Standing up to bullying, unscientific transgender activist mob

Almost no one does wicked things in the knowledge that what they are doing is wicked.It is a truth that should be universally acknowledged that in order to do something truly evil, a person needs to believe that what they are doing is good.Until somebody steps in and says “no.”This week there was an extraordinary development in one of the great medical and social scandals of our time.Alex Byrne is a professor of philosophy at MIT.

This week he outed himself as one of the authors of the review published last month by the Department of Health and Human Services.Or rather he outed himself after being hounded and exposed by demonic maniacs online.The review goes over treatments of so-called “gender dysphoria” in minors.The fact that the authors of the DHHS review even tried to remain anonymous tells us a lot about the toxicity of this whole debate.The review itself is considerate and moderate.It weighs up the actual evidence and simply suggests that American authorities should align with the emerging consensus among experts and politicians in Europe.

Which is that things have been done in the name of treating “gender dysphoria” are a medical and ethical nightmare.For over a decade now, the “be kind” brigade has been insisting that “trans” should be the next civil rights issue of our age.No less a graveyard of thought than Time magazine had a cover in 2014 saying that transgender issues should be “America’s next civil rights frontier.”That is a very loaded way to present a complex issue.After all, talk about “civil rights” brings two particular struggles to mind.The first is the struggle to ensure that ethnic minorities — in particular African-Americans — have equal rights to everyone else in the United States.

That issue was addressed and answered by force of moral argument six decades ago.The second issue that it brings up is the fight for gay rights, which also started some six decades ago.Since that time, the moral argument of th...