Friday 30 October 2015

The transgender agenda

It is an interesting pastime watching the gradual evolution of politically correct obsessions. It started with class, then race, then sexuality, then 'gender'. During the past decade or so a new topic has been gaining ground, namely concern for what is termed the 'trans-gendered community'. Needless to say anyone not fully paid up to furthering this recent obsession is routinely demonised in the by now usual way, through the reflex use of a newly coined pejorative word, in this case 'transphobia'. Persons transgressing the PC code on this matter are accused of 'monstering' this evidently very sensitive 'community'.

The veteran feminist Germaine Greer has recently become a victim of this agenda. She has over many decades been one of the most vociferous opponents of the sin of 'sexism', which amongst feminists and 'progressives' very quickly became shorthand for attacking and silencing any views that might lend support to normal male heterosexuality. So it is fitting that she is now being devoured by the PC intolerance monster she helped to create. On this issue, however, she does have a point, namely the outright rejection of the ludicrous claim that men, who have had themselves castrated, automatically become women indistinguishable from those who are born female. As a result she has fallen victim to student unions' favourite adolescent pastime of 'no-platforming' any person who might offend their PC ideological purity, in this case Cardiff University where she was due to give a talk.

It is the case that a relatively small number of children are born of indeterminate sex, a problem which can usually be addressed medically. Clearly there can be no criticism of individuals who find themselves in this position, or of medical specialists who do their best to treat them. But the trans-gendered community, which the PC brigade sponsors, does not much concern itself with such people. Instead, it focuses on adults who have chosen to mutilate their bodies in the delusional belief that they will be transformed into the opposite sex. In this respect men attempting to become women considerably outnumber women trying to become men.

This issue came to wider public awareness a couple of years ago following an article by the journalist Richard Littlejohn in the Daily Mail about a teacher, formerly male, who returned to the same school as a 'woman'. Littlejohn claimed that the teacher’s transition would be 'too challenging' for the primary school children adding 'let them enjoy their childhood, they will lose their innocence soon enough.' He further declared that the teacher was 'selfish' for returning to the same school.

Tragically the teacher concerned committed suicide two months later. Over 200, 000 people called for the Daily Mail to sack Littlejohn. The coroner investigating the death accused the newspaper of 'character assassination' having sought to 'ridicule and humiliate' the teacher. Littlejohn may well have been at fault in mentioning the teacher by name, but the general thrust of his comments on the possible impact on children seems to be reasonable. However, one comment requires further investigation namely his view that the teacher was entitled to 'gender reassignment' surgery, a procedure that Germaine Greer has no problem with either.

One liberal establishment campaign which this blog supports is that to outlaw the forced genital mutilation of young women and girls, which takes place in some minority communities in this country for religious or cultural reasons. It seems very strange that the same people who rightly seek to prohibit this practice are vociferous in their encouragement of vulnerable and confused individuals seeking the genital removal or mutilation of their own bodies in an attempt to become the opposite sex. It could be argued that the girls and young women subject to female genital mutilation are being forced into this against their will, whereas adults seeking a sex change are doing so out of their own free choice. However, such a distinction is simplistic and does not take into account the seriously disturbed psychological condition, both before and after, of those seeking to change their sex.

There must be countless number of individuals who do not identify with the more extreme stereotype images ascribed to their sex. For instance, the loud mouth macho males who only seem interested in sport, or the simpering females only concerned with fashion, celebrities and gossip. Humans come in all types, and there must be many who identify with the qualities that are assigned, sometimes positive, sometimes negative, to the opposite sex. There is absolutely nothing wrong with identifying with the characteristics of the opposite sex, but any individual who takes this to the extreme level of wanting to mutilate their body, and undergo a lengthy course of hormone therapy, in an attempt to change their sex must clearly have some deep psychological problems which need addressing.

According to some shocking statistics from the USA, transgender persons are 25 times more likely to commit suicide than the general population, with nearly 40% of them actually attempting suicide. These statistics show that sex change operations do not remove, but instead seriously increase, the psychological problems which these already vulnerable people suffer. Thus the focus should change from promoting and supporting the growth of the supposed transgender community, to preventing such people from destroying their lives and their bodies through the encouragement of their unrealisable fantasies. A transgender person can never become a member of the opposite sex and the reality is that they will invariably face hostility, disgust and ridicule from wider society.

In order to end this problem before it gets any worse legislation should be introduced to make it a criminal offence for any member of the medical profession in Britain to carry out, or facilitate mutilation, and/or use of hormone therapy, in an attempt to change the sex of any of their adult patients. Although, this will not end this pernicious practice entirely, as determined individuals can still go abroad, it should reduce the problem quite significantly.

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