Tell the Whole Truth

The tide appears to be turning in the transgender conversation. Yesterday, the Supreme Court heard oral arguments in U.S. v Skrmetti, a case brought by our federal government against the state of Tennessee. Tennessee enacted a law banning the provision of so-called “gender-affirming care” to minors. That means it’s illegal to put kids on sterilizing puberty blockers, cross-sex hormones, and that it’s illegal to put them under the surgeon’s knife.

The plain, economical, and truthful way to state this: Tennessee has banned sex changes for children.

Notice how that sentence cuts through all the bullshit and tells the truth directly. You might also notice that you have a slightly different emotional reaction to that sentence than you would to a statement like, “the state has made it illegal to provide gender affirmation services to youth.” Stripped of euphemism and unearned linguistic deference, the issue is sex-changes for children.

Another economical way to state this: "Tennessee has banned chemical and surgical mutilation of children.”

An even more economical statement: “Tennessee has banned this kind of child abuse.”

Some readers will have a slightly more negative emotional reaction to the direct statements. They will feel (not “think,” but “feel”) that it’s “mean.” In a society that relies on euphemisms (soft lying), plain language that communicates clearly is often considered “rude.”

It’s OK with me if some readers have that reaction. I hope that in some cases, they encounter enough such statements that the emotional kick-back dulls over time (I want this to happen; I want you to get used to telling the truth without calling the act of telling the truth “mean”).

Other readers may react to the direct statements differently; it may be the first time they have seen the unvarnished truth of this issue described for what it is. It may provoke some readers to see and understand the truth of what this abuse is for the first time. Even though they know what it is, the obfuscatory language, the walking on linguistic, moral, and lexical eggshells around this issue, has made it possible for people to partially blind themselves to this child abuse.

I want it to be impossible for anyone to avoid confronting this for what it is: vivisection of actual children prodded by a profound and wicked lie.

Many rational, sensible, and moral people on both the right and the left are beginning to talk openly about this problem. Even the left is beginning to say, “wait a minute, this is insane.” This is to the good.

But some of them, both left and right, have not yet committed to telling the whole truth. They’re trying to keep a toe in both sides so as not to “offend” people.

How are they doing this? By continuing to tell the lie that there are:

• actual, real “transgender children”. There are not. That is because there are no “transgender” people. It’s not real. It is a delusion, an expression of trauma, an expression of mental illness, an expression of autism, a falling into a social contagion, or some combination of these things. But there are zero people on earth that have been “born in the wrong body,” and who are “really” “not the sex that they are.”

• “transgender girls” and “transgender boys.” These categories of person do not exist. “Transgender girls” are boys. “Transgender boys” are girls.

I confess that seeing otherwise rational and morally correct writers refuse to call these children what they are, insisting on calling them some variation of the opposite sex, makes me angry, not just irritated. It is not “being polite,” it is telling a profound lie. It is cooperating with child abuse.

It is also actively helping the wicked people who want to abuse children this way. It is to speak a lie into the conversation that shores up the idea that there is anything about a boy that’s actually female, or anything about a girl that’s actually male. It is to agree with the abusers that confused children are actually a different sex than they are.

It’s bad enough that we, as a society, simply accepted the truth-inversion of calling men women and vice versa. It’s bad enough that almost no one has the courage to plainly state, “You are deliberately changing the meaning of language to tell a lie and it’s unacceptable.” But it is just too much to see people who claim to care about protecting children from this abuse go right along with the fundamental lie built into the language by the abusers.

If you are such a writer, have you asked yourself why you’re doing this? What prompts you to use the words “transgender girl”? Do you feel a prick of conscience when you do this? Some of you do. That prick is your conscience reminding you that you’re telling a lie so that people will think you’re “nice and caring.”

Have you asked yourself if you’re helping to slow down progress against this abuse by agreeing that there are, even if it’s a small number, “actual transgender children?” By agreeing that morality requires you to call a boy a girl, and a girl a boy?

Do you see the philosophical and ethical contradictions?

I haven’t named or quoted any of the Substack or other writers who I have noticed doing this because I do not want this essay or the reaction to it to be perceived as a personal “beef.” It’s not personal. Like many, I too used to use these words and terms; I understand from direct experience all the fears, emotions, and ethical quandaries people have to contend with around this problem.

But we are all full adults, and we have an obligation to act as adults. We have a moral obligation to tell the whole truth. Yes, all of it. 100 percent of it. We have a moral obligation to not use the euphemistic lies that bolster the very ideas and abuse we are fighting against.

Stop telling the lie that there are “transgender girls” and “transgender boys”.