Trans Activists Silence The Science So They Can Claim It’s On Their Side By Nathanael Blake for The Federalist
It’s telling that, in order to claim that science is on their side, trans activists need to bully actual scientists into silence about what the data and human experience actually suggests.
According to legend, Galileo defiantly muttered “and yet it moves” after the Inquisition forced him to abjure his Copernican views. Although unverified, this story became a popular anecdote in the history of science, giving voice to the passionate love for inquiry and truth, even in the face of dogmatic threats of violence.
If the transgender movement has its way, we shall soon see many more like Galileo, forced by today’s ideologues and inquisitions to deny the plain truth of science and reason. For example, Ray Blanchard, a leading researcher on human sexuality, was recently suspended from Twitter for the clinically correct statement that “Transsexualism and milder forms of gender dysphoria are types of mental disorder.” After an outcry, his account was restored, but the message had already been sent—thoughtcrime will be punished, even, perhaps especially, if it is true.
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This might be dismissed as another Twitter tempest in a teapot, were it not part of a trend of trans activists targeting scientists and researchers who reach politically inconvenient conclusions. Another respected researcher, Kenneth Zucker, was defamed and wrongly fired when trans activists smeared him. Lisa Littman, whose qualitative research identified the phenomenon of rapid-onset gender dysphoria, was vilified and lost a consulting position.
Even Moderates Get Punished
Notably, these scholars are not social conservatives who have religious or metaphysical objections to gender-alteration surgery. For example, in the thread that led to his suspension, Blanchard stated that “Sex change surgery is still the best treatment for carefully screened, adult patients, whose gender dysphoria has proven resistant to other forms of treatment.” What these researchers do share is caution and scientific skepticism regarding the foundational belief of today’s transgender movement, which is that gender identity is innate and unchangeable, and that gender change is always the best treatment for expressions of gender dysphoria.
The research of the scholars noted above challenges this simplistic narrative. Blanchard believes that there are diverse causes and forms of gender dysphoria, rather than every case arising from an innate, immutable sense of gender identity. Zucker found that many childhood cases of gender dysphoria will resolve over time without transition, so he did not rush children into transition. Littman’s work suggests that gender dysphoria may sometimes be socially contagious.
These researchers are being targeted because their moderation threatens an increasingly radical trans agenda. In the few years since transgender issues went mainstream, the public debate has shifted from how to respond when Bruce Jenner wants to become Caitlyn to how to respond to a five-year-old boy who wants to be a princess or a 14-year-old girl who, encouraged by social media, suddenly self-identifies as a man and wants to take testosterone and amputate her breasts.
