TAKE THE TRANSPHOBE OR TRANS IDEOLOGUE IDENTIFICATION TEST
A simple self-administered test- No cheating.
At The Common Bridge, we strive to inform rather than influence by presenting knowledgeable experts, reliable reporters, or people who have actual experience in the subject matter of each episode.
Last week’s episode, the first of a two-part interview with Beth Bourne, has generated quite a bit of reaction. Ms. Bourne told the first-hand story of her daughter’s self-reported gender dysphoria. In next week’s episode, you’ll hear Beth’s investigative reporting on how her healthcare provider (Kaiser) responded to her self-reporting as a non-binary person seeking healthcare services.
There is always a risk in providing a forum for controversial topics. The interesting thing about The Common Bridge is that the vitriol typically comes from both sides of a particular issue or partisan viewpoint. Thus, the mission of The Common Bridge, to provide a meeting place for discussion about the issues of the day and the best policies.
In recent days, author JK Rowling has released a lengthy and detailed description of what is a woman. Someone named India Willoughby accused JKR of misgendering and requested charges be filed under Scotland’s new hate speech laws. In addition, investigative Reporter Gerald Posner, a past guest on The Common Bridge, reported on new developments of harm caused to adolescents and that WPATH continues to modify its recommendations.
Later this week, Dr. Hilary Cass, Chair of The review, is expected to publish an interim report. The Review is the NHS admitting “There is lack of consensus and open discussion about the nature of gender dysphoria and therefore about the appropriate clinical response,” and “Because the specialist service has evolved rapidly and organically in response to demand, the clinical approach and overall service design has not been subjected to some of the normal quality controls that are typically applied when new or innovative treatments are introduced.” Emphasis added.
There has been a good deal written, spoken and posted about the alleged hatred of those who express caution with the entire affirmation model. Transphobe seems to be the label designed to stifle inquiry. Are people who see the mounting evidence of links with depression, autism and other mental and emotional maladies, and then express caution in medicalizing youth versus affirming their desire to change their gender, truly transphobes?
Those who might be asking the questions posed by England’s National Health Service and definitions espoused by JK Rowling might see those on the other side of this chasm as Trans Ideologues, i.e., committed to an ideology despite evidence against the core assumptions.
Leaving aside what a mentally and emotionally competent adult may choose to do with their lives and bodies, it seems that society – families, schools, healthcare, have an interest in finding a consensus about what harms or helps children.
What follows is a short, unscientific test is to help everyone to measure what degree of trans bigotry they are harboring,i.e., how much of a transphobe are you, or how much of a trans ideologue are you, i.e., forge on despite permanent damage to kids.
This is how this works: For each of the tests below, you will code a qualitative response in either column A or column B. Be prepared to tally them at the end.
Test one: If you have one available, get out your school photo from the 5th grade. If you don’t have such a photo, then any reasonable photograph from the time you were perhaps 11, 12 or 13 years old. Better if you were in the early-to-middle stages of puberty. Now, looking back at your youthful self, ask the question, “At that time, was I prepared to make a decision about ingesting things that that will arrest the natural maturation of my body?”
If you answer, “Yes” to this question, add 5 points to “Column A”, if you answer “no”, then subtract 2 points from Column “B”
If you were one of the people who claim that you were not capable of such a decision at that age, then it is likely you are a transphobe who will deny the right to youth of today to make those decisions. If, however, you can look at that 12-year-old face and assert that you understood the consequences of such an action, then you are an open-minded trans ally.
Test two: Many years ago, the daughter of a dear friend and her childhood bestie announced, at 9 years old, that they did not want to grow breasts. Not sure why she made the announcement to her father, but she did. He told her that she would be just wonderful when she developed, and happy with growing up. If you think the father should have affirmed his daughter’s desire to halt a female puberty and sought what we call today “affirmative care” treatment, add 5 points to Column A. If you think the father did sensible parenting, then subtract 2 points from Column B.
His daughter then went through a normal female puberty. Today she is indeed a stunningly beautiful woman reflecting her mixed-race heritage. She is also happy as a successful attorney, married to a man, with lovely twin children. Or did she miss out on her true identity?
Test three: When US Surgeon General C. Everett Koop led the government’s investigation into the tobacco industry, the records of the tobacco companies revealed that they knowingly sought to hook young people on their deadly products before their brains were fully developed. Evidence revealed that the prime age was about 15 years old to make the habit lifelong, because it is very rare that an adult over 21 takes up smoking. If you think that hooking a teenager on nicotine has no connection to the affirming model of gender dysphoria, add 2 points to column A. If you think that denying tobacco to a still-developing brain draws a policy parallel with changing a young person’s pronouns and giving them chemicals to change their bodies, subtract 6 points.
Test four: – Following the amputation of a penis and subsequently creating a vaginal opening, the trans person will now have a cavity that will require daily maintenance for a lifetime, because the body will treat the cavity as a wound and try to heal it. Similarly, creating a faux penis out of arm or thigh skin will not result in anything that looks or performs like a penis. In both cases, potential lifelong loss of ability to orgasm, frequent infections and awkward urination function may be the result. If you think that the only way to align the body and mind of a person with gender dysphoria is surgery, then add 8 points to column A. If you think that there might be better results in addressing underlying mental and emotional conditions to ease the mind, subtract 10 points from column B.
Test five: If a person truly believes they are obese, despite being in advanced stages of anorexia, is it more kind to affirm their belief and call them fat, or is it kinder to help them see reality? Add 2 points to column A if you believe they should be affirmed as obese. Subtract 2 points from column B if you believe the person should be treated for mental and emotional illnesses.
Test six: The terminology of “sex assigned at birth” implies random or unsubstantiated reasons for sex and gender designations. Given the trauma reported by those whose true gender does not match their “sex assigned” at birth, add 10 points to column A if you believe that physicians, midwives, and hospitals should be liable for malpractice for misgendering the baby. Subtract 5 points if you believe there should be no risk for medical malpractice of misgendering.
Test seven: If a “person with a penis” rapes a “person with a vagina” and is sentenced to prison, the offender can declare womanhood and occupy a women’s prison. If you agree, add 6 points to column A, if you disagree, subtract 4 points from column B.
Test eight: A person with male genitalia exposes himself on a city bus. A female athlete walks through a woman’s locker room swinging their penis. If you think that these acts are the same and designed to register a shock, then subtract 2 points from column B. If you think that there is no relevant correlation, i.e., one is a pervert and the other is simply a woman with a penis, then add 6 points to column A.
Final exam. If you think there are people attracted romantically and sexually to members of their own sex, or if you think that there are others with similar feelings for members of the opposite sex, and still others attracted to both, and that adults can pursue those interests without mutilating their bodies, subtract 10 points from column B. If you think that mental and medical interventions are necessary to allow someone understand their true identity, add 20 points to column A.
Scoring. There are 64 points available for column A. The higher the score, the more committed you are to trans ideology, particularly the affirmation model of treating adolescent gender dysphoria. At the extreme, one utterance of gender questioning at any age starts a predictable path, i.e., all roads start with name changes, pronoun changes, and insistence that others adopt their pronouns, then naturally move on to puberty blockers, cross-sex hormones and ultimately surgery.
There are 43 negative points for column B. By the narrative of the day, the lower (more negative) your score, the more transphobic you are. You hate trans kids, need to be censored and you are probably fascist, too. It may also mean you are keenly looking forward to the next round of clinical revelations, because you’re just the kind of hateful person who wants to see facts and research instead of believing kids.
Hopefully, no matter where one scores on this little exam, all can agree that reaching consensus on a clinical response that honors the child would be in the best interests of everyone.
Onward.
I recently worked on a film called "Derosa: A Life in Transition" (on Amazon). This was my first exposure up close to this subject and I found it to be interesting, even touching. I also found that many people (adults) that go through this have a good reason and don't flaunt it. Those that do flaunt it fall into the same camp as those that flaunt their sexuality for attention. If you have to attach a political agenda to your sexuality, you're not a serious person in my opinion. I also believe it is 100% wrong to push sexuality on minors in any way - the same as it would be to support child porn. I have gay friends and now a trans friend, but not once have any of them tried to push any agenda on me. You know why? Because they're serious people, not attention seekers. Let's sober up people. Live and LET live, not Live like me or not at all.
Who in the world ever thought that this whole thing is organic? There is nothing organic about this. Only when young children began being told that they could be who- or whatever they believe themselves to be did this thing become a 'thing'. Isn't it rather convenient that this all began being pushed on young children who naturally have very creative imaginations, as they should. And that is what adults are for - responsible adults anyhow who have the best interests of children in mind, and not political agendas. For every adult out there who supports, has supported and reinforced the idea of 'being whatever a child feels that he or she is', specifically regarding sex or gender, those adults are guilty of abuse in that they have taken advantage of a young child's naturally creative imagination and utilized it to truly screw up that child's mind (in the interest of their own political agendas). These people should be punished to the fullest allowable by law. Young boys frequently play dress up, in mom's clothes and high heels, for example. But that's all play. It doesn't indicate that the boys are females. A boy claiming to believe that he is a girl, supported by an adult, is dishonest, deceitful, misleading, and mentally abusive. Further, the adult supporting a child's belief that he or she is opposite their biological sex only propels that child into a class of people who have the highest suicide rate. Why? Because it does not matter what one does to their body through surgery, surgical excision, the addition of surgically created anatomy that serves no purpose other than optics but is non-functional, clothes and make-up - at the end of the day, they are still their biological sex and that can NEVER be changed. We are born as either male or female with a very minute .001% of those who at birth are more ambiguous in between (but we aren't talking about those people here). Encouraging those who are diagnosed truly gender dysphoric to surgically alter themselves and supporting their mental delusion that they can be what they choose if it conflicts with their birth gender is criminal in my opinion. The correct response to them should be counseling them to love themselves for who they are and reinforcing the fact that regardless of what we feel we may be, we are whst our genetics indicate that we are and that is unchangeable.
For the record, I am a gay male and have had my fair share of interactions with those who consider themselves to be 'trans'. Please withhold your '-whatever-o-phobic' remarks. The only fear on my part is encouraging children to engage in a life of a lie that is rife with drug abuse, drug addiction, alcoholism, depression and a high suicide rate. And once one surgically alters themselves, there is no going back. The biological male who thinks he'll become a female will never have a functional penis that becomes erect if/when he 'detransitions'. The biological female who thinks she'll become a boy will never bear a child or breastfeed if/when she 'detransitions'. Both will likely lose all ability to achieve organs and a fulfilling sex life. Both will also likely have very difficult adulthood full of complications and necessary surgical operations for one thing or the other, primarily with regard to the genitalia. Osteoporosis is common. These are just SOME of the difficulties in life that (what are supposed to be responsible) adults subject young children to by encouraging their creative imaginations and supporting their desire to 'transition'. There is a reason why young children are minors and are dependent upon responsible adults and parents who encourage healthy lifestyle choices, telling them what is what and not being directed around by their own children. Any adult who encourages a child to be subjected to such lifelong complications including premature death, in my opinion, is not an adult but an irresponsible person who has no business having children of their own. They are child abusers and must be punished yo the full extent allowed by the law. I include any and every doctor who would perform such procedures on a child knowing damn good and well that they are forever damaging a young child who only needed good parenting and direction ( all for money of course, their patients be damned).
And again, this is not organic. For any so interested, it would be worthwhile researching transhumanism and a post-human society. Sound like a conspiracy? Think again.