Mark Goldblatt, American author, educator, and theologian, recently appeared on the Glenn Loury show to explain the disconnect between homosexuality and gender ideology. Homosexuality concerns one’s sexual preference, whereas the trans gender phenomenon is about “gender identity,” i.e., the internal or personal sense of one’s own gender, which may correspond to or differ from a person’s sex. Homosexuality is not an ideology, but an orientation. The notion of gender identity is a construct of the fastest growing religion in the West: wokism.
In a recent blog, I identified the postmodernist epistemic, which reduces objective reality to a construction of discursive power, as a major corrupting force in the ability of individuals to ask appropriate ontological questions in the current environment. Queer theory, which posits gender identity as a thing, stands upon the postmodernist epistemic. As I explained in that blog, this epistemic is contrary to scientific inquiry since it denies a reality common to all. It purports different truths, with some truths more righteous than others. Liberties and rights are determined by the righteousness of the truth in question. Because there is no standard for determining whose truth is more righteous, the predictable response is hysteria, intimidation, shouting, suppression, and violence.
When asked by Loury to address the construct “LGBT” specifically, Goldblatt begins by noting the scientific consensus that homosexuality is very likely heritable, i.e., it has a probable genetic basis, which means it is not something chosen or very malleable. Put another way, a man does not so much choose his genital preference as he finds himself inclined in one way or the other or to prefer both. (See note at the end of the blog for a bit more on this. This is still an open question.) If true, even to some extent, this shows us why conversion therapy is so wrong: it forces a person to desire something he doesn’t or stop desiring something he does, a desire over which he has little or no control. In light of this, Goldblatt contends that if one believes that a man becomes a woman by his sincere belief that he is a woman, then his homosexuality is instead chosen; becoming a woman when you are male-attracted means becoming heterosexual.
Goldblatt rhetorically asks, what leads children to decide they are living in the wrong body? Many times it is attraction to the same sex, he answers. A boy who likes other boys may believe that he is a girl since, to his immature mind, girls are attracted to boys and vice-versa. If the boy is left to sort all of this out for himself, he will likely become a well-adjusted adult gay man (the British journalist Douglas Murray has made a similar point). Goldblatt notes that many of the children identifying as trans today would have in the past been gay children. Now that children have the option to stop their puberty and change their anatomy (not really, but cosmetically), surrounded by activists, educators, and parents telling them they’re trapped in the wrong body, they don’t have to be gay anymore. This sounds a lot like conversion therapy, doesn’t it? (Follow the link in the caption above to see where the purpose of transition is explicit.)
This is problematic in others ways, as well, Goldblatt notes. For example, recalling the question asked by Andrew Sullivan, a gay man: Am I a bigot because I am not attracted to trans men because they lack a penis? After all, being gay, and this is true for lesbians, too, indicates a genital preference. As I noted in a previous blog (follow the link below to read more), lesbians are attracted to persons with vaginas—actual vaginas. In other words, lesbians are attracted to women.
In a comment section to the video shared at the start of this blog (open the link in YouTube), the following observation can be found (sansacro007): “I’m a gay man. I am attracted to biological men. But ‘trans’ is connected to issues of gender as a social construct. Trans has nothing to do with biology and I can’t see it as anything other than a psychological condition. Gender (a social construct) certainly plays a role in my attraction to men, but my attraction to men is rooted in biology. Trans erases the biological aspect of what it means to be a biological woman or man and therefore essentially erases what it means to be gay or straight.”
The commenter continues: “Trans is completely retrograde in that it reinforces gender binaries while it erases biological sex. There are effeminate men and butch women (not necessarily gay), but such true diversity of gender expression has been erased while the binary has been reinforced despite the even less convincing and illogical claims by many young people of being nonbinary, which essentially not only attempts to erase biological sex but reinforces gender binaries.” Journalist and podcaster Katie Herzog makes a similar point in “Where Have All the Lesbian Gone? She answers, “They’re coming out as nonbinary or as men.”
It follows that, if a gay man identifies as a woman he becomes straight, then a straight man who identifies as a woman becomes gay. We see the logic at work in the construct of the “trans lesbian,” who possesses a “shenis.” To be strictly politically correct, one should drop the “trans” from the construct “trans lesbian.” Since the trans woman attracted to women is really a woman, “she” is also a lesbian. But sex cannot be changed, and since sexual orientation is a sex-based phenomenon, either opposite-sex or same-sex attraction, a trans woman cannot be a lesbian. Nor can a trans woman be a woman. People are losing their careers over refusing to be sucked into the vortex of such delusions.
Note: Several studies have found that sexual orientation tends to run in families, suggesting that there may be a genetic component to homosexuality. However, the specific genes and genetic mechanisms involved in determining sexual orientation are not yet fully understood. Other research has suggested that hormonal influences during fetal development may also play a role in determining sexual orientation. For example, studies have found that exposure to certain hormones in the womb can influence the development of the brain in ways that may be related to sexual orientation. To be sure, genetic tendencies aren’t the only things children inherit from their parents; environment, experience, and socialization are powerful force in transmitting attitudes, beliefs, and inclinations. However, these factors are thought to be less important than genetic and hormonal factors in determining sexual orientation.
freedom and reason 