Trans panic

The annual Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) is notorious for hosting the most irredeemable people on the planet with the shittiest political opinions imaginable, and this year's gathering held in National Harbor, Maryland, was no exception. Donald Trump was the headliner, just as he has been for the past 2 years since vacating the White House. In addition to hitting his usual notes, he also assured his loyal followers that he was their "warrior," and their "justice," and "for those who have been wronged and betrayed: I am your retribution." 

But his commentary on transgender people seemingly drew the biggest applause from the CPAC audience. He promised to, if elected president again in 2024, prohibit "child sexual mutilation in all 50 states," and "keep men out of women's sports." 

He also faced stiffed competition from the other speakers, including elected officials Marjorie Taylor Greene, Lauren Boebert, and Matt Gaetz on the trans demonization front. It was an exceptionally popular theme. As the Human Rights Campaign notes, speakers "peppered hateful statements toward trans people casually through remarks on unrelated topics." And why wouldn't they? After all, they're only throwing precisely the kind of red meat CPAC audiences have come to expect, as former Republican congressman Joe Walsh writes in this piece for The Bulwark:

"CPAC attendees represent the base of the Republican party. They are the party. They represent GOP party activists, the most committed, involved and engaged Republican voters. There was nothing "fringe" about CPAC this past weekend. This was mainstream GOP. The stolen election lies, the vaccine paranoia, the fear mongering about a "deep state," the obsession with Hunter Biden, the cruelty toward transgender people, the bowing down to Putin, the demand that Anthony Fauci be behind bars, the authoritarian impulse to punish private individuals and companies deemed too "woke" - this is all quite literally the agenda of the current Republican-controlled House of Representatives." 

Perhaps the speech that has garnered the most attention, however, was given by the Daily Wire's Michael Knowles, in which he riffed that "transgenderism must be eradicated from public life entirely":

Michael Knowles tells CPAC that "there can be no middle way in dealing with transgenderism. ... Transgenderism must be eradicated from public life entirely." https://t.co/57hJF4frgq pic.twitter.com/szvnC1qWrP

— Right Wing Watch (@RightWingWatch) March 4, 2023

Now, most normal people would hear something like this and assume he's advocating for something terrible to happen to transgender people. But Knowles himself would disagree in a manner that makes him sound like an even bigger piece of shit. "I don't know how you could have a genocide of transgender people because genocide refers to genes, it refers to genetics, it refers to biology," he recently said on his podcast. He added "nobody's calling to exterminate anybody because the other problem with that statement is that transgender people is not a real ontological category," and "it's not a legitimate category of being."

Knowles' statements cut to the very core of what separates him and others on the right from trans rights activists on the left - they believe that a transgender person's state of being is merely an ideological belief. And those beliefs are inherently delusional, so there's no reason to affirm a trans person's gender identity. Furthermore, all efforts must be taken to prevent children from being recruited, or "groomed" into this ideological belief. That includes passing laws that prevent teens (and eventually adults) from accessing gender-affirming care, from playing on school sports teams that align with their gender identities, and preventing public schools from providing any kind of instruction relating to LGBT identities.

The problem with this is the underlying assumption that LGBT adults and leftists are using schools and broader culture to indoctrinate children into becoming transgender as opposed to what's really going on - that trans (and gay) identities are doled out at birth, and there isn't anything they or anyone else can do about it. Nor does anyone need to do anything about it, as there's utterly nothing wrong or immoral with being LGBT. 

Of course, many conservatives believe that being LGBT is an immoral affront to God. Their most primal fear is that their own children will somehow wind up adopting an LGBT lifestyle, despite being raised the 'right' way. That is, being taken to church on Sundays, being shielded from the corrupting influence of liberals in mainstream media and academia, and being kept away from the 'wrong' sort of crowd. In the event that their kids do one day declare that they're trans or gay then, well, surely it must be because someone else hoodwinked them into it. 

But again, they're ignoring the biological evidence suggesting that none of this is a choice. Researchers at the Medical College of Georgia at Augusta University brought some of this evidence to the forefront in a 2020 study:

""Twenty-one variants in 19 genes have been found in estrogen signaling pathways of the brain critical to establishing whether the brain is masculine or feminine," says Dr. J. Graham Theisen, obstetrician/gynecologist and National Institutes of Health Women's Reproductive Health Research Scholar at the Medical College of Georgia at Augusta University.

Basically -- and perhaps counterintuitively -- these genes are primarily involved in estrogen's critical sprinkling of the brain right before or after birth, which is essential to masculinization of the brain. 

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Reproductive endocrinologist/geneticist [Dr. Lawrence C.] Layman says his experience with taking care of transgender patients for about 20 years, made him think there was a biological basis. "We certainly think that for the majority of people who are experiencing gender dysphoria there is a biologic component," says Theisen. "We want to understand what the genetic component of gender identity is.""

If having gender dysphoria is the result of a biological component at birth, then that undercuts the notion that someone is trans because they happened to be "groomed" into it. It also undercuts the notion that LGBT lifestyles are inherently immoral. How could the manner in which someone is born be considered wrong? It would be like asserting that people who are born left-handed and live a left-handed lifestyle are immoral. In reality, being left-landed is something that's hardwired into the brain. And there is additional evidence from the European Society of Endocrinology that suggests gender dysphoria is hardwired into the brain as well:

"In this study, Dr. Julie Bakker from the University of Liège, Belgium, and her colleagues from the Center of Expertise on Gender Dysphoria at the VU University Medical Center, the Netherlands, examined sex differences in the brain activation patterns of young transgender people. The study included both adolescent boys and girls with gender dysphoria and used magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scans to assess brain activation patterns in response to a pheromone known to produce gender-specific activity. The pattern of brain activation in both transgender adolescent boys and girls more closely resembled that of non-transgender boys and girls of their desired gender. In addition, GD adolescent girls showed a male-typical brain activation pattern during a visual/spatial memory exercise. Finally, some brain structural changes were detected that were also more similar, but not identical, to those typical of the desired gender of GD boys and girls.

Dr Bakker says, "Although more research is needed, we now have evidence that sexual differentiation of the brain differs in young people with GD, as they show functional brain characteristics that are typical of their desired gender.""

One doesn't necessarily need scientific studies to reach this conclusion, though. Simply having a conversation with someone who is trans will do. Trans people have existed across space and time in every culture, and virtually all of them will say that they knew they were trans at a very young age, even before they possessed the vocabulary to articulate it. Just as gay people know they're gay at a young age. Right-wingers are now just regurgitating the same talking points they've used to advocate against gay rights, as this New York Times article clarifies: "Some activists and politicians also say exposing young people to transgender identities, whether through a book reading by a drag performer or a classroom discussion, "sexualizes" them - an echo of anti-gay campaigns dating to the 1970's, which cast gay people as praying on children." 

Of course, there's scientific research, such as this study from the Broad Institute in Cambridge, Massachusetts, stating that "some genes do influence the propensity to have same-sex partners." That is, the belief that being gay is merely an ideological choice is just as wrongheaded as believing that being trans is an ideological choice. Here again, all we have to do is listen to actual gay people to understand this. "If me being gay was a choice, it was a choice that was made far, far above my pay grade," and "if you got a problem with who I am, your problem is not with me - your quarrel is with my creator," then presidential candidate and current Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg once remarked in response to then Vice President Mike Pence.   

The very idea that someone would choose to be LGBT because they were indoctrinated, or because it's fashionable, or for funsies falls apart upon the slightest bit of scrutiny. LGBT youths are beaten, neglected, and abandoned at far greater rates than the general population. They face social stigma and threats of physical violence throughout the entirety of their lives simply for being who they are. If life were a video game, then choosing to be LGBT is akin to playing that video game on hard mode. 

And yet, Republicans will continue to insist the anti-LGBT bills they wish to pass - over 120 of which have been advanced in state legislatures in 2023 alone according to the ACLU - are intended to protect children. But you'll never, ever convince me the Republican Party gives a fuck about protecting children. This is the party of Donald Trump, who allegedly used to intentionally walk into the locker rooms where girls under the age of 18 were changing when he owned the Miss Teen USA beauty pageant. This is the party that rallied around Alabama senatorial candidate Roy Moore in 2017, even after he was credibly accused of sexually molesting minors:

This is the party that all of a sudden has a lot to say about drag shows, but very little to say about it remaining legal for parents to take their kids to see R-rated films, or to objectifying restaurants such as Hooters, or to sign their kids up to compete in child beauty pageants. This is the party of Arkansas Governor Sarah Hucakabee Sanders, who recently signed a bill into law weakening child labor protections for kids under the age of 16. This is the party that forcibly separated children from their parents via the "zero tolerance" policy at the souther border. This is the party that universally opposed the expanded Child Tax Credit, which cut childhood poverty nearly in half after it was implemented. 

The most aggressive state action taken against transgender youth and their parents was carried out by the GOP in Texas throughout 2022. Republican Governor Greg Abbott "directed the Department of Family and Protective Services (DFPS) to investigate parents who provide gender-affirming care to their transgender children" in February of that year, per the Texas Tribune. A district court ultimately issued an injunction against the governor's directive in September. Nevertheless, parents were investigated during this time frame for doing nothing more than providing what the American Academy of Pediatrics recognizes as "evidence-based, medically necessary services" to their children. 

These families were made to endure the trauma that naturally arises in response to being visited and interviewed by investigators with the power to remove children from their parents if they deem it necessary. Some 2,300 DFPS employees voluntarily resigned in protest rather than go along with the governor's order, thereby leaving an already overburdened agency even more ill equipped to handle actual allegations of child abuse. At least one 16-year-old trans boy attempted suicide "as a result of the "political environment" including Abbott's order, as well as being misgendered in school, according to court documents" reported Vice News. The young boy's mother was then put under investigation by DFPS because his outpatient psychiatric facility was mandated to report that he had been prescribed hormone therapy. 

Once again, you'll never convince me the Republican Party gives a fuck about protecting children.

What they care about is preventing people with gender dysphoria from transitioning. The current emphasis on banning gender-affirming care for teens is a ruse. Terry Schilling, the president of the conservative American Principles Project, "confirmed that his organization's long-term goal was to eliminate transition care. The initial focus on children, he said, was a matter of "going where the consensus is,"" per the New York Times. Michael Knowles' Daily Wire colleague Matt Walsh, and director of the documentary What is a Woman?, also believes conservatives "can't just oppose the transition of children," and that it's "evil to do to anyone of any age."

These assholes think they're the good guys. They envision themselves as protectors of a vulnerable population from a dangerous ideology. But in realty, trans people are finding peace of mind and leading joyful, meaningful lives specifically because they've transitioned. This is backed up by the voices of the majority of trans people and academic research:

"A new analysis conducted by researchers at the What We Know Project (WWKP), an initiative of Cornell University's Center for the Study of Inequality (CSI), reviewed more than 25 years of scholarship on transgender mental health and found a strong consensus that undergoing gender transition can improve the well-being of transgender people.

The year-long review screened more than 4,000 studies and identified 56 that assessed whether gender transition improves the mental well-being of transgender individuals. The analysis concluded that 93 percent of the studies found positive effects from gender transition, indicating "a robust international consensus in the peer-reviewed literature that gender transition, including medical treatments such as hormone therapy and surgeries, improves the overall well-being of transgender individuals.""

This study conducted in the Netherlands determined that "most participants [98% of people in the study] who started gender-affirming hormones in adolescence continued this treatment into adulthood," and that '"the continuation of treatment is reassuring considering the worries that people who started treatment in adolescence might discontinue gender-affirming treatment." Another systematic review found that "there is an extremely low prevalence [less than 1% or 1%] of regret in transgender patients after GAS (gender affirmation surgeries)." 

A more recent survey conducted by the Kaiser Family Foundation and the Washington Post found that "nearly 8 in 10 trans adults (78%) say that living as a gender different from the one assigned to them at birth has made them "more satisfied" with their life, including just under half (45%) who say they are "a lot more satisfied."" This demolishes the conservative narrative that trans people are coerced or duped en masse into getting irreversible treatments they'll later come to regret. Again, the majority are happy with their decision to transition. 

Banning these treatments for teens until they reach adulthood isn't a neutral position. Going through puberty with gender dysphoria is its own special kind of hell. "The risks of withholding gender-affirming care vary from patient to patient but often involve things like worsening anxiety, depression, and suicidality," says professor of child and adolescent psychiatry Jack Turban in this Vox article. "Without [puberty] blockers and, at an appropriate age, hormones, it forces transgender girls, who are girls like any other, to grow facial hair and broad, angular features, and forces transgender boys to grow breasts and wide hips. Its effects can only be reversed by very expensive and difficult-to-access surgeries in adulthood, and even then only partially," writes Lily Osler in the Waco Tribune-Herald. 

Surgeries in particular garner the most pushback, as they are derided as childhood "mutilation." Yet here again, Republicans aren't acting in good faith, as the bills they're putting forth in state legislatures never fail to contain exceptions for surgeries to be performed on intersex newborns. These exceptions are especially egregious, as the procedures are obviously performed before the intersex newborns and toddlers are even remotely capable of providing consent, and are increasingly recognized as being medically unnecessary. But they're allowed because they're considered the 'right' kind of "genital mutilation," I guess.  

So are circumcisions. A trove of emails exchanged amongst anti-trans activists, organizations, and elected officials were recently leaked and reported on by outlets such as Mother Jones. One of the emails contained talking points on how to address the apparent hypocrisy of being opposed to transition surgeries while being fine with circumcisions. The email's author, South Dakota Republican state Representative Fred Deutsch, argued "the question is whether the circumcision is performed for the purpose of attempting to change or affirm the minor's perception of the minor's sex," and not a question of "medical benefits." 

Republicans aren't opposed to surgeries for teens or children out of principle. They're opposed to gender-affirming care and surgeries for the purpose of transitioning, period. There's only one apparent thing they're in favor of for treating gender dysphoria (to the extent they even acknowledge gender dysphoria exists) - conversion therapy. But conversion therapy is bullshit. Rather, it "lacks scientific credibility and clinical utility," according to the American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry. One can't simply 'snap out of' being trans or gay, no matter how much conservatives wish it could be that simple. 

The GOP will continue down this path, at least in the near term, because they believe it to be a good wedge issue to win over votes from moderate and conservative Democrats. Just as opposition to same-sex marriage was once their preferred wedge issue until the tide of public opinion turned decidedly against them. Nevertheless, it's already backfiring on them. The Republicans turned the trans panic up to 11 in 2022's midterm elections, but Americans weren't buying it. They only picked up a net gain of nine seats in the U.S. House of Representatives, which was widely considered a profound underperformance given historical trends. The Democrats, meanwhile, picked up one seat in the Senate, and won a net gain of two seats in the gubernatorial elections. 

While noted culture warrior Ron DeSantis was easily reelected in Florida, several other GOP candidates running on anti-trans fumes went down in flames. That includes gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake in Arizona, who to this day refuses to concede that she lost. And Tudor Dixon in Michigan, who lost by double digits to Gretchen Whitmer:

In a leaked synopsis of why Dixon lost, the Michigan Republican Party noted that "Tudor's efforts focused largely on Republican red meat issues," and that she ran "more ads on transgender sports than inflation, gas prices and bread and butter issues that could have swayed independent voters." "We did not have a turn out problem - middle of the road voters simply didn't like what Tudor was selling," concluded the Michigan GOP. 

It's far easier to demonize trans people in the abstract, as it turns out. The GOP is running in to the same problem they ran in to amidst their gay demonization campaign. Plenty of people know a trans family member, friend, coworker, or neighbor. And they've come to understand that they want and desire the same things all of us want. They're not space aliens from another planet. It doesn't really matter what Republicans think a real man or women is. The more pertinent question is whether access to gender-affirming care helps trans people live their lives to its fullest potential. 

The evidence suggests that it does. With that in mind, the morally and politically correct thing to do is to oppose Republican efforts to ban it.