The Impossible Gift
Differing Understandings of the Harms of "Gender-Affirming Care"
This week, Bethel McGrew presents a Christian view of why “gender-affirming care” does violence to persons. Her account highlights foundational differences that exist within the sex-realist coalition, while calling for deeper understanding and friendship between those who disagree.
The Impossible Gift
Bethel McGrew
Since conservative Christians like me don’t believe gay sex is a natural good, Burgo guesses right that we don’t regard losing gay sex as a privation on par with losing one’s ability to beget or breastfeed children.
However, if Burgo concludes from this that our sympathy for the young men in his practice will necessarily be diluted, or weaker than our sympathy for young detransitioning women, then he misunderstands why we protest their “treatment.” We protest it first and foremost because it is an assault on healthy bodies, violating the physician’s sacred trust and violating the patient’s human dignity. We protest it because it preys on the lonely, confused, and mentally ill, turning them into lifelong medical patients. The fact that the men it mutilates are often sexually conflicted, thus all the more vulnerable, should only increase our anger.
This Week in Sex-Realist Feminism: Firestone's Prophecy, Pornhub's Crimes, and Hardwired Sex Differences
This week: Carl R. Trueman on Shulamith Firestone's prophetic voice, Laila Mickelwait on Pornhub's crimes, Leonard Sax on a new brain study showing differences between the sexes, violence against women, feminism and fat, a brothel owner's memoir, FD recommends a book—and more!
From the Archives:
ICYMI: Donovan Cleckley on how gender idealogues promote a kind of medical dehumanization, often at the expense of gay men and lesbians.
“Gender-Affirming Care” Is the New Conversion Therapy
Donovan Cleckley
“Children deserve to grow up, but ‘gender-affirming care’ intervenes to prevent this growth for ideological reasons. Ironically, within this worldview, ‘the authentic self’ cannot be produced without medical interventions to achieve the desired aesthetic outcome.”