Thanks for commenting Spencer, I'm finding more and more disillusionment with left politics because of its authoritarian, illiberal nature. Rather than turn me towards the right, it makes me try and fight harder to return leftists back to some kind of common sense and promote the kind of Old Labour values which have just been abandoned now in this death spiral into identity politics and the desperate need for the votes of the young/woke. I also think the" perception" that so-called gender critical people of any flavour are somehow instantly aligned to the right is doing the pushback immense harm - I see this playing out far more in the States than here in the UK, although even here it's feverishly framed as right wing bigotry. I think Cause Conflation has a lot to do with it; when the left hijack or force team things like abortion rights and bundle in LGBTQ "hate" as a single umbrella issue, people seem to go along with it because the propaganda is so powerful and there aren't alternative voices just asking people to decouple the issues. I don't think feminism is in anyway a cult, or operates like a cult. Again, I think this is a successful kind of DARVO-like tactic of the left to paint opposition as some bunch of cultists, and from what I can gather over the last 4 years it's just not true that there is "toxicity on both sides". This is patently bullshit. I DO believe that there are cult-like attachments of groupthink such as intersectional feminists/3rd-wave feminists who attach themselves as allies to the trans movement and ride on their coattails, completely betraying the feminism and rights that their mothers and grandmothers fought hard for. It's a right mess. Thanks for commenting and please come back any time or subscribe, I'm keen to get a diversity of views and try to get a talking space open here :-) Thanks again
It is unimaginable the pain you must be experiencing. I think of my own children, how I would react to them following this path and can't begin to express it. Those who preach the "be kind" message and deny the reality of this evil, destructive ideology should be forced to read and acknowledge this. Thank you for laying it out so eloquently. I am so sorry for what has hit your family.
I could barely read through this, because it instilled in me a visceral fear. Too many similarities with what I am living in the last weeks of my professional life. I wish we, the Parents of the Trans-Trance Kids could reach out and hold you.
I'm like you. A dad, who adores his daughter, who was a bouncy, slightly awkward, pretty girl with thick blond hair. Somehow, behind the facade, there was a bullied soul (she is brilliant, by age 8 she spoke 4 languages, outstanding in maths, creative, but here friends in school were not very nice). And that sould slipped, got confused about budding adolescence, and went dysmorphic , and one day she landed a solid punch. On us, her parents.
Like you, I educated myself. I even went to the local "shelter" to speak to a totally incompetent leader there, a fellow who never had kids, who was stiff and manipulative, who showed me the usual rubbish about suicide and suffering kids.
I was declared persona non grata there after thge 1h40m "conversation." Not because I yelled and screamed. But because I asked questions, I came up with stats, I wondered about the speedy directing toward some butcher to cut off breasts and the daily dose of T. I asked why there was such an epidemic, and suggested it might be social media... Those were my "hurtful" words.
I'm holding back for the moment. My communbication with my daughter is fluid and fairly good. She's a little afraid of me, because I have educated myself, from Hirschfeld to Money, from Lacan to Butler. A small victory was that I spoiled the "shelter" for her. I showed her the letters I wrote them pointing out their contradictions.
But I have some experience with addicts and cults.
Courage, Denton, courage. All I can say is: Make sure she knows that you will ALWAYS be there for her (and I say her.... I told my daughter that I have diffficulty with that Orwellian pronoun mind-f---). They sometimes detransition, and at that point they will need you to just love unconditionally as parents should do.... That's what I told my daughter: If you have to trust someone, trust those who will always love you. .
You are telling all of our stories. How can young, evolving humans, each so diverse and special, be attacked and captured by a cookie-cutter ideology? They are victims of the Pied Piper of the Rainbow forest and we are all suffering the collective pain and loss.
Thank you so much for this, dear Denton! I am a mom of a non-binary-identified young adult daughter who has for now cut her father, brother, and me out of her life. Your beautiful and heart-breaking narrative captures so much of what we have experienced better than any other piece I have read by a parent in these circumstances. I will look forward to anything else you have to share.
Fellow parent of a trans-identifying child. Thank you. You are heard and you have good company. We just all have to keep trying, talking to whoever will listen. Help isn't coming from outside — no lawsuits, no sudden awakening in the idiot medical community, no growing awareness in the politicians shoving this down our throats. It will be parents that stop this horror show. Parents and time. If you haven't connected with any of the parent support groups, I highly recommend it. It's gotten me through the past year and a half. And if I were you, I would consider blocking the few disturbed monsters that are writing garbage comments, and deleting them. Let them spew their sick, ignorant nonsense on Twitter. You don't owe them a platform.
I know people who regard bringing attention to the attempted erosion of sex based rights, the invasion of women's spaces, sports and the medicalization of children and teenagers as a side show, a right-wing war on woke stirred up by the Daily Mail and other right-wing media.
I am saving this and I shall forward it to those I know who think this way because I think this is one the most powerful testaments that with great clarity reveals just how nasty and insidious this cult is.
If this account of Denton's experiences doesn't enable those who regard opposition to the cult of transgenderism as right wing scaremongering to understand, then nothing will.
It's stories like this, and some I know closer to myself personally, that disillusioned me with the left. Ultimately, it broke down a sort of wall. Could I be wrong, I asked myself? Leftists never really question their convictions because they come with an absolute moral imperative for action. It's like asking whether or not God is the bad guy and Satan is the good guy for a Christian. It's unthinkable because it's, allegedly, so obvious and true. Liberalism, leftism. These are religious cults, and it set the template for the gender madness we face.
As I said, questioning my preconceived ideology was like questioning God. And it began with the trans issue for me. It was like losing my religion. Poltics isn't meant to operate like this( I came to realize that as well). Leftism, transgenderism, communism, and even feminism operate as cults with dogmas, ostraciztion, the threat thereof, holy days and books, and a theology. It's so far beyond politics. This is one reason these are socially powerfully forces.
Here I am now, married, with children too young to get caught up in this....yet, I do fear for them and the world they are growing into. But my wife and I(used to be "intellectual" lefties) are firmly right wing, part of the actual counter-culture, ironically.
I discovered that the right wing isn't the caricature we were raised to believe-- rednecks and skinheads, etc. But that there is a solid intellectual tradition and respectability, and it's stronger and truer than anything the left can offer. The left rests on a foundation of lies. This is a hard truth.
This an incredibly moving honest account of a cruel nightmare. I am so sorry Denton, for what you, your wife, son, and daughter, and all your family, have suffered. Thank you for sharing. You are also a brilliant writer, so you tell your story superbly, and give a huge amount of information clearly. Despite the sadness, pain, fear, outrage, trauma and anger, etc, we can see how you are still offering love, and keeping the door open for later. If it is any small help, more and more men like myself, are realising what an evil travesty this trans Cult is.
Thank you for sharing your story. We’re in it with you. Our daughter left home at 17 saying she was non-binary without even giving us the chance to try to understand. She later cut all ties after starting testosterone at 18 with plans for top surgery and phalloplasty. She cut the whole family off. The only visibility we have to her life are comments on Reddit since we know her user name. She portrays us as f**ed up abusive parents who should burn in hell. She’s a brilliant, gifted girl. We have hope that she will see this cult for what it trust is eventually.
Gender ideology and critical race theory often involved ILLEGAL discrimination! Here are some recent victories I had against critical race theory in education and employment. The NYC film fund, a 7-million-dollar film fund which only helped upcoming artists if they wish to live as women, is now open to both sexes regardless of sexual orientation and gender identity because I complained to NYSDHR and they were found to have done illegal discrimination. I gathered evidence and filed complaints with NYSDHR and other FEPAs in other states, as well as OCR. Read my article to learn what my some of my victories are. https://open.substack.com/pub/justingaffneysamuels/p/using-factual-evidence-and-the-law?r=6512g&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web
Thanks for commenting Spencer, I'm finding more and more disillusionment with left politics because of its authoritarian, illiberal nature. Rather than turn me towards the right, it makes me try and fight harder to return leftists back to some kind of common sense and promote the kind of Old Labour values which have just been abandoned now in this death spiral into identity politics and the desperate need for the votes of the young/woke. I also think the" perception" that so-called gender critical people of any flavour are somehow instantly aligned to the right is doing the pushback immense harm - I see this playing out far more in the States than here in the UK, although even here it's feverishly framed as right wing bigotry. I think Cause Conflation has a lot to do with it; when the left hijack or force team things like abortion rights and bundle in LGBTQ "hate" as a single umbrella issue, people seem to go along with it because the propaganda is so powerful and there aren't alternative voices just asking people to decouple the issues. I don't think feminism is in anyway a cult, or operates like a cult. Again, I think this is a successful kind of DARVO-like tactic of the left to paint opposition as some bunch of cultists, and from what I can gather over the last 4 years it's just not true that there is "toxicity on both sides". This is patently bullshit. I DO believe that there are cult-like attachments of groupthink such as intersectional feminists/3rd-wave feminists who attach themselves as allies to the trans movement and ride on their coattails, completely betraying the feminism and rights that their mothers and grandmothers fought hard for. It's a right mess. Thanks for commenting and please come back any time or subscribe, I'm keen to get a diversity of views and try to get a talking space open here :-) Thanks again
It is unimaginable the pain you must be experiencing. I think of my own children, how I would react to them following this path and can't begin to express it. Those who preach the "be kind" message and deny the reality of this evil, destructive ideology should be forced to read and acknowledge this. Thank you for laying it out so eloquently. I am so sorry for what has hit your family.
I could barely read through this, because it instilled in me a visceral fear. Too many similarities with what I am living in the last weeks of my professional life. I wish we, the Parents of the Trans-Trance Kids could reach out and hold you.
I'm like you. A dad, who adores his daughter, who was a bouncy, slightly awkward, pretty girl with thick blond hair. Somehow, behind the facade, there was a bullied soul (she is brilliant, by age 8 she spoke 4 languages, outstanding in maths, creative, but here friends in school were not very nice). And that sould slipped, got confused about budding adolescence, and went dysmorphic , and one day she landed a solid punch. On us, her parents.
Like you, I educated myself. I even went to the local "shelter" to speak to a totally incompetent leader there, a fellow who never had kids, who was stiff and manipulative, who showed me the usual rubbish about suicide and suffering kids.
I was declared persona non grata there after thge 1h40m "conversation." Not because I yelled and screamed. But because I asked questions, I came up with stats, I wondered about the speedy directing toward some butcher to cut off breasts and the daily dose of T. I asked why there was such an epidemic, and suggested it might be social media... Those were my "hurtful" words.
I'm holding back for the moment. My communbication with my daughter is fluid and fairly good. She's a little afraid of me, because I have educated myself, from Hirschfeld to Money, from Lacan to Butler. A small victory was that I spoiled the "shelter" for her. I showed her the letters I wrote them pointing out their contradictions.
But I have some experience with addicts and cults.
Courage, Denton, courage. All I can say is: Make sure she knows that you will ALWAYS be there for her (and I say her.... I told my daughter that I have diffficulty with that Orwellian pronoun mind-f---). They sometimes detransition, and at that point they will need you to just love unconditionally as parents should do.... That's what I told my daughter: If you have to trust someone, trust those who will always love you. .
You are telling all of our stories. How can young, evolving humans, each so diverse and special, be attacked and captured by a cookie-cutter ideology? They are victims of the Pied Piper of the Rainbow forest and we are all suffering the collective pain and loss.
Thank you so much for this, dear Denton! I am a mom of a non-binary-identified young adult daughter who has for now cut her father, brother, and me out of her life. Your beautiful and heart-breaking narrative captures so much of what we have experienced better than any other piece I have read by a parent in these circumstances. I will look forward to anything else you have to share.
Fellow parent of a trans-identifying child. Thank you. You are heard and you have good company. We just all have to keep trying, talking to whoever will listen. Help isn't coming from outside — no lawsuits, no sudden awakening in the idiot medical community, no growing awareness in the politicians shoving this down our throats. It will be parents that stop this horror show. Parents and time. If you haven't connected with any of the parent support groups, I highly recommend it. It's gotten me through the past year and a half. And if I were you, I would consider blocking the few disturbed monsters that are writing garbage comments, and deleting them. Let them spew their sick, ignorant nonsense on Twitter. You don't owe them a platform.
Searing and utterly honest. Thank you for writing this as it lays everything out so clearly.
This is a public service. I’ll be sharing it with as many people as possible. Thank you for your strength and willingness to talk about this.
Thank you for writing this; it needs to be shared far and wide.
I know people who regard bringing attention to the attempted erosion of sex based rights, the invasion of women's spaces, sports and the medicalization of children and teenagers as a side show, a right-wing war on woke stirred up by the Daily Mail and other right-wing media.
I am saving this and I shall forward it to those I know who think this way because I think this is one the most powerful testaments that with great clarity reveals just how nasty and insidious this cult is.
If this account of Denton's experiences doesn't enable those who regard opposition to the cult of transgenderism as right wing scaremongering to understand, then nothing will.
It's stories like this, and some I know closer to myself personally, that disillusioned me with the left. Ultimately, it broke down a sort of wall. Could I be wrong, I asked myself? Leftists never really question their convictions because they come with an absolute moral imperative for action. It's like asking whether or not God is the bad guy and Satan is the good guy for a Christian. It's unthinkable because it's, allegedly, so obvious and true. Liberalism, leftism. These are religious cults, and it set the template for the gender madness we face.
As I said, questioning my preconceived ideology was like questioning God. And it began with the trans issue for me. It was like losing my religion. Poltics isn't meant to operate like this( I came to realize that as well). Leftism, transgenderism, communism, and even feminism operate as cults with dogmas, ostraciztion, the threat thereof, holy days and books, and a theology. It's so far beyond politics. This is one reason these are socially powerfully forces.
Here I am now, married, with children too young to get caught up in this....yet, I do fear for them and the world they are growing into. But my wife and I(used to be "intellectual" lefties) are firmly right wing, part of the actual counter-culture, ironically.
I discovered that the right wing isn't the caricature we were raised to believe-- rednecks and skinheads, etc. But that there is a solid intellectual tradition and respectability, and it's stronger and truer than anything the left can offer. The left rests on a foundation of lies. This is a hard truth.
I hear you and believe you. Thank you for writing.
This an incredibly moving honest account of a cruel nightmare. I am so sorry Denton, for what you, your wife, son, and daughter, and all your family, have suffered. Thank you for sharing. You are also a brilliant writer, so you tell your story superbly, and give a huge amount of information clearly. Despite the sadness, pain, fear, outrage, trauma and anger, etc, we can see how you are still offering love, and keeping the door open for later. If it is any small help, more and more men like myself, are realising what an evil travesty this trans Cult is.
Thank you for sharing your story. We’re in it with you. Our daughter left home at 17 saying she was non-binary without even giving us the chance to try to understand. She later cut all ties after starting testosterone at 18 with plans for top surgery and phalloplasty. She cut the whole family off. The only visibility we have to her life are comments on Reddit since we know her user name. She portrays us as f**ed up abusive parents who should burn in hell. She’s a brilliant, gifted girl. We have hope that she will see this cult for what it trust is eventually.
I could have wrote this. I see so many parents telling the exact same story as mine.
It's been 3 years of estrangement for us.
At this point I have conceded that there is no stopping this. it's all in the interest of population control and for the greater good of humanity
Gender ideology and critical race theory often involved ILLEGAL discrimination! Here are some recent victories I had against critical race theory in education and employment. The NYC film fund, a 7-million-dollar film fund which only helped upcoming artists if they wish to live as women, is now open to both sexes regardless of sexual orientation and gender identity because I complained to NYSDHR and they were found to have done illegal discrimination. I gathered evidence and filed complaints with NYSDHR and other FEPAs in other states, as well as OCR. Read my article to learn what my some of my victories are. https://open.substack.com/pub/justingaffneysamuels/p/using-factual-evidence-and-the-law?r=6512g&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web