic children to be groomed into the gender cult. Contrary to the evident belief of those who include the gay priest mentioned in this essay, the contemporary phenomenon of the sudden existence of "trans children" is NOT tantamount to Gay 2.0.
[If I understand what you're saying], this is the lynchpin that finally drew common-sense lesbians and gay men into anti-transagenda activism.
I was thrilled when I started to see (and join as a straight woman) radical-feminist lesbians speaking against the trans-agenda; and when I saw Gays Against Groomers; and conservative gay men on social media. The trans agenda is ERASING women (thus erasing men in its wake), erasing lesbians, erasing gay men.
I am WAITING for a critical mass of LG to LOUDLY separate from the alphabet soup. Hope it's happening. [If I followed your comment. Sorry if I misunderstood.]
You and Germaine Greer were prescient. Lesbians younger than you, and straight feminists (woke Third-Wavers: no thank you!) younger than me have been SLOW to catch on. Hello, ladies!! The erasure of women?!?! It's taken a crowbar to pry them from the left.
It was hard to miss, because it was right in our faces...the bullying, the hare-brained demand that we accept males in our midst, not only as women, but as LESBIANS. But even then, I was in the minority. A lot of womem felt bad, because we'd been so oppressed ourselves that we wanted to be kind. A lot of us thought, what's the big deal? How many of them could there be? LOL. Not.
Beeswax, Thanks for that. I've long wondered how lesbians – who are like every minority and NOT a monolith – talked about this issue among themselves; and how "acceptance" happened.
And LidaH and Beeswax, (Again, discussing and not attacking) I diverge from the concepts of "mainstream misogyny" and "patriarchy" in 2022. I do agree with you 100%, LidaH, that our socialization has been weaponized against us; but I think men and women alike were gaslit, hookwinked, indoctrinated, and manipulated by huge forces (UN, BigPharma) and a small number of sociopathic male predators.
The lesbian mentality around trans has been extremely fraught from the beginning, and what I described was just one permutation. As time went by and queer theory became entrenched in the universities, the next generation of young lesbians became indoctrinated in "gender" and they were encouraged to transition. Trans became the next cool thing. This was in the early 90s. I recall a brilliant lesbian feminist linguistics professor named Julia Penelope speaking at a lesbian festival in around 1993. She had just returned from an academic conference and her first words were: "well, they want to disappear the lesbians." And they have largely succeeded.
Once lesbians started to transition, other lesbians had a conundrum. Would we support our friends and lovers, present and former, or would we turn their backs on women who were apparently onto something new and cutting edge? For the most part, lesbians bent over backwards to support their friends. I recall a gay parade where a shirtless, trans-identified woman was showing off her mastectomy scars, being carried on the shoulders of her lesbian friends like a hero returning from the war. Of course, in order to support your sisters when they mutilated their bodies, you had to accept the justification for such a thing, even though it made little logical sense and certainly no scientific sense. We had all experienced homophobia and many of us were naturally over on the butch end. Many women older than myself had been passing as men since the 1950s and 60s. But this didn't mean they were literally men! That part of the narrative was added on, but in order to love our friends, we were required to affirm. And I'd be remiss if I didn't also state that some women were so masculine naturally that transitioning for them was a relief and they didn't regret it.
There's a lot more to say. Please just know that Germaine Greer was not even close to being the only intellectual in those days who was pushing back. Know, for instance, the names of writers Janice Raymond and Sheila Jeffreys, both still with us, as well as the aforementioned, late Julia Penelope. And many more.
One question: So some very-masculine women transitioned and genuinely didn't regret it? The pharma – as all pharma does – causes serious, chronic disease of all kinds. Do you have the impression that the benefits of passing as men outweigh the toxic effects of lifelong hormones for them? I know you're not in their heads, but you might have gleaned their opinions.
But at least they did it as fully informed ADULTS. (Had to ask: I'm particularly anti-pharma.)
I agree, cross-sex hormones are terrible for people, but some people are so gender dysphoric that they prefer to risk the side effects. This is the point of view of, for instance, Aaron Kimberly, the founder and exec. director of the Gender Dysphoria Alliance, and Buck Angel, one of the first FTM transitioners. Then there are lesbians like Zander Keig, who simply got sick and tired of the constant harassment and homophobia because of her appearance. None of these women believe that they have literally changed their sex and they have no problem saying so. They call themselves trans men, but they know they are biological females.
You hit the nail on the head: once people are adults they can do what they want with their bodies. I said I was anti-trans in another post, but that’s not entirely true. I’m anti-trans ideology, which is based on pseudoscience, bullshit, misogyny and homophobia. I’m anti-transitioning of children or even discussing it in the K-12 environment. And of course I’m anti the incursion of males into women’s spaces of any kind.
Yes, we have of course had our socialisation as women shamelessly weaponized against us. Many people apparently can't even see it, they're so innured to the misogyny of the mainstream.
Magic the gathering can be a fun activity to pass the time when camping but certainly should never be used as an excuse to not go hiking. I have happy memories playing magic at camp, but it was always in the off times.
It's not just the boys' troops in BSA - it's also the girls' troops in BSA that are dealing with this. National policy is that youth are allowed to participate in a troop of the gender with which they identify. It is a very difficult situation for troop leadership to navigate. There are limitations on tenting arrangements. This is protective of privacy and physical safety. However if leaders don't use the pronoun and name preferences of youth, they put themselves at odds with national policy and can be considered to be harassing youth. We are expected to educate youth about personal safety and grooming behavior, but the organization has remained silent on this aspect of potential grooming.
This is a massive development with powerful people, institutions, and money behind it. In our circle of Scouts, church, and the school where we taught, I can name seven transgender individuals, with two more that I suspect will declare themselves such shortly. Only two of them are adults over the age of 21. I'm sure there are more that I'm unaware of, since our own children are older and out of school.
I think all of us will be dealing with this cultural development soon, if we're not already doing so. There are many teachers, mentors and other leaders who want to protect youth from undue influence while respecting their personal choices. The trans pressure is coming from many directions, and non-discrimination policies are being issued in many institutions at a dizzying rate. It is a quagmire of legal and peer pressure.
What a shock and horrible realization for you and your family. It seems that our children are not safe anywhere from being influenced and brainwashed. There are too many secrets being kept from parents and our innocent children are being caught up in the crosshairs. I am saddened by your news. I think we all have felt our intuitions spring into high alert at one time or another and then we go against the warning only to later learn that we were right. Do not blame yourself. The gender ideology cult likes to trick parents into thinking they are wrong or confused because the lies are what hooks our children - and the more lies that are told the more innocent people believe them. The gender ideology lies shock me every day - how is our society buying into this cult? The more I read the more angry I become. We cannot give up this fight and we must continue to expose the lies so the truth will prevail. You are not alone! Stay strong! Praying that God will help us before its too late.
As a parent of a trans identifying kid and as a former scout, I find this outrageous and ridiculous. As an atheist, I feel some schadenfreude that the scouts have been reduced to this without the "corrosive" influence of atheists.
Magic the Gathering is basically a card version of Dungeons and Dragons. It's not inherenty a gateway to anything gender bending the way anime might be. It's just nerd culture. I do see signs that trans ideologues are trying to infiltrate nerd culture, no doubt to predate on the socially awkward and insecure kids who are deeply into nerd culture. And as a nerd at heart, it makes me sad.
Yeah, maybe a helpful way to look at it is that games like Magic the Gathering are like any other intensely social activity that teens participate in (like TikTok, etc) and as such can serve as yet another echo chamber in which they teens hear gender ideology reinforced and normalized.
And while card games and role playing games can be great fun, I agree that they are not good substitutes for hands-on activities like hiking, camping, cooking.
In general, I have learned that more time spent outdoors and learning new things means less time spent ruminating and obsessing about gender angst. And these are all great opportunities for you to strengthen your bond with your kid.
As a mother of a desisted young man, one of the things that has helped him conquer his PTSD around this experience (which I've written about here) has been playing Magic: The Gathering. I hadn't heard that it is a gateway into the gender cult, it's been just the opposite, for our son this game has been a wonderful outlet in the most positive way. I am so gutted to hear that there are Magic groups that pave the way to the dark side.
It is a crock of &^%$#*! Women's intuition is always sound. I'm so sorry this has happened. Transgenderism is a cult supported by rich and influential people who seek to pervert and ruin children and teens' lives; they're lab rats. More and more from every background have got to wake up! Thankfully, detransitioners are coming forward with their horror stories, and suing! We need more of all of this which is more or less what Hillier's medical doctors did to Jews and even their own.
" I couldn't understand why everyone was buying into it---" (gender).
One reason established for many decades of women's history is with every man made breath, that women are born to look after them, and (2) women are not meant to have a voice unless its about babies, clean homes and freshly ironed shirts etc, etc.
Smacking of ice edged sarcasm I know, but it's all in the detail while screaming of headlines.
Males bring home the wherewithal of bacon and bread, etc, etc, including a biology which reeks of ownership over domestic and world dominion.
Fundamentally it's about the pink and blue syndrome, which we are fed from our first intake of breath; outrageous nonsense.
Without this societal, ancient and doddery construction, women would be free to be one wholly formed human being---
The word for all this, is the poisoned and reinforced chalice of STEREOTYPES, absolutely relied upon to reinforce the trans dream; a woman's nightmare strewn with the trip ups we are meant to swallow whole.
I wish you so very well---
In my observations, it's women who buy into trends and social contagions. The fathers in so many of these trans cases are the henpecked voices of reason. It's a status symbol to wield your "trans" child with their pricey surgeries that vaunt how well off and progressive you are. Case in point: It wasn't men who ordained the bone-crushing corsets of the early 20th century -- it was women. Men were concerned -- and logically so -- that the corsets would cause birth defects. But the women persisted in wearing them, just as they insisted on the arsenic-laden green wallpaper of the mid-19th century that was making them sick. And what transpired after that? It became FASHIONABLE to look sick -- and if it didn't come naturally, there was a pale face paint one could purchase. This transgender nonsense is something only a matriarchy on steroids could dream up. Note its 'idiot compassion' underpinnings. FEELINGS over facts. Unfortunately, the domain of women, generally speaking of course.
Great points here. And I'm HORRIFIED to hear that it's a status symbol for rich lefties! (I'm not gloating: I'm ex-left.)
Also, this kind of crap started with women forcing their way into men's spaces, years and years ago.
HUGE, complex, difficult convo to be had on this. (Can we all circle back to it after we've stopped the schools from murdering our children?)
Exactly. Where did gender studies come from that led to this? Women. Then, you treat men like crap and call them toxic and men don't want to be men. You tell women that they're oppressed victims and all the "toxic" men are gonna get then and they're scared to be women.
When Boy Scouts is done as it was intended, it is wonderful for boys. My husband says his scout master had the biggest influence on him as a teen. He was a scout master for 4 years and has made an impact in the lives of several young men. Then the scouts adopted gays, our church dumped their support, my husband is now in a church position where is basically doing the same thing he was before with our youth-activities and camping. These are such good things. It’s so sad to see organizations get infiltrated with ideology and we lose all the good. My husband lives by the scout motto and has been trying to do a good turn daily for the last 40 years.
Boys need boy only spaces and men who are good men to be mentors to them.
Well said.
In the not too distant past, the Boy Scouts were supported by churches and would not accept gay leaders. They caved to pressure and many churches cut their support. If you usher in gay you apparently usher in the T and next will come “Minor Attracted Persons”.
The Boy Scouts should have stood their ground and sought cover under 1st amendment religious protection.
Yep. They were right about the slippery slope. +
Distressing to see one of the last all-boy spaces in the US being dismantled like this. I would like to point out, though, troops are quite different from one another depending on the adults involved, so I’d like to gently push back on condemning all of BSA. We were fortunate to participate in a “high adventure“ troop with a lot of military families, so it was the real deal. But other troops in our area sound more like the one described above. As with anything, buyer beware.
Some may not like this answer, but when it comes to where can we go to avoid this ideology, there’s no godless secular escape route. I’ve heard it said It’s not whether or not a society or institution will have a religion/God, but which one will it follow. Every person, every society and institution has an idea of what’s right and wrong, what’s loving and just (and what’s not) based on what they believe about God and mankind. There are always laws, rules and morality. This is ‘religion’ regardless of whether or not one is a part of an organized group. The trans cult is religious!
If we just evolved randomly from amoebas and there is not a transcendent Creator God who determines good and evil and gives us value outside of our own opinions, then anything goes. When we say it’s wrong to tell an insecure girl that she’s a boy, it must be based on the fact that she was created by God in His image as a woman and he declares it is good per the Bible. If you reject God, then the question is ‘Says who? By what standard?’
I have great sympathy for non believing parents who rightly want to protect their children and I’m grateful for the wisdom God has given you in recognizing the evil. I would happily work alongside you to combat it but without a robust biblical understanding, I don’t see a way forward.
I live in amish country is rural western kentucky and I can tell you this for a fact: there are no “trans” amish. ✌🏼
The idea of individuals having inherent dignity including women and children is a distinctly biblical idea that Christianity spread to much of the world. Enslaving people (which before Christianity was done throughout the world by people of every skin color) was an obvious moral failure that is contrary to the faith. The Bible explicitly forbids ‘man stealing’ with the punishment of death.
If you truly believe Christianity is the cause of evil, please read more world history!
I’d love for you to address my point - without a transcendent Creator God who has the authority to act as lawgiver and judge, on what basis can you claim anything is immoral? Why not radical self autonomy even for children? Why not celebrate their ‘transition’ if they say it makes them happy?
I appreciate your final paragraph of summation. You have seen the truth about this hideous cult, and we who see the truth need to continue to fight the insanity being pushed on our children and on our society. However, I do not appreciate your lengthy diatribe on Christians. I do not feel that the safe place of PITT is the location to vent your ill opinions on Christianity. I believed this gathering to be where we tell our stories about how our lives and the lives of our loved ones have been impacted by the madness. I believed we are here to support one another and share our truths, and to find ways to help end the wrongs being done. In what way did your message help anything or anyone? I am a follower of Jesus the Christ; He gives me peace in the midst of chaos. I wish you His peace.
Where? Check out PragerU videos for yourself and son.
How are they looney? Or extreme?
Can you give an example of why Prager is a looney? Please be specific.
I can guarantee you that a group of Social Scientists, Developmentalists, Neuroscientists etc from around the world have gotten together in secret meetings to work all of this out over the last 50 years. This isn't organic or natural in any way, shape or form. You know, in 1969, the Ford Foundation and Carnegie foundation came together to create Sesame Street. During the same time, MacArthur, Ford and Johnson and Johnson were in the home studying neglecting mother infant pairs. Johnson and Johnson was one of the big players in the Opioid crisis (and studying neglect for a decade was a big help because infants who are severely neglected become alcohol and opioid addicted adults). Johnson and Johnson also patented the first Puberty Blocker. It's about creating a market and breaking people is how it's done. The corporations use our Scientists and Research to understand us far better than we understand ourselves.
And now they're using tech to track everything we do, when we do it, etc. They give our kids tech for school and track them. They survey our kids and tinker in their brains in schools. They even con ppl into giving their DNA and they track all of that. They're creating the consumers to manipulate.
"I knew nothing about transgender at the time but I soon learned what a crock of shit the whole gender ideology is." MY GOD YES. Thanks for the belly laugh.
Stella O'Malley & Sasha Ayad's podcast Gender: A Wider Lens just dropped an episode today that might be helpful to you, OP, and to many other parents. It features another PITT essayist (pseudonym Dr. Maggie Goldsmith) whose daughter desisted a year ago, and has lots of ideas for parents of trans-ID'd kids. She makes the point that trans-ID often appears at a time when adolescents are searching for peer groups/identities, and the importance of connecting kids to sensible groups that foster reasonable boundaries (as opposed to the gender "crock of shit").
Solidarity & much love to you and your boy.
Someone PLEASE tell me the groups and organizations that are NOT a gateway to trans! I can't find a counselor who doesn't automatically call my SON "they" or "she" immediately! And how come I didn't know about anime? Where is this information? I was just happy my son was reading, now I find this out?! WE need to save our sons! SOS!!!!
I know about anime because I grew up as a gamer that was tangental to that... subculture.
Japanese cartoons have a wide range of genres, unlike American animation which we still associate with Bugs Bunny. It runs the gambit from wonderful children's movies to the most depraved of pornography.
Crossdressing is fairly common in Anime, from what I recall (and I'm talking 20 years ago). Usually as part of a comedy. Maybe it got more intense over the years.
Counselors are another problem. There has been a push to end "conversion therapy" which seems to be defined as anyone with LGBT proclivities that doesn't like them. If a married man (or woman) goes to a therapist and says: "I've been experience sexual desires for people of my own sex, but I want to overcome that and stay faithful to my spouse" they will have trouble finding a therapist to support them. If they say: "I want help coming out and embracing homosexuality" they'll get plenty of support.
Same with trans. "Can you help me transition?" you get all the support you want. "Can you help me feel comfortable with the gender of my birth?" Crickets.
They may well be afraid of losing their license.
There was a group some years ago, JONAH, which was a Jewish-organized therapy group that helped people out of unwanted same sex attractions or transgender inclination. They were sued into oblivion by activists and were forced to disband. I doubt that's the only one.
I think you have to make your own judgments & decisions on a case-by-case basis. Sadly so many thoughtless people believe they're just "being kind," when they're holding the door open to all kinds of predators and emotional vampires.
If you're not part of a church or other faith community, something you might try is connecting your son to volunteer work in your community, where he'll meet and interact with people of all ages (mostly older people), and frequently people with disabilities (physical and intellectual). Getting kids involved in whole communities with people from all walks of life is good for helping them pull their heads out of their own asses.
As far as I can tell...... You've got w/e groups you can cobble together in your community and some religious institutions that have remained constant. If you're an atheist you kind of don't really have a "non-woke" spot in the US that I know of.
Being new in this, what is w/e groups? So many churches won't touch this topic :( I am trying to find a Christian counselor, and there are so few in my area!
W/e is internet shorthand for "whatever". Sorry, I grew up typing on a flip phone so I still use it.
Thanks!
I’m not sure what you mean by a blue area. And I am directly impacted by this!!
Clearly neither boys or girls are safe from being groomed into the gender cult in Scouts or Girl Guides.
I appreciate the fact that all of these institutions have a sketchy past regarding the sexual abuse of children and the promulgation of both homophobia and lesbophobia - however, this can never be atoned for by allowing gender nonconforming &/or autistic children to be groomed into the gender cult. Contrary to the evident belief of those who include the gay priest mentioned in this essay, the contemporary phenomenon of the sudden existence of "trans children" is NOT tantamount to Gay 2.0.
[If I understand what you're saying], this is the lynchpin that finally drew common-sense lesbians and gay men into anti-transagenda activism.
I was thrilled when I started to see (and join as a straight woman) radical-feminist lesbians speaking against the trans-agenda; and when I saw Gays Against Groomers; and conservative gay men on social media. The trans agenda is ERASING women (thus erasing men in its wake), erasing lesbians, erasing gay men.
I am WAITING for a critical mass of LG to LOUDLY separate from the alphabet soup. Hope it's happening. [If I followed your comment. Sorry if I misunderstood.]
You will appreciate the insights of Gary Lucia, a gay man, writing on here Substack:
https://flashinggreen.substack.com/p/i-am-a-gay-employee-at-walt-disney
Thanks, Beeswax! Read it and subscribed. "Transing the gay away,"...indeed!
Insanity.
Gary's writing is very moving. He is right on the money. I'm happy to introduce him to you.
I’ve been an anti-trans lesbian for 50 years.
:-) :-) :-)
You and Germaine Greer were prescient. Lesbians younger than you, and straight feminists (woke Third-Wavers: no thank you!) younger than me have been SLOW to catch on. Hello, ladies!! The erasure of women?!?! It's taken a crowbar to pry them from the left.
It was hard to miss, because it was right in our faces...the bullying, the hare-brained demand that we accept males in our midst, not only as women, but as LESBIANS. But even then, I was in the minority. A lot of womem felt bad, because we'd been so oppressed ourselves that we wanted to be kind. A lot of us thought, what's the big deal? How many of them could there be? LOL. Not.
Beeswax, Thanks for that. I've long wondered how lesbians – who are like every minority and NOT a monolith – talked about this issue among themselves; and how "acceptance" happened.
And LidaH and Beeswax, (Again, discussing and not attacking) I diverge from the concepts of "mainstream misogyny" and "patriarchy" in 2022. I do agree with you 100%, LidaH, that our socialization has been weaponized against us; but I think men and women alike were gaslit, hookwinked, indoctrinated, and manipulated by huge forces (UN, BigPharma) and a small number of sociopathic male predators.
The lesbian mentality around trans has been extremely fraught from the beginning, and what I described was just one permutation. As time went by and queer theory became entrenched in the universities, the next generation of young lesbians became indoctrinated in "gender" and they were encouraged to transition. Trans became the next cool thing. This was in the early 90s. I recall a brilliant lesbian feminist linguistics professor named Julia Penelope speaking at a lesbian festival in around 1993. She had just returned from an academic conference and her first words were: "well, they want to disappear the lesbians." And they have largely succeeded.
Once lesbians started to transition, other lesbians had a conundrum. Would we support our friends and lovers, present and former, or would we turn their backs on women who were apparently onto something new and cutting edge? For the most part, lesbians bent over backwards to support their friends. I recall a gay parade where a shirtless, trans-identified woman was showing off her mastectomy scars, being carried on the shoulders of her lesbian friends like a hero returning from the war. Of course, in order to support your sisters when they mutilated their bodies, you had to accept the justification for such a thing, even though it made little logical sense and certainly no scientific sense. We had all experienced homophobia and many of us were naturally over on the butch end. Many women older than myself had been passing as men since the 1950s and 60s. But this didn't mean they were literally men! That part of the narrative was added on, but in order to love our friends, we were required to affirm. And I'd be remiss if I didn't also state that some women were so masculine naturally that transitioning for them was a relief and they didn't regret it.
There's a lot more to say. Please just know that Germaine Greer was not even close to being the only intellectual in those days who was pushing back. Know, for instance, the names of writers Janice Raymond and Sheila Jeffreys, both still with us, as well as the aforementioned, late Julia Penelope. And many more.
Huge topic. Thanks for engaging.
One question: So some very-masculine women transitioned and genuinely didn't regret it? The pharma – as all pharma does – causes serious, chronic disease of all kinds. Do you have the impression that the benefits of passing as men outweigh the toxic effects of lifelong hormones for them? I know you're not in their heads, but you might have gleaned their opinions.
But at least they did it as fully informed ADULTS. (Had to ask: I'm particularly anti-pharma.)
I agree, cross-sex hormones are terrible for people, but some people are so gender dysphoric that they prefer to risk the side effects. This is the point of view of, for instance, Aaron Kimberly, the founder and exec. director of the Gender Dysphoria Alliance, and Buck Angel, one of the first FTM transitioners. Then there are lesbians like Zander Keig, who simply got sick and tired of the constant harassment and homophobia because of her appearance. None of these women believe that they have literally changed their sex and they have no problem saying so. They call themselves trans men, but they know they are biological females.
You hit the nail on the head: once people are adults they can do what they want with their bodies. I said I was anti-trans in another post, but that’s not entirely true. I’m anti-trans ideology, which is based on pseudoscience, bullshit, misogyny and homophobia. I’m anti-transitioning of children or even discussing it in the K-12 environment. And of course I’m anti the incursion of males into women’s spaces of any kind.
100% THX. Such huge issues.
Yes, we have of course had our socialisation as women shamelessly weaponized against us. Many people apparently can't even see it, they're so innured to the misogyny of the mainstream.
No, I'd say that you've got the right end of the stick there...