Op-ed: Power and money is behind the leftist crusade for ‘gender affirming care’

According to leftists, transgenderism is not something to merely be tolerated and accepted. It must be celebrated as worthy of emulation or else. But why?

Transgenderism is a tool for the left, a…

According to leftists, transgenderism is not something to merely be tolerated and accepted. It must be celebrated as worthy of emulation or else. But why?

Transgenderism is a tool for the left, a lever with which totalitarians hope to separate us from the self-evident truths of the human experience.

If the very idea of reality can be assailed successfully though questioning biology, then all the promises of history can be jettisoned as artifacts of a worthless age, and along with them, our rights.

If transgenderism is the lever, then “gender-affirming care” (GAC) is the fulcrum.

As a medical concept, it stands alone. Like the early 20th century pseudo-science of Phrenology – gauging someone’s character and mental capacity by studying the shape of their head – gender-affirming care promises much and delivers none of it.   

GAC is this century’s Phrenology, offering the impossible at the end of a scalpel. 

The idea of GAC or cross-sex treatment had been bouncing around for nearly a century before it found its footing in the mid-20th century among German scientists who believed biology could be altered, even overcome, at the hand of mankind.  

Many of these same scientists would later lend their expertise to the hideous human experimentation conducted on internees and prisoners by the Germans during WWII, experimentation that has left an indelible stain on the entire field of exploratory medicine.  

Moving ahead a few decades, we find a similar, no-holds-barred approach to medical intervention, this time based on an understanding of genetics. 

Everything is on the table, including the previously accepted imperatives of biology. If, as this increasingly dominant wing of science asserts, man is but the sum of his genetic blueprint, he is then infinitely malleable, to whatever extent technology permits. The only restrictions are those self-imposed by researchers, not out of morality, but simply for lack of tools equal to the task. 

But perhaps due to an outsized attachment to the man-as-machine concept, medicine – whether for physical or mental maladies – has begun morphing from patching the machine, MacGyver-like, to attempting a wholesale overhaul. 

Make no mistake, “gender affirming care” is a full-scale rebuild of the human being, mind, body, and ultimately, soul.  

Transgenderism is no mystery. People have fallen victim to all manner of body dysmorphia throughout history. What sets transgenderism apart is the willingness of powerful interests to exploit individuals with gender dysphoria for profit and power, and once trustworthy professions to line up for their cut. 

To better understand the dynamic at work here, let’s briefly contrast gender dysmorphia to another, better known malady – anorexia. The anorexic is convinced his body is hideously deformed by fat. No amount of mirror-gazing will disabuse him of this notion, as the evidence of his own eyes cannot be believed, as it is a rational response to an irrational ailment. 

The anorexic copes with this clanging dissonance between his perceived identity and his ideal identity by avoiding food altogether, seeing it as an enemy to his health, both physical and mental. Without intervention, the consequences are horrifying to the patient and those that love him. Death stalks such people, and, sadly, frequently wins. 

However, imagine if a physician “affirmed” such a patient’s disordered belief rather than treating it. The physician would rightfully be charged with criminal and civil violations. 

The same standard would be applied to treating those poor souls who believe their limbs are extraneous to their happiness, ill people who believe they belong in a wheelchair and seek a physician’s help in acquiring a disability.  

These disordered folks want their legs removed, arms amputated, and eyes blinded. Society, as unmoored from reality as it is, still wouldn’t look kindly on a doctor who “affirmed” such a patient’s request. 

Yet we apply an entirely different set of rules for clinicians treating gender identity issues. 

It’s a fair question to ask: why would a disparity exist in the first place, and moreover, why would we not immediately consider it sinister? 

The driving force is money. The rationalization is tolerance. The truth of gender affirming care is a combination of greed, hubris, and indifference to suffering, all in the name of “health.” 

A gender affirming care provider is like an investment counselor who places the whole of your retirement fund in his own account, or a mechanic who bilks you for a multi-thousand-dollar repair when you only had a $200 dollar problem. 

Why would they do this? 

Because they can. And in doing so, they will be seen as courageous, caring, and admirable, all while growing very wealthy on the life-long treatments – and billings – a transitioning individual requires to reassure themselves they are indeed what they manifestly are not. 

The left demands raw power and finds it at the nexus of a greedy medical/pharmacological industry and a popular culture dedicated to living life incuriously. Exploitable for different reasons, both serve their purpose as useful idiots in the grinding Marxist machine. 

After all, if we’ve learned anything over the last decade, it would be to never underestimate the willingness of the left to lie to further an agenda, and of the average American to eagerly accept that lie if it comes with social media “likes” and website “clicks.” 

We can’t reason them away from this behavior; to them, too much is at stake. Besides, if they were open to reason, they wouldn’t be pursuing these insanities. Our best hope is to prevent the exploitation of the vulnerable with legal protections, at least until they are of an age to decide for themselves. 

That the transgender movement finds protecting children to be objectionable is all the reason we need to make certain we do so.