Cultural indoctrination war by Byron York
https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/cultural-indoctrination-war
CULTURAL INDOCTRINATION WAR. Recently, leftist activists and their allies in the media had a big success labeling a bill passed by the Florida Legislature as the “Don’t Say Gay” bill. They claimed, without evidence, that the Republican-sponsored bill would ban the mention of homosexuality in Florida schools. In fact, the bill, now signed into law by Gov. Ron DeSantis, prohibited “classroom instruction” on “sexual orientation or gender identity” by teachers or other adults in kindergarten through third grade. It also said such instruction after third grade must be “age-appropriate” or “developmentally appropriate.” In other words, it specifically allowed classroom instruction on such matters after third grade. Nevertheless, LGBTQIA+ activists called the bill “Don’t Say Gay.” Many media outlets and commentators picked it up immediately.
Now, just a month later, the same alliance is at it again. The Alabama Legislature has passed a bill banning hormone treatment, puberty blockers, and surgery for minors who say they want to change their gender. “Minors, and often their parents, are unable to comprehend and fully appreciate the risk and life implications, including permanent sterility, that result from the use of puberty blockers, cross-sex hormones, and surgical procedures,” the Republican-sponsored bill says. “For these reasons, the decision to pursue a course of hormonal and surgical interventions to address a discordance between the individual’s sex and sense of identity should not be presented to or determined for minors who are incapable of comprehending the negative implications and life-course difficulties attending to these interventions.” A “minor,” for the purposes of this measure, is defined in Alabama law as “a person who is under 19 years of age.”
So the law bans certain drastic treatments and procedures for children 18 and under. And this is the headline of the New York Times story reporting it: “Alabama Lawmakers Approve Ban on Medical Care for Transgender Youth.”
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A ban on medical care? If a “transgender youth,” that is, 18 or under, breaks his or her leg or catches pneumonia or is diagnosed with cancer — is that person denied medical care under the new law? Would it be illegal for a doctor to treat them? Obviously not. And is there a consensus that puberty blockers, hormone treatments, amputations, and other surgeries, irreversible actions, are appropriate “medical care” for young people age 18 and under? Those are questions raised by the New York Times headline.
NPR took a slightly different route, headlining its story “Alabama Legislature votes to ban gender-affirming medical care for transgender youth.” The phrase “gender-affirming” has entered wide use quite recently and is a euphemism for medical procedures not to affirm but to change one’s gender. For example, this explainer from the Mayo Clinic mentions “gender affirming genital surgical procedures, such as penile inversion vaginoplasty.” For its part, the New York Times article describes the Alabama law as the criminalization of “gender-affirming surgeries.”
The Biden White House is fully on board. On Thursday, press secretary Jen Psaki said, “To be clear, every major medical association agrees that gender-affirming healthcare for transgender kids is a best practice and potentially lifesaving.” The Alabama law, Psaki continued, “would target trans youth with tactics that threaten to put pediatricians in prison if they provide medically necessary, lifesaving healthcare.”
On March 31, the Biden administration released a statement celebrating what is called the “Transgender Day of Visibility.” The statement used the word “affirm” or “affirming” 29 times. Some examples: The administration pledged to strengthen federal measures to “protect transgender youth against discrimination, including when those youth seek gender-affirming care.” It pledged to emphasize “the positive impact of gender-affirming care on youth mental health.” It pledged to confirm that “providing gender-affirming care is neither child maltreatment nor malpractice.” It pledged to create an information bank to show why “gender-affirming care … is important to transgender, nonbinary, and other gender expansive young people’s well-being.” It pledged to use the Justice Department to knock down laws like Alabama’s by “reaffirming that transgender children have the right to access gender-affirming health care.”
And so on. You get the idea. Not surprisingly, the phrase “gender-affirming” and its variants are showing up more and more in the media discussion of puberty blockers, hormone treatments, and surgery. Such measures are also benignly described as “medical care.” And who could be against medical care? Who could respond negatively to a positive word like “affirming?”
Just like the “Don’t Say Gay” situation, supporters of the Florida bill and now the Alabama bill, and other bills like them around the country, face a battle of language as well as substance. And with the current administration, the activist world, and much of the media arrayed against them, it is an uphill battle.
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