Boarding a Runaway Train?

Was an 8-Year-Old Biden’s Trip Wire in the ”Trans” Debate?

During a recent town hall, Joe Biden appealed to anti-discrimination in response to a parent’s question about her daughter’s desire to become transgender. Claiming that even an 8-year-old is entitled to invasive medical treatments in order to live out a “transgender identity,” Biden ridiculed the idea that such a young person might be going through a phase, simply declaring: “There should be zero discrimination.”[1]

Biden’s reference to identifying as “transgender” implies that people are irreversibly born that way, period. Yet even Gen-Z voters, if they think about it for a second, realize that an 8-year-old child is off limits.  Interviewing people along Rodeo Drive in Beverly Hills, Will Witt asked, “Can an 8-year-old choose their gender?” Initial responses echoed woke affirmation.[2]

However, when further asked if kids have the maturity to make that kind of decision, the majority changed their tunes. They acknowledged kids and teens are especially vulnerable to gender confusion as they develop. Such interviews suggest the public can—when encouraged and informed—readily visualize the horrific harms done to impressionable kids by the radical trans movement. Apparently, Joe Biden can’t.

And what about vulnerable adults, particularly those with autism or histories of trauma or other unexplored mental health issues who make up a large portion of the transgender demographic? 

Dianna Kenny, a psychologist who has researched gender dysphoria, likens our “transgender craze” to a runaway train. Comparing gender dysphoria to anorexia and body integrity identity disorder (BIID)  Kenny notes, “Disorders of perception belong in the domains of psychology, psychiatry, and psychotherapy, not endocrinology or mutilating surgery.”[3] Therapists like Kenny increasingly question the morality of affirming these unstable identities.[4] Counseling directed at the root causes of body distress always offers the potential for real long-term resolution. However, healing is not possible when legitimizing a false identity in the name of feel- good compassion.[5]

Even the right to raise such issues as the 8-year-old question is suspect under Biden’s civil rights policies. It comes down to this: supporting Biden’s view on transgender rights means the fate of 8-year-old children are included in this election. The current “prescription” of invasive medical treatments, even for those who are merely gender nonconformists, is stunning.

Having gained ascendance, “trans healthcare” is now replacing serious exploration of the underlying issues.  This is evident, for instance, when we see a practitioner pivoting from exploring bodily distress to approving an assumed identity not in keeping with biological reality. In a hurry to affirm, a therapist immediately withdrew what had been mental health support on hearing her client wonder aloud if she was “transgender.”[6]   Such curtailing of therapeutic exploration of past experiences is highlighted by Roberto D'Angelo, a psychiatrist, in a recent commentary in the Journal of Medical Ethics. He writes:

“While gender-affirming medical intervention aspires to help the individual actualize their true self, it potentially forecloses authentic self-discovery if not preceded by a thoroughgoing psychological exploration.”[7]

The rolling back of all restrictions – even throwing aside of a minimal age requirement to ensure a mature decision – is shocking voters into recognizing what the question itself signals: a Biden presidency sets at warp speed the trajectory making “transgender” affirmation standard in every way.  Why stop at 8-year-olds? Perhaps kindergarten is the next stop for this runaway train. After all, “there should be zero discrimination.”

Of course, people of any and every age are being run down by the “trans train,” despite the lack of evidence that people can be born trans. No one is born in the wrong body, not even a child. There is no other body for them to try on, and you can’t change their DNA.

The comments of Biden (who represents most of his party on this issue) before the election provides a little-mentioned policy difference of tragic consequence to young children.