This is my Sun column from Saturday. Lots of supportive e-mails, but four or five long, over-written ones from people describing themselves as “gender male leaning, sex very male” (that from a woman) and the like. Sad, confused people. They quote politically drenched “evidence” about gender that they ludicrously claim to be medical, but is entirely the product of pressure groups. Interesting.
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The Who had it right with their iconic song. “I’m a boy, I’m a boy, But my ma won’t admit it, I’m a boy, I’m a boy, But if I say I am I get it.” Recently we had the case of a lesbian couple indoctrinating their little boy that he was a girl, to the point of giving him puberty-delaying drugs. Now we have a less severe, but equally worrying case in Denver, Colorado, where a seven-year old, Bobby Montoya, has won the right to join the Girl Scouts.
His mother has told the press that little Bobby has always self-identified as a girl, and that he plays with dolls, dresses in girl’s clothes and keeps his shoulder-length hair neatly closed. Okay love, here’s some advice. Cut his hair, take away his hairbrush, burn the girl’s clothes, and throw away the dolls. It’s not brain surgery you know. Mind you, it is brain manipulation.
We’ve seen it over and over again – the strong mothers, the weak or absent father, the challenges of birth order, the sister as a role model. None of this is new, but in the past we could comment on it, but now if laypeople do they are accused of homophobia, and if doctors do, they can lose their medical license. In this particular case, the mother has encouraged, or allowed through indifference, her son’s eccentric if not dangerous behaviour. That she then pushed to have him become a girl scout, then spoke so vociferously to the media, and had her son do the same leads us to believe that it’s not indifference, but an agenda.
Look, kids want to be superman, batman, dinosaurs, dogs and cats, anything, everything. They also want to play with matches, run into the road, do any number of things that might hurt them. It’s our job as parents to lovingly control this behaviour, not to selfishly encourage it. We know that children are not sufficiently mature, for example, to vote, drink, or drive a car, but we suddenly think they are qualified to decide what gender they are!
There is no such thing as self-identification – it‘s a modernist phrase invented by activists and sexual extremists to legitimize their neuroses, supported by bogus psychiatrists to extend their influence and field of alleged expertise. Nobody is asking in this latest case how the girls in the scouts group feel, and you can be assured that those girls, or their parents, who are not at all comfortable will be told that they are threatened, old-fashioned, and that they and not the boy and his ridiculous mother are the problem here.
We are meant to raise children, but now we experiment with them; we are meant to love children, but instead we indulge ourselves by indulging them. We cannot change our gender, even with surgery and drugs; all we can do is kick out against reality, glorifying some push-me-pull-you creation of weird science and weirder morality. This poor child needs our help and compassion, but instead he’s become another casualty in the war against childhood. One day we’ll know just how wrong we were, but for some it will be too late.
Who let you into canada?
Using children as guinea pigs for social experimentation is a most vile form of child abuse. Shame on these people.
@Randy: What this mother is doing to her son is child abuse. If you can’t see that, well … ignorance isn’t a crime.
I KNOW THE YEAR isn’t yet over, and I collect so many quotes (1000s per year)…but Michael’s statement;
“There is no such thing as self-identification – it‘s a modernist phrase invented by activists and sexual extremists to legitimize their neuroses, supported by bogus psychiatrists to extend their influence and field of alleged expertise.”
…is, in my opinion, one—in the top ten best, in all categories—in consideration of being most concise, brutally accurate, and timely…that I’ve heard all year.
Bravo, Michael, you’ve stated the odious truth with compassion.
The upside-down crowd won’t hear you, for sure—and they’ll keep ruining Canada, and what’s left of merry ole’ England…with their misguided lawfare—as all maniacal dogs, with distemper, must…
My parents were exceedingly strict post-WWII Eastern Europeans. They neither encouraged nor even condoned my gender expression as a child, which essentially amounted to, “BOY.” There was a constant onslaught of dresses, pink bedspreads, ballet classes and my mother’s fretting over the possibility of my “losing my femininity.”
Fast-forward a few years. They have (though they are currently unaware of this) no daughter. They have a son who binds, loves button-downs and ties, has chosen a male name, and presents as fully male wherever and whenever possible.
Not only was this not encouraged by my parents, I was actively dissuaded from exploring my own identity and from pursuing my gender. Nevertheless, the truth prevails, and I am a man.
Nothing in my life “caused” this. My parents were extremely conclusive in their definitions of gender and gender roles. I did not “choose” it either; believe me, no one actually chooses to suffer the kind of abuse and ridicule I see every day (abuse and ridicule of which your article is redolent, I might add). I am not the way I am for attention. I am not wrong about who I am.
You got one thing right in your writing: “We cannot change our gender… all we can do is kick out against reality.” Right. Exactly right. Because no matter how hard you or anyone else insists, I am not female. I have never been female. I will never be female.
Only my body disagrees.
Injecting unnecessary drugs? I’d agree, child abuse.
Boy wants to join the girl scouts? He identifies as a girl. So what? Is it a sign of the impending apocalypse?
Weird morality? Oh yeah, only Catholic morality is the right one…
Bigger picture stories, Debt Crisis and perhaps even bigger than that is Iran, months away from am A-Bomb!! That is truly worrisome.
“Look, kids want to be superman, batman, dinosaurs, dogs and cats, anything, everything. They also want to play with matches, run into the road, do any number of things that might hurt them. It’s our job as parents to lovingly control this behaviour, not to selfishly encourage it. We know that children are not sufficiently mature, for example, to vote, drink, or drive a car, but we suddenly think they are qualified to decide what gender they are!”……….”None of this is new, but in the past we could comment on it, but now if laypeople do they are accused of homophobia, and if doctors do, they can lose their medical license”…….EXACTLY!
But this is scary & it makes one wonder are some of these ‘idiotic’ & totally ‘unthought out’ behaviors of certain adult caretakers IS THIS just the tip of the iceberg as to Pushing for More Vilgar actions yet than you expose coupled with an EXERTED Attempt tp SILENCE Opposition especially fm Religious Objecters.
I think that going the drug route at such a young age might constitute child abuse because we do not yet know what the long term health impacts will be. This being said, I agree that nobody voluntarily chooses to be cross gendered. The amount of abuse and discrimination they have to put up with is beyond belief. And it is not made any better by people like Mr. Coren with his absolutist approach to life.
The world is not black and white, as much as Mr. Coren insists that it is. I don’t know what makes people gay or trans-gendered. But who cares. All I have to do is be tolerant and accepting as long as they are not affecting others in a negative way, which they are not.
David, whatever you might claim, having gender transforming surgery does not make you a man any more than pinning on a fake tin badge from a dollar store could make you an officer of the law.
The changes you have undergone are cosmetic only and your surgery could be described as mutilation. I won’t go so far as to say that, but I know some who would.
My condolences for the unhappy life that has led you to this sorry state of non-existence.
It will be interesting to see, in the coming years, those who will defend paedofiles and others who wish to have relations with minors. They tend to identify themselves as “minor attracted persons” so as to try and avoid the stigma that has been placed on them. We will be told that no one chooses to be a paedofile, and that we cannot judge them. We will be told that it doesn’t affect us, so why are we concerned about it. We will be told that it is no longer a serious mental disorder but a lifestyle choice. Of course I am not equatin homosexuals to paedofiles, but most of the same stuff used to defend homosexual marriage and lifestyle will be used to defend other such “alternate” lifestyle choices. Where do we draw the line? Who knows.
Brian, you are absolutely right. The surgery – which I have, incidentally, not yet had – does NOT make me a man. My gender makes me a man, and the surgery merely brings my body’s appearance and function in line with my gender.
Just as you, had you been born without a penis, would have been a man both before and after the surgical reconstruction thereof. Just as you, were you to lose your penis in an accident, would remain a male nevertheless, whether or not you ever underwent reconstructive surgery.
I thank you, but I don’t require your condolences; I don’t experience non-existence. I experience friendships, romantic relationships and a successful career in biomedical research, complete with publications and speaking engagements.
As a man.
I would hardly call my life a “sorry state.”
What would happen if I ran to the HRC and claimed I had a Black/African/female/Lesbian inside me , but …because I’m a white male and hate my race…. I’m attracted to white females only but want all the Employment Rights as a Minority member .
Could I get a job at a pro-lesbian group, or special support as a black female , or have OHIP pay for me to get a sex change and Pigment Drugs to darken my skin.
After all , inside is a Black/Lesbian that has been kept hidden for the shame , so shame on you if you mock me and don’t support my Charter Rights to be treated Equally for jobs and housing even if I’m a white male on the outside.
Ladies and gentlemen. Please….let’s give a big round of applause for Gary. He’s here all week. Try the veal and don’t forget to tip big.
Put your hands together for the homophobic/racist/insensitive barny , he made Paroll and is back to show his worn out knuckles and really sloped forehead.
Men that have a female inside them are not here to be mocked, nor are the self-hating blacks or homosexuals and jews.
My point is that there is NOT test to prove ones sexual-preference, or inner spirit as many Natives have . But how far would Barbara Hall go to defend a white male that DOES have a non-white spirit inside them and a inner lesbian that is attracked to females but stuck in a male body.
Nice one barny…..stay the hell away from shelters for battered fermales, they don’t need you mocking them or doing a really bad stand-up that I’d expect from Susan G Cole whom loves to bash STR* males or non-Liberals as stupid and homophobes.
Hi Gary. I’m going to have to give you a mulligan on this one. There is no way of deciphering your response to my good-natured jibe. I actually thought that YOU were mocking them! Wait a minute…….unless you ARE a self-hating African,lesbian,homotardic,aboriginal,cross-gendered,jewish Walmart greeter. You win……I think.
Some arguments do not require refution as the denial inherent in them does the job without a word being spoken.
If I had been born with the genitalia of a female, my parents would rightly have raised me as a girl because they were smart enough to know that, being born with a vagina, I was in fact a girl.
If your parents were not clever enough to figure that out, shame on them. If you were too stubborn to accept your lot as a woman, that says more about you than any other statement.
Reality is what it is and no amount of surgery, which you have not yet had, will make it different. No quantity of hormone pills will make you different, at least in any substantial way.
I’m glad you seem to be living a productive life, but you’re still not a man; with or without the surgery.
There is a case in the U.K. where a young male demanded that the State Health Care system pay for his sex change to a female. No matter how many people had coached him about the down sides, he went forward with it.
Today he has a lawyer and wants to Sue the State for letting him get the sex-change because the medications and psychological stress issues was far worse than he was told or perceived.
It’s a no-win situation while the Lawyer’s sit on the sideline and wait for that Pot-O-Gold lawsuit against the State no matter which side they are on.
I remember as a small child wanting to be just like my brothers. I grew up with three and was very proud in being called a Tomboy. When I reached early puberty, I wondered if I might be gay. However, as soon as I hit adolescence, I embraced my femininity realizing how much I liked boys in a much different way. I figured it out on my own. I never ever remember my parents encouraging me to be a boy. Thank God.
Boys have a penis; girls have a vagina.