I am often asked why I even care so much about a ‘fringe’ issue that may not affect me too greatly. ‘Whatever someone wants to do with their own body is entirely up to them’ and ‘People have the right to be whoever they want to be’ are objections I frequently hear. I understand these objections, although they are completely misguided in my view.
There was indeed a time when I felt the same way. On my travels to Thailand, I did not really pass many thoughts on people identifying as a different gender and often going down a medical route to make them look more like the opposite sex. Each to their own and whatever makes them happy was my thoughts towards the ladyboys.
However, it has been approximately ten years since I have been to Thailand, and it is impossible not to notice the proliferation of young people (and disproportionally young girls) now identifying as non-binary, trans or any number of other pseudoscientific genders. Worse still, many institutions e.g., trade unions, universities, government etc, have imbibed key tenets of this ideology. If we allow these institutions to coerce us into believing that penis-possessing males with XY chromosomes in every single cell in their body are genuinely female – if they identify that way- then we clearly have not heeded Orwell’s warning about’2+2=5’. This effective metaphor for the essence of totalitarianism in ‘1984’ warned us that it does not matter how ostensibly innocuous an untruth is – merely being forced into believing it would be enough to make us subservient to the totalitarians.
While we are not in totalitarian territory just yet, the similarities between proponents of this ideology – or many other ideologies for that matter – and a work of dystopian fiction are certainly a cause for concern. Critics of this ideology are routinely cancelled, ostracized, or labeled a ‘transphobe’. Even one of the creators of Ireland’s most loved sitcoms – Father Ted- is not immune from this treatment. I always thought the truth was sacred and people should be able to speak the truth no matter how much it offends people; yet when a totalitarian ideology infects a society then this is evidentiy no longer the case.
Instead of standing on the side of truth and reality, many parts of society have instead opted to stand by the ideologues – whether knowingly or unknowingly – because they do not want to risk offending the perpetually offended. This depressingly sheepish mentality of bowing to an oppressive set of ideas is present throughout societies – both currently and historically – for example, Ulster Unionism, Nazism and Fascism.
Whilst all oppressive ideologies have varying degrees of harmfulness, one of the key things they typically have in common is that they all require us to sacrifice our mental faculties and take a hammer to our moral compass. Just like the fictional Winston Smith or the real-life Oskar Schindler, those who went against the grain were normally in the minority. On a melancholy note, the risks these characters had to take were far greater than the risks we now must take to defeat this harmful gibberish; yet many are still unwilling to stand on the side of truth and decency in even a virtual interaction.
If we were to overlook the ‘minor’ concerns of sacrificing the truth and bowing to their uncompromising demands to help a marginalised community, would we even achieve that? Obviously, mistakes were made in the treatment of Catholics in the North of Ireland, gays, and blacks. Most people with even a cursory understanding of history would therefore surely have a natural proclivity to siding with the underdog. Which could possibly be why some have sympathy for people who identify as something other than their biological sex.
It is also worth noting that gender dysphoria is a medically recognized psychological condition and how could we not have sympathy with someone who feels so uncomfortable in their own body to the extent that they want to medically alter it? In the case of trans porn star Buck Angel, his options were either suicide or ‘transition’, and I am glad he chose the latter as he is now living a life that is fulfilling to him. There are also intersex people where some ambiguity exists over what their sex is. However, these extreme examples are not representative of what is happening now. Instead, we are witnessing an epidemic of narcissism where society must change and adapt to others’ subjective sense of their own identity. This is not coming about because of some sort of new scientific discovery; it is the product of dogma.
Rates of anxiety disorders, depression, self-cutting, and suicide have skyrocketed, especially for girls since 2011. Social media use and the proliferation of smart phones are some of the main culprits for these rises and it is within this context that we should view this recent phenomenon.
Some physicians have hypothesised that what we are seeing now is ‘rapid onset gender dysphoria’ where children that previously had no indication of gender dysphoria are now suddenly gender dysphoric. There is also an element of peer contagion where people with transgender friends in their group are massively more likely to now identify as the same. So, if this is the result of a contagion that stems from an ideology, then should we not at least tread lightly when it comes to treatment? We look back with horror when we previously used physical treatments for psychological disorders such as we did with lobotomies. It is easy to imagine a future where we will look back at this transgender craze with similar terror, as when taken to its most extreme this can lead to irreversible damage e.g., ‘penises’ constructed from arm muscle, removing healthy body parts and puberty blockers. ‘Transition’ typically yields monstrous results.
While Ireland does not seem to be at the extreme levels of Canada, where parents can be arrested for using ‘wrong’ pronouns, or the USA, where informed consent is all that is required to receive cross-sex hormone therapy in many gender clinics, we certainly do need to be cautious. Ireland is one of the few places where we can self-declare our gender – even if there has been no medical intervention. One of our parties in Government – the Green party – has included recognition of ’non-binaries’ in a recent manifesto.
We have already conceded too much ground in the battle against this cancer, and similarly the best way to defeat it is to get to it early when it is in an embryonic stage. Supporters of this rubbish invariably feel they have a right – albeit entirely unjustifiable -to make a moral judgement about their critics being morally insufficient, according to their subjective sense of morality. It would be preferable not to have to engage with these ideologues or their facilitators at all, as their certainty of themselves as being the only ones with good intentions when it comes to helping these marginalised groups makes them exceptionally challenging work. ‘The road to hell is paved with good intentions’ is a proverb that springs to mind.
The real mystery is why some do not care about an ideology that assaults truth and harms young people (often irreversibly). Instead they degrade themselves in a futile attempt to sate the totalitarian appetite of some truly contemptible ideologues.
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