In today’s cultural standoff, both sides believe they’re defending children. But when everyone claims the moral high ground, honest dialogue becomes nearly impossible.
This post brings up an important point that I hope others will consider. As a gay man in Austin, I can’t help but be alarmed reading about the high numbers of kids in various studies (like the Cass Report) who are gender nonconforming gay kids. I was one of those kids, and if I hadn’t grown up in West Texas in the late 90s/00s, I might have ended up being pushed toward some of these treatments. When I see shirts around Austin that say, “Protect Trans Kids,” I can’t help but wonder, “but who is protecting the gays kids like me?”
The brilliant (future President?) Pete Buttigieg got savaged online by some in the trans community after he recently made a nuanced statement about trans people in sports. He also got an avalanche of support. This “innocence” framing is spot on. Reminds me of the contentious all-church meeting where the guy says, “Let’s pray about it,” and shuts down all argument.
Spiritual language can absolutely do the same thing. Great point. I'm reading "Circle of Hope" right now and that's a common-theme I see acted out in there.
Well said. I don't think we help ourselves when we fuss about pronouns. I'm about to begin a course of
Christian study with a professor who, whilst clearly male, married to a woman and with children, is insisting on them/their. Just, why? It's so clumsy. Yes, it's grammatical in instances where we don't know the gender of a person.
Just this week, I tried to read an article on a drag queen, who claimed not to mind about pronouns. The article was unreadable as the author used them/their. A lost opportunity to inform myself.
This post brings up an important point that I hope others will consider. As a gay man in Austin, I can’t help but be alarmed reading about the high numbers of kids in various studies (like the Cass Report) who are gender nonconforming gay kids. I was one of those kids, and if I hadn’t grown up in West Texas in the late 90s/00s, I might have ended up being pushed toward some of these treatments. When I see shirts around Austin that say, “Protect Trans Kids,” I can’t help but wonder, “but who is protecting the gays kids like me?”
The brilliant (future President?) Pete Buttigieg got savaged online by some in the trans community after he recently made a nuanced statement about trans people in sports. He also got an avalanche of support. This “innocence” framing is spot on. Reminds me of the contentious all-church meeting where the guy says, “Let’s pray about it,” and shuts down all argument.
Spiritual language can absolutely do the same thing. Great point. I'm reading "Circle of Hope" right now and that's a common-theme I see acted out in there.
Well said. I don't think we help ourselves when we fuss about pronouns. I'm about to begin a course of
Christian study with a professor who, whilst clearly male, married to a woman and with children, is insisting on them/their. Just, why? It's so clumsy. Yes, it's grammatical in instances where we don't know the gender of a person.
Just this week, I tried to read an article on a drag queen, who claimed not to mind about pronouns. The article was unreadable as the author used them/their. A lost opportunity to inform myself.