Are We Course Correcting on Gender Ideology Quickly Enough?

I think so, but maybe I'm too much of an optimist.

Some time in the last few days of 2019 I remember being in the car with my sisters and telling them that everything would change in regard to gender ideology in the decade ahead. I was hopeful that it would become a mainstream topic and that, in turn, would lead to its eventual demise. You have to understand—and most of my readers probably do—that at the time it decidedly was not a mainstream topic. When the fully captured media spoke about it at all, it was only to celebrate it, and most people didn’t care one way or the other. It was also not a political conversation and the challenge of making it become one seemed almost insurmountable.

All of these are reasons why, at the time, trans activists were already claiming that the debate was over and they had won. One can almost (almost) forgive them for thinking that, with how little pushback there was anywhere in society to their egregious demands. But this was because the debate had yet to even begin.

And so, late in the 2010s, I knew that the debate was still on its way, and I welcomed it because I also knew that gender ideology would not be able to stand up to any scrutiny. But to be honest, I actually didn’t think this would become a mainstream conversation until the second half of the decade, so the debate did come earlier than I expected. It was one of the main issues in the recent US election, and politicians across Canada are talking about it as well. While the mainstream media is still almost entirely captured, small cracks are starting to form where a little bit of space is given for the other side of the debate. Or, at the very least, the other side of the debate is tacitly acknowledged. The Calgary Herald even published my opinion piece in defense of Premier Danielle Smith last month!

While I welcome this state of affairs and am glad it arrived sooner than I expected, I do now find myself asking whether it has arrived soon enough. I have, for some time, been worried that trans activists’ egregious demands could lead to a backlash against gay people and gay rights. In addition to my desire to protect children and the rights of women, this is one of the main reasons I speak out against gender ideology.

One can argue until they are blue in the face that the demands of trans activists are not a natural extension of gay rights but, for those who were hesitant to accept things like same-sex marriage in the first place, I don’t think this point really lands, if it reaches their ears at all. To them, the slippery slope was proven correct. We allowed same-sex marriage, and it appears to have led directly to men on women’s sports teams and men showering with little girls in changing rooms.

I have written previously about why I don’t agree with the idea of the “slippery slope” and why I blame the cultural uptake of postmodernism moreso than things like feminism or gay rights. I don’t think there is a slope but rather a cliff, and postmodernism came along and deconstructed the cliff, convincing people to jump off it.

Still, what I think doesn’t change that there is definitely a growing backlash. People who perhaps never liked the idea of gay rights in the first place and people who are starting to regret their support are simply blaming the current situation on “the gays.” They are often not aware that most of the men pushing their way into women’s private spaces are heterosexual autogynephiles (though I think, surprisingly, awareness of this is growing). Plus, with most of the gay community throwing their support behind these men, it’s hard to blame people for grouping us with them.

This is why I’ve long held that we desperately need a course correction in order to limit the backlash and keep it from swinging so far back it knocks us all out. And that course correction is finally starting, though I think we are a long way off from the finish line. But the problem is that progressives are digging in their heels and looking even more deranged in the process, therefore making all gay and even trans-identified people look insane as well.

For example, in Alberta, the government has proposed three pieces of very sensible legislation to limit the social transition of children in schools, the sterilization of minors, and men in women’s sports. There is nothing radical about these bills, yet trans activists are framing them as positively genocidal, and the mainstream media continues to support them. Every single member of the NDP caucus is in lockstep with their party in opposing these bills as well.

Sure, party loyalty is to be expected, but you’ve certainly sold your soul when you hold that above the health and well-being of children.

The situation can now go one of two ways. If the pushback against gender ideology is successful and progressives slowly back off their insane demands as public sentiment turns, then we can restore sanity and gay and even trans-identified people can continue living happily and freely. But if the progressives continue to dig in their heels, then I worry they will continue to fuel a backlash on the right, and we may eventually see a situation where even gay marriage is back up for debate and possible repeal.

I am optimistic, and I think we will likely see a course correction and a return to some balance and sanity on this issue. But I do think we have a long way to go, and I think that, at least in Canada, it is ultimately going to take revisiting human rights protections for “gender identity” and “gender expression” at the federal and provincial levels to truly undo the damage that has been done.

Hopefully, one day, this won’t be something I have to worry about anymore. And don’t get me wrong: as it is right now I feel that myself and my family are fully accepted in Canada. I recently wrote on Reality’s Last Stand about how disgusted I am that progressives try to make it seem like conservatives hate us when this is not true. I’m not a victim, and I don’t pretend to be persecuted when I am not.

But I do have a daughter now and I do think about how things will be years into the future. Before, I feared mostly that activist teachers would confuse her about sex when she started going to school. Now I have to wonder if she will also face grief for having two moms because public sentiment will swing back too far. I hope not, and I don’t think so, but I am angry at the trans and queer activists who created this situation. They are ultimately the reason I have to worry at all, and that’s why I won’t stop fighting them until I am certain I don’t need to anymore.