We don’t think that demonic is too strong a word to describe this. It brings us thoughts of the Nazi doctors who thought they were doing good things.

–Unsigned MassResistance editorial (April 19, 2008), and quoted in WorldNetDaily

I occasionally get asked why I spend so much time and energy repeating the message that the Bible mentions gender variant people in Matthew 19:12, Galatians 3:28 and Isaiah 56:4-8.

Well, it’s because conservative Christian’s often site Genesis 1:27 and Genesis 5:1-2 to mean that there are only those born female, and those born male, and there is no gray area between male and female.

Against science and reality, they believe in a sex (“what’s between the legs”) and gender (“what’s between the ears”) dichotomy, where gender is either male or female, and one’s gender is always aligned to, and always determined determined by the shape of one’s genitalia at birth. They strongly believe that when asking the question Can One Be A Transgender Christian?, they usually answer “No.” The Traditional Values Coalition quotes Jerry Leach in proclaiming Transgenders Need Spiritual Help:

Gender confused individuals need psychological help but they also need spiritual assistance to deal with their mental problems.

Jerry Leach, a former closeted cross-dresser, heads Reality Resources, a ministry to men and women who have gender identity problems. Leach, writing in his paper, “Homo-sexuality & Transsexuality Compared,” says that a transgendered person is not only gender confused, but he gradually rejects his God-given gender role. “Deep-seated psychological splitting or disassociation from the masculine is the most serious in the life of the transgender person. … An underlying principle that bears repeating is the reality that compulsions do not remain static. They are progressive. A man can begin with experimentation, only to discover much later that his repeated habit finally betrays him by leading him into bondage.” Leach’s web site, www.realityresources.com, has more information on how sexually confused individuals can find healing and wholeness.

Peter LaBarbera recently more than inferred that the idea that there may be transgender and transsexual youth as “tranny insanity.” Now his pals at MassResistance have gone further in their description of the treatment of transyouth, using the term demonic (the emphasis is theirs):

We don’t think that demonic is too strong a word to describe this. It brings us thoughts of the Nazi doctors who thought they were doing good things.

As MassResistance has reported in the past, this is going on at the world-renowned Children’s Hospital in Boston – not some backwater clinic. This is the elite of the medical profession. And the Boston Globe treats this with clinical nonchalance. This article is so disturbing that it’s difficult to say more.

MassResistance then cites an article in the Boston Globe, entitled Q&A with Norman Spack; A doctor helps children change their gender. Where MassResistance is upset enough to directly add a comment to the article’s quoted text is where Dr. Spack indicates that he believes transgender people are also formed — as transgender — in the image of God:

[After the fold, more pure, unadulterated crap from MassResistance.]
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Hmmm, sounds like … it’s time … to get back to our 5 Things You Need To Know Today … where we address some of the transgender stuff making news …

#1 – What a cast of characters in these two articles — “Concerned Woman” Matt Barber, Exodus International’s Alan Chambers, Reality Resources’ Jerry Leech and (this should not be totally unexpected) a Spanish Cardinal, among others. To sort of summarize all of it and save you some time — god created man and woman, god created you, god does not makes mistakes, you’re male or female, if you’re confused blame it on permissive-and-indulgent-parents-and-the-tranny-lobby, get over it, we’re here for queers, don’t worry, whew …

Evangelicals hope to respond with both moral authority and biblical compassion to gender identity disorder.

The Transgender Moment

And …

Cardinal Cañizares said that a well-organized cultural revolution, incarnated in lobbyists, legislative initiatives and the press, promote a “gender ideology” that rejects sexuality as a defining characteristic of the person.

Cardinal: a ‘Gender Revolution’ Is Under Way

(That first article, it doesn’t name a name, but see Regrets … )

#2 – From the March of Progress file, it’s hard to believe the Scopes “Monkey” Trial happened over 80 years ago …

“I don’t think our schools have reading, writing and arithmetic down enough to start teaching about transgenderism,” Campfield said.

Rep. Campfield wants gay references banned in schools

#3 – Back to the “permissive parents” theme, Porno Pete “Pouter” says “Stop The Tranny Insanity” …

Could it be that permissive parenting plays a major role in encouraging a gender-confused identity in a child? Pearson says she felt “relief” on hearing that her daughter claimed to have a male identity. Relief? A wiser parent might have sought professional help from someone not beholden to “transgender” activist ideology — to guide the troubled girl into accepting the wonderful body and sex that God gave her.

WATCH IT: Tranny Insanity at CNN — No Other Side on 8-Year-old Boy Gender Confusion Story

By the way, as I’m reminded of heels … here’s the good, the bad, and the lovely.

#4 – A day with sunshine, roll over Anita …

Broward County has made it illegal to discriminate against its transgender residents …

Broward approves transgender rights

#5 – Finally, from Matt Foreman, a Farewell Address …

The second issue I need to address is whether we had the votes to pass an inclusive ENDA in the House. Well, let’s be clear here: the only person who’d actually done a solid head count was Rep. Tammy Baldwin and she said we had them. She did the head count for the two votes on the inclusive hate crimes bill and she was right on the money.

People now try to say that “the votes just weren’t there.” That’s just not true. Rather, the concerns brought up at the last minute were about a hypothetical Republican procedural maneuver that never materialized. We heard the exact same concerns about the exact same hypothetical maneuver being tried when they moved the hate crimes bill, but it never materialized then either. And we passed transgender inclusive hate crimes legislation in both chambers of Congress. But when it came to ENDA—our “friends” decided to do our enemies’ dirty work for them, and take out gender identity protections before that was even proposed by a single member of Congress. Something wrong with that? You bet!

With a murdered trans woman lying in Wayne County morgue, I don’t think I need to tell anyone here why gender identity protections are so vital. But there’s also a principle here: We are one community, one people, period.

‘State of the Movement’ Address by Matt Foreman, Executive Director, National Gay and Lesbian Task Force

Whenever I discuss transgender medical or therapeutic treatments over at the Ex-Gay Watch, I always seem to go back to the Harry Benjamin Standards Of Care. Like or hate this document (and the GID diagnosis), what the document does is provide criteria for determining if one has a condition that falls under the document’s purview; it provides a general outline of what medical and psychological treatments are appropriate for transsexuals; and it lists timelines and benchmarks for when particular treatments are considered appropriate.

Many medical and mental health conditions have standards of care — evidence-based clinical practice guidelines. There are standards of care for everything from treating ingrown toenails to managing Alzheimer’s disease; from treating acute dental trauma to treating bipolar disorders.

The National Guideline Clearinghouseâ„¢ maintains a public resource for many of these guidelines.

Not too surprisingly, there are no entries in the National Guideline Clearinghouseâ„¢ for Same Sex Attraction Disorder (SSAD) — no evidence-based clinical practice guidelines listed there for how to conduct conversion therapies for a SSAD (or any other named disorder relating to treatment of homosexuality or unwanted homosexual propensities) diagnosis.

National Association For Research & Therapy Of Homosexuality (NARTH) indicates this about its function:

NARTH’s function is to provide psychological understanding of the cause, treatment and behavior patterns associated with homosexuality, within the boundaries of a civil public dialogue.

After reading the organization’s function one might think that the organization would maintain an evidence-based clinical practice guideline for treating unwanted homosexual propensities. Yet, if one searches the NARTH website, one finds they have no published standard of care for SSAD, or standard of care for any other titled disorder relating to treatment of homosexuality or unwanted homosexual propensities.

Read the rest of this entry »

Transsexual pioneer Renee Richards regrets fame. That’s what the headline reads.

She decided to take the United States Tennis Association to court for banning her from playing in women’s events at the US Open as she was a transsexual – and she won, winning headlines globally as a pioneer for transsexual rights.

Richards, now 72 and without a partner, said she does not regret the sex change operation at the age of 40 – although she might have liked to have gone through the process a bit earlier – but she does have misgivings about her notoriety.

“I made the fateful decision to go and fight the legal battle to be able to play as a woman and stay in the public eye and become this symbol,” Richards, an ophthalmologist, told Reuters in an interview in her Manhattan offices.

“I could have gone back to my office and just carried on with my life and the notoriety would have died down. I would have been able to resume the semblance of a normal life. I could have lived a more private life but I chose not to.

“I have misgivings about that. I am nostalgic about what would have happened if I had done it the other way,” said the 6-foot-2-inch tall Richards with an unmistakable air of sadness as she folds her man-sized hands in her lap.

And yet, the article ends with:

In the mid-1970s and when her memoir, “Second Serve: The Renee Richards Story,” came out in 1983, was treated as an curiosity and besieged by television chat shows.

But with the release this month of her second memoir, “No Way Renee, The Second Half of My Notorious Life,” few came knocking and television showed no interest.

“It is annoying to me,” said Richards. “I’m so ordinary now; they’re not interested. There’s lots about transsexuals now.”

Of course, she’s previously been quoted as saying…

[Transitioning is] not something for somebody in their 40s to do, someone who’s had a life as a man, – - – If you’re 18 or 20 and never had the kind of (advantages) I had, and you’re oriented in that direction, sure, go ahead and make right what nature didn’t. But if you’re a 45-year-old man and you’re an airline pilot and you have an ex-wife and three adolescent kids, you better get on Thorazine or Zoloft or Prozac or get locked up or do whatever it takes to keep you from being allowed to do something like this.’

…Which of course left Jerry Leach (of Reality Resources — a ministry affilliated with ex-gay ministry Exodus International) salivating at the idea that transitioning is bad, period.

Richards isn’t happy she was famous, but also isn’t happy she’s not famous enough to get anyone seriously interested in her new book. And, most transpeople who might be interested in reading her book because she was a transsexual pioneer aren’t as interested in her anymore as she’s managed to piss off transpeople.  She globalized her personal dissatisfaction with transitioning after 40 – indicating the rest of us transfolk  need/needed psychotrophic drugs to keep us from transitioning.

Renee has my personal non-thanks for her 1999 statement — a statement picked up by ex-gay/ex-transgender organizations as a reason not to transition. 

As for me reading her book — I’m not interested, and won’t ever be interested.