A Therapist's Treatise on Social Issues, Part 9: Wisdom and Responsibility in an Era of Deception
Continued from part 8.
The wise and responsible thing to do is not always the most popular. Sometimes, it flies in the face of all norms held to be respectable in a given time and place. Sometimes, people who tell the truth as they see it will be accused of all manner of heresy — according to the standards of whatever beliefs are held to be heretical at the time. Fortunately, some of us have the strength to withstand having metaphorical pies thrown at our faces until those who need our wisdom are ready to hear it.
I don’t like having pie flung at my face, but I am willing to withstand accusations of bigotry for the sake of the greater good. There are still people who need support from people like me. I know that people with certain ideological leanings do not have a monopoly on truth, and are not the ultimate determiners of what constitutes compassion, kindness, justice, fairness, or equality… or of what constitutes their opposites. Unpopular as this stance may currently be, I believe time and experience will reveal that the push to permanently alter children’s bodies with minimal assessment, on the basis of gender ideology and through the use of novel endocrine-disrupting technologies, is not the most compassionate or just approach. In fact, it may do far more to perpetuate harm than its proponents can fathom. I already feel for the moral and existential crisis some will find themselves in when this becomes apparent down the line.
I barely survived my own childhood, which was absent of belonging and safety. If I had grown up with that same childhood but in this era, I would probably be trans. I am so glad that I am not. And despite all the hardship I have experienced, there is one thing I can be grateful for about my lack of belonging: that it taught me how to survive being unpopular. To let go of caring what others think. And to find a source of inner truth that will guide me, no matter where I find myself. I understand that this makes me come across as dangerous to some people. It can be alarming to see someone who is not affected by weapons and chains that normally have the capacity to silence dissidents.
Oh well.
