Outflanked on the Left
Last month I wrote about Yascha Mounk’s book, The Identity Trap. He writes about the origins and problem of standpoint theory, cultural appropriation, limits on free speech, progressive separatism and identity sensitive public policy.
Given the current political environment, with anti-woke attacks from the right and cancel culture from the left, Mounk was pretty brave to tiptoe into these controversial waters. As a professor at Johns Hopkins and a Contributing Editor at The Atlantic, Mounk comes from a supportive environment. Nevertheless, I have no doubt he will be attacked from both the right and the left.
My longtime friend David and I have a phrase we have been using for years – The Radical Middle. Mounk speaks from the radical middle. The radical middle is radical because it is a hard position to hold. Humans have a tendency to think in binary categories. You are either with me or against me. And if you are in the middle, well then, you are against me.
I have been receiving attacks from the far right for a decade. There are over 13,000 comments on my first TED Talk. I’ve never looked at any of them. I’m told it’s not a pretty sight. Over the last year, for the first time, I have been attacked from the left. All of it has come from one stance I have taken.
If from a very early age a child has consistently and persistently claimed to be the gender not on their birth certificate, I believe it is all right to consider medical intervention for that child as soon as they reach puberty. These adolescents are transgender, and every indication is that they will always identify as such.
On the other hand, studies done in Europe and elsewhere are consistently showing that adolescents who first identify as transgender or nonbinary during their teen years are often no longer identifying that way when they are older. The majority of these individuals were identified female at birth. According to the 2022 US Transgender Survey, those identified female at birth are almost four times as likely to identify as nonbinary as those identified male at birth. All of these studies lead me to the same conclusion.
The World Professional Association of Transgender Health (WPATH) Standards of Care previously said no medical treatment should begin before age 16. Their new standards have removed any specific age, but state that no medical treatment should be started before natal puberty has begun, and in all cases, comprehensive multidisciplinary evaluation must be completed before treatment begins. I believe that evaluation should be informed by the latest peer reviewed studies regarding the medical treatment of transgender adolescents.
I have always been cautious in what I do and do not say on this subject, not only because it is controversial, but because not enough research has been done to draw ironclad conclusions. However, I have not been cautious enough.
I will no longer publicly comment on the issue. I am accustomed to being attacked from the right. I am not accustomed to being attacked from the left. Being attacked from either direction for sharing legitimate concerns is troubling.
Cancel culture says if you are not with us in every jot and tittle, you are not with us at all. I am a transgender woman, but if I do not agree with the currently popular positions regarding transgender medical treatment in every way, then I must be cancelled, no opportunity for rebuttal or continuing discourse. That is similar to what I have experienced from the far right, where attacks do not come with an opportunity for response or rebuttal. Whether from the right or the left, these attacks accumulate, and I no longer have the energy to fight back. I am weary.
It is not easy being transgender and Christian. It is even harder when you are prepared for a frontal attack, and receive one from the flank.
And so it goes.
