Democrats Must Excise The Trans Cancer From Their Party

As a liberal democrat, I am alarmed at what has happened to my beloved democratic party. Gender ideology - the trans cancer - has disguised itself as a social justice/civil rights issue and infected the democratic party. This cancer has consumed women’s rights, parents’ rights, LGB rights (yes, you read that correctly), children’s safety and many of the principles and values that democrats hold sacred. Consider:

The democratic party has abandoned science in favor of ideology.

The democratic party now demands that a specific religion be taught in public schools.

The democratic party now supports child abduction when a child has religious differences with his or her parents.

The democratic party now endorses a new type of conversion therapy on the LGB community.

The democratic party is unconcerned about the mass mutilation and sterilization of children.

The democratic party has set women’s rights back 50 years.

The democratic party now embraces misogyny.

Science has usually been welcomed in the democratic party. But the democratic party has discarded science and now bows down to magical thinking - gender ideology. Gender ideology, the belief that everyone has a gender independent of his or her sex, has no basis in biology or any science. You cannot administer a blood test, brain scan, or any objective diagnostic test on a child or young adult and conclude that person is “born in the wrong body” and must be trans. Claims of a biological basis for gender ideology are textbook examples of bad science and have been debunked. Gender ideology is a belief system, a religion- a really bad one, that demands its followers pursue a path of unnatural physical alterations with devastating consequences. These physical alterations are reminiscent of the self-flagellation practiced by some religious groups in past centuries, except much worse.

Teaching religion in public schools has always been difficult to implement in practice due to the logistical problem of which religion(s) should be taught? Leaving religious instruction to the family and/or the family’s preferred religious institution has always been a pragmatic approach. But now the democratic party demands that gender ideology, the trans religion, be taught in K-12 public schools, even to kids as young as kindergarten. Even worse, gender ideology is often presented as science. Gender ideology is not science; it’s a series of damaging beliefs like “You can be born in the wrong body” and “You may be any one of 72 different genders” and “You just ‘know’ if you are trans”. The democratic party demands the teaching of this twisted ideology in public schools.

Child abduction is now approved by the democratic party when parents don’t agree with their child’s religion. Minors are happily welcomed into the gender ideology religion and are counseled that they are being harmed if their parents do not “affirm” them by using the "trans" name and pronouns chosen by their child. Some US states have taken the position that calling a child by his birth name is child abuse, and child protective services is called to remove the child from his loving parents. You can’t make this stuff up. This is the kind of thing fascist governments do. The democratic party now believes it is a crime for some parents to call a child by his birth name.

Conversion therapy has a very dark history in the LGB community. Gay children and adults were counseled that there was something wrong with them, and their feelings were something to be ashamed of. But look at the thousands of detransitioners and desisters, kids and young adults who left the gender ideology religion and learned to accept themselves for who they actually are. Many, perhaps even a majority, are gay. So, what do you call the “counseling” these kids and young adults received as part of gender ideology, telling them they are the opposite sex born in the wrong body? This “transing away the gay” is a new type of conversion therapy, but this version is even more horrific than ever, because it comes with sterilization and mutilation. As bad as conversion therapy was in the past, this is worse, and the democratic party embraces it.

Note that some defenders of gender ideology claim that refusing to allow a child or young adult to “transition” is its own form of conversion therapy, by forcing the child to live as his or her biological sex. I realize that accusing your opponent of that which you are guilty is a common political strategy these days, but to those who make this claim, the question is: How DARE you? How dare you suggest that steering a child away from sterilization and self-mutilation is somehow comparable to the past harm to the LGB community? It’s despicable. How dare you try to ride the coattails of hard-won LGB rights with “trans” rights and treatments that target the LGB community? “Trans” rights are an attack on the LGB community, and the democratic party is all for it.

Defenders of gender ideology hate the word “sterilization” - they never use it. But if you let a child pursue a choice that “forfeits their ability to get/get someone pregnant”, well there’s a word for that: sterilization. Gender affirming “treatments” sterilize patients. The surgical treatments are beyond ghastly and are routinely performed on children. Where is the outcry? The democratic party is silent.

In my lifetime it’s been a real joy to watch how women’s sports have flourished after the passage of Title IX, over 50 years ago. Whether it’s in the Olympics or in college and professional sports, women compete. But now gender ideology demands that women’s sports be turned into a bad joke as “transgender women”, i.e. men, compete in women’s sports. Compromising women’s sports in this way is an attack on women’s rights and undermines all the gains made in the past 50 years since Title IX was passed. The democratic party doesn’t recognize that this erosion of women’s rights is a problem.

There has always been a dark thread of misogyny running through gender ideology. What does the democratic party see when a transgender woman is in the public eye as an athlete in a women’s sport? An opera singer in a woman’s role? An actress? I see a man taking a position that rightfully belongs to a woman. The democratic party simply doesn't care about women and their accomplishments.

Why are young women getting the message that something is wrong with them and they must become men? Today, women are in many roles historically reserved for men. Women can possess any number of traditionally masculine attributes and proudly be women. But gender ideology demands that girls must be girls and a girl must follow gender stereotypes of 70 years ago, otherwise she is really a boy in a girl's body. The democratic party now cheers this insulting, sexist logic.

Hatred of women now pervades the democratic party.

The democratic party has allowed the trans cancer to consume the values and principles that democrats cherish. THIS - MUST - STOP. IMMEDIATELY.

To my republican friends and allies - I know what you are thinking…Vote republican! Join the republican party! I hear you but there are many democrats who won’t change their political party or vote for a republican for any reason. Too many democrats know nothing about gender ideology, but support gender ideology simply because republicans don’t. Let gender ideology be expelled from the democratic party. Then democrats and republicans can go back to debating border policy, climate policy, taxes, and the other issues of the day.

The victims of gender ideology - those who identify as trans - have been poorly treated by the democratic party. These victims have been lied to, exploited for profit, groomed by trans doctors and psychologists, injured, and abandoned when they seek to detransition. These victims deserve the truth - you can’t really change your sex. They need legal and emotional support and a path back to reality, not a celebration of the delusional religion called gender ideology. However, if some adult victims insist on following the trans religion, they have the constitutional right to make that choice but shouldn’t expect special treatment or privileges. They must follow the rules of reality and cannot impose their religion on others.

How can the democratic party rid itself of the trans cancer? Renounce gender ideology. Work with republicans to ban gender affirming treatments for all children under 18 and ban the teaching of gender ideology in schools through middle school. Gender ideology can be taught in high school during the section on cults. Demand a 2-year wait for anyone under age 25 seeking “gender affirming” care. Cooperate with all relevant sports organizations to ban biological men from competing in women's sports. Hold hearings to have executives from the AMA and AAP explain why they approve of these ghastly, ineffective, experimental treatments on children.

The time is now. I'm joining more and more democrats to demand the democratic party excise the trans cancer and reclaim its principles, and its very soul.