The Supreme Court has upheld 6-3 Tennessee’s ban on sexual mutilation and poisoning of children. In the New York Times opinion section, M. Gessen is aghast, leading off with this convincing thought experiment:
The Supreme Court’s Blindness to Transgender Reality
June 19, 2025
By M. Gessen
Opinion Columnist
M. Gessen is an Opinion columnist for The Times. They won a George Polk Award for opinion writing in 2024.
Imagine you are a transgender teenager. Don’t ask me how you know that you are transgender: That question is no more appropriate or relevant than asking people how they know that they are gay or Jewish or Black.
That would be as inappropriate as black women doubting that Rachel Dolezal is black.
And whoever heard of rabbis having an opinion on whether somebody is Jewish or not?
Similarly, J. K. Rowling has been known to express doubts over whether men who declare themselves transwomen are really lesbians like they say they are.
Maybe you’ve always known. Maybe a classmate or a stranger said something that alerted you to it. Maybe you know the way teenagers often know things: As the world came into focus, this thing about yourself became clear as could be. In any case, you know.
Similarly,
Paywall here.
The Supreme Court’s Blindness to Fatness Reality
By Karen Carpenter
Imagine you are a disgusting fat pig. Don’t ask me how you know that you are an oinker. Sure, the scale says you only weigh 86 pounds, but you know you are a repulsive tub of lard. Maybe you’ve always known. Maybe a classmate or a stranger said something that alerted you to it. Maybe you know the way teenagers often know things: As the world came into focus, this thing about yourself became clear as could be. In any case, you know.
Also in the NYT:
How the Transgender Rights Movement Bet on the Supreme Court and Lost
The inside story of the case that could set the movement back a generation.
By Nicholas Confessore
June 19, 2025
The 42 most popular comments in the New York Times are against the trans movement, the Biden Administration, Admiral Rachel Levine, the ACLU, and/or their ex-woman lead attorney Chase Strangio.
By the way, it's too cognitively tiring to read long articles like this one about people like Chase Strangio that require constantly translating the countless pronouns. E.g., Is “they” referring to more than one person like in the normal English language, so M. Gessen must be a collective like Nicolas Bourbaki? Or in this case is “they” a code word for just one person, but one who is not quite right in the head, yet is extremely demanding?
Fortunately, we now have the technology to give readers a choice. When reading this article, subscribers should have the option to choose upfront whether the text refers to Chase Strangio by pronouns and verbs appropriate for his purported gender or by her real sex and number.
Claiming that restricting the 'rights' of children/minors to disfigure themselves is an abomination certainly classifies as a mental disorder of its own. I enjoyed the fat joke, but it also made me think of this example.
Billy is a healthy twelve year old in every way, except he has already realized that he is a drunkard. He loves booze in all of its forms. He likes a good beer buzz early in the morning (to steal a line), and he also likes a variety of mixed drinks at cocktail time. However, those evil haters in the government have made it illegal for Billy to purchase alcohol and have also made it illegal for adults to help him achieve his identity. The harm being done to child drunkards by these dipsophobes is immeasurable. All that these children want is a bit of respect and some drunk-affirming care (like a keg and a crate of whiskey every week or so).
Poor Karen.
She is an excellent thought experiment for anyone who actually wants to sort through this transsexualism nonsense and clarify the truth. Not that thought experiments should be needed - the common sense of a five year old should be sufficient. But apparently the New York Times and its contributors and readers lack any sense at all.