Hypocrisy Anew

What God Did

I know I’ve written about this a lot – but the cynical cruelty of Republican governments in Texas and Alabama and Arkansas – why it’s literally breathtaking.  With the stroke of a pen, those three states (and more to come I’m sure) are attacking some of the most vulnerable kids in our society.  They are attacking the incredibly small percentage who, through no fault of their own, are transgendered.

Governor Ivey of Alabama made it plain: the transgendered do not fit in with her religious ideals.  They should be “what God made them” she said.  So let’s start with the First Amendment. It says Congress (and through the 14th Amendment, the state legislatures) shall make no law establishing religion.  But Governor Ivey in Alabama, and the other Governors and State Legislatures, are placing their version of conservative Christian doctrine into law.

In Their Heart

Think of a transgendered teenager.  In their brain, in their heart, in their whole being, they know they are not their “birth gender designation”.  It’s not a “mental disorder”, science demonstrates that gender is based on a whole series of genetic variables.  Only a few of those relate to what visibly are called “sex characteristics”:  ovaries, testicles and such.  That’s what the hospital puts on the birth certificate, but we now know that there is so much more to gender than the obvious.  The rest relates to brain function, the gender of the “brain” .

So that brain, heart, and being, are trapped in the wrong body.  And as puberty hits, that body betrays that brain, heart and being, with every development.  Is it any wonder that 80% of transgendered folks have considered suicide, and 40% actually attempted it.  So these few kids, so trapped, turn to parents and other adults for help.  And there is help:  doctors can prescribe drugs to stop secondary development, visibly breasts and hips in one case, beards, hair and muscles in the other.  It’s not surgery, it’s delaying the onset of what we all know occurs.  Surgery isn’t an option for children; in almost every case, gender altering surgery is only available to adults.

The Few

It’s such a small number of children.  And it’s not a “fad”, something that kids will somehow outgrow.  We all went to school, we all remember how much we wanted to fit in, to be “normal”.  But those kids aren’t “normal”, they are physiologically different.  And the laws or regulations of those states are sentencing them to their worst nightmare:  being trapped in an opposite gendered body.

What are those laws and regulations doing?  In Texas, it’s currently considered child abuse to prescribe drugs to halt puberty, a felony crime.  The Alabama law will do the same.  With the whole weight of the authority of the State, doctors are ordered to stop treating these adolescents.  The “children’s services” departments have been turned to seek out those “breaking” the new rule, and charge them for “child abuse”, doctors and parents alike.  Teachers are ordered to report possibly transgendered students to parents and the “authorities”.  

Political Points

Not only have they cut away the medical supports from those kids, they are cutting away their other support systems as well. The politicians are “enforcing” a singular religious view – and they are using that “enforcement” to benefit politically. It’s the same political force that demanded that Covid vaccination and mask wearing were matters of personal choice.  Personal choice: but only when it’s applied to them and their supporters, not when it’s applied to the children and parents who are dealing with one of the most difficult conditions a family can face.  Calling them out as hypocrites hardly has the depth to describe those taking this political position.

In our incredibly polarized political climate, it feeding “red meat” to the base.  The right has discovered “sex” as their new talking point – whether it’s the transgendered, or their ridiculous efforts to discredit a Supreme Court nominee as “pro-child porn”.  They are appealing to “jack up” their base, heighten their excitement, and drive them to the polls in a state of righteous indignation.  

Bullying

These efforts to attack the transgendered only work because the government “knows”. A transgendered person is invisible, except that the schools have records, or the driver’s license bureau demands birth certificates. These children and families are quietly working through a most difficult crisis, but the “state” uses the power of bureaucracy to drive them out into the public, and then demand they, “…be what God made them”. It’s the height of authoritarianism, a jack-booted principal standing at the restroom door demanding, “Show me your papers”.

If you believe in God, those children are, “…what God made them”.  And any merciful God would want these few children to be happy, not trapped.  And certainly not bullied by politicians, supposedly acting “in their welfare”, but really only seeking a few more votes on election day.  It’s subjugation, it’s disgusting, and it’s wrong.