We’re seeing a lot of stories of vulnerable young people who were bullied and manipulated into taking puberty blockers and/or hormones and/or sex-mutilation surgery. I’ve got a new story about a detransitioner below, and link to a few other stories, so that we can understand who is on “the right side of history” on social issues. Is it “don’t judge” teachers? Is it the greedy doctors? Let’s see.

Here’s the first article from Daily Wire:

A woman who was pumped with testosterone and underwent hormone therapy when she was a young teenager is suing both her doctors and the American Academy of Pediatrics, which her lawyers say has knowingly lied about the impact of the radical sex-change treatments it recommends, according to a copy of the lawsuit obtained exclusively by The Daily Wire.

Isabelle Ayala, now a twenty-year-old woman, had just turned fourteen when she was committed to the hospital for suicidal thoughts, according to the lawsuit. It was during this hospital stay that she met with Dr. Jason Rafferty, who during his first brief meeting with Ayala determined that she “meets criteria to consider hormonal transition,” with the only stated obstacle being parental consent. The lawsuit states that Rafferty and other doctors sent Ayala down the “path of ‘gender-affirming’ medicalization” rather than addressing the true roots of her mental health problems — six months into her testosterone treatments, Ayala tried to commit suicide.

The treatments, however, continued, until Ayala moved away from Rhode Island and decided to quit them “cold-turkey.” Now comfortable with her gender, she regrets what the doctors did to her, the lawsuit says.

“Isabelle is now twenty years old and longs for what could have been and to have her healthy, female body back,” it says. “The changes the testosterone have had on her body are a constant reminder that she needed an unbiased medical expert willing to evaluate her mental health and provide her the care she needed, rather than a group of ideologues set on promoting their own agenda and furthering a broader conspiracy at her expense.”

The lawsuit not only goes after the doctors who treated Ayala, but also the American Academy of Pediatrics, where Rafferty and his colleagues worked to publish a now-infamous policy statement advocating for aggressive gender treatments for children. Lawyers for Ayala say the policy statement laid the groundwork for an “entirely new model of treatment” based on “outright fraudulent representations” of scientific proof.

“Defendants have doubled- and tripled-down on their commitment to the policy statement and its ‘affirmative model’ of treatment, while continuing to promote and profit off it,” the lawsuit states, alleging that Ayala and other children are “victims of a conspiracy entered into and perpetuated to the present day by certain ideologically captured individuals in positions of power at the American Academy of Pediatrics.”

The interesting thing about this story is that the medical body of “experts” is being targeted. This is an opportunity to start the process of impoverishing and imprisoning them all, to send a message to the secular left.

Here’s another one from Daily Signal:

Another detransitioner is suing Kaiser Foundation Hospitals, Permanente Medical Group, and the doctors who pushed her along the path to hormonal and surgical transgender procedures.

In a lawsuit filed June 14 in California’s San Joaquin County Superior Court, Kayla Lovdahl and her attorneys with the Center for American Liberty are accusing medical professionals of fast-tracking young Lovdahl through her gender transition, one that she now deeply regrets.

It specifically names medical professionals Lisa Kristine Taylor, Winnie Mao Yiu Tong, Susanne Watson, and Mirna Escalante. Several of these individuals are similarly named in the lawsuits of detransitioners Chloe Cole and Layla Jane, also represented by the Center for American Liberty.

“This case is about a team of doctors,” the lawsuit begins, “who decided to perform a damaging, imitation sex-change experiment on Kayla, then a twelve-year-old vulnerable girl struggling with complex mental health comorbidities, who needed care, attention, and psychotherapy, not cross-sex hormones and mutilating surgery.”

I like this one because it’s going after a well health care provider, and would send a message to other smaller health care providers about what is and is not the proper function of health care providers. Interesting to note that all of the doctors named (Lisa Kristine Taylor, Winnie Mao Yiu Tong, Susanne Watson, and Mirna Escalante) are women, who, according to polls, tend to be more liberal on social issues than men. Who knew that “don’t judge” would turn out to mean “make money off of being evil to confused, helpless victims”?

Another one from the New York Post:

Camille Kiefel, 32, had her healthy breasts removed in 2020 to align with her nonbinary gender identity. She says her doctors approved the surgery after two Zoom meetings, breezing past a whole host of mental health issues.

Now that Camille is in a better place mentally, she realizes her surgery was a mistake. So, two and a half years later, she’s suing her social worker, therapist, and the gender clinics they work for — Brave Space Oregon and Quest Center for Integrative Health — seeking up to $850,000 in damages.

[…]the idea that she might not actually be a woman didn’t occur to Camille until she enrolled at Portland State University, where she minored in gender studies and was introduced to alternative views about sex and gender.

By the time she reached her mid-20s, she embraced a nonbinary label and used she/they pronouns. All the while, she was struggling with a slew of mental-health issues, including anxiety disorder, social anxiety, PTSD, major depressive disorder and ADHD.

In the depths of the pandemic in 2020, Camille, then 30, was still struggling and thought gender-neutral top surgery could ease her mental-health issues. “I was so dysfunctional, and I just wanted something that was going to help me,” she recalled. “I thought I would be happier.”

When will this preying on children by the secular left end? It will end when we clean out their bank accounts. When there is no God, then there is no objective morality. When there is no objective morality, then all that’s left is pursuing pleasure. And that usually means obtaining quick money, to fund the pursuit of pleasure. Take away the money, and the secular leftists will stop.

For this post, when I say Christian leaders who are trying to find “middle ground”, avoid “heated disagreement”, form “nuanced” views, and so on. I’m thinking of organizations that want to be “welcoming” and “tolerant”  of the secular left, like Christianity Today, The Gospel Coalition, the ERLC, etc. Anyway, let’s start with an article by Matt Walsh of the Daily Wire.

He writes:

Recently, I told you about the major victory in the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals, which upheld the ban on child gender mutilation in Tennessee and Kentucky. After that decision was announced, a number of prominent Christian leaders took to Twitter to celebrate the decision. But it was noted by many that most of these leaders, though they were eager to join the party celebrating the win — and to tacitly take credit for it — were nowhere in sight when the battle was raging. In fact, transgenderism and LGBT ideology seized its stranglehold on American culture while most churches, most Christian leaders, most pastors and priests — certainly not all, but most — said nothing at all. They may not have explicitly joined the other side and started waving the rainbow flag — though some of them did — but most of them hid from the fight.

Which is why, of all the people who most prominently led the charge against gender ideology, precisely none of us were church leaders. Some aren’t even Christian at all.

Worse still — and I can say this from experience — while we went to war against this evil, many Christian leaders spent their time lecturing us for the way that we fought, the tone we took, our harshness, our meanness, our supposed lack of grace and kindness. They sat on the sidelines, afraid to get their hands dirty, while lecturing those in the trenches for fighting in a way that they found personally displeasing to watch. This is the story of Christianity in the west, at least in modern times.

Recently, I read an interesting op-ed by the leaders of the Tennessee State House and Senate, talking about how they passed legislation to protect children from LGBT predators.

They wrote:

Tennesseans demanded swift action when, in September 2022, The Daily Wire uncovered that a Nashville hospital was actively promoting sex-changing cosmetic surgeries as “huge money makers.” The reports revealed allegations of discrimination against hospital employees who expressed conscientious objections based on their personal ethical and religious beliefs.

Amid national outcry about these disturbing revelations, Tennesseans were further shocked to learn the hospital was providing hormone and sterilization treatments to children as young as 13. These reports raised nationwide awareness and serious ethical concerns about procedures performed on minors at pediatric transgender clinics around the country.

[…]The absurdity of this practice led us to introduce Senate Bill 1/ House Bill 1. We committed to banning these procedures in Tennessee. Now state law, this monumental legislation bans medical interference that alters a child’s hormonal balance. It prohibits any procedure that removes a child’s healthy body parts for the purpose of enabling them to identify as a gender different from their biological sex. This law provides the nation’s strongest protections for minors against these harmful drugs and procedures.

We are tremendously proud of our Tennessee House and Senate colleagues who stood firmly against intense scrutiny from the woke Left mob this year when we first introduced Senate Bill 1/ House Bill 1.

Of course, the pushback from the radical Left was swift. Liberals from all over the country falsely claimed this law would be “dangerous” and warned it would never hold up in court. The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) challenged the legality of the legislation, and recently the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals wisely ruled 2-1 to reject their challenge.

[…]Tennessee is a leader in every sense of the word. In our 227-year history, we have accomplished remarkable things. We are a state known for low taxes, small government, prosperous business, and strong, conservative family values. We are the Volunteer State; it’s not in our nature to sit idly by and watch destructive groups of people brainwash our vulnerable youth to believe they have a permanent solution to their complicated struggles. Preserving family values and advocating for the U.S. and Tennessee Constitution means never backing down.

Running and defending Senate Bill 1/ House Bill 1 to protect children in our state was never a question. We knew that by taking ultimate responsibility for this movement, something good would come, and this outcome is priceless. We are hopeful more states will follow Tennessee’s lead.

Those are some REAL Christian leaders. They are not interested in finding the middle ground, or avoiding the culture war, or sharing their viewpoint as “equally valid”. No. They want to use their strength to protect the weak from predators. They aren’t afraid to force their point of view with evidence, and then accept the consequences of being hated by the secular left.

On this blog, and on our podcast, I haven’t chickened out of speaking on controversial issues, like abortion, same-sex marriage, economics, race, and so on. On these battles, I have made sure that my positions were stated and supported with evidence. That won’t be convincing to the feelings-dominated people on the secular left that these equivocating Christian leaders want to please, but I think it is important for God to know where I stand. When the Bible was under attack from the secular left, I defended the Bible. I didn’t try to create a middle ground on controversial issues, in order to please the secular left. That’s more than can be said for these “Christian leaders”. What counts more? Popularity with the world? Or being faithful to the Boss?

In this post, I want to try to convince you to read a very interesting article about Christian apologetics and moral issues. It’s posted on the Stand to Reason web site. The author, Alan Shlemon, is an amazing Christian apologist, and very conservative on social issues. Striking, because that seems to be intentionally avoided by many popular apologists.

Here is his introduction:

In 2014, I attended Matthew Vines’s conference on the Bible and homosexuality. His stated goal was to “promote inclusion of LGBTQ people by reforming church teaching.” The organization he started, The Reformation Project, teaches that homosexual sex and same-sex marriage are biblically permissible, and its goal to mainstream this theology into the church is overt and clear.

Fast-forward to last month, when I attended the Unconditional Conference put on by Embracing the Journey (ETJ). Hosted by nationally known pastor Andy Stanley and held at his church, which boasts a weekly attendance of nearly 40,000 people, the event sought to create a theologically neutral space where parents and leaders could learn how to minister to youth who identify as LGBTQ. In other words, the stated intent was not to change anyone’s theology.

[…][T]he conference was deeply problematic because of the false and somewhat hidden premise that permeated most of the teaching: Followers of Christ can participate in homosexual sex, same-sex marriage, or transgender “transitioning.” That premise undergirds three serious concerns I have with the Unconditional Conference.

And he covers these points:

• the Unconditional Conference claimed to be theological neutral but wasn’t.
• the Unconditional Conference advanced a false dichotomy of possible responses to a child who identifies as LGBTQ.
• the Unconditional Conference wrongly presumed you can divorce theology from how you minister.

Then he has his case for Biblical standards on sexual morality:

• Scripture is univocal in its positive case for sex and marriage in both the Old and New Testaments.
• Scripture is univocal in its negative case.
• Scripture warns that those who engage in ongoing sexual sin will not inherit the kingdom of God.

A PDF is available.

Here is the part I liked the best:

[T]he hidden premise that permeated the conference was that walking with Jesus can include same-sex marriage as well as transgender “transitioning.” Not only did no one say anything to the contrary, but virtually every speaker, facilitator, and volunteer spoke in a way that led one to believe those behaviors are permissible.

[…]What the Unconditional Conference did was tantamount to a pro-life conference inviting—as one of their speakers—a Planned Parenthood employee who not only has had an abortion but also teaches as if it were a good, moral, and God-honoring decision. Attendees would reasonably conclude the “pro-life” conference believed abortion is an appropriate option.

What this abortion analogy also shows is that many pro-choice arguments sound persuasive because, like the Unconditional Conference, they are based on hidden (but faulty) premises. For example, pro-choice advocates claim, “Women should have the freedom to choose,” or, “Women should have the right to control their own bodies.” Notice how the fundamental question, “What is the unborn?” is not addressed. Worse, the pro-choice advocate simply assumes the unborn is not a human being and carries on making their case with that hidden premise.

The Unconditional Conference approached their topic in the same way. For two days, the speakers addressed how to minister to people who identify as LGBTQ but intentionally didn’t address the fundamental question of whether homosexual sex or same-sex marriage is sin. Worse, they simply assumed they are not sin and carried on offering advice with that hidden premise.

I really recommend checking out this article. It’s a very good article, on a very important topic. If you’re finding yourself getting soft on this issue, it might be good to look to someone who isn’t, and see how they manage to do that.