The rising, dangerous influence of 'transgender' ideology

By Phil Lawler ( bio - articles - email ) | Aug 27, 2014

Stella Morabito, who has been writing perceptive commentary for the Federalist site on the dangers of the trans-gender movement, has made another important contribution with her observation that radical feminists, of all people, are violently opposed to this, the latest offensive of the sexual revolution.

Radical feminists identify themselves strongly as women, fighting against what they see as a patriarchal society. By doing do, they run afoul of transgender ideology, which stipulates that one’s gender identity is not determined by one’s biological organs. Thus according to the transgender ideology, a “female” might have male organs, and, yes, a “male” could become pregnant.

Irrational, you say? Yes, it is. But transgender ideology has made rapid strides in the political world (promoting non-discrimination laws), in academic life (discouraging the use of language that accepts the old male/female distinction), and in the media (urging positive portrayals of transsexuals.) Now, in the best tradition of left-wing activism, the transgender ideologists are moving to silence their opponents, and at the moment the radical feminists—the “Transgender Exclusionary Radical Feminists,” to use the term adopted by the transgender publicists—are bearing the brunt of a very aggressive assault.

Morabito observes that less radical feminists have quietly accepted the gender ideology, leaving their more radical colleagues isolated and vulnerable. “Just about every feminist organization today—NOW, NARAL, Planned Parenthood, and the rest—reject and marginalize the radfems.” Transgender activists do their utmost to ensure that radical feminists are not invited to speak at conferences or to appear on campuses.

You and I might not shed many tears if radical feminists cannot find any audience. But if the transgender activists are successful in shutting off these opponents, they will soon turn to others, including you and me. Their goal, Morabito argues, is to change the way we think—not only about their sexual identity, but also about our own. Morabito explains:

It’s a matter of getting everyone in the world to agree with you. And this requires that everyone else in the world must agree to be nudged to play along with the possibility that their own sex is not authentic.

In a society controlled by the transgender ideology, society is trained to accept the absurd. As Morabito puts it, the ideology requires “a mind-body disconnect that is unsustainable in any functioning human society.”

Is this alarmist thinking? If you think so, reflect on the fact that most of our most influential institutions, from the White House to the university to Hollywood and even to some religious congregations, proudly proclaim their desire to accommodate the “LGBT” community. Needless to say the “T” stands for the transsexuals, who are determined to gain acceptance in the American mainstream.