This is the third of a five-part series on Virginia’s transgender wars.
by Tom Pafford
The Left is waging a very successful War to manipulate the public into accepting Transgender identity as normal. Neither the LGB crowd, nor the “Right-Wingers” who do not accept Trans, have successfully countered this War. The Left’s agenda moves forward daily, e.g., the recently passed Equality Act by the House. And, it is based on a simple precept: “Ask me no questions, I’ll tell you no lies.”
Little is known for certain about the causes of Trans. But there is no lack of studies.
Identical Twin Studies: When one identical twin is Trans, more often both are Trans. This frequency is not seen in fraternal twins, indicating that there may be a genetic influence for this identity.
Neurobiological Studies: The volume of the central subdivision of the bed nucleus of the stria terminals (BSTc), a brain area essential for sexual behavior, is larger in men than in women. Studies show that Trans females had female-sized BSTc; the Trans males had male-sized BSTc. (Also see.)
Psychological studies: A study with 32 transgender children, ages 5 to 12 given the Implicit Association Test where pictures are quickly selected for either “this is me or not me.” Faster selections provide insights into the child’s personality. Trans girls showed the same pattern of selection as non-trans girls; Trans boys showed the same pattern of selection as non-trans boys.
Based on the above it sounds like there is ample scientific evidence to support the Trans cause.
But, not so fast.
In 2016 the Washington Post published an article that stated:
A 143-page paper, published this week in The New Atlantis journal, combs through hundreds of studies in search of a causal, biological explanation for sexual orientation and gender identity, but comes up empty. “The belief that sexual orientation is an innate, biologically fixed human property — that people are ‘born that way” — is not supported by scientific evidence,” says the report, written by a psychiatrist and a biostatistician at Johns Hopkins University. “Likewise, the belief that gender identity is an innate, fixed human property independent of biological sex — so that a person might be a ‘man trapped in a woman’s body’ or a ‘woman trapped in a man’s body’ — is not supported by scientific evidence,” the report states. However, the authors stressed that the lack of scientific evidence does not mean sexual orientation and gender identity are choices. Rather, additional research is needed to determine to what extent biology and environment shape sexual orientation and gender identity, and to what degree such properties are fluid, they say.
It is very interesting to see how the Left uses this information. The Left moves fast, delivers its message daily, and changes like a chameleon. Bottom line: it’s hard to keep up with the Left’s Trans Movement!
Lucky for you and me, there are organizations keeping track. One is the Heritage Foundation, which has named the Left’s Trans War: Transgender Catechism. And the two most favored terms of Transgender Catechism are “Sex Assigned at Birth” and “Gender Identity.”
When a baby is born, the Catechism says, “sex assigned at birth” is more correct that saying “sex assigned simply by looking at its genitals.” This opens the door for “gender identity,” separating gender and sex, and it is assigned by the way a person feels and thinks. Here’s an example of this Catechism…
In an expert declaration to a federal district court in North Carolina concerning H.B. 2, Dr. Deanna Adkins stated, “From a medical perspective, the appropriate determinant of sex is gender identity.” Adkins is a professor at Duke University School of Medicine and the director of the Duke Center for Child and Adolescent Gender Care (which opened in 2015).
Adkins argues that gender identity is not only the preferred basis for determining sex, but “the only medically supported determinant of sex.” Every other method is bad science, she claims: “It is counter to medical science to use chromosomes, hormones, internal reproductive organs, external genitalia, or secondary sex characteristics to override gender identity for purposes of classifying someone as male or female.”
This is a remarkable claim, not least because the argument recently was that gender is only a social construct, while sex is a biological reality. Now, activists claim that gender identity is destiny, while biological sex is the social construct.”
This Catechism is a moving target and changes like the wind. And in War, changing, moving targets are much harder to shoot down.
In Part Four, I overview the consequences of this Catechism — The Transgender Catechism War with Society.
Tom Pafford, an Annandale resident, is running for a seat on the Fairfax County School Board. View his campaign website here.
