Arlovus Scericci

Transgenderism must revert to being a form of private eccentricity. Recognition as one's preferred gender can be privately negotiated but with no coercion by any entity private or public. We all have an absolute right to affirm or not affirm, believe or not believe, that gender identity exists, that no one can infringe. Sex segregated spaces and activities remain segregated by sex, not "gender identity." Adults are free to inflict bodily self-harm on themselves in pursuit of an appearance they like but outside of any pretense of a medical protocol -- these are cosmetic procedures that come with no promises to relieve dysphoria or unlock an authentic self and the cost is borne solely by the person seeking them. Any such promises constitute consumer fraud. Children are of course unable to consent to such procedures. The state has no role in affirming any aspect of cross-gender ideation, avoids proselytizing to children in schools or to anyone else in any interface it has with the public. The person who has inflicted bodily self-harm on his sex traits is no more a distinct class of person to whom special privileges or protections can be conferred than a person who has covered his face in tattoos. The person who believes with all his heart that he is a woman at heart and would die if others don't recognize him as such imposes no duty on any other person to share in that belief or to pretend to share in it. That person must develop resiliency about living in a pluralistic, liberal, democratic society where every person has a right to belief and a corollary right to unbelief that no one may legitimately infringe. Any and all deviations from this resolution are morally illegitimate and practically untenable. The attempt to turn a private eccentricity into a social cause that justified the remaking of society was a ghastly and destructive mistake. It was made inevitable by certain facets of the culture and certain aspects of our politics. We must learn the lesson that experience has now taught us.