America is poised to go to the polls once again. Not for the first time, she finds herself faced with imperfect candidates—because even those men who try, fail. It is a season wherein we feel most confident in identifying the flaws in others that we would rather not see in ourselves.
Yet good things are happening. The first detransition clinic opened within the last couple of days, which seems unavoidably symbolic. It is the end of the era in which people could assert that so-called gender transitioning was without its risks and would not be something that its victims could come to regret. Please recall that scared parents were told that their children would commit suicide if they did not sign off on such procedures.
Now, as the fervor calms, we can finally acknowledge the scale of the damage. Those girls who had double mastectomies, euphemistically called “top surgeries,” will never be able to breastfeed their children. Many of those girls given long-term testosterone will struggle with infertility. The same goes for boys given estrogen. Both groups maldeveloped in ways that make normal life harder thereafter, such as the women who now have permanently masculine voices because of how testosterone affected their vocal cords. Some of those children even had their genitalia mutilated, creating permanent disfigurement and infertility.
The new clinic will attempt to reverse the damage where it can, as will others that are scheduled to open around the country next year, but “detransitioning” is as much an experimental science as “transitioning” was. The effects of this vapid ideology will be felt tangibly by its victims for the rest of their lives.
The Texas clinic is the result of political forces that prioritized the battle and fought against these ideologues. The Department of Justice and TX Attorney General Ken Paxton led the fight against Texas Children’s Hospital, insisting on the creation of the detransition clinic as part of an eventual settlement. It will provide free services for the next five years.
This brings us to where we are—because we must acknowledge that political figures have tremendous power over people’s lives, especially the most vulnerable (as those teens were). We will not find perfect people in the political arena, just as we do not find them in the mirror, but we must choose those who are at least aiming for the good.
We must hierarchize, remembering that our religious and ideological enemies are certainly doing so. In fact, that is why inaction can be so devastating. Refusing to engage in the political sphere does not mean that things will freeze as they are, but that they will be moved by those who show up.
We ought to prioritize the defense of innocent life first, opposing abortion and euthanasia, because life in the moral order is like oil in modern economics. It is foundational such that all other things depend on it. No matter how you feel about education or healthcare, people must be alive to appreciate them. Any argument about rights or favorite programs must first acknowledge the sanctity of human life from conception until natural death.
Then we must look at the protection of the family unit, for it is the building block of society. This includes the defense of the true definition of marriage. This is also where we acknowledge the immediate need to protect children and their innocence, create policies that reduce the burden on young families, and acknowledge parents as the ultimate protectors and educators of their children.
By focusing on a short list of tangible priorities, we can avoid being overwhelmed by the frenetic season or driven to despair by the announcement of scandals. Instead, we can rightly focus on what is most important and do the highest good that is available to us. While we live in a deeply individualistic society, we must recognize the truth that so many of the devastating policies that have torn apart families in recent decades were instituted from the top.
Power matters, so it must be seized by those who seek to institute moral policies. The libertarian-esque approach of refusing to assert moral authority has led to far too many drag queen story hours for children. The society that defends such depravity does not deserve to exist, and cannot endure. Let us do what we can to defend the pillars of society, recognizing the limitations, but choosing the highest good nonetheless.