Children need protection from adult madness
The Texas Supreme Court just upheld a state law banning so-called gender-affirming care for minors, to explosive consternation from predictable quarters. Progressive commentators portray this and similar laws passed by more than a dozen Republican-controlled state legislatures as ‘anti-LGBTQIA+’. In truth, the laws are aimed not at that whole bramble of capital letters, but solely at the ‘T’.
Slamming these bans histrionically as ‘genocide’ (four in 15,000 patients of the Tavistock or on its waiting list committed suicide between 2010 and 2020, but according to propaganda it’s up to 50 per cent of trans kids who try to kill themselves), the American left claims withdrawal of cross-sex hormones, puberty blockers and sex ‘reassignment’ surgery for children violates the ‘rights’ of trans kids. Yet progressives never seem indignant over the gross unfairness that children can’t buy alcohol, purchase cigarettes, join the army, get a tattoo, work in factories, marry or consent to sex with an adult. Why doesn’t being prevented from snagging a packet of Marlboros violate children’s rights?
Oh, no, we must protect minors from injuring their health when they’re too young to appreciate the threats of cancer and addiction. But according to the American left, which used to decry female genital mutilation, 12-year-olds are mature enough to decide to halt the progress of puberty (potentially imperilling their brain and skeletal development), commit to a costly pharmaceutical regimen replete with irksome side effects for the rest of their lives, have healthy body parts hacked off, accept a future of sexual dysfunction and forego parenthood altogether. In the frenzy of the culture wars, Republicans have passed some clumsy legislation, but these laws are spot on. Nevertheless, Canada has issued a comical travel advisory about the ‘risks’ in certain US states for citizens who belong to that ever-extending string of upper case letters.
Gotta hand it to these doctors: ‘gender-affirming care’ is genius branding. Usefully, ‘gender’ has become a nonsense word. What could possibly be wrong with ‘affirming’? Why, the adjective exudes niceness, solace and esteem. And no physician or parent could oppose ‘care’. Yet the euphemism translates to ‘sex-denying medical experimentation’.
One witness who testified in support of the Texas bill during the legislature’s debate was Corinna Cohn – who now often goes by ‘Corrie’ – a self-identified ‘transsexual’ who was well ahead of the curve when he transitioned in 1994 at 19. He now says he is male and always has been, though he can never turn back the clock, having lopped off certain equipment. Pilloried as a quisling by trans activists, Cohn is on a national mission to stop underage transitions.
As he told Wesley Yang on the Year Zero podcast, the rage for castration and mutilation of minors is bound to ‘blow up on us’, and ‘it’s going to get worse from here’. He predicts that similar laws will soon be passed in most states, even Democratic ones. The trans phenomenon, he says, is about ‘self-perfection. It’s not to cure an illness. It’s not to cure even a mental disease. This is about helping someone who has a fantasy achieve their fantasy. It would not be ridiculous at all for us to string up guide wires from building to building and let people strap themselves on so that they can pretend to be superheroes flying from place to place.’ Cohn despairs: ‘Doing this to kids? It’s so unjust, the amount of pain, and the elimination of so many healthy futures.’ And he warns that the products of ‘gender-affirming care’ are prone to exaggerate their happiness with the results: ‘No one wants to seem like a fool for getting what they asked for.’
Another famous early adopter was Jazz Jennings, who under the influence of his lunatic Munchausen mother became quite the online poster boy – or girl – for trans in 2007. Though as a kid Jennings had an androgynous cuteness, alas, he’s grown up. Having never gone through puberty, the boy developed only a micro-penis, giving surgeons fashioning a fake vagina little to work with. Constant dilation to keep the wound from healing shut is excruciating. Politically what’s happened to Jazz Jennings, now 22, is a powerful cautionary tale. He’s not only in pain, neurotic and miserable; he’s fat. Really fat. Any woman could have warned him about the effect of all that oestrogen. Let’s hope Jennings tours the same states where Cohn is campaigning: Look, kids. Do you want to grow up to be like me?
In a rare instance of taking the cultural initiative, both Europe and the UK are steadily retreating from ‘gender-affirming care’ in preference for talk therapy – a story the American left-wing media scrupulously buries. By contrast, the entire US medical establishment is intoxicated by Frankensteinian maiming of children. In a self-sustaining feedback loop, the enthusiastic endorsement by the American Medical Association and the American Academy of Pediatrics of an ‘affirmative’ approach to underage confusion has been successfully deployed to strike down in court multiple state bans on sex-change treatments for minors.
The trans mania took off in 2013, and I didn’t stick my neck out in public on the issue until 2016. Although the unwritten prohibition on saying a single discouraging word about the transgenderism craze didn’t partially lift until around 2021, I’m still not proud that I kept my journalistic mouth shut for three years. But then, even in 2016 observing ‘this is completely nuts’ could have been career-ending, and it still paints a bullseye on one’s forehead.
We’re an adaptive species, and it’s possible to get used to anything. Hence it takes daily application to maintain a crucial incredulity. On a dime, the entire western world became obsessed with drastic medication and gratuitous cosmetic surgery to allow tens of thousands of mostly young people to pretend to be the opposite sex. There will be hell to pay in the fullness of time, but not soon enough. The Texan families complaining on the American news that they can’t get their kids poorly researched off-label puberty blockers, irreversible cross-sex hormones and permanently mangling surgeries don’t know how lucky they are
https://www.spectator.com.au/2023/09/children-need-protection-from-adult-madness/
********************************************************Does Anyone Really Believe This Nonsense?
Ideological disagreement is one thing — and in fact it’s a good thing. There’s always room for alternative lines of thinking on broad, subjective issues. But clinging to an assertion that is patently, objectively absurd? That’s another thing altogether.
We’re seeing a lot of those these days. More often than not, the absurdities are necessary to justify political actions or objectives. If reality gets in the way, too bad. Whether the adherents admit it to themselves or not, surely they recognize nonsense when they see it.
Examples abound; here are a few:
Is there anyone who actually believes that a girl can be a boy, or a boy can be a girl? That’s a bizarre idea wholly inconsistent with biology and human history — but it’s now accepted as gospel truth by the Left and promoted enthusiastically. Those who dare disagree are castigated as haters.
Of course, anyone can wish they had been born with a different body, or pretend to change genders, or alter their physical appearance or lifestyle. And we can all agree that no one who thinks or acts on those inclinations should be subjected to discrimination of any sort. Theirs are personal choices and ours is a free country. We treat one another with respect.
But my guess is that even staunch proponents of gender fluidity know that modern miracles such as “male birth” and “chestfeeding” are ridiculous.
Imagine if Donald Trump’s fevered wish had come true and his vice president had refused to certify the election of Joe Biden on 1/6/21. Does anyone believe that the U.S. Congress and judiciary would have just nodded politely, the nation would have just shrugged its collective shoulders, and Trump would have stayed in office for another four years?
Or does anyone really believe the other variants of January 6 mythology? That Proud Boys with flag poles would have subdued the Capitol Police, beaten back the U.S. Armed Forces, and taken over the United States of America?
Yes, it is true that many Americans believe that there was an insurrection on January 6 — no doubt because the word “insurrection” has been conveniently redefined by media and partisans in two and a half years of relentless propaganda. The American Civil War — four years of brutal conflict taking 620,000 combatants’ lives — was an insurrection; January 6 was not. It was an ugly, stupid riot, carelessly provoked by a man who should not be our next president.
Does anyone believe that a tiny, fully formed infant child in his mother’s womb is not a human being, has no rights, and deserves no legal protection? Having recently held a squirmy two-day-old infant, kicking her little legs just as she did in her mother’s womb a week before, I don’t believe that for a second.
Who could possibly disagree? Evidently quite a few Americans do, as evidenced by law in at least seven states that allow abortion up until natural childbirth. Under cover of protecting women’s (i.e., voters’) health, those states conveniently ignore the lives of the most vulnerable among us.
The list goes on. Does anyone really believe that the obviously frail, doddering Joe Biden is physically up to the mental and physical challenges of another presidential term? Or that it’s a good idea to nominate for president someone busy defending himself from indictments (fair or not) on 91 felonies? Does anyone really believe that a flood of unvetted migrants is good for our country? Does anyone really believe that a wholesale switch to electric vehicles will prevent wildfires and hurricanes?
So, is this just an old guy’s grumbling about wildly diverse political views? Do they matter?
I think they do. Party-line positions like these may initially raise an eyebrow or two — but repeated often enough and authoritatively enough, they become part of the landscape, and then sooner or later they become the foundation for policy, behavior, business practices, and social expectations.
Back to the first example above: I suspect that when proponents first floated the notion that gender is simply a matter of personal choice and is completely changeable, most Americans, knowing better, brushed it off — weird, but harmless.
Then, the tsunami, hitting where least expected — our children. Gender anxiety in various forms is now rampant among teens and pre-teens. Having unnecessarily precipitated that problem, we turn to the new cottage industry of specialists who offer “gender-affirming care,” sometimes including drastic surgeries to “transition” their patients from one gender to another.
These are life-altering actions, visited on young people who have not yet grown into the bodies they’ve decided they don’t like. It’s a self-inflicted wound, seeded by our too-casual acceptance of the myth of gender fluidity.
It’s amazing how much trouble hazy thinking — or no thinking at all — will get us into.
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Australia: Inquest to examine apparent suicides of five trans and gender diverse Victorians
The apparent suicides of five people who were undergoing a gender affirmation process before they died will be investigated by the Victorian coroner.
The inquest, scheduled for November, will consider the otherwise unrelated deaths together, as the coroner is likely to make recommendations that could help prevent future suicides.
While the suspected suicides are not directly linked, the coroner believes investigating the deaths during the one inquest will lead to better informed recommendations.
All five of those who died were born between 1987 and 2001. The lead case involves Bridget Flack, whose body was found in bushland in the Melbourne suburb of Kew two weeks after she was reported missing.
The 28-year-old was last seen by her friend on the morning of 3o November 2020 in Lygon Street, Carlton. She had said she was going to take a walk in a park in Fairfield, but despite contacting people via phone later in the day, Flack never returned home.
Flack’s disappearance made national headlines and more than 120 people helped her family search for her, before her body was eventually found by a member of the public.
The Victorian coroner, Ingrid Giles, has issued an order on how the five people should be publicly referred to during the inquest.
“In July 2023, I assumed carriage of the investigation into the deaths of five young people who were undergoing a gender affirmation process prior to passing, and who had died by way of apparent suicide,” the order said.
“In order to assist the court in referring to the deceased persons in a respectful and culturally appropriate manner in these proceedings, the loved ones of the deceased were consulted in relation to the names that were in use by the deceased prior to passing, and which had been chosen by the deceased to correspond with their gender identity.”
“I have determined it appropriate to refer in this proceeding to each deceased by what the evidence supports as their chosen name, even where this had not been legally changed.”
In one case, a pseudonym of “AS” will also be used, Giles said in the order.
Shortly after Flack’s disappearance, her sister described her as an incredibly intelligent and articulate person.
“She’s artistic, she sings, plays music, writes music, DJs. She writes beautifully, beautiful poetry and stories. She loves her job, she loves studying,” her sister said at the time.
A directions hearing will be held on 13 October before the inquest begins in late November. Three days have been set aside for the inquest.
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Australia: Northern Territory Police to open Zachary Rolfe complaint inquiry
Politically correct detective apparently did his best to "get" an innocent cop. That may now be investgated
The Northern Territory Police Force has vowed to investigate Zachary Rolfe’s allegations of serious misconduct against a Darwin detective involved in his failed murder prosecution despite recently telling the complainant no further action would be taken.
In June, the former police officer formally complained to Police Commissioner Michael Murphy about the conduct of Detective Senior Sergeant Wayne Newell during the criminal investigation into Kumanjayi Walker’s death and asked the police chief to initiate a thorough investigation into the matters raised.
NT Police’s Professional Standards Command wrote to Mr Rolfe last month, advising him his complaint against police fell to the Office of Ombudsman NT to investigate but that the Ombudsman had declined because it was not in the public interest and Mr Rolfe’s one-year time limit to complain had expired. The letter, sent in early August, said PSC believed no further action was required.
In a confusing backflip, NT Police on Tuesday told The Australian, in response to questions about PSC’s decision, that “police are investigating the allegations”.
“As the matter is ongoing no comment will be made at this time,” a spokesperson said.
Sen-Sgt Newell, the senior investigating officer for the criminal investigation – codenamed Operation Charwell – into Walker’s death, also declined to comment with an investigation under way.
In May 2022, two months after Mr Rolfe was acquitted of murdering Walker at Yuendumu, he complained to police, in writing, about certain aspects of the criminal investigation before detailing his “very serious concern” over Sen-Sgt Newell’s conduct in relation to “evidence collecting” and nondisclosure in June.
The 11-page complaint, sent by his lawyer, Luke Officer, alleged the experienced detective “may have engaged in criminal conduct, such as, for example, perverting the course of justice”, and included excerpts of court transcripts from his trial, as well as emails and other internal police material – including coronial reports – supporting his claims.
Mr Rolfe’s concerns were distilled into five issues, including that email correspondence between detectives – including Sen-Sgt Newell – and American criminologist Geoffrey Alpert suggested the investigation team was editing its expert’s report.
The Australian revealed in April last year NT Police had paid Mr Alpert $100,000 to produce a 12-page report supporting the murder charge against Mr Rolfe and that he repeatedly altered his conclusions at the request of detectives.
The second matter raised was that Sen-Sgt Newell had allowed pathologist Marianne Tiemensma to give expert evidence at trial about the lethality of the scissors Walker had stabbed Mr Rolfe with despite Dr Tiemensma expressing that it may be inappropriate because she had performed Walker’s autopsy and may be accused of bias.
Two complaints were about Sen-Sgt Newell being aware of or withholding supplementary expert opinions from trauma surgeon Keith Towsey and forensic pathologist Paul Botterill that would have helped the defence and were only revealed in the course of the trial.
The fifth complaint was that Sen-Sgt Newell withheld evidence of a conversation with Australian Federal Police forensic analyst Timothy Simpson seeking a supplementary opinion and that the conversation only came to light during the trial.
Before Mr Rolfe’s trial started, his lawyers learned of the existence of police coronial investigation reports – which were critical of the criminal investigation including the use of particular expert witnesses – that had not been provided to the Director of Public Prosecutions or the defence. Mr Rolfe’s legal team had to subpoena then police commissioner Jamie Chalker for their production.
Commander David Proctor wrote in his coronial investigation report that the criminal investigation was biased against the accused. Commander Proctor claimed the prosecution’s use-of-force expert, Detective Superintendent Andrew Barram, was subject to “confirmation bias”, that he was “firmly ensconced within the investigation team” and that his independence as an expert was “compromised”.
Mr Officer this week told The Australian “the highest-profile murder trial in recent times” was plagued with issues of nondisclosure from the start.
After receiving Mr Rolfe’s complaint in June, police also referred it to the Independent Commissioner Against Corruption but Commissioner Michael Riches refused to confirm whether he is investigating the allegations.
An ICAC spokesperson this week said “the Commissioner does not comment on such matters”, despite having publicised other investigations it was conducting.
Mr Rolfe was dismissed from the NT Police in April “due to serious breaches of discipline” during his policing career. He has lodged an appeal.
The 32-year-old will be called to give evidence at Walker’s inquest when it resumes at Alice Springs next month.
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My other blogs. Main ones below:
http://dissectleft.blogspot.com (DISSECTING LEFTISM)
http://edwatch.blogspot.com (EDUCATION WATCH)
http://antigreen.blogspot.com (GREENIE WATCH)
http://australian-politics.blogspot.com (AUSTRALIAN POLITICS)
http://snorphty.blogspot.com/ (TONGUE-TIED)
http://jonjayray.com/blogall.html More blogs
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Kristina Pimenova, once said to be the most beautiful girl in the world. Note blue eyes and blonde hair
Bliss: What every woman wants: to feel safe and secure in the arms of her man. Robert Irwin and Rorie Buckey. See 
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