Interviews, op-eds, and Rowling
Here's what's been happening
It’s been a busy few weeks.
On April 21, Newsweek published my op-ed, “The New Homophobia,” in which I state my concerns about the medicalization of gender dysphoric children. According to major studies, most gender dysphoric children will desist (become comfortable with their biological sex) during or after puberty and simply grow up to be gay, lesbian, or bisexual. Over the past six years, it has become clear to me that in the name of “trans rights,” we are medically transitioning gay and lesbian youth, which is bona fide conversion therapy, the likes of which is performed in Iran, where homosexuality is illegal—men who are found guilty of sodomy are executed—but where sex-reassignment surgeries are sanctioned by the state and are seen as a solution to the homosexual problem. Medical transition for children and adolescents involves puberty blockers, which may stunt brain development and bone growth, and cross-sex hormones, which cause infertility and loss of proper sexual function. It also leads to lifetime dependence on hormones and careful monitoring by medical professionals, since there is no comprehensive data on the consequences of beginning this treatment so early in life. Several conversations I’ve had with detransitioners—people who identified as transgender, medically transitioned, and now once again identify as their biological sex—have confirmed that gender clinicians are in fact performing experiments on vulnerable youth and young adults. Sweden and Finland have discontinued in their gender clinics the application of what’s known as the “Dutch protocol”—administering puberty blockers to gender dysphoric youth to “give them time” to figure out their “true gender identity” (this is pseudoscience)—after clinicians acknowledged that the data is unclear and the consequences might be outweighing the benefits. However, the Amsterdam clinic, which pioneered the Dutch protocol, has doubled down on this treatment method. And, under the Biden Administration, so has the U.S. It’s a horror show, co-directed by activists exploiting kids to validate their own identities and theories, LGBT organizations beholden to wealthy donors, politicians who saw a chance to win new supporters by lobbying for a trendy social justice cause, and pharmaceutical companies, which are raking in millions off the skyrocketing demand for puberty blockers and hormones.
My op-ed was published in the early morning. That evening, J.K. Rowling retweeted it. It was already getting a lot of attention on Twitter, but needless to say that added a strong gust of wind to its sails. I’m so grateful to Rowling for using her platform to shine a light on this horrific medical scandal, which is happening right under our noses.
A few days later, I had a conversation on Callin with Wesley Yang, author of The Souls of Yellow Folk and the man behind the Substack newsletter, Year Zero, in which Yang and other writers analyze the “ideological fever that overtook the governing and chattering classes of America during [and after] the Trump years.” Yang is one of my favorite writers (and Twitter follows), so this was a thrill for me. We talked for three hours, during which I basically told him my entire life story. To listen, go here and click on the talk, “From the Christ Cult to the Social Justice Cult.”
On May 11, I spoke with James, a gay activist, who is fighting back against gender ideology in the U.K. We spoke about what’s behind the ideology and the new cult of “queer.” View below.
I was also interviewed by Benjamin Boyce, host of the podcast “Calmversations,” and the radical feminist writer, Julie Bindel, who recently visited New York. I’ll tweet out links to those when they’re up and perhaps put them in another newsletter.
You might know this by now, but a few months ago I signed a book deal with Post Hill Press. I’m writing a memoir, tentatively titled Cis White Gay, a play on the zingy slur that lockstep “queer folx” love to fling about for clicks and likes. But I’m having trouble thinking of a proper subtitle. You guys have any ideas? Some of mine are:
My Liberation from the Church of Social Justice
My Liberation from the Cult of Gender Ideology
Assault on an Identity
When an Identity Becomes a Slur
I don’t know, these all seem really basic. I honestly just wanted to call it Cis White Gay, an Uncensored Memoir. But I don’t think my editor is into it. Also, I’m aware it might be difficult to think of subtitle ideas when you haven’t read it yet! But I’d welcome any of your thoughts. Please add them in the comments section below!
What am I reading?
Well, besides everything that Lisa Selin Davis writes—please, for the love of God, go read everything she’s written over the last six months (on her Substack and elsewhere) and send the articles to all of your friends; as Meghan Daum has said, she’s the best reporter on this beat (the “trans kids” debate beat), and I agree—I can’t seem to put down Bruce Bawer’s The Victims’ Revolution: The Rise of Identity Studies and the Closing of the Liberal Mind, which dissects the pseudo-intellectualism of identity studies, the cult-like environment of identity studies university departments and professional circles, and the assault we’re seeing on intellectual freedom and inquiry. As I tweeted recently, “Victimhood is the new currency and everyone’s just trying to cash in.” Bawer’s book is a good primer on how we got here.
Before this, I read Bawer’s 1996 reader, Beyond Queer: Challenging Gay Left Orthodoxy, which includes essays and articles by Bawer, Andrew Sullivan, Jonathan Rauch, Paul Varnell, and many others. I can’t recommend this book enough. We are living during such a politically and culturally confusing time, and if you’re not really plugged in—or even if you are—I think it’s really useful to go back and read cultural criticism from the ’80s and ’90s, when the infiltration of academia, politics, and activist organizations by queer theorists and postmodernists was really taking off. Take, for example, the prescience of this opening paragraph of Bawer's introduction:
Queer. Once—and still—an anti-gay slur, it’s been reclaimed by a minority of gay people as a supposedly affirmative label. Yet it’s an odd and problematic word, often less indicative of sexual orientation than of ideology. To be queer, by some people’s definitions, is not so much to be homosexual as it is to be a socially marginal rebel, defined primarily by his or her sexuality, who is perpetually and intrinsically at odds with the political and cultural establishment. But you don’t have to be all these things, as long as you think of yourself that way, or say that you do, or adopt a personal style that implies that you do. Or something like that.
Remember, this was published 26 years ago! I wrote about this idea in an article for Washington Examiner in January, called “The Stifling Conformity of Campus Sexual Politics.” (While you’re there, check out “Pronouns and the City,” my review of the Sex and the City reboot.) Bawer’s book brought me a lot of clarity. Plus it includes one of the most beautiful essays I’ve read recently, David Links’s “I Am Not Queer,” which was published in 1993 in Reason. Read that here.
I’m currently in the process of interviewing men who have detransitioned. In the last 48 hours, I have spoken with four of them. Their stories are enlightening and heartbreaking. One man I spoke with, who was in his early twenties, autistic, and severely anxious and depressed at the time, received estradiol (an estrogen steroid treatment typically used to treat menopause-related symptoms) and spironolactone (a testosterone blocker) during his very first appointment with a gender therapist at a Planned Parenthood in upstate New York. Another, in L.A., told me that a local therapist is writing permission slips for gender-related surgeries without ever meeting the patients. Three of the four men I spoke with suffered severe antigay bullying as teenagers.
I plan to write a piece about the rapidly growing population of male detransitioners, and I will definitely send out a link once it lands somewhere. It also will be a topic I write about in my book.
I think that is all for now. Thanks for reading!
Hello Ben,
I really enjoyed your April 22 article and interview with James. I'll be sharing it onwards.
My tale is not as dramatic as your incredible story. I grew up in a peculiar religious household (Islamic sect) - although looking back I realise all the scary things I managed to dodge. I think I can empathise. Additionally a journey like that does help us sense/ recognise zealot like behaviour in others.
I confess that I have only recently become aware of gender ideology. My concern was first flickered through the creep of pronouns but then I began to notice 'the cancellation' of academics and students for the temerity to question the LGBTQ mantra.
My reading has accelerated since January this year.
The erosion of critical thinking is the most damaging, the inability for people to have a reasoned discussion but moreover review evidence and data without confirmation bias is worrying.
I would describe myself as left leaning but the far left have been the least able to hold complex ideas or recognise what's at stake. Their complete inability to see the conflict of safeguarding other groups with protected characteristics and systematic gay erasure. I'll be candid many of my gay friends do not see this threat which I find really worrying.
The medicalised commodification associated with gender identity has also troubled me deeply, and as clinical pharmacist the dishonesty about the impacts of puberty blockers in children. The effects are so dreadful I can barely read the case reports. I am not sure how we are getting away with this.
I could say more but I mainly want to thank you for you dedication to exploring these complex ideas and that you write beautifully.
Alifia, Scotland
Congrats on the book deal!