Have you heard? Now we can’t say “mother,” but instead, “birthing person.” After all, the “science” tells us that men or women can have babies. In fact, the words “woman” and “men” are forbidden by the new dispensation. The word “man” is now “prostate haver,” and “woman” is “vagina haver.” The word “father” has become “non-birthing parent.”

Surely, this sort of craziness only happens in Hollywood or D.C, right?

I’m afraid not. Last week, our Louisiana Legislature considered a bill that would prevent therapists helping kids overcome gender confusion. The bill said kids who think they were born in the wrong body should be “affirmed” rather than given the opportunity to talk their feelings through with a licensed professional. One of the speakers in favor of the bill stated, (around the 34-minute mark) “The only people who need therapy are parents who can’t accept their queer children.”

What will this mean for clergy who try to counsel confused young people? Will they be taken to therapy? 

What about situations like Walt Heyer’s? He tried to live as a woman for eight years. He found that all the medical interventions and “social transitions” did not solve his underlying problems. As a child, he was abused, physically and emotionally and sexually. The people who rushed to “transition” him did not want to talk about that. Now, Walt and his wife devote themselves to helping others who have been swept away by the gender ideology. 

Likewise, a disproportionate number of people who experience same-sex attraction have also experienced child abuse. In one study, self-identified gays, lesbians and bisexuals were nearly twice as likely to report emotional, physical or sexual abuse. Wouldn’t it make sense to allow therapists to at least talk to people who suffer from gender dysphoria or who experience unwanted same-sex attraction? The premise behind “conversion therapy” bans is that gay, lesbian and trans identities are inborn, immutable characteristics, comparable to race. Once people have assumed or asserted one of these identities, they will be harmed by questioning this self-identification. Neither they, nor their parents if they are minors, ought to be permitted to seek the counsel of a licensed therapist. 

These bans tacitly treat these individuals as if they and their identities are so fragile, that no questioning can be permitted. They will harm themselves if they are “subjected” to therapy that seeks to clarify or change their newly discovered sexual identity. Hearing themselves referred to with other than their “preferred pronoun” may harm them. Someone using their “dead name,” (meaning the name their parents gave them at birth) may harm them. 

And that brings us back to the “birthing person.” Hearing intrinsically gendered words such as “mother” and “father,” or being referred to by such words, may be harmful to sexual minority persons. Therefore, everyone in society must be monitored for the correct use of language at all times. This is the thought process that has led to teachers losing their jobs over using the politically incorrect pronouns. This is the thought process that has led even the La Leche League, founded to educate and support breastfeeding to change its language, stating that some “breastfeeding parents do not identify as mothers.”  

It’s all about power. 

Who is trying to make you talk nonsense? The idea behind the gender ideology is that the gendered nature of the human body is problematic in one way or another. Some object to the inequalities: Men and women are intrinsically different with respect to having babies. We cannot completely overcome these differences, even with unlimited social or technological engineering. This offends the sensibilities of radical egalitarians. 

Others object to the dependence inherent in sexual reproduction: No one can make a baby alone. Every individual is sterile, when acting as an individual. Every single person, male or female, requires the assistance of a person of the opposite sex to have a baby. Modern reproductive technology allows baby-making to take place without the actual contact involved in the old-fashioned method. But even “single parents by choice” require the use of gametes from a person of the opposite sex. This offends the sensibilities of radical individualists. 

And we must not overlook this fact. The “trans movement” is not a grassroots movement in any way, shape or form. This should be perfectly obvious to anyone paying attention. Rich and powerful people are financing and promoting the transgender craze. Both the Stryker family and the Pritzker family have ties to the “medical industrial complex.” They have invested literally millions of dollars promoting the gender ideology, including establishing children’s “gender clinics.” A person who attempts to live as the opposite sex will necessarily be a lifetime customer for continual medical interventions. 

Besides this financial interest, the rich and powerful have another possible motive in promoting “inclusive language” that sustains the trans craze: power. Power, power, and more power. If the people in power can make you say, “Bruce Jenner is a woman,” they can make you say anything. Including “Happy Birthing Person’s Day.” 

Have you had enough political correctness?

This is why the testimony of people like Walt Heyer is so important. He can say with assurance that he wasn’t “born that way.” His desire to be a woman was not “virtually normal.” It was evidence of profound pathology that needed to be addressed. Banning “conversion therapy” is a way of blocking the exits for people like Walt who want to reconsider decisions they have made. The rich and powerful can throw all kinds of money into slick propaganda campaigns. But Walt will never be talked out of his belief that he was born a man and always has been and always will be, a man. 

And that is why is it so important that we not use the “politically correct” terminology that has been invented for us by the rich and powerful. We need to keep living in the real world, without fear or apology. 

Happy Mother’s Day! 

The Ruth Institute will honor Walt Heyer with its Public Witness of the Year Award at the Fifth Annual Summit for Survivors of the Sexual Revolution in Lake Charles June 24-25.The institute has produced a Statement on Legal Bans on “Conversion Therapy,” for use in testimony and other public discussion on this issue.