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Posted on 01/14/2014 6:52:31 AM PST by SeekAndFind
The New York Times brings us the “next frontier in fertility treatment.” It’s about dissolving the prejudice against transgender people having children. “Andy Inkster, a transgender man, had always wanted biological children. So when he embarked on the transition from female to male at age 18 — changing his name, taking testosterone, and eventually undergoing surgery to remove his breasts — he left his female reproductive organs intact. In his mid-20s, he decided it was time. He stopped taking testosterone and started trying to get pregnant.”
Baystate Reproductive Medicine turned Inkster away, explaining that it didn’t have enough experience with transgender people to provide the hormones and donor sperm required. Mr. Inkster eventually found another clinic that helped him conceive via in vitro fertilization and donor sperm, and in October 2010, he gave birth to a daughter, Elise. A month later, he sued Baystate for sexual discrimination. The Massachusetts Commission Against Discrimination agrees with Inkster.
I never thought I’d see the words “he gave birth to a daughter” outside of science fiction, and at the risk of seeming insensitive, I think Baystate fertility clinic was right. But it’s not surprising that the civil-rights commission of Massachusetts has taken up this cause. It occupies the juncture of two appalling trends. The first is an obsession with sexuality as identity, and the second is a undermining of the best interests of children in favor of the self-expression of adults.
There are limitless identities that students could be encouraged to cultivate as they mature. A handful that leap immediately to mind: American, humorist, musician, athlete, debater, nature-lover. Instead, our universities fall all over themselves to encourage unusual sexual identities, from homosexuality and lesbianism to transgender, bisexual, transsexual, and other. It’s all done in the name of “inclusion” and non-discrimination, but, let’s face it, there’s an element of fashion in it. Non-traditional sexual behavior is “in.” There are academic courses on offer at major universities concerning “queer theory,” pornography, and “lesbian gardening.” (Truly.) How can any serious academic treat pornography as a fit subject for college study? It’s more than a devaluation of the life of the mind; it’s an assault on human dignity.
We have elevated sexual appetites — especially unusual sexual tastes — to an exalted status, worthy of study, defining our natures and experiences, and outranking other traits in importance. In many states, there are moves to outlaw psychotherapy that purports to change a person’s sexual orientation. Without excusing or approving abusive efforts to brainwash gay people straight — and there are some hair-raising stories out there of people subjected to “aversion therapy” and so forth — it is interesting that we are being asked to deny people the opportunity to change in only one direction. No one is suggesting that if a straight person wants to become gay and consults a therapist who wishes to help him make that transition, that he should be prevented from doing so.
Yet children as young as four are being permitted to style their hair, wear the clothing, and use the bathrooms of the other sex when they express the urge. This kind of change is one that liberal states approve. The state of California requires that students from kindergarten through grade 12 be permitted to choose which “gender” to be associated with (Connecticut and Massachusetts have similar rules). If a biological girl decides at the age of 12 that she wants to be addressed as a boy, play boys’ sports, and use the boys’ bathroom, state law requires that she be able to do so.
There are physicians who prescribe hormone-suppressing drugs to prevent preteens from going through puberty the better to prepare them for “gender reassignment” surgery.
This is child abuse. Children pass through phases. Nothing permanent should to be done to any child that is not medically necessary. Suppose a child decided that he wanted to be an amputee or a one-eyed pirate? We’ve lost all common sense in the face of this mania for sexual mutability.
As for Mr. Inkster and people similarly situated, the first thing a fertility clinic should say is that a child is not an adult entitlement. The best interests of the child should be paramount. Each child needs and, where possible, should have a mother and a father — and not in the same body.
— Mona Charen is a nationally syndicated columnist
This is all liberals have... sex, killing babies, and stealing money from those who earned it.
Almost sounds like the mob.
These people are MENTALLY ILL, period. The people who are supposed to be helping them instead pander to their illness... its sad and pitiable.
Not bad behavior. Boys being boys. Some of the boys in our school got in trouble for playing a rough game of hacky sack the called hacky-stack during lunch. There is a bit of contact involved but nobody is forced to play and nobody gets hurt.
Over sensitive pansies for teachers. They want the boys to sit quietly like girls all day. BS.
That’s not what you said. You said that people who promote certain political/cultural POVs should be criminally prosecuted and imprisoned for doing so.
It’s entirely appropriate to make tax-exempt status incompatible with such promotion, but not the promotion itself.
Although it should be noted we’d need to cancel all such status for those promoting any type of political/cultural POV, including churches and conservative organizations.
A side effect of such a policy would be that there would be a lot fewer organizations of this type. That can be considered as a good or bad thing. It would certainly give increased influence to those organizations promoting such POVs, such as MSM, that are already paying taxes.
I get your point, and it is not of itself a bad one.
However, there is horseplay and horseplay. And it very easily morphs over into behavior that would be criminal in any other setting. This is, or used to be, often encouraged by adults in authority in the school.
For instance, when I was in junior high, the PE coach essentially encouraged his pets to bully and terrorize the other students, forming a pack to mistreat them.
He himself also verbally abused students, in the process targeting those he wanted dealt with by his goons.
The whole thing blew up on him when a new student had a doctor’s note that he couldn’t run laps or do similar stuff because of a heart condition. He bullied the kid, who was in may class, so unmercifully that he tried to run anyway, collapsed and died.
There is a difference between horseplay, bullying and a reign of terror. While I agree present policies have gone too far in the opposite direction, I think too many of those who pine for the old days don’t see any such difference. Why should assault and battery be “horseplay” if committed at school but a criminal offense if committed elsewhere?
“The New York Times brings us the “next frontier in fertility treatment.” It’s about dissolving the prejudice against transgender people having children. “Andy Inkster, a transgender man, had always wanted biological children. So when he embarked on the transition from female to male at age 18 — changing his name, taking testosterone, and eventually undergoing surgery to remove his breasts — he left his female reproductive organs intact. In his mid-20s, he decided it was time. He stopped taking testosterone and started trying to get pregnant.”
Lets all celebrate mental illness.
I agree. However in this case it was reported by a girl not playing the game and no “participant” was interviewed to see if anyone had a complaint. They were all just punished for being boys. Lazy teachers not investigating before acting under the stupid zero tolerance is unacceptable.
I know I come out as a heterosexual every chance I get.
And what of Elise? Born to a father/mother who by its mid-20s had consumed more heavy medications than most humans do in a lifetime, Elise is subject to all manner of genetic (not to mention environmental/emotional)aberrations. One just does NOT fool Mother Nature. “Andy’s” selfish desires endanger this child.
As in so many things, Winston Churchill said it best, albeit in a different context:
“But if we fail, then the whole world, including the United States, including all that we have known and cared for, will sink into the abyss of a new Dark Age, made more sinister, and perhaps more protracted, by the lights of perverted science”.
As in so many things, Winston Churchill said it best, albeit in a different context:
“But if we fail, then the whole world, including the United States, including all that we have known and cared for, will sink into the abyss of a new Dark Age, made more sinister, and perhaps more protracted, by the lights of perverted science”.
Excellent analogy !
there are people who DON’T want to be one-eyed pirates?
Since I was bullied pretty heavily for 10 years in school, I do not have much sympathy with those who defend bullying as just boys being boys.
This behavior is obviously on a spectrum, from minor teasing to really brutal physical and mental torment.
Which is why the zero-tolerance policies are so idiotic. I ran afoul of them 40 years ago. I finally defended myself semi-effectively and the principal suspended both the bully and me for three days. He fully agreed I was innocent and just defending myself, but said policy gave him no options.
The real problem here is that when you use the Bible as an authority for what is allowable in American government or society, all communication ceases. Those who are non or anti Christian, and even many who think of themselves as Christians, are not persuaded by your claims, in fact they are repelled by them. Their use in modern political dialog is IMO profoundly counter-productive.
I may even agree with you, but it would be idiotic for me to use an argument that is destructive to what I'm trying to accomplish.
I too had experience with bullies in the day but have a relatively new extensive experience with a child who was bullied to the point we had to get police involvement since the school would do nothing and I was on the verge of jail myself for intervening as a last straw. The answer was private school 4 years ago. So I do not condone bullying in any fashion.
That said, teenage boys playing a light contact game is not bullying. Especially if the lazy-assed teacher had simply asked the boys involved instead of going on what a 12 year old girl told her.
Our points are the same I believe, zero tolerance is asinine.
I assume you contacted the family or families of the bullies and they would do nothing to correct the situation. I just cannot imagine reacting that way.
But then my kids knew that I had my own zero-tolerance policy: my kids would NOT be bullies, and all hell would have descended on them had they gotten into this behavior.
Part of my personal difficulty in school was being raised to believe that it was un-Christian to fight, even in self-defense. So of course all thought I was a coward. Oddly enough, after my semi-effective attempt at self-defense and 3-day suspension, I had zero trouble for the remaining two years.
My kids were taught that when slapped a Christian always turns the other cheek. If he slaps you on that one, also, you do your best to take his head off. That worked much better for them than what I was taught. :)
Yes I did and there was no satisfaction. One of the problems was no fathers in the house, the other was cultural. I was fit to be tied and the wife unit was working overtime to keep me away.
My youth experience was the same. I did not want to fight but once I did I was not bothered the rest of my days.
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