Ep. 284 The Transgender Problem Is the Tip of a Larger Iceberg

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Shows Main Idea – Transgenderism is a small percentage of people. Still, it’s an ideology that sits on top of a humongous iceberg designed to fracture the culture, destroy conservative views, and promote ideas that are blatantly against God and His Word. Not seeing and understanding this problem while not redemptively reacting to it is not an option for us any longer. We must educate ourselves while mobilizing to turn back the tide in these culture wars.

Show Notes

You may want to read:

• Why You Should Talk to Your Child about LGBTQ+
• What Is the Cyber-Effect and What You Can Do about It
• Do You See How Similar You Are to Caitlyn Jenner?

Irreversible Damage

• These show notes come from various interviews by Abigail Shrier and her book, Irreversible Damage.
  • Irreversible Damage: The Transgender Craze Seducing Our Daughters
  • You may search her name on your podcast platform to listen to her interviews
• Full Disclosure – Abigail believes gay is okay, and transition surgery is permissible for adults, but she speaks out against teen girls, specifically those who seek transition surgery.

Gender Dysphoria

• It’s an internal awkwardness, shame, guilt, discontentment, or being emotionally uncomfortable.
• Typically, these girls are white, middle-class who are entering high school.
• They are active on social media.
  • They are insecure.
  • They receive praise from their social media companions.
• Since 2011, there has been a spike among teen girls who believe they were born in the wrong body type.
  • 2016-2017 teen girls asking for surgery quadrupled.
  • The older population does not fall for these peer contagions.
  • It’s nearly always teens who look to the culture for solutions.
  • The culture tells them that they are correct and should be boys.

Affirmative Care Model

• The reasoning a girl falls for this more than a boy is that girls are empathetic (take on a friend’s pain and even distort reality to make their friend feel better). Boys are not this way. Boys will say, “Hey, let’s go shoot some hoops.”
  • Affirmative therapy starts with a conclusion and works backward to solve the problem.
    • If the kid says they don’t like their gender, the “affirmative care therapist” agrees and begins mapping out a plan for them to change.
• Part of the issue here is that folks are afraid to speak against what the teen is saying.
  • This perspective ties into conversion therapy, where a counselor attempts to counsel a gay person out of the lifestyle.
  • Affirmative therapy for the gender-confused person and conversion therapy blend into one worldview.
• Biblical counselors do empathetic, affirmative care counseling too. They listen without doing an appropriate investigation or directing the hurting person to Christocentric solutions.

Social Media Influencers

• These kids take their cues from social media.
  • E.g., they don’t know American history or current political issues, but they know who is famous on social media and the music they play.
    • Test my thesis: Ask a teen about a pop music icon. They will tell you all about them. Ask them about political views, e.g., moving the embassy to Jerusalem. They cannot discuss those things with you, e.g., socialism means being social.

Identity Politics

• Today’s new badge of acceptance is to identify as a woke person, which is someone who identifies with the historical victim classes, i.e., black, gay, lesbian, trans, Latino, etc.
  • As soon as you come out as gay or trans, you move up the intersectional pyramid and find acceptance.
    • Intersectionalism is the crossroad where all the victim classes meet. The more categories you fit into the more accepted you become.
  • In the past it took vast amounts of courage to “come out.” Today, it’s a badge of acceptance.
    • The insecure girl who comes out as trans receives tons of acceptance from the culture.
  • It’s the fruit of our self-esteem education over the past fifty years, as a broken soul continues to crave acceptance from broken solutions.

Public Schools

• Gender identity education is mandatory in some states like California.
• You can’t opt-out of this teaching because they placed it into the anti-bully curriculum, not sex education curricula.
• The training begins at five years of age when they teach the kids that the doctor did not know their gender and had to mark one of two gender options. Only you can figure out if you’re a boy or girl.
• If the parents resist this legislated education, there could be legal action against the parents.
  • Conservative teachers will lose their jobs if they speak out, so they censor themselves.

Fearful Parents

• Even the liberal parent struggles with what is happening to their girls.
  • There is a positive here in that those who oppose our values are opposing those on their “side.”
• The so-called expert influencers treat the parents as bigots.
• The influencers know how to talk to the children outside of the parent’s oversight.
  • E.g., they teach the children how to order compression bras without the parents knowing.
  • E.g., they teach the children their legal prerogatives if the parents resist what they want to do.
• Part of how these things have happened is because these liberal parents were less skeptical of their causes.
  • Conservatives did not think in such good faith terms.
  • These liberals who are appalled describe themselves as politically homeless, according to Abigail Shrier.
    • It is good news that these views are so anti-God that even the liberals are struggling.

The Culture War

The transgender problem is part of the culture war. E.g., Joe Biden was pandering to the mom who asked about her eight-year-old daughter, who was not comfortable with her gender. Joe was making a political point to demonstrate his wokeness.

• If you could think of the trans problem in an isolated way, it would be one thing, but it’s a piece of a larger fabric.
  • There is a multi-front assault on conservative values.
• The Times in London named Shrier’s book as the book of the year.
  • The legacy media in America has been ignoring it.

What Can You Do

If your child says they are in the wrong body, do not overreact. One extreme is to start hormone and transition therapy. The other extreme is doing nothing. You must do something. Here are a few ideas.

1. Who is influencing your child?
2. What is influencing your child, i.e., a mobile phone?
3. How has your home environment contributed to a child desiring to isolate?
   1. Describe the relationship with the child’s dad. Are there some things that need to change in their relationship?
   2. Don’t look at how the child can change alone, but examine your lives, marriage, and home, too.
4. What specific ways can you encourage your child in their biological identity?
   1. Have you made fun of them in any way?
      1. Criticized
      2. Mocked
      3. Condemned
      4. Rejected

Call to Action

1. What specific ways are you educating yourself about the culture war?
2. How are you speaking against this liberal assault on our Christian values?
3. Are you tempted to grumble or fear when you think about the deterioration of our country? If so, who are you talking to for help?
4. How much is it of a struggle to speak out? Are you more tempted to censor yourself or stand for truth?
5. Are you standing for truth in a loving though clear and direct way?

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Rick Thomas

Rick launched the Life Over Coffee global training network in 2008 to bring hope and help for you and others by creating resources that spark conversations for transformation. His primary responsibilities are resource creation and leadership development, which he does through speaking, writing, podcasting, and educating.

In 1990 he earned a BA in Theology and, in 1991, a BS in Education. In 1993, he received his ordination into Christian ministry, and in 2000 he graduated with an MA in Counseling from The Master’s University. In 2006 he was recognized as a Fellow of the Association of Certified Biblical Counselors (ACBC).