Where I Stand on So-Called Transsexual Rights
Don't Mistake “Hating the Sin” with Hating the Sinner
Editor’s Note: this essay is in response to these two recent God of the Desert audio podcasts. Future installments discussing LGBTQ issues may follow. Submit your thoughts in the comments below or email us an article or essay for publication at godofthedesert@substack.com. We encourage healthy dialogue and debate among contributors.
I am not “anti” any individual person or persons who identify as “trans.” I have and will continue to treat all such individuals with the same dignity that I treat everyone else. However, if it means that I must go along with what I believe is a falsehood – that we can transition to the other sex – I am certainly “anti-trans.” Ultimately, I don’t believe it is a path to Heaven or even happiness in this life. However, I do believe that good and well-intentioned people can see it the other way. Below is my case for being “anti-trans.”
Common Ground
Our country is divided sharply on cultural issues and one of the primary ones these days is so-called transexual rights. As is usual for these kinds of splits, both sides see a problem commonly but are quite divided as to what to think and do about it. While there are variations on this theme, the problem we see for “trans” people is that they are born with a body they believe is the wrong sex, that internally they feel they should have been the other sex.
I believe that honest and informed people on both sides of the debate can agree on the following points.
That these are people who are struggling with a problem and need help.
That there is an extremely high suicide rate for people suffering this condition.
That this is considered by psychiatric experts as a mental issue, namely gender dysphoria.
That some transsexuals can make themselves to look very much like the other sex, but that many others cannot.
That in nature, biological creatures (animals, mammals and humans in particular) come in a sexual binary, male and female (XX vs. XY chromosomes).
That a small percentage of people are born in an intersex state with both male and female sexual organs; others have different chromosome combinations to the standard XX and XY, while still others are born with the appearance of male sexual genitalia but in fact are biologically female.
That it is scientifically impossible to change our sex of our bodies.
What Can Someone Suffering from Gender Dysphoria Do About It?
Let’s take it to an example on an individual level. We might know a young man who is slight in stature and who was born a male but feels deep down that he is spiritually a female. We can all agree that this is someone who is struggling with a problem and needs our help and support.
What options does this young man have? He could seek psychiatric help to treat his gender dysphoria. He could change his appearance to look more female. He could put on the outward trappings of being a female: he could wear dresses and female clothing, put on makeup, shave his legs, and grow his hair long or wear a wig. He could use the women’s bathroom. He could start a medical regime to alter his physical body to appear more female by taking female hormones and undergoing plastic surgery. He could kill himself from a resulting depression. He could do all of these things, in and out of that order.
The question now is what should we encourage him to do. Here is where the sides diverge.
What Are the Differing Responses to the Problem?
Each side of this issue have taken a stance on this based on their own belief system. I will use the Left and Right binary because it is helpful for distinguishing the two.
The Left’s response is to downplay or deny the psychological issue involved and to affirm the individual’s feelings in the matter. It is the loving thing, they would say, to approve of the young man’s decision to live and alter his appearance to look like a woman. They affirm the individual to be transsexual because they believe it will make him happy, fulfilled, and less likely to kill himself. This is also because they have accepted ‘Gender Theory,’ a recent though academically popular one, that gender is not something fixed by biological sex and that it is on a fluid spectrum. They base this on the fact that men can have feminine qualities while some women can have masculine ones.
They also point to intersex people as examples of a spectrum in which there are people who in fact have physical organs of both sexes. They also present those who are born with different chromosome combinations to the standard XX and XY, as well as others are born with the appearance of male sexual genitalia but in fact are biologically female. Using these examples as a basis, they ignore or downplay the fact that it is impossible to change your sex. Instead they attempt to redefine conceptually the binary nature of the sexes. They claim that by having an inner state as a woman makes our young man a trans-woman. And a trans-woman is a woman. The Left thus asserts that transexuals have a “right” to exist, to use the bathroom of their choice, and to be called by the pronoun of their choosing.
The Right’s philosophy (and my own view) is to encourage psychological treatment for gender dysphoria because we understand that our feelings, even ones seemingly deep from within us, are not always to be trusted. Feelings are not reality, and we must foremost have real solutions that work in this real world we live in. Especially when our feelings point us to an impossibility. The Right points to the reality that it is simply impossible to become the other sex, and that any transition will only be at best skin deep. Our young man will never be able to become a functioning female in a very real sense. The most he could do is become a very close simulation to one. While the Left would affirm this decision, as stated above, to help make him happy, fulfilled, and less likely to kill himself, the Right does not see this happening in reality. Because he cannot truly transform himself into a woman, he would have to accept at best an alternate state (i.e., being a trans-woman). That the high suicide rate for these suffering individuals does not improve after-surgery is one exemplifier that becoming a transsexual will not make him over time more happy and fulfilled, and less likely to kill himself.
The fact is that we do come in a binary of two sexes, and they are defined by each other. A man is a man by how he differs from a woman, just as a woman is a woman by how she differs from a man. ‘Vive la difference!’ as the French used to say. We believe that gender is really a construct for language; it is not something separate from our biological sex. In fact, we see that the Left has taken the idea of gender to replace the true spectrum of individual personalities. Thus, while men can have feminine qualities in their personalities, this does not call into question at all the biological sexual binary. Further, the examples of intersex people and those others born with other sexual anomalies are a tiny percentage of births and thus do not represent some sort of sexual spectrum at all. That a tiny percentage of people are born in an intersex state, or with different chromosome combinations to the standard XX and XY, or still others with the appearance of male sexual genitalia but in fact are biologically female, are all examples of birth defects, and some can be corrected with treatment. They are the one percent exception that proves the 99% binary rule. In fact, it is possible to determine the true sex of an intersex person for the same reason that it’s impossible to change your sex—it is inherently and deeply ingrained in us all. Regardless of this fact, intersex people have nothing to do with “transexuals.” They are not people who were born one sex and want to be another; they were born with a birth defect.
The Right does not see this as a “rights” issue, in that the Left (and transsexuals) do not have the right to impose their own subjective reality upon others. The Right does not deny the right for transsexuals to exist, but we do deny that their existence is somehow tied to others accepting their world-view. A right is not a right if that so-called right forces another to give up one of their own rights. In this case, freedom of thought and speech.
What Are the Realities of Having a Sex-Change Operation?
Do sex-change operations really help so-called transexuals? While I do not have an in-depth study of the results of sex-change operations, I can provide a common-sense list of the issues involved. An obvious one is that a man will purposely castrate himself in the process, effectively turning himself into a eunuch. For both sexes, the operation will cause the sexual organs to be non-functional, and there is also no guarantee that the patient will ever be able to experience sexual enjoyment again. There are other health-related issues involved, and I understand that complications from the surgeries are common. And as I mentioned above, while some are able to mimic the other sex better than others, in most cases I have seen, this is not the case. For many men, they will appear as a large man in a dress. And, sadly for most, they will come to resemble an ugly version of the other sex. I’m certain that when a “gender-confused” young teenager thinks of her future looks, she probably imagines something like Harry Styles in a dress, not a balding and boring, middle-aged man. It is no surprise that the suicide rate of transexuals remains largely the same before and after the surgery.
Certainly, no child can or should consent to all this. They may experience short-term satisfaction in obtaining their desire for change but they cannot be fully aware that they will be non-functional sexually, will never have children, may never experience sexual pleasure, or even really appear like the other sex. This in particular makes child “gender-affirming” care a horrendous thing indeed.
Who is Imposing Their Values on Whom?
The gay rights movement ultimately asked society to accept their lifestyle choice as just another way of living. It was a matter of sexual morality, they argued, just like our society came to tolerate many other forms of traditionally held immoral behavior, such as fornication, co-habitation without marriage, birth control, serial marriages and divorces, and prostitution. We were asked to tolerate homosexuality in our society by de-criminalizing it, and I believe that we can agree to that, but still deplore its acceptance and even celebration as a sign of a decaying, post-Christian culture that is not for the good of anyone.
But then came the transexual activists that took this a step beyond tolerating an alternative lifestyle. A step too far, in my opinion. The activists did not ask us only to tolerate their choices, they demanded that we adhere to something that is not factual or true. The young man I know to be a man, is asking me to believe that he is a woman and to—and with a threat of criminal charges if I don’t in some places—refer to his “gender” as he wants me to, not as I know him to be. If this is not imposing one’s views on another, then I do not know what is. Again, this is a recent societal change—one developed from a theory from sexual researchers, John Money and Alfred Kinsey, both of who were unethical at best and highly evil at worst. (Look them up…) It is in opposition to our traditions, religions and laws that have been in place for thousands of years. And yet, we on the right are accused of imposing our values on others. We are not the ones demanding a change.
Frequent Trans-Rights Matters in the News
We often hear about “Drag Queen Reading Hours” and “Family Safe Drag Shows” in the news. These events have little to do with transexuals. While it’s possible that there are some in the process of “trans-ing,” the majority are gay men parading around in outrageous showgirl attire in a highly sexualized gay burlesque-style manner. In fact, I think it is an insult to persons suffering from gender dysphoria to equate them with drag queens. And for those who would take their children to such a show, I would ask if they would also take them to an X-rated film or a strip bar with female strippers? I should hope not for the child’s sake. We are sexual beings, but is it really necessary to point out the differences between seeing our parents kiss and watching an adult, sexualized drag show? I think that borders on child abuse.
As to transexuals participating in female sports, this has been argued the most frequently so I will only say that biological males participating in females sports is a matter of injustice to female athletes. We only hear about “trans-females” participating in female sports because mid-level male athletes can dominate and win all the titles in the female categories. There’s no reason why such athletes could not continue to compete with males, but then they wouldn’t win the awards.
As for use of public bathrooms, the issue as I see it is not whether the poor, gender-confused young man can use the bathroom of his choice. It’s not the “transgender” person I fear, it’s the rapist, the sex pervert who takes advantage of the situation to go into women’s locker rooms and bathrooms. (As an aside, you never hear about “trans-males” wanting to use the men’s room—that’s because it’s usually pretty disgusting in there—men are pigs.) That said, I do not want my daughter, wife, niece or mother to have to put up with that danger. (And they don’t want men in their bathroom either—they’ve told me so.) And, since life is a matter of conflicting priorities and trade-offs, you can’t have it both ways. Looking at it strictly by the numbers, there are more male sexual predators out there than truly gender-confused people. One of those has to give. I must make the obvious vote for keeping men out of women’s bathrooms; otherwise, more women are hurt. This is a real-world solution that has worked for a long time.
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All that above said, if you still consider me “hateful” for being “anti-trans,” then so be it. We tend to forget that it is perfectly right to hate certain things in this world. We hate evil. We hate child pornography, starvation, suicide, Nazis, murder and war. We should hate anything that is objectively wrong and harmful to our fellow humans, even if those fellow humans themselves do not always see it that way. So-called “gender-affirming” care that involves surgery and hormones that mutilate, castrate, and sterilize the body is wrong, and thus I hate it. We are called to hate the sin, and love the sinner. Too often that is construed as just being hateful. It can appear outwardly as tough love, and if it’s meant as promoting the best thing for the sufferer, then it’s the right thing to do.
Excellent.  thank you. In another aspect that is seldom talked about on the right  and is ironically, tragic for the left is the fact that the transgender movement has supplanted the feminist movement. We spent decades, creating safe spaces for women, such as domestic, violence, shelters, and rape shelters. Now, a man can enter by threat of law since the 1950s we’ve tried to communicate that being a woman was more than wearing high heels dresses and lipstick. And now you want us to believe that that is all it takes to be a woman. 
I realized that I did not give proper credit to Matt Walsh of the Daily Wire as a source for many ideas and arguments explored and distilled in my above article. I wanted to give him that credit.