Two incidents reveal the state of American morality—or lack thereof. Here
is the first:
When Your Daughter Defies
Biology, The burden of mothers whose children suffer from ‘rapid onset gender
dysphoria.’ By Abigail Shrier of the Wall Street
Journal
A reader contacted me under a pseudonym a few months ago. She
turned out to be a prominent Southern lawyer with a problem she hoped I’d write
about. Her college-age daughter had always been a “girly girl” and
intellectually precocious, but had struggled with anxiety and depression. She
liked boys and had boyfriends in high school, but also faced social challenges
and often found herself on the outs with cliques.
The young woman went off to college—which began, as it often
does these days, with an invitation to state her name, sexual orientation and
“pronouns.” When her anxiety flared during her first semester, she and several
of her friends decided their angst had a fashionable cause: “gender dysphoria.”
Within a year, the lawyer’s daughter had begun a course of testosterone. Her
real drug—the one that hooked her—was the promise of a new identity. A shaved
head, boys’ clothes and a new name formed the baptismal waters of a
female-to-male rebirth.
This is the phenomenon Brown University public-health researcher
Lisa Littman has identified as “rapid onset gender dysphoria.” ROGD differs
from traditional gender dysphoria, a psychological affliction that begins in
early childhood and is characterized by a severe and persistent feeling that
one was born the wrong sex. ROGD is a social contagion that comes on suddenly
in adolescence, afflicting teens who’d never exhibited any confusion about
their sex.
Like other social contagions, such as cutting and bulimia, ROGD
overwhelmingly afflicts girls. But unlike other conditions, this one—though not
necessarily its sufferers—gets full support from the medical community. The
standard for dealing with teens who assert they are transgender is “affirmative
care”—immediately granting the patient’s stated identity. There are, to be
sure, a few dissenters. “This idea that what we’re supposed to do as therapists
is to ‘affirm’? That’s not my job,” said psychotherapist Lisa Marchiano. “If I
work with someone who’s really suicidal because his wife left him, I don’t call
his wife up and say, ‘Hey, you’ve got to come back.’ . . . We don’t treat
suicide by giving people exactly what they want.”
But giving in to patients’ demands is exactly what most medical
professionals do when faced with ROGD. Like fashionable and tragic misdiagnoses
of the past, this one comes with irreversible physical trauma. “Top surgery,” a
euphemism for double mastectomies. Infertility. Permanent rounding of facial
features or squaring of the jawline. Bodily and facial hair that never goes
away.
Planned Parenthood furnishes testosterone to young women on an
“informed consent” basis, without requiring any psychological evaluation.
Student health plans at 86 colleges—including those of nearly every Ivy League
school—cover not only cross-sex hormones but surgery as well.
ROGD-afflicted adolescents typically suffer anxiety and
depression at a difficult stage of life, when confusion is at least as
pervasive as fun, and there is everywhere the sense that they ought to be
having the times of their lives. I spoke with 18 parents, 14 of them
mothers—all articulate, intellectual, educated and feminist. They burst with
pride in daughters who, until the ROGD spell hit, were highly accomplished,
usually bound for top universities. Except for two mothers whose daughters have
desisted, all insisted on anonymity. They are terrified their daughters will
discover the depth of their dissent and cut them off. They are determined to
use whatever influence they have left to halt their daughters’ next voluntary
disfigurement.
Nearly every force in society is aligned against these parents:
Churches scramble to rewrite their liturgies for greater “inclusiveness.”
Therapists and psychiatrists undermine parental authority with immediate
affirmation of teens’ self-diagnoses. Campus counselors happily refer students
to clinics that dispense hormones on the first visit. Laws against “conversion
therapy,” which tries to cure homosexuality, are on the books in 14 states and
the District of Columbia. These statutes also prohibit “efforts to change a patient’s
. . . gender identity,” in the words of the New Jersey law—effectively
threatening counselors who might otherwise dissuade teens from proceeding with
hormone treatment or surgery.
Reddit, Tumblr, Instagram and YouTube host an endless supply of
mentors, who cheerfully document their own physical transitions, omitting
mention of dangerous side effects and offering tips on how to pass as a man and
how to break away from unsupportive parents. For anxious teens who tend toward
obsession, these videos can be mesmerizing. Though the stars are typically
pictured alone in a bedroom, they project exuberance and social élan. As one
female-to-male YouTube guru who goes by “Alex Bertie” puts it: “Taking
testosterone is the best decision I’ve ever made. I’m so happy within myself.
It did not solve all of my problems, but it’s given me the strength to make the
most out of life and to battle my other demons like my social issues.”
Brie Jontry, a spokeswoman for Fourth Wave Now, an international
support network for these families, is one of the two mothers who spoke on the
record. She tells me ROGD teens often come from politically progressive
families. Many of the mothers I spoke with say they enthusiastically supported
same-sex marriage long before it was legal anywhere. Some of them describe
welcoming the news when their daughters came out as lesbians. But when their
daughters suddenly decided that they were actually men and started clamoring
for hormones and surgery, the mothers begged them to reconsider, or at least
slow down.
“If your kid went off and joined the Moonies, people would feel
sorry for you, and they would understand that this is a bad thing and that your
kid shouldn’t be in the Moonies,” one mother, a former leader of the pro-gay
organization Pflag, said. “With this, I can’t even tell anybody. I talk to my
husband, that’s it.” The couple have faithfully covered their daughter’s
tuition, health-care and cellphone bills—even though she refuses to speak to
them.
Under the influence of testosterone and the spell of
transgression, ROGD daughters grow churlish and aggressive. Under the banner of
civil rights, they assume the moral high ground. Their mothers take cover
behind pseudonyms. As ROGD daughters rage against the biology they hope to
defy, their mothers bear its burden, evincing its maternal instinct—the
stubborn refusal to abandon their young.
And, the second. Are Christians being
targeted here? It looks so.
The Shaming of Karen Pence
by William McGurn, WSJournal
A mob of secular Puritans targets her for teaching at a Christian school.
Will no one speak up for Karen Pence other than her husband?
In scarcely a week, the vice president's wife has become a public face of hate. CNN's John King suggests that what Mrs. Pence has done is so grievous maybe taxpayers shouldn't fund her Secret Service security protection. The American Civil Liberties Union says she's sending "a terrible message to students."
The Guardian sees in Mrs. Pence a reminder of "the vice-president's dangerous bigotry." During a Saturday night performance in Las Vegas, Lady Gaga told her fans that what Mrs. Pence has done confirms she and her husband are "the worst representation of what it means to be Christian." A former Washington Post editor and senior writer for Politico tweets: "How can this happen in America?"
So what is this terrible thing Mrs. Pence has done? She plans to teach art part-time at Immanuel Christian School in Northern Virginia. This is a small private K-8 academy where Mrs. Pence has taught before. It adheres to a biblically rooted view of human sexuality.
Thanks to the crack reporters at the Washington Post, what this means is no mystery. The Post reports the following provision in the school's employment contract: "I understand that the term 'marriage' has only one meaning; the uniting of one man and one woman in a single, exclusive covenant union as delineated in Scripture."
Hmmm. Though presented as dangerous stuff, we've heard this before. For example, this is how Senate candidate Barack Obama put it in a 2004 radio interview: "I'm a Christian, and so although I try not to have my religious beliefs dominate or determine my political views on this issue, I do believe that tradition and my religious beliefs say that marriage is something sanctified between a man and a woman."
So why are so many eager to cast the first stone against Mrs. Pence and not Mr. Obama? Because everyone knew when Mr. Obama spoke he didn't really mean it; his position was taken out of political calculation. Mrs. Pence's sin is that she really believes what she says.
In the narrow sense, the vilification of Mrs. Pence makes prophetic Justice Samuel Alito's prediction in his dissent in Obergefell v. Hodges, the Supreme Court decision throwing out all state laws against same-sex marriage. Justice Alito saw a perilous future for those who still embraced the view Mr. Obama once claimed to hold. "I assume that those who cling to old beliefs will be able to whisper their thoughts in the recesses of their homes," he wrote, "but if they repeat those views in public, they will risk being labeled as bigots and treated as such by governments, employers, and schools."
In the larger sense the faith-shaming of Mrs. Pence exposes an inversion of tropes. In history and literature, typically it has been the religious side that can't tolerate the slightest disagreement from its dogma and behaves like outraged 17th-century Salemites when they think they have uncovered a witch.
Now look at the Immanuel Christian School. Those who run it know they and those who think like them are the big losers in America's culture war. All they ask is to be allowed, within the confines of their community, to uphold 2,000 years of Christian teaching on marriage, sexuality and the human person.
When Obergefell was decided, it was sold as live-and-let-live. But as Justice Alito foresaw, today some sweet mysteries of the universe are more equal than others. In other words, it isn't enough for the victors to win; the new sense of justice requires that those who still don't agree must be compelled to violate their deepest beliefs, whether this means forcing the Little Sisters of the Poor to provide contraception or dragging a baker in Colorado through the courts until he agrees to make a cake celebrating "gender transition."
Today's militant secularists ironically resemble the worst caricatures of religious intolerance of early America. Where the Puritans humiliated sinners with the stocks, the modern intolerant have Twitter . Where the Amish shunned those who lived contrary to their beliefs, today's violators find themselves driven off the public square. And whereas in Hawthorne's novel Hester Prynne was forced to wear a scarlet "A"for adulterer, today we have folks such as Jimmy Kimmel using their popular platforms to paint the scarlet "H" for hater on people such as Mrs. Pence.
Vice President Mike Pence defended both his wife and Christian education during an appearance last Thursday on EWTN, a Catholic television network. But it says something that so few on the commanding heights of our culture have been willing to join him there.
It would be a shame if Mrs. Pence were to allow the mob to keep her from teaching art to those children at Immanuel Christian School. But however it turns out, her experience surely tells us which orthodoxies today are truly sacred and beyond question.
A mob of secular Puritans targets her for teaching at a Christian school.
Will no one speak up for Karen Pence other than her husband?
In scarcely a week, the vice president's wife has become a public face of hate. CNN's John King suggests that what Mrs. Pence has done is so grievous maybe taxpayers shouldn't fund her Secret Service security protection. The American Civil Liberties Union says she's sending "a terrible message to students."
The Guardian sees in Mrs. Pence a reminder of "the vice-president's dangerous bigotry." During a Saturday night performance in Las Vegas, Lady Gaga told her fans that what Mrs. Pence has done confirms she and her husband are "the worst representation of what it means to be Christian." A former Washington Post editor and senior writer for Politico tweets: "How can this happen in America?"
So what is this terrible thing Mrs. Pence has done? She plans to teach art part-time at Immanuel Christian School in Northern Virginia. This is a small private K-8 academy where Mrs. Pence has taught before. It adheres to a biblically rooted view of human sexuality.
Thanks to the crack reporters at the Washington Post, what this means is no mystery. The Post reports the following provision in the school's employment contract: "I understand that the term 'marriage' has only one meaning; the uniting of one man and one woman in a single, exclusive covenant union as delineated in Scripture."
Hmmm. Though presented as dangerous stuff, we've heard this before. For example, this is how Senate candidate Barack Obama put it in a 2004 radio interview: "I'm a Christian, and so although I try not to have my religious beliefs dominate or determine my political views on this issue, I do believe that tradition and my religious beliefs say that marriage is something sanctified between a man and a woman."
So why are so many eager to cast the first stone against Mrs. Pence and not Mr. Obama? Because everyone knew when Mr. Obama spoke he didn't really mean it; his position was taken out of political calculation. Mrs. Pence's sin is that she really believes what she says.
In the narrow sense, the vilification of Mrs. Pence makes prophetic Justice Samuel Alito's prediction in his dissent in Obergefell v. Hodges, the Supreme Court decision throwing out all state laws against same-sex marriage. Justice Alito saw a perilous future for those who still embraced the view Mr. Obama once claimed to hold. "I assume that those who cling to old beliefs will be able to whisper their thoughts in the recesses of their homes," he wrote, "but if they repeat those views in public, they will risk being labeled as bigots and treated as such by governments, employers, and schools."
In the larger sense the faith-shaming of Mrs. Pence exposes an inversion of tropes. In history and literature, typically it has been the religious side that can't tolerate the slightest disagreement from its dogma and behaves like outraged 17th-century Salemites when they think they have uncovered a witch.
Now look at the Immanuel Christian School. Those who run it know they and those who think like them are the big losers in America's culture war. All they ask is to be allowed, within the confines of their community, to uphold 2,000 years of Christian teaching on marriage, sexuality and the human person.
When Obergefell was decided, it was sold as live-and-let-live. But as Justice Alito foresaw, today some sweet mysteries of the universe are more equal than others. In other words, it isn't enough for the victors to win; the new sense of justice requires that those who still don't agree must be compelled to violate their deepest beliefs, whether this means forcing the Little Sisters of the Poor to provide contraception or dragging a baker in Colorado through the courts until he agrees to make a cake celebrating "gender transition."
Today's militant secularists ironically resemble the worst caricatures of religious intolerance of early America. Where the Puritans humiliated sinners with the stocks, the modern intolerant have Twitter . Where the Amish shunned those who lived contrary to their beliefs, today's violators find themselves driven off the public square. And whereas in Hawthorne's novel Hester Prynne was forced to wear a scarlet "A"for adulterer, today we have folks such as Jimmy Kimmel using their popular platforms to paint the scarlet "H" for hater on people such as Mrs. Pence.
Vice President Mike Pence defended both his wife and Christian education during an appearance last Thursday on EWTN, a Catholic television network. But it says something that so few on the commanding heights of our culture have been willing to join him there.
It would be a shame if Mrs. Pence were to allow the mob to keep her from teaching art to those children at Immanuel Christian School. But however it turns out, her experience surely tells us which orthodoxies today are truly sacred and beyond question.
