Posted on 03/01/2021 2:07:50 PM PST by grundle
People like me have gone years feeling alone and ignored by the popular discussion of gender identity. Backed by science, Ryan gives us hope and understanding.
In July 2017, I took a risk and submitted an article to a publication that I respected and read frequently, hoping to provide conservatives a perspective they may not have viewed before. I wanted to address why suicide was so high among transgender people and ask questions about transition I hadn’t seen asked by mainstream LGBT sources.
I wanted to present my voice as a person who experienced gender dysphoria, pursued transition, then later found myself grateful I didn’t go through with it. So with nervousness, I sent the article to Public Discourse, the online journal of the Witherspoon Institute.
I’d hoped for a positive reply, but I didn’t expect a response from Ryan T. Anderson, a conservative voice I had respected for a long time. He thanked me for sending my story. Ryan took a risk on me, an amateur writer, and offered me my first professional writing opportunity. He also published another personal story about my experience with gender dysphoria. Throughout both interactions, he was kind, generous with feedback and recommendations, and interested in what I had to say.
When his breakthrough book, “When Harry Became Sally: Responding to the Transgender Moment,” was published, I excitedly downloaded it to my vast Audible library. To say his book was eye-opening is to provide a vague description. I had not heard the arguments he made before, nor read through the scientific research and other objective examinations of the condition and its effects the way Anderson presented it before. I also had not heard stories of other people who had gone through what I had until then. I Thought I Was the Only One
I rarely discussed my gender dysphoria because I never transitioned, and I assumed something was unusual about me. I connected emotionally with most transgender stories right up until they began medical intervention and then I felt out of place and truly alone.
In many ways, I saw myself as a failure because the only transgender stories I encountered were those who accomplished what felt impossible for me. I was embarrassed to even bring up the topic because I didn’t want to have to answer the humiliating questions about why I stayed trapped in the “wrong” body all these years, or admit something inside me kept me from moving forward.
Anderson shared deep, rich stories by people just like me who did transition and then realized it was a mistake. Then they faced rebuilding the body and the identity they socially and medically altered in pursuit of some intangible goal of idealized gender.
Their understanding of discomfort in their bodies resonated loudly with me, even more than the initial concept of being transgender. I saw my struggle in their accomplishments, and I realized how truly grateful I was to have hesitated earlier in my life. When I wrote my story and sent it to Public Discourse, I thought it was unique because I hadn’t seen it before. I didn’t know I was among many friends.
I soon realized Ryan’s work offered me so much more than just a sense of personal validation in my journey. He also offered me answers. The book goes in-depth into the science behind biological sex and what we understand about the human body and how it functions.
Anderson moves through the development of a human fetus into brain development and what science tells us can affect that development. He answers the question, to the best of his ability and using the most pertinent science available, why the argument in favor of gender identity over biology is flawed.
The arguments he makes are positioned within the compassionate and empathetic interest of a scientist trying to understand what is causing a person so much pain and what can truly be done to relieve it. Without ever dismissing the experience of the transgender person, he asks the important question, one I struggled with for years, of whether a medical transition is genuinely the best option to alleviate gender dysphoria and all the pain and suffering associated with it. He bravely challenges the arguments supporting pro-transgender therapy in children and imbues the reader with the information necessary to understand why. The Left Is on a Book-banning Crusade
For years I have championed this book to those interested in fully understanding the transgender movement, its arguments, and how to challenge them on the science, especially regarding public policy. When I saw that Amazon had removed Anderson’s book without so much as leaving the listing, complete with its history of valuable commentary from other readers, my heart sank. When I found out that LGBT activists were cheering on the decision, I sighed with frustrated disappointment.
Anderson’s “When Harry Became Sally: Responding to the Transgender Moment,” is not an anti-LGBT or anti-transgender work. Ryan is not anti-LGBT, and he was never dismissive or cruel to transgender people. His work is certainly a far cry from anything resembling “hate speech.”
Like Abigail Shrier’s, “Irreversible Damage: The Transgender Craze Seducing Our Daughters” and Dr. Debra Soh’s, “The End of Gender: Debunking the Myths About Sex and Identity in Our Society,” also targeted by LGBT activists for banning, Anderson’s book asks necessary questions that deserve to be given fair consideration and debated, not restricted from public view.
For people like me who may have gone years feeling alone and completely ignored by the popular discussion of gender identity, Ryan’s book gives us hope and understanding of ourselves and the options we have for our future.
That, in its simplest form, is the best argument for keeping this book and others like it available for people to consider and decide for themselves how to respond. Instead, LGBT activists seem to feel entitled to decide what information we should have access to so that we only make the choices they believe are best for us.
We live in an era of absolute human potential and knowledge. We have access to information and ideas beyond anything most people who ever lived could have dreamed possible, yet we find ourselves restricted by powerful, ideological Puritans who believe this freedom is dangerous. I hope that Amazon corrects this mistake before it causes further damage to the free ability to decide for yourself what you want to believe.
You can purchase Ryan’s book, “When Harry Became Sally: Responding to the Transgender Moment,” directly from the publisher, Encounter Books.
“Backed by science”
The Federalist has really gone down the tubes.
I have a tidbit of gender dysphoria. I consider myself a lesbian trapped in a man’s body. It’s my position that most men are this way.
Good article.
Thank you for posting.
You can purchase Ryan’s book, “When Harry Became Sally: Responding to the Transgender Moment,” directly from the publisher, Encounter Books.
No, you cannot. It is currently on backorder at Encounter Books.
A long time ago. Chad Felix Green is an open, unrepentant sodomite who's been a contributor to this rag for years. If you look into his background, he's been a radical activist for "employment rights" for fags at several of his jobs.
Sorry, can’t help myself since I got 30 days in FB jail on this subject.
http://montypython.50webs.com/scripts/Life_of_Brian/8.htm
JUDITH: I do feel, Reg, that any Anti-Imperialist group like ours must reflect such a divergence of interests within its power-base.
REG: Agreed. Francis?
FRANCIS: Yeah. I think Judith’s point of view is very valid, Reg, provided the Movement never forgets that it is the inalienable right of every man—
STAN: Or woman.
FRANCIS: Or woman... to rid himself—
STAN: Or herself.
FRANCIS: Or herself.
REG: Agreed.
FRANCIS: Thank you, brother.
STAN: Or sister.
FRANCIS: Or sister. Where was I?
REG: I think you’d finished.
FRANCIS: Oh. Right.
REG: Furthermore, it is the birthright of every man—
STAN: Or woman.
REG: Why don’t you shut up about women, Stan. You’re putting us off.
STAN: Women have a perfect right to play a part in our movement, Reg.
FRANCIS: Why are you always on about women, Stan?
STAN: I want to be one.
REG: What?
STAN: I want to be a woman. From now on, I want you all to call me ‘Loretta’.
REG: What?!
LORETTA: It’s my right as a man.
JUDITH: Well, why do you want to be Loretta, Stan?
LORETTA: I want to have babies.
REG: You want to have babies?!
LORETTA: It’s every man’s right to have babies if he wants them.
REG: But... you can’t have babies.
LORETTA: Don’t you oppress me.
REG: I’m not oppressing you, Stan. You haven’t got a womb! Where’s the foetus going to gestate?! You going to keep it in a box?!
LORETTA: crying
JUDITH: Here! I— I’ve got an idea. Suppose you agree that he can’t actually have babies, not having a womb, which is nobody’s fault, not even the Romans’, but that he can have the right to have babies.
FRANCIS: Good idea, Judith. We shall fight the oppressors for your right to have babies, brother. Sister. Sorry.
REG: What’s the point?
FRANCIS: What?
REG: What’s the point of fighting for his right to have babies when he can’t have babies?!
FRANCIS: It is symbolic of our struggle against oppression.
REG: Symbolic of his struggle against reality.
“I can just envision ambulance chasers”
I’ve been saying for a couple of years now that this is going to be the next cash cow in the future of the personal injury/malpractice attorneys-never underestimate the cynicism or greed of some of those in the legal community...
Apparently, the book tells a story of escaping the transgender plantation. And we can’t have that now, can we? Yes, the left has many plantations, based on race, gender, gender identity, sexual orientation, political beliefs, religion and more. For now, some Americans live free, but if they have their way, anyone NOT living on one of their plantations will live in one of their gulags.
The argument for gender identity, over biology, is an evil rationalization
by insane people, that has been mainstreamed and endlessly amplified by
the enemies of traditional families, our culture, our Nation, and our God.
That this was the Communist Agenda for our destruction, was read into
our Congressional Record all the way back in the mid 50’s, and refined
ever since.
~Easy
Trot out a parade of people who wanted that detransition access in schools but could not get it. Force Democrats to go on record and vote against it, denying funds to the same people they want taking these chemicals, because it's only a one-way street to them -- if they permit Leftists to detransition, why, they might become like this ghey narb and vote GOP. Even vote Trump!
We have got to get very good, very fast at thwarting the Left's agenda. This one is a home run waiting to happen.
Went to buy it on B&N. Back-ordered; won’t ship til 3/21. Amazon create another miracle.
Think of a person living on the prairies in 1840. Back then everyone had to work hard every day of their lives to simply eat and survive. There was no time for second guessing God's plan.
Why would anyone want to intentionally make himself an ugly woman or make herself a cartoon man?
Even Sir Paul and the Beatles knew the reality of the situation.
Sweet Loretta Martin thought she was a woman
But she was another man
All the girls around her say she's got it coming
But she gets it while she can
Get back, get back
Get back to where you once belonged
Get back, get back
Get back to where you once belonged
Get back Loretta ooh, ooh
Go homeGet Back, Loretta
Your mama's waiting for you
Wearing her high-heel shoes
And her low-neck sweater
Get Back home, Loretta
Get Back, Get Back
Get Back to where you once belonged
Get Back, Get Back
Get Back
Oh, yeah.
In my view the “treatments” in vogue for identity dysphoria focused on a person’s sex is not true treatment, but assistance in an attempt to avoid real treatment (assistance in getting rid of the obsession). Or, to put it simply - like offering to help an addict keep their addiction because tackling it head on is so difficult, painful, takes a lot of effort and requires an uncertain amount of time.
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