Children have endless imaginations.
That’s what makes them so incredible. They play in worlds that don’t exist. They have imaginary friends. They pretend to be something they’re not all the time. But sometimes adults have to step in.
If your child, grandchild, niece or nephew is playing in the backyard while pretending to be a dinosaur then please, play along. But if they tell you they were born in the wrong body…that’s when playtime ends.
And that’s when you step in.
No one should be encouraging children to make life altering choices that have real world consequences. No one should be giving that control to a child. No one should be going along with that masquerade. Sometimes it’s hard to be a kid. Sometimes it’s hard to be an adult. We don’t allow children to change who they are because it’s funner that way.
Playtime doesn’t last forever.
But puberty blockers, mutilating a child’s body and sentencing them to life long medicalization does.
This isn’t a game. This isn’t playtime. Stop taking advantage of children.
Stop using their imaginations against them.
Leave the kids alone.
bleatmop
Mystro
Dead Wild Roses 
9 comments
September 21, 2023 at 7:23 am
tildeb
I am truly staggered at the messaging so many parents are getting from legacy and social media, politicians and the medical profession, and a never ending stream of mouthpiece activists about believing that children really, really, really can be born in the wrong body and that going along with this is not just good parenting, good schooling, good medicine, good mental health, and what kind people do, but necessary for the child’s safety.
Mind blown.
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September 21, 2023 at 11:43 am
SM
Are you feeling strange that you are attracted to girls instead of boys? Maybe you’re trans! Do you hate your body because someone close to you touched you in a way you knew was wrong? Maybe you’re trans! Are you autistic? Maybe you’re trans! Would you rather play with trucks instead of dolls? Maybe you’re trans! Does becoming an adult woman fill you with dread after you’re seen those horrible porn videos? Maybe you’re trans! Have you been doing things to yourself like not eating or cutting yourself because you are anxious and feel hopeless? Maybe you’re trans! Do you see other kids getting all kinds of attention for claiming to be trans, and you are ignored and feel not very noticed? Maybe you’re trans! Do you and your family not care a whit about the side effects of wrong sex hormones, the effects on the brain of not going through puberty, or the drastically shortened life expectancy of those who have “transitioned”? The risks of osteoporosis and dementia? Welcome to Canada! Our major political parties don’t care either! Nor our public broadcaster! They would rather virtue signal than examine the results of this tragic human experiment, so you can just be another victim. Step right up!
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September 21, 2023 at 6:29 pm
Brian
You have totally lost the plot. Sad, for a former progressive to align with Marge Taylor Greene, Matt Gaetz, Don Trump, Charles Murphy et al. Pro Tip: Have a look at the company you are keeping.
Scientific American, you know, a publication that summarizes actual scientific consensus says gender dysmorphia is real and proper treatment saves lives! Where did you go off the rails. You are a threat to my gay son posting this tripe on Progressive Bloggers.
From Scientific American:
“The truth is that data from more than a dozen studies of more than 30,000 transgender and gender-diverse young people consistently show that access to gender-affirming care is associated with better mental health outcomes—and that lack of access to such care is associated with higher rates of suicidality, depression and self-harming behavior.”
Why do you want to kill these kids?
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September 21, 2023 at 6:59 pm
Brian
Hey, here’s a clip from the 100 People March in Calgary to soothe your soul:
You must be so proud!
My gay son, however, is feeling a tad less safe.
Nice job, progressive blogger.
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September 22, 2023 at 7:15 am
tildeb
Brian, you are absolutely right to worry about your gay son. I worry, too, about how many young people whose sexual orientation is for the same sex are fooled into believing by gender ideology they must therefore be ‘born in the wrong body’, that they really should be physically and chemically altered to attempt to be the opposite sex. This push to ‘realign’ young gays and lesbians to medicalize and sterilize for life is so well known in medical services that the running joke by doctors and therapists at the Tavistock centre (shut down after a systemic review because the kind of data used by supporters and found boldly stated as if true in scientific magazines like Scientific America that gets its basic biological information wrong is “poor to very poor” and “extremely low confidence”) was that there would be “no gay people left at the rate Gids was going”.
“A psychologist who worked at a controversial NHS gender transition clinic for children feared they were performing ‘conversion therapy for gay kids’.
A new book reveals how Dr Matt Bristow, who worked at the Tavistock Clinic’s Gender Identity Development Service (Gids) for five years (edit: Dr. Bristow is himself gay), raised concerns that boys and girls who said they wanted to change sex might simply be gay.
He warned gay children were ‘pushed down another path’, towards transitioning, and that there was a ‘reluctance’ from the Gids leadership to engage properly with sexuality.
And the doctor claimed that many heterosexual members of staff ‘just didn’t realise’ that many gender non-conforming behaviours applied just as much to children who grew up to be gay, lesbian or bisexual as to children who would grow up to be trans.”
Canadian lesbian and civil rights activist Eva Kurilova tells us that those who are pushing this ideology in schools today “would have been happy sterilizing me as a child if I’d just been born a little later. I was exactly the kind of little girl that is called a “trans boy” today.”
Your concern is warranted, Brian. Your conclusions about ‘safety’, however, are exactly backwards. If you want to help your son, stop supporting an ideology that is only far too willing to tell him and others like he is that he was born in the wrong body. And stop supporting ideology that medicalizes far too many of these young gay and lesbian children for life. You have some major rethinking to do here.
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September 22, 2023 at 8:36 am
The Arbourist
@Brian
One of the things about being “progressive” is being able to critically evaluate policies and ideologies to determine – based on the evidence available – their merit in society. Gender ideology is regressive, misogynistic, and generally fact free example of precisely what progressive people should be standing against.
Doesn’t it bother you that to make your ‘case’ you have resort to guilt by association and using biased uncited studies to make hyperbolic claims against those who disagree with your opinion. The ‘cast out and burn the heretic’ vibe is really strong with you.
Everywhere in Western countries that have conducted a comprehensive medical review of ‘gender affirming care’ has found that the evidence is weak to inconclusive at very best ( https://segm.org/Denmark-sharply-restricts-youth-gender-transitions) (https://www.bbc.com/news/health-66842352). So here you are shouting burn the witch at people who simply are following the evidence and basing their PoV on facts.
Ouch Bro. –
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September 22, 2023 at 8:49 am
The Arbourist
@Brian
You’ve already commented here on this topic before and were invited to take a look at the evidence on that post as well. Your behaviour reminds me of the ‘debates’ I had with the religious in previous years here at DWR – no matter how much evidence you provided, how strong your arguments were, or how cogently they were argued they would say “Nu..uh you Godless Athiest my God knows better than you and your earthly facts”…
And well, here we are…
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September 22, 2023 at 9:30 am
tildeb
Brian, in spite of references to ideologically approved sources that are not following the evidence but trumpeting misinformation, let’s review what it is we’re talking about. Gender ideology. Not anti-gay, anti-lesbian rhetoric, not hate speech. Gender ideology that as its foundation teaches children that sex is not binary but a ‘spectrum’. This is a straight up denial of reality yet believed by almost every captured institution not least of which is Scientific America and the various medical oversight bodies. All of these have made a fundamental error, conflating gender with sex and then basing all kinds of ‘evidence’ in favour of gender ideology on selected testimonials (did you know the reddit thread for detransitioners now exceeds 40k?) and feelings. Actual science – especially from evolutionary biologists – stands in direct conflict with this fundamental sex-is-a-spectrum claim made and believed by reality-denying ideologues:
“”Actual science” done by biologists shows 2 sexes, one with small mobile gametes and the other with large, immobile ones. There is no third sex. Disorders of sex development are not new sexes, and biological sex is binary. Let’s not conflate sex, gender & developmental anomalies.” (Jerry Coyne)
So when such lies are taught to vulnerable children disguised as ‘education’, you should expect pushback. When social transitioning begins at schools and the staff are constrained by policies to keep that information secret from parents, you should join rather than vilify those who dare to stand against a reality-denying ideology indoctrinating children with lies and deceit. Pretending this is a anti-same sex attraction issue only serves the ideologues who are perpetually in conflict with what is true. If you love and support your son, you should demonstrate it by supporting what is true.
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October 3, 2023 at 3:48 pm
lovetruthcourage
Hi Brian, I am a scientist and no one in the scientific community takes Scientific American seriously. They are not a rigorous, peer-reviewed resource and they only allow preapproved viewpoints. This isn’t how science is done. Inquiry should be perpetually open. Feelings aren’t facts. There are only 2 sexes. Deal with it.
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