Charles Lewis: Let’s not fall for ‘bait-and-switch’ politics

It is one disaster down and one more to go. The first disaster was, of course, the House of Commons passing Bill C-7 that will make being killed by your friendly doctor a lot easier. Thanks, Justin, for your concern for the health of your fellow Canadians. How progressive.

There is more to come. For the Liberal government’s second act we have Bill C-6, which makes it a crime to talk someone, including a child, out of changing genders.

Frankly, if little Timmy, age seven, told his parents he would rather be a girl and would like to start taking hormone treatments, who in their right mind would say no? I mean … what could possibly go wrong?

It is not as if he asked to borrow the car to drive down the 401. Oh … wait … he is asking to borrow the car, too? Well, if that is what he wants then who are we to stop him? We are just his parents. And his (her?) gender is more a state of mind. So if Timmy wants it then we as parents should only grant his wish. After all, that is what parents are for.

What? He wants to join the army. Why not? What Timmy wants Timmy should get. After all, soon he will be eight — assuming he survives his drive down Canada’s biggest highway.

But even if his parents should want to deny him a sex change Timmy will not have to worry … because Timmy has new parents. They are called the government. And the government will ensure that never again will common sense or the health of the child ever get in the way.

Bill C-6 is not about trying to change gay men and women into straight men and women. That train left the station years ago. Some columnists seem to think this is what this bill is about.

Barbara Kay, my former colleague at the National Post, explained it best in a November column:

“This bill seeks to criminalize ‘conversion therapy,’ a term previously applied only to the practice — almost universally condemned as unethical — of treating all sexual orientations but heterosexuality as deviations in need of correction. But in its misleading bait-and-switch conflation of sexual orientation with gender dysphoria, conversion therapy has been extended to mean any treatment that slows down or dissuades a youth from early medical gender transition. In reality, sexual orientation and gender dysphoria are separate phenomena. A single therapeutic proscription covering both should have aroused suspicion in more than the few attentive House members who voted against it (and kudos to them for doing their homework).”

Ms. Kay is right. This is a classic “bait and switch.” This is the most important thing to remember: It is essentially going to remove parents from their role as nurturers of their children and hand it off to bureaucrats.

Fortunately, not everyone in the Western world is falling for this insanity. In December, the U.K. High Court ruled that giving puberty blockers to those 16 and under is forbidden

The ruling followed a lawsuit brought by Keira Bell, who underwent transition at the age of 16, as she desired to become a man.

Her case is tragic. As reported in this paper she brought a suit against the number one sex transition clinic in the U.K.

“She was injected with testosterone beginning at age 17 and underwent a mastectomy at 20 before she decided to ‘de-transition,’ only to find even the drug therapies had caused irreversible changes, the story said.

“She argued that she had been unable to fully consent because of her age and alleged that there were insufficient safeguards to protect young people.”

The court agreed. No one so young could fully understand the consequences of such “medical” treatment.

At least we now know there are adults somewhere in the world who find this entire business of transition a twisted form of health care. It shows that some are willing to stand up to this trans ideology that seems to have bullied so many.

No one reading this should sit on his or her hands. Do what you can to stop this grotesque practice. We are talking about children. It is OK to limit what they can do. It is called parenting.

(Lewis is a Toronto writer and regular contributor to The Register.)