Congressman Lieu: Wrong on Transgenderism

Congressman Ted Lieu (D-Torrance, CA) tweeted the following message on NewYear's Day, 2015:

Being #transgender is not a "mistake." It is the beautiful expression of what it means to be human. http://t.co/Luu24kH4hn #LeelahAlcorn

— Ted Lieu (@tedlieu) January 1, 2015

This is one of the most offensive tweets I have read from a
politician.

Does Congressman Lieu understand the health implication
which afflict individuals who insist that although they were born as one sex,
they are in fact another?

I am deeply concerned with Lieu's decision to tweet about
this issue, in the face of budget concerns, an overblown national debt, plus
the insecurity of our nation's borders, combined with the exasperating arrogance
of the President. His executive actions have ruined any chances for reform and
progress in Washington.

The death of Leelah Alcorn, in reality a young male named
Josh, struggled with identity issues.

CNN reports:

When Josh Alcorn voiced a desire to live as a girl, the Ohio
teenager's parents said they wouldn't stand for that.

So the parents are at fault because they respected their
son's physical and well as mental integrity?

"We don't support that, religiously," Alcorn's
mother told CNN on Wednesday, her voice breaking. "But we told him that we
loved him unconditionally. We loved him no matter what. I loved my son. People
need to know that I loved him. He was a good kid, a good boy."

The son's suicide note read:

"Please don't be sad, it's for the better. The life I
would've lived isn't worth living in … because I'm transgender," the
note said. "I could go into detail explaining why I feel that way, but
this note is probably going to be lengthy enough as it is. To put it simply, I
feel like a girl trapped in a boy's body, and I've felt that way ever since I
was 4. I never knew there was a word for that feeling, nor was it possible for
a boy to become a girl, so I never told anyone and I just continued to do
traditionally 'boyish' things to try to fit in."

One has to ask: how did he know that he was really a she
trapped in a boy's body? The struggle to fit in, to define oneself, to
understand a place in life, these issues do not get resolved right away for
young people, and their minds are still developing.

Here's a larger part of the problem. The issue has nothing
to do with the individual traditions or beliefs of families. The small-time
crisis of transgenderism is a health problem, a malady of identity.

SexChangeRegret.com writer Walter Heyer shared the following
points on his website:

He (yes, HE!) confirms the point I made in my book, Paper
Genders–the brain hasn't matured enough to make this decision until the person
reaches their mid-20s. So why would we encourage any child to undergo
"treatments" with such long-term consequences?

Young people are still trying to get answers in a world
which seems destined to occlude or even shame the pursuit of answers.

Young people who believe that they should change genders are
not demented or evil, but they need help. Creating another entitled minority
class called "transgender" is not only foolish and without merit, but
inherently dangerous, a form of biological insanity.

Heyer also criticized administering hormone blockers to
children:

One controversial treatment for children with gender
dysphoria is the administration of drugs called hormone blockers to delay
puberty. The practice is gaining traction without any scientific proof that it
is appropriate or effective, and despite the evidence that it can be harmful.

The real problem, gender dysphoria, needs to be treated in a
clinical setting. Mental health specialists are now overrun with
politically-correct doctors intent on accommodating rather than treating the
dysphoria.



Heyer notes that at a young age, he was abused by his
grandmother, who insisted on his wearing a purple dress and pretending to be a
girl. Many men who suffered abuse as children struggle to share this pain with
others, whether medical professionals, or even their wives and close and
relatives. The trauma, the shame of sexual predation, or abuse, is so great,
that many young men usually choose a homosexual or trangender identity rather
than dealing with the shame.

Celebrity talk show host Oprah Winfrey conveyed the
difficulty of facing the truth about sex abuse, for example. In a recent
interview with Barbara Walters, Winfrey acknowledged that she was forty-two
years old when she finally grasped that her abuse was not her fault.
Interviewing convicted child molesters who explained how they manipulated young
people, it finally occurred to Oprah why she continued to feel ashamed about
the abuse, even though in reality it was never her fault.

The revelation of the truth about who we are, and the
strength to overcome the shame associated with it, does not happen right away.
Often, it takes time and awareness, something which therapists do not truck in.

Now that Congressman Lieu (among others) has outlawed adults
from counseling young people with gender dysphoria, helping young people to
lead productive and stable lives has become more difficult.

Transgenderism is a mistake, and the high incidence of
depression, health problems, and even suicide associated with the conversion
should alarm concerned adults as well as legislators.

People are not mistakes, though, and they need real help.
They need to be encouraged to respect and embrace the physical traits they were
born with.

Heyer quotes one example of this acceptance:

Seven years ago, Matthew, a male drag queen, became Chelsea.
Now Chelsea wants to become Matthew again. In the article published Oct. 1,
2014, Chelsea says:

'I have always longed to be a woman, but no amount of
surgery can give me an actual female body and I feel like I am living a lie.

'It is exhausting putting on make-up and wearing heels all
the time. Even then I don't feel I look like a proper woman.

'I suffered from depression and anxiety as a result of the
hormones too.

'I have realised it would be easier to stop fighting the way
I look naturally and accept that I was born a man physically.'"

Heyer also argues that no matter how many surgeries or
hormone treatments an individual receives, the fundamental genetic identity of
an individual cannot change. A male is born with XY chromosomes, and all the
surgeries and medicinal tampering cannot alter that.

Congressman Lieu and his like-minded colleagues must
encourage young people, and all people, to respect their bodies and acknowledge
that they are not mistakes, and they should not regret their inborn, innate
sexual characteristics, either.