Over the past few years since my teen son adopted a trans identity, I’ve adopted a new identity of my own. I now identify as a “politically homeless former life-long Democrat.” (Still need to work out those pronouns.)
I am not a Democrat, not even a former one, and that makes me appreciate your perspective even more. My husband and I likewise feel like we are losing our son to this craziness as well, and it helps to know that we are not alone. Thank you for speaking out and sharing your experience.
The road to hell is paved with good intentions... "Why did you do that?" "Well, I had good intentions..." Outcomes is what should be measured and people held accountable for, today we legislate and moralize openly feelings and attitudes rather than hard core concrete truths. And then whose truth? Oh, well, you see it is my truth, my lived experience...truly we are on a path to hell of regression of de-enlightenment....towards paganism and worshipping of man made gods of self.
The current Dem party is not the same party it was many, many years ago. I've always believed in women's rights (I'm a female), and to see my mtf son trashing them, hurts deeply. This whole nightmare needs to stop. What would RBG do?
Not many Dems speak out against their own tribe, which we need a LOT more of. RFK doing a good job, but he is trashed by his own party. We need to lower the cost of free speech, of speaking out and up.
What a fabulous written essay - thank you. I also started to let go of my deep committed Democratic upbringing and fierce loyalty to that party about 7 years ago. I did not vote for our current President - and the last several years I can no longer ignore or turn a deaf ear to the ignorance and lies being told about the transgender ideology. There are two genders: male and female. Period. The harm and permanent damage that these confused and brainwashed children/young adults are doing to their once healthy bodies causes my heart to ache. I worry this has all come about because of a devious political ploy to somehow control the population growth while making Big Pharma richer. How can anyone actually support this cult? My nephew is caught in the trans trap and I wonder if I will ever see him again. I cannot trust the news or media any longer, but I trust this site and I am grateful for PITT and the resources all the writers and readers provide.
Yes, I've been down the same path and have been grateful for my more conservative friends who had every right to laugh and say, "told you so!" but are far too classy and sympathetic. I am so disappointed in my former political party and am also politically homeless.
Beautifully written and eloquently stated. My eyes started to open to "something" not being quite right in the late 90s, with Government and our world in general. But, I didn't start diving in until around 2011 when I read a book entitled: The Hundred Year Lie by Randall Fitzgerald. I began to understand that what we (what I) had always believed to be true, that these agencies i.e. EPA, FDA, CDC, NIH et al were not exactly acting as we all believed. They had, in many cases, long since been captured and corrupted and were now working on behalf of the very industries they were meant to regulate. Like the CDC & NIH and their links to Big Pharma, who literally own most of our congress. And, incidentally it's Big Pharma who stands to gain the most with all of this human trials, and tribulation .. and, pure human devastation (along with the doctors, medical personnel, and medical adjacent .. anyone pushing drugs, and being party to what will someday be looked back upon as one of the darkest times in all of history .. and, that is saying a lot. They (Pharma) want each and everyone of us from "Cradle to Grave" .. that has been the plan since Rockefeller took over the medical establishment, and we are seeing it in its full fruition. Our children are in the cross hairs, obviously ..but, so are all of us. We know that these vaccines, which they pushed on all of us since childhood, actually do much more harm than good. They may do some benefit in the targeted disease, but they create a myriad of other issues that will ultimately follow us throughout our lives .. everything from asthma to allergies to cancers. Something in the past 30 years (suspiciously correlating with the 1986 National Childhood Vaccine Injury Act -where they went from 9-11 doses to 72 doses) has spiked the incidence of autism, which used to be fewer than 1/10,000 and is now 1/50 (maybe closer to 1/35) and, since 60% of kids identifying as trans are on the spectrum, this is a very troubling statistic. And, since mercury and aluminum are both neurotoxins, and are found in most, if not all, of these vaccines, I would certainly start there, if I were at all interested in what could possibly be going on with this incredible unrelenting rise in these autism cases .. which again, seem to be going hand and hand with the trans agenda.
Same here, my friend, same here. It's a lonely island. The same people who demanded that the public look to high quality peer reviewed research when in came to the COVID vaccine are perfectly happy getting their information about gender identity from YouTube and from research funded by trans activist groups. I'm only comforted by the hope that perhaps we are a silent majority, and that eventually the numbers of adults who were harmed by childhood and teen gender transition will be impossible to ignore.
The same people who wanted the unvaxed shot, locked up, thrown in jail, penniless will gladly do the same next time around....some were my close neighbors, friends and family members.
I would recommend this very insightful series of essays by someone who slowly came to a realization of the untrustworthiness of the standard left-liberal narrative many years ago:
Aussie lefty here feeling much the same. Have lost lifelong friendships over this issue. I feel like screaming from the rooftops - I’m 64 have I been wrong about more?
All I can say is 𝙏𝙝𝙖𝙣𝙠 𝙔𝙤𝙪 for putting your essays out - I understand your frustrations most completely!
Albeit I have a 20yo trans-identifying daughter...
I am in your "tribe", having wrenched myself from the now once lifelong Democrat side... homeless in more ways than that, unfortunately... my parents are probably spinning in their urns!
I'm responding to the comments assuming that the author is becoming "awake," and switching political parties. Don't count on it. And no, these discussions aren't fruitful.
And why not? In 2012, I ran in my red state for State Senate as a Dem. I voted for Obama 2x. I realized in 2014 that he was a COMPLETE FUCKHEAD for the US worker. He brought in millions of illegal scum. He opened the border. He cheated millions of their houses. And he did not prosecute a single banker for the 2008 disaster that brought him to the presidency. He is and was a complete scum turd.
I registered R in Jan 2023. People like you are too stupid to understand that you can be R and NOT support Trump. I am pro-abortion, pro-science (40 years in medical research). But the Dem party of criminals, illegals, criminals, trannies, and gay wacks is TOXIC for the country.
That's correct, let's have at least one party where we can fight and push them to sanity. The other party marches lock, stock and barrel over every issue, which is one thing I admire about the other party. Merritless Garland nearly a SCOTUS, wow, just wow.
This is hitting regular people, meaning those not currently caught in the gender nightmare. You think this isn’t going to be called out in debates and press conferences leading up to the election? You think people like this are going to vote for a Dem candidate who doesn’t condemn this madness? Parents like me will be working very hard to make sure every candidate has to own up to their complacency or support on this issue.
Gender-identity ideology has captured so many sectors of American society so rapidly that it is difficult to see how it will ever be defeated. If there is a gender critical movement in my town that would allow me to meet like-minded people and get involved in activism, I have yet to find it. Until I do, I take advantage of every opportunity to share my gender-critical views on social media and in comments on pieces in the mainstream and progressive media.
When I comment I make a point of identifying myself as a Democrat, a Biden voter and a gay senior citizen to distance myself from trans critics on the right. For one thing, they are often as intemperate and offensive as most trans activists. Also, I believe that Democrats and Independents who believe in gender identity and all it implies might be more receptive to someone who is a fellow liberal and a member of sexual minority to boot than to someone from the Republican/MAGA world.
In my reply I argued against the concept of the "trans kid," saying that most children with gender-related problems will outgrow them during adolescence if not exposed to trans indoctrination.
I also asserted that it's gender-affirming care that's experimental, not not the prior longstanding practice of exploring why a child claims to be trans and determining whether the claim is well founded.
Furthermore, I explained that a number of European nations were backing away from their embrace of gender medicine because the science to support it just isn't there.
Then I opined that that it is social contagion and indoctrination by teachers and other trans allies that accounts for the rapid increase in the number of children and teens identifying as trans.
In closing, I provided a link to a Quilette podcast titled "Fair play for female athletes, then and now," in which a former Olympic rower who had to battle sexism in the sport during college explains why allowing biological men to compete against women in female-only sports is fundamentally unfair.
I took pains to point out that I didn't get my information from right-wing media but from objective and dispassionate sources such as the podcast "Gender: A Wider Lens." I also provided a link to that.
I am pleased to say that five readers gave me a thumbs-up on my comment. But to put that in perspective, the article generated over 3,000 comments. However, none of the 12 written replies to my comment were positive. Here is a sample:
"I am the Dowager Empress of Japan. Nice to meet you." (That was in response to my having identified myself as a Biden voter, etc.)
"You really believe the poster is gay or a Democrat?"
"Or voted for Biden?"
"No, I don't. But since there are a few misguided Log Cabin Republican types that exist here and there, I can't be 100% sure."
"Stop LYING, your first sentence is a FLAT OUT LIE." (The first sentence was "I am a Democrat, a Biden voter, a gay man, a grandfather and a retired lawyer." )
Exactly. The tolerant left has lost its mind. I don’t know what happened, but they have become the ugliest of mobs. Anyone who still believes this is the party of liberal values is blind or full of it. They must be stopped because they’ll bring down our democracy. Vote Red.
Wow, that is shocking, but just goes to show how loud, vulgar & vocal people can be. Most sympathizers are too devastated & caught up with trauma to fight & comment
No, you misunderstood me. A true conservative wouldn't support Trump. But people tend to use the term conservative as a synonym for Republican, and I beg to differ.
same with democrat and liberal. one can be democrat and have some conservative values, and one can be a republican and have so called liberal values. Who gets to decide what is conservative and what is liberal?
I am not sure how to differentiate between a "true conservative" with a fake one! There are millions of real conservatives who support Trump. Or is your view those millions are fake conservatives? I hope this site does not become plagued with Trump deranged comments just because we are now in another election cycle.
If Trump joins in, then you can expect deranged comments from him. As for the fake conservatives, call them what you want, but they are actually radical, NOT conservative.
TDS is a big part of why our nation is in the state it’s in. We were given a binary choice & both candidates have massive character flaws but millions of voters simply could not see through their Trump-hate to evaluate the issues & vote for an administration whose policies, in general, would be better for the country. Certainly for our children. The Trump administration did not govern radically (I’m Ind & have voted for candidates of both parties). Millions of us only voted for Trump because we saw Biden pushing radical left policies (remember that’s the faction of the dems that helped him get the nomination). Biden Admin has governed radically. It does not surprise me that the Biden administration flies the new segregation flag Uber Alles. We are all Americans, Mr. Biden. Stop segregating us by our melanin content, genitalia, and where we want to rub our genitalia!
Trump supporters are radical? You make no sense. Should we also throw in discussions at every random corner of PITT about the nonsense and corruption that comes out of Biden? We can just go around and around about who is the most deranged or demented politician because that has so much to do with issues discuss on PITT!
I am not a Democrat, not even a former one, and that makes me appreciate your perspective even more. My husband and I likewise feel like we are losing our son to this craziness as well, and it helps to know that we are not alone. Thank you for speaking out and sharing your experience.
Among the best-written pieces so far published in this substack. Thank you.
The road to hell is paved with good intentions... "Why did you do that?" "Well, I had good intentions..." Outcomes is what should be measured and people held accountable for, today we legislate and moralize openly feelings and attitudes rather than hard core concrete truths. And then whose truth? Oh, well, you see it is my truth, my lived experience...truly we are on a path to hell of regression of de-enlightenment....towards paganism and worshipping of man made gods of self.
The current Dem party is not the same party it was many, many years ago. I've always believed in women's rights (I'm a female), and to see my mtf son trashing them, hurts deeply. This whole nightmare needs to stop. What would RBG do?
Not many Dems speak out against their own tribe, which we need a LOT more of. RFK doing a good job, but he is trashed by his own party. We need to lower the cost of free speech, of speaking out and up.
Yes!
What a fabulous written essay - thank you. I also started to let go of my deep committed Democratic upbringing and fierce loyalty to that party about 7 years ago. I did not vote for our current President - and the last several years I can no longer ignore or turn a deaf ear to the ignorance and lies being told about the transgender ideology. There are two genders: male and female. Period. The harm and permanent damage that these confused and brainwashed children/young adults are doing to their once healthy bodies causes my heart to ache. I worry this has all come about because of a devious political ploy to somehow control the population growth while making Big Pharma richer. How can anyone actually support this cult? My nephew is caught in the trans trap and I wonder if I will ever see him again. I cannot trust the news or media any longer, but I trust this site and I am grateful for PITT and the resources all the writers and readers provide.
Yes, I've been down the same path and have been grateful for my more conservative friends who had every right to laugh and say, "told you so!" but are far too classy and sympathetic. I am so disappointed in my former political party and am also politically homeless.
Beautifully written and eloquently stated. My eyes started to open to "something" not being quite right in the late 90s, with Government and our world in general. But, I didn't start diving in until around 2011 when I read a book entitled: The Hundred Year Lie by Randall Fitzgerald. I began to understand that what we (what I) had always believed to be true, that these agencies i.e. EPA, FDA, CDC, NIH et al were not exactly acting as we all believed. They had, in many cases, long since been captured and corrupted and were now working on behalf of the very industries they were meant to regulate. Like the CDC & NIH and their links to Big Pharma, who literally own most of our congress. And, incidentally it's Big Pharma who stands to gain the most with all of this human trials, and tribulation .. and, pure human devastation (along with the doctors, medical personnel, and medical adjacent .. anyone pushing drugs, and being party to what will someday be looked back upon as one of the darkest times in all of history .. and, that is saying a lot. They (Pharma) want each and everyone of us from "Cradle to Grave" .. that has been the plan since Rockefeller took over the medical establishment, and we are seeing it in its full fruition. Our children are in the cross hairs, obviously ..but, so are all of us. We know that these vaccines, which they pushed on all of us since childhood, actually do much more harm than good. They may do some benefit in the targeted disease, but they create a myriad of other issues that will ultimately follow us throughout our lives .. everything from asthma to allergies to cancers. Something in the past 30 years (suspiciously correlating with the 1986 National Childhood Vaccine Injury Act -where they went from 9-11 doses to 72 doses) has spiked the incidence of autism, which used to be fewer than 1/10,000 and is now 1/50 (maybe closer to 1/35) and, since 60% of kids identifying as trans are on the spectrum, this is a very troubling statistic. And, since mercury and aluminum are both neurotoxins, and are found in most, if not all, of these vaccines, I would certainly start there, if I were at all interested in what could possibly be going on with this incredible unrelenting rise in these autism cases .. which again, seem to be going hand and hand with the trans agenda.
Same here, my friend, same here. It's a lonely island. The same people who demanded that the public look to high quality peer reviewed research when in came to the COVID vaccine are perfectly happy getting their information about gender identity from YouTube and from research funded by trans activist groups. I'm only comforted by the hope that perhaps we are a silent majority, and that eventually the numbers of adults who were harmed by childhood and teen gender transition will be impossible to ignore.
The same people who wanted the unvaxed shot, locked up, thrown in jail, penniless will gladly do the same next time around....some were my close neighbors, friends and family members.
I would recommend this very insightful series of essays by someone who slowly came to a realization of the untrustworthiness of the standard left-liberal narrative many years ago:
https://www.thenewneo.com/2005/02/21/mind-is-difficult-thing-to-change-part-2/
Thank you Steven, I’m reading these essays now. Very interesting.
Aussie lefty here feeling much the same. Have lost lifelong friendships over this issue. I feel like screaming from the rooftops - I’m 64 have I been wrong about more?
All I can say is 𝙏𝙝𝙖𝙣𝙠 𝙔𝙤𝙪 for putting your essays out - I understand your frustrations most completely!
Albeit I have a 20yo trans-identifying daughter...
I am in your "tribe", having wrenched myself from the now once lifelong Democrat side... homeless in more ways than that, unfortunately... my parents are probably spinning in their urns!
Thanks again!
This is SO GOOD! You nail everything right on the head!
All the mini-deaths of trusted sources and cultural icons falling away to the ideology, one by one...
Simple comment. I've read every singe PITT piece. Often high quality. This one is the best of them all.
I'm responding to the comments assuming that the author is becoming "awake," and switching political parties. Don't count on it. And no, these discussions aren't fruitful.
And why not? In 2012, I ran in my red state for State Senate as a Dem. I voted for Obama 2x. I realized in 2014 that he was a COMPLETE FUCKHEAD for the US worker. He brought in millions of illegal scum. He opened the border. He cheated millions of their houses. And he did not prosecute a single banker for the 2008 disaster that brought him to the presidency. He is and was a complete scum turd.
I registered R in Jan 2023. People like you are too stupid to understand that you can be R and NOT support Trump. I am pro-abortion, pro-science (40 years in medical research). But the Dem party of criminals, illegals, criminals, trannies, and gay wacks is TOXIC for the country.
That's correct, let's have at least one party where we can fight and push them to sanity. The other party marches lock, stock and barrel over every issue, which is one thing I admire about the other party. Merritless Garland nearly a SCOTUS, wow, just wow.
Have you seen this video? 18.5M views. https://twitter.com/sarahiscensored/status/1677731732815060992?s=46&t=9AvLCz2Qy9IITKf9rt-Fkg
This is hitting regular people, meaning those not currently caught in the gender nightmare. You think this isn’t going to be called out in debates and press conferences leading up to the election? You think people like this are going to vote for a Dem candidate who doesn’t condemn this madness? Parents like me will be working very hard to make sure every candidate has to own up to their complacency or support on this issue.
OMG I literally just heard this Dad on the Megyn Kelly podcast 10 minutes ago!!!!!
i will be right there with you
Gender-identity ideology has captured so many sectors of American society so rapidly that it is difficult to see how it will ever be defeated. If there is a gender critical movement in my town that would allow me to meet like-minded people and get involved in activism, I have yet to find it. Until I do, I take advantage of every opportunity to share my gender-critical views on social media and in comments on pieces in the mainstream and progressive media.
When I comment I make a point of identifying myself as a Democrat, a Biden voter and a gay senior citizen to distance myself from trans critics on the right. For one thing, they are often as intemperate and offensive as most trans activists. Also, I believe that Democrats and Independents who believe in gender identity and all it implies might be more receptive to someone who is a fellow liberal and a member of sexual minority to boot than to someone from the Republican/MAGA world.
My faith in the latter was shaken by the responses to my comment on The Washington Post's June 10 article "Florida anti-LGBTQ laws prompt families who feel unsafe to flee." https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2023/06/10/florida-anti-lgbtq-laws/
In my reply I argued against the concept of the "trans kid," saying that most children with gender-related problems will outgrow them during adolescence if not exposed to trans indoctrination.
I also asserted that it's gender-affirming care that's experimental, not not the prior longstanding practice of exploring why a child claims to be trans and determining whether the claim is well founded.
Furthermore, I explained that a number of European nations were backing away from their embrace of gender medicine because the science to support it just isn't there.
Then I opined that that it is social contagion and indoctrination by teachers and other trans allies that accounts for the rapid increase in the number of children and teens identifying as trans.
In closing, I provided a link to a Quilette podcast titled "Fair play for female athletes, then and now," in which a former Olympic rower who had to battle sexism in the sport during college explains why allowing biological men to compete against women in female-only sports is fundamentally unfair.
I took pains to point out that I didn't get my information from right-wing media but from objective and dispassionate sources such as the podcast "Gender: A Wider Lens." I also provided a link to that.
I am pleased to say that five readers gave me a thumbs-up on my comment. But to put that in perspective, the article generated over 3,000 comments. However, none of the 12 written replies to my comment were positive. Here is a sample:
"I am the Dowager Empress of Japan. Nice to meet you." (That was in response to my having identified myself as a Biden voter, etc.)
"You really believe the poster is gay or a Democrat?"
"Or voted for Biden?"
"No, I don't. But since there are a few misguided Log Cabin Republican types that exist here and there, I can't be 100% sure."
"Stop LYING, your first sentence is a FLAT OUT LIE." (The first sentence was "I am a Democrat, a Biden voter, a gay man, a grandfather and a retired lawyer." )
"Keep your idiotic comments to yourself please."
wow. great reply you sent to the Washington post and the comments are scary and what makes me feel overwhelmed with how will we ever get this to stop?
Exactly. The tolerant left has lost its mind. I don’t know what happened, but they have become the ugliest of mobs. Anyone who still believes this is the party of liberal values is blind or full of it. They must be stopped because they’ll bring down our democracy. Vote Red.
Wow, that is shocking, but just goes to show how loud, vulgar & vocal people can be. Most sympathizers are too devastated & caught up with trauma to fight & comment
No, you misunderstood me. A true conservative wouldn't support Trump. But people tend to use the term conservative as a synonym for Republican, and I beg to differ.
same with democrat and liberal. one can be democrat and have some conservative values, and one can be a republican and have so called liberal values. Who gets to decide what is conservative and what is liberal?
I am not sure how to differentiate between a "true conservative" with a fake one! There are millions of real conservatives who support Trump. Or is your view those millions are fake conservatives? I hope this site does not become plagued with Trump deranged comments just because we are now in another election cycle.
If Trump joins in, then you can expect deranged comments from him. As for the fake conservatives, call them what you want, but they are actually radical, NOT conservative.
TDS is a big part of why our nation is in the state it’s in. We were given a binary choice & both candidates have massive character flaws but millions of voters simply could not see through their Trump-hate to evaluate the issues & vote for an administration whose policies, in general, would be better for the country. Certainly for our children. The Trump administration did not govern radically (I’m Ind & have voted for candidates of both parties). Millions of us only voted for Trump because we saw Biden pushing radical left policies (remember that’s the faction of the dems that helped him get the nomination). Biden Admin has governed radically. It does not surprise me that the Biden administration flies the new segregation flag Uber Alles. We are all Americans, Mr. Biden. Stop segregating us by our melanin content, genitalia, and where we want to rub our genitalia!
Trump supporters are radical? You make no sense. Should we also throw in discussions at every random corner of PITT about the nonsense and corruption that comes out of Biden? We can just go around and around about who is the most deranged or demented politician because that has so much to do with issues discuss on PITT!