Only in recent decades (and sometimes in just the past few years) has academia kneeled to the secular religion of progressive gender ideology. Unlike other areas of academia, there can be no questioning of their gender ideology as the inherent contradictions are self-evident.
Such issues were highlighted in a recent Economist article, which examined controversial aspects of “gender-affirming care” including puberty blockers, cross-sex hormones, and surgery. Scant evidence supports the long-term mental benefits of such care or its ability to treat gender dysphoria, as studies by the sympathetic American Endocrine Society (ES) and World Professional Association for Transgender Health (WPATH) find.
Indeed, the article notes a recent precipitous rise in referrals to the British Tavistock gender-identity clinic. The only plausible explanation for such an increase is that gender ideology and being transgender have become social phenomena and presumed solutions for underlying mental health issues.
Three recent papers looking at patients in America, Australia, and Finland find that “70% or more of the young people seeking treatment suffer from mental-health problems.” American diagnoses for gender dysphoria tripled from 2017 to 2021 with 42,000 diagnosed. Science has become hard to distinguish from politics with diagnoses for cross-sex hormones taking as little as fifteen minutes in appointments.
In the absence of a consistent framework, proponents of gender ideology must instead resort to emotion and platitudes. Hurling supposed insults such as “transphobe” at critics is de rigueur. Progressives dismiss the need for evidence-based thinking when it comes to gender, denying science, the same sin of which they accused conservatives who questioned the efficacy of COVID protocols. Indeed, the appropriate skepticism of European health agencies toward medicalized gender transitions, where high caution is urged, indicates that America’s blind institutional support is delusional.
Ignoring these differences between men and women places women in a vulnerable position. The state of Washington is one of the worst offenders when it comes to radical gender policy. In recent recordings of female inmates at a Washington corrections center for women, they admitted that men claiming to be women were being placed in female cells per new “tolerant” policies adopted in the state. These women are helpless, having few options in terms of advocacy.
In Virginia, victims saw advocacy in advance of the 2021 Virginia gubernatorial election. In Loudon County, a high school girl was sexually assaulted in a bathroom by a boy claiming to be a girl. Fortunately, justice was served as the perpetrator was found guilty. The school attempted to suppress the truth, but with the efforts of concerned parents and pundits, including Matt Walsh, the issue received national attention.
The mishandled situation played an integral role in Glenn Youngkin’s victory in Virginia, especially when his opponent, Terry McAuliffe, said parents should not “be telling schools what they should teach.” The incident indicated the need for greater transparency in schools as ideologues impart their gender ideology to minors.