Bethel McGrew's essay "Mutilating Our Bodies" appeared in the Christian magazine First Things (July 1, 2022).
McGrew (no pronouns in this article, but uses "she" according to her bio at World, another Christian outlet) names five people who regret their gender transitions. She also deadnames someone who doesn't regret transitioning, and she flaunts the term "deadnaming" in that sentence to show awareness of doing it. She suggests, as a remedy, criminalizing trans people's surgeons.
She warns of "vulnerable, disturbed individuals of all ages hastily ushered into procedures that are nothing short of medical malpractice. Justice demands a reckoning in the form of penalties and strictures..." (emphasis mine). She calls these transitions "trans 'medical' experimentation on children," and although she appeals to the idea of "minor boys and girls who are socially brainwashed into making catastrophic, self-harming decisions," she also includes adults. She cites David Berlinski who argued in 2019 that "society has a duty to enforce certain taboos" for collective wellbeing. A blanket prohibition on gender transition would apply equally to all people — those who would never consider it anyway, along with those who do want it — in which case, as McGrew phrases it with a shrug, "some individuals can’t satisfy all their desires."
McGrew says the correct anti-trans position, in her view, ought to avoid libertarianism (i.e., letting people make their own choices) and instead be "grounded in metaphysical sureties and animated by a passion for the common good."
She compares gender transition to intentionally disabling someone, using the real-life example of one "woman who 'identified' as blind and found a psychologist willing to pour drain cleaner in her eyes....how are his [this psychologist's] actions different in kind from those of the surgeon who amputates healthy breasts or male genitalia?" I want to point out that she's basically saying eyeballs are just like boobs and dicks and putting the burden of proof on trans people to explain why these body parts are different. I am not falling into that trap and would instead reply that the burden of proof is on McGrew, as she brought it up, to explain to us how an eyeball is exactly like a boob in all relevant ways.
Her rhetoric takes this tack: "We are talking here about the full removal of healthy sex organs, which is if anything a deeper physical and psychological trauma than the amputation of a healthy limb." She simply asserts this without backing it up in any way, and of course a relevant point would be that everyone's psychology is different, and that if someone seeks out a particular kind of surgery then it is, for them, likely not a deeper trauma than a surgery they don't want.
If anyone is experiencing psychological trauma here, I think it is the theocrats who realize they don't have control over this area of people's lives in the 21st century.
Except when they do find ways to accomplish that control.
I came across McGrew's name again in this article, "When evil is unmasked: Andrea Long Chu’s New York essay reveals the true motivation behind trans activism." (World, March 15, 2024). She ends the article by saying she isn't looking for compromise: "Christians," she says, have a firm position, so all "attempts to find a 'moderate' compromise are dead in the water." However, "we don’t despise the troubled agnostics. We wait ready to welcome them with open arms as they continue to back away slowly, terrified by the face of pure evil unmasked." [emphasis mine] If your characterization of gender-affirming care for children is language like that, the word transphobia is etymologically appropriate.
Under a section called "Gender Dysphoria," Medicaid in Florida is going to drop coverage for puberty blockers, hormones, and surgery, beginning August 21.
"It’s understandable for parents to want to know what is happening in their children’s schools. But it is not possible for transgender minors to access hormone therapy without the consent of at least one of their parents. And school nurses are not giving out puberty blockers, a rarely used and extremely expensive medication, like candy. Many school nurses are not even allowed to provide medication like Tylenol without written parental permission."
But there are schools where teachers will not automatically out a student to their parents, and there’s a really good reason for that. Information about your child that you might approach with curiosity and empathy, far too many parents approach in a way that is dangerous to their own child.
— "Are teachers really transitioning kids in secret?" Ari Drennen. Ask Ari (Substack). November 24, 2023
"A New Oklahoma Bill Will Attempt to Criminalize Trans Care for Adults," Samantha Riedel (Jan 6, 2023):
"SB 129, a new bill introduced by Oklahoma state senator David Bullard on Wednesday, would prohibit medical professionals in the state from providing gender-affirming care to anyone under 26 years old. The bill also prohibits providers or hospitals who provide such care from receiving government funding, and allows individuals to pursue legal action up to 40 years after receiving gender-affirming care — a clause designed to encourage people who regret transitioning, like new right-wing darling Chloe Cole, to go after doctors who Republicans like Bullard claim are 'mutilating' other kids.
A medical provider who still offers gender-affirming care to those under 26 could be found guilty of a felony, which in Oklahoma carries penalties including a $1,000 fine or two years in prison. As with many previous bills of this bent, Bullard carves out an exception for nonconsensual surgeries performed on intersex children."
* * *
"Bullard has titled his legislation 'The Millstone Act of 2023,' apparently in reference to the Bible verse Luke 17:2, which posits it is 'better for him if a millstone is hung around his neck and he is thrown into the sea' than to cause children to 'sin.'"
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"A similar bill authored by Rep. Jim Olsen in December will be introduced at the first session of the Oklahoma House in February. HB 1011 would place an age restriction of 21 on gender-affirming care, five years earlier than Bullard’s bill, but would allow courts to hand down a sentence of up to ten years in prison and fines up to $100,000 to any providers who violate the act."
FYI:
"Would it shock you to learn that a medical treatment has side effects?" Evan Urquhart opened an article for Assigned Media, "Conservatives In Shock Over List of Drug Side Effects," September 21, 2023. After all, "drugs to treat gender dysphoria have the same sorts of risks and benefits as any other medical treatment." Patients sign "informed consent" forms to acknowledge the "lists of potential side effects for a medication prescribed by a doctor." Urquhart was writing about a press release put out the previous day by America First Legal, titled "SMOKING GUN DOCS: America First Legal Confirms Utah Gender Clinic Knew of Deadly Side-Effects and Risks of Permanent Damage Resulting from “Transgender” Drugs Given to Children." Just from the title, you can see the fallacy. All medication has risks. You can die from literally anything. That's why you sign forms when you see your doctor for anything.
Also, please: Researchers Ask Why Regret is So Rare for Trans Patients, What Can Be Learned, Mira Lazine, Assigned Media. January 9, 2024.
Dr. Horne lists things that are bad for children that the anti-LGBTQ movement doesn't care about, then concludes:
In May 2022, a 20-year-old trans woman died by suicide after waiting three years (1,023 days) for an initial assessment from the NHS Gender Identity Development Service.
Of course, the people in power don't want social transition either. They're unhappy with non-medical solutions. As of October 2022, the NHS in the UK says that most kids who say they're trans are going through a "phase," and the NHS doesn't want doctors to encourage kids to change their names and pronouns.
In February 2023, a bill introduced in Texas (SB1029) would allow people to sue physicians and insurers for any issue resulting from the gender-affirming care they received at any age.
For LGBT+ History Month (every February):
"One problem with the Florida bill is that it overrides regulatory decisions made by the Food and Drug Administration. The drugs known as puberty blockers, which can be used in the treatment of gender-affirming care, have been around for 30 years and are safe and legal when prescribed by a physician. The Florida law is designed to make it impossible to administer those drugs to minors in the state." — Noah Feldman, "Florida can't take trans teens from their parents," (unpaywalled subscriber gift link) Bloomberg, via Washington Post, April 21, 2023
The wait list is really, really long.
