Posted on 08/30/2019 8:12:49 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
The Supreme Court will hear a pivotal case in October on sex, gender identity, and discrimination: R.G. and G.R. Harris Funeral Homes Inc. v. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. As both sides build their cases, numerous influential organizations and individuals have filed amicus (friend of the court) briefs to aid the members of the Supreme Court in their understanding on this topic.
One brief in particular stands out. It’s so powerful, it should not only persuade the Supreme Court but influence people on both sides of the transgender debate, particularly the mainstream media.
The brief examines the personal testimonies of the following people, all of whom identified as transgender at one point, then reverted to affirming their sex: Walt Heyer, Jamie Shupe, Linda Seiler, Hacsi Horvath, Clifton Francis Burleigh Jr., Laura Perry, Jeffrey Johnston, Jeffrey McCall, and Kathy Grace Duncan. While regular Federalist readers may be familiar with regular contributor Heyer, the other names may be unfamiliar. Yet their stories are just as powerful.
For starters, each of these people now believes, due to counseling, therapy, and personal experiences, that there is no such thing as gender fluidity or transgender. They now believe it is a fantasy many people try to make real.
Take Shupe, American’s first person to secure legal recognition of a nonbinary, transgender identity. He is a former hero of the left. His transgenderism “became the driver for over a dozen states to adopt an X marker in addition to male and female on driver licenses.” He first identified as a “transgender woman,” then as nonbinary.
The brief reads, “Publicly acknowledging that he is male and that his sex changes were a legal fiction has led to Mr. Shupe being shamed by the LGBTQ community for his beliefs that sex is binary and that those who struggle with gender identity issues need therapy and compassion, not to identify as a third gender.”
Laura Perry is a former female to male transgender person who underwent hormone treatment and a double mastectomy. “Ms. Perry enjoyed the transition process at first, and she entered into a relationship with another transgender individual,” says the brief. “They attended LGBT events together but stopped when the members of the community developed hatred for her partner who was conservative. They viewed her partner as a ‘traitor.’ Ms. Perry and her partner also claim that ‘we thought these people are the most depressed people in the world,’ referring to the LGBT community. Soon after, Ms. Perry became aware of the fact that changing sex is not biologically possible, and that sex is binary.”
Toward the end of Heyer’s story, the brief says, “For more than ten years Mr. Heyer has informally mentored and assisted scores of persons identifying as transgender who regret changing their appearance to that of the opposite sex. He encourages those who contact him who have gender dysphoria to seek psychological and psychiatric assessment for other disorders that are also present, which is the case in a majority of those who desire to identify as persons of the opposite sex.”
These claims fly in the face of what many on the left, including the transgender person on the other side of this particular Supreme Court case, say. To make matters worse, the media have also attacked former transgender people and ridiculed their stories as unreal.
Almost every single person in the brief said they stopped being transgender with the help of therapy. It didn’t just help them heal, but also revealed that deeper emotional traumas were often the cause of their gender dysphoria and the reason they chose transgenderism in the first place. All of the people claim that those who proposed or helped them transition often (unknowingly) created more pain.
Shupe suffered from PTSD after nearly 20 years of service in the military. The brief reads, “Mr. Shupe argues that his gender transitions were the result of his mental confusion and that he should have been treated with therapy rather than fictional identities. ‘I should have been treated. Instead, at every step, doctors, judges, and advocacy groups indulged my fiction.’”
The brief describes Heyer’s journey as both a former transgender person and one who now counsels so many who struggle. From both perspectives, Heyer believes current transgender medical protocols fail to treat the root causes.
Heyer now informally mentors people who also regret attempting to identify as a person of the opposite sex, such as by adopting a different name and opposite-sex pronouns, wearing clothing and hairstyles typically associated with the opposite sex, using sex-segregated spaces and engaging in sex-segregated activities that correspond to the opposite sex, and changing their appearance to more closely resemble the opposite sex through makeup, clothing, surgery, and hormones.
Heyer has seen firsthand the harm that can come from encouraging people down that path. Every person Heyer has mentored has concluded that he or she was not born transgender. They believe transgenderism is a learned behavior, a social ideology, not an innate condition from birth. Heyer says he has seen too much unhappiness and regret over the years from hormone therapy and surgeries to think otherwise.
The brief describes a number of possible outcomes if gender-confused people seek plastic surgery and opposite-sex hormones rather than receive help through therapy:
Seeking to align one’s mind with reality has always been the preferred method for treating dysphorias, such as anorexia, xenomelia (the feeling that one or more limbs do not belong), or transdisability (believing one has a physical disability that does not actually exist). No one would ever address an anorexic person’s needs by providing a low-calorie diet, diet pills and stomach stapling. Moreover, one of the most comprehensive scientific studies tracking individuals who underwent sex-reassignment surgery revealed that (1) the rate of psychiatric hospitalization was approximately three times higher for postoperative individuals than a control group; (2) mortality rates and rates of criminal conviction also increased; (3) suicide attempts were almost five times more likely than before surgery; and (4) the likelihood of suicide following surgery was 19 times higher than the control group, adjusted for prior psychiatric illness.
The brief continues:
Hacsi Horvath is a Lecturer in the Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics at the University of California, San Francisco (“UCSF”) and is an expert in clinical epidemiology. For 13 years, Mr. Horvath identified as a female and now that he has de-transitioned feels angry he was encouraged to embrace that lifestyle. ‘I am far angrier that thousands of young people are being irreversibly altered and sterilized as they are inducted into a drug-dependent and medically-maimed lifestyle.’
The amicus brief also says, “Affirming the dysphoria in people suffering from gender identity issues as if they really were persons of the opposite sex only serves to lead those that are suffering with such issues away from finding the serenity and wholeness of being at peace with their bodies and identities. Forcing employers to affirm the denial of reality is not required by Title VII and is more likely to cause harm than good.”
While this brief will only play a small role in this important case, its personal testimonies and arguments should influence public discourse.
This is an construct of the liberal leftist.
The MORAL of the STORY: "If it ain't broke don't fix it"
I guess we will find out if the Supremes fall on the side of Science or are slaves to their Ideology. Hmmmmm. If they fall on the side of Science, Liberal heads will explode all over the country!
The underlying issue is Democrats exploiting the mentally ill.
The last several paragraphs are a scathing indictment of this insanity by using FACTS.
Suicide 19 times more likely after surgery than control group.
Here’s one i always bring up...
xenomelia (the feeling that one or more limbs do not belong)....
You have to go to SOUTH AMERICA to get this done at a cost of 25,000.
It’s illegal to do in the US.
What is the difference between chopping one’s arm off and one’s privates?
As a man, if I had a gun to my head, I dunno which one i’d choose. I think my arm!!
We are told doctors MUST perform genital mutilation BECAUSE of the person thinking that body part doesn’t belong to them.
But THEN doctors say we CANT remove limbs.
No rhyme or reason.
How can a person that has had hormone treatments and sex reassignment surgery be “a former transgender person?”
Science says: xx or xy
To say otherwise is a cult, anti-science, mental illness. In other words a DemonicRat.
40 years ago they became Moonies.
The legal arguments are not going to matter to the four liberals. This will be a 5-4 decision. Which way it goes is the question.
This “transgender” nonsense is a fad. Fads spread through stupidity, gullibility, and an inability to distinguish fact from fiction.
It is promoted by every insane individual on the left. Schools send you to the school “Psychologist” if you say anything like “I don’t like being a boy.” Then it begins. The target is the innocent weewee, which winds up being lopped off before it has known its true role in life.
And “science,” which claims to be fully objective, is not saying a word about the transgender crap which is completely opposed to human nature.
Unfortunately, reason does not rule in the USA at this time. There is no way that the truth will become public policy.
There are two sexes, and you cannot go from one to the other.
There are two sexes.
Gender refers to language.
The people who reject their own biology are mentally ill and are mad at God.
Hate to say but this country is doomed. Pres. Trump is simply life support. After the pendelum swings back you ain’t seen nothing yet.
There are Laws on the Books in many States that make
so called “conversion” Therapy to help a Person with Gender Dystopia a Crime.
When will those clearly Unconstitutional Laws come under the purview of the SCOTUS? I assume the same time the clearly Unconstitutional Hate Crime Laws are.
Why is Orville Reddenbacher there? Is he a tranny? ok, lol
and more victim groups to divide, support, and gather votes.
That’s exactly what’s going on.
Great post. Thanks.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.