TRAIN UP A CHILD

“Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it.” -Proverbs 22:6. While most of us can likely recite that scripture by heart, do we understand its true value? When we consider the direction a child should go, most will focus on what they feel, rather than what God says-that is where America finds itself.
In 2004, Merriam-Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary listed the term, “Trans-gender” this way: “having personal characteristics(as transsexuality and transvestism) that transcend traditional gender boundaries and corresponding sexual norms.” Even then, the individuals cited were generally adults(and by and large male) who had made this decision as an adult, and rarely if at all, sought to change his sex. In addition, the Williams Institute records that only 0.6%, or about 1.4 million identified as such based on a 2016 report.
However, something has changed.
Within the last few years, a relatively new trend has begun. An unprecedented surge in girls, not boys-questioning their sexuality, as well as their gender, and seeking to change it. This is being done in most cases, or in many cases, with parental endorsement and assistance. This was predominately an area that had been long since dominated by males not females. Nevertheless, the encouragement and push urging questioning girls to become transgender men is at an all-time high. While this was once an anomaly-it is now by and large a well endorsed part of our social construct. What happened?
For years, most can no doubt recall either themselves or a boy or girl in the neighborhood acting opposite to their social and gender norms. In other words, girls playing with trucks; boys playing with dolls. So, rather than some girls playing with dolls and makeup, she preferred roughhousing, lizards, and toy trucks. That girl was labeled a “Tomboy.” According to a 2013 study at the Gender Identity Clinic in Amsterdam, 64% eventually outgrow it, while another 28% are untraceable in later years as gender dysphoric. This was statistically a combination of most children simply outgrowing it by puberty, coupled with the parents not catering to children at an age where many were still playing pretend.
Despite that, the latest movement of children’s innocent minds being entertained and manipulated by those no longer capable of being the adults in the room, has grown exponentially. In author Abigail Shrier’s book, “Irreversible Damage: The Transgender Craze Seducing Our Daughters,” she recognizes the toxic direction that our nation has taken: “In America and across the Western world, adolescents were reporting a sudden spike in gender dysphoria—the medical condition associated with the social designation “transgender.” Between 2016 and 2017 the number of gender surgeries for natal females in the U.S. quadrupled, with biological women suddenly accounting for—as we have seen—70 percent of all gender surgeries. In 2018, the UK reported a 4,400 percent rise over the previous decade in teenage girls seeking gender treatments. In Canada, Sweden, Finland, and the UK, clinicians and gender therapists began reporting a sudden and dramatic shift in the demographics of those presenting with gender dysphoria—from predominately preschool-aged boys to predominately adolescent girls.”

Aside from the mental repercussions, there are physical ramifications as well. In a 2018 article in the Federalist, journalist Jane Robbins cited these findings on the rising popularity of puberty blockers: “I have written about physicians who push the boundaries of ethical practice by administering untested medical treatments to children and adolescents suffering from gender dysphoria(or transgender patients). Such treatments include puberty blockers, cross-sex hormones, and so-called sex-reassignment surgery. Citing guidelines issued by the political advocacy group World Professional Association for Transgender Health (WPATH), these physicians admit that the effects of cross-sex hormones are generally irreversible. Vulnerable patients who agree to this treatment are thus crossing the Rubicon into permanent bodily impairment.
However, most doctors insist that puberty blockers are safe and fully reversible, so that patients who decide not to continue with the “transition” can get their healthy bodies back. But mounting medical evidence shows the fallacy of the cavalier implication that puberty blockers are as harmless as aspirin and can be discontinued with as little effect.”
For most of America, this is merely clickbait news. Noteworthy information on a social media stream, garnering and warranting only moderate attention. Unfortunately, the situation facing our daughters and future adults is much more dire. In current America, a 15-year-old girl can walk into a clinic(no parental consent necessary), and come out with a course of testosterone, forever eliminating her chances of ever having a normal life. Due to the support of many teachers, celebrities, politicians, and a host of Social media armchair life-coaches, 8-year-old girls(and younger) are substantiated in their dysphoria and celebrated in their trans decision. She is then encouraged to take drugs that can atrophy parts of her designed for childbearing. Although statistically speaking, she will outgrow this phase, the damage, both mentally and physically-has already been done. They later find themselves one day seeking marriage and children, only to discover that they are lacking the very attributes synonymous to many with what makes a woman- a woman.
If we dare allow this to continue, the desire that some in our society seek to be a reality, will be achieved. The distinction between male and female will be forever blurred. It is not too late to take action. Those wielding political power and seeking it need to hear our voices. America, our girls are counting on us. -Lawrence E. Johnson, Sr.