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It's not quite that simple either - many people whom I know who are or have been against immigration ARE racists. It's just convenient for them that housing has become an issue as it takes attention away from their racism.
One conversation from a few years back with a visitor who volunteered that immigrants should stay in their own countries. To which someone else responded, "Your mother was an immigrant." To which the person responded blithely: "I mean non-white immigrants."
Same person said recently that only two religions ought to be allowed in Canada - Christianity and atheism.
Same person makes nasty remarks about transgender and gay people without reading the room.
Although, as you know I am not for kids changing their gender, I recognise that those that share my views are mostly people I wouldn't care to associate with. The welfare of children is not what's driving their views.
Those who are racist will almost certainly be on the anti-immigration side, and those who are homophobic will almost certain be on the anti gender ideology side (although trans neo-Nazis apparently exist), however I think people who hold such bigoted views are a relatively small proportion of Canadians, and yet, the number of Canadians who are okay with some immigration, but not this much, and are okay with gays, but think transgender activists are taking things too far, are not a small minority, and there are a lot of moderate Canadians in that camp as well.
The other thing to watch out for is question of what happens if parents have split custody and one parent agrees with their child's trans identity and wants to go forward with a medical gender procedure, and the other parent does not. We have seen cases in the US where the more conservative parent gets over-ruled (I think in some cases even lost custody?).
I'm not a parental rights absolutist. I do think there are some things that the state can disallow parents to put their children through. But generally, where I draw the line is between doing things and not doing things. The state can tell the parent "this cannot be done with your child", but it should not say "this must be done with your child".
The "cannot be done" category would cover abuse of the child, as well as things deemed dangerous or unnecessarily risky choices. You can't get a boob job if you're under 18, so I don't think you should be able to get top surgery either.
The crazy thing is sometime these decisions are often made by people that don't even have children of their own.
Too bad. Patria potestas was a cornerstone of the Roman law, which, once incorporated into the Western law canon, served civilization well since 753BC and up until, ugh-huh 2016?
Pretty sure that forcing your daughters into marriages, beating up your children, or using them to create porn, was banned a little while before 2016...
to the grooms in Lahore to have XXXL family reunions in Bramladesh to have a steady supply of NDP voters can not be banned because (i) it would be racist, and (ii) NDP does need voters.
I think Trudeau is being impractical and getting too hung up on LGBT issues (sexual orientation and sexual preferences) and is equating that with gender dysphoria and transgenderism, which is NOT the same thing as being LGBT.
He is ignoring the fact that confused youngsters who are going through a gender and identity crisis is a serious mental health issue that is an entirely different issue that really doesn't have anything to do with sexual orientation and preferences. I can't fathom why more people aren't recognizing that they are not the same thing.
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Yeah, I think sexual orientation and gender identity should be treated as separate issues.
A lot of how gender identity is defined seems misogynistic and homophobic to me - too much comes down to being "gender non-conforming" and I don't think not conforming to every single gender stereotype should make you any less of a man or woman. Tomboys, lesbians and gays seem to be more likely to not conform to these stereotypes and would therefore be more likely to get swept up in this gender ideology. Autistic females too, they tend not to fit into female stereotypes very well, and seem to be highly over-represented among today's trans youth.
You can have issues with body dysmorphia disorder that gets conflated with gender dysphoria. Sexual trauma can result in the child resenting their gendered bodies (especially if/as they go through puberty and those features become more prominent), which I think could even be straight up described as gender dysphoria, but I don't think trying to change your sex is the best way to address that trauma. You could have a tomboy who's friends with a bunch of boys, but when they start going through puberty, the boys start looking at her different and she doesn't like that and wishes she was a boy like the others. Or girls embarrassed about their period or growing boobs before the other girls.
You could have a boy that gets jealous of the attention his little sister is getting from his parents and starts imitating her to compete for attention. You could have a gay boy with homophobic parents who shame him for not being masculine enough or for having more feminine interests, and due to that shame, struggles to accept himself as gay and seeks an alternate explanation (not that such parents would be likely to approve of trans-sexuality, but they may not even have thought of building shame around that).
I think part of the reason why parents don't trust teachers around this issue is that teachers can have this hero/saviour complex. The idea that they might help a child discover "who they really are". That parents or society is transphobic (which they likely were taught in teachers college or some PD course). And it's preventing children from discovering their true self, and only they can save them. And they will actively look for something where it doesn't exist, because without realizing it, it feeds their ego. So to prove themselves as a true ally to the vulnerable trans community, they must find a trans child and bring them to the light. And perhaps this mindset exists among some therapists/psychologists as well.
The other concern with therapists and the medical community is whether the current system incentivizes certain behaviours. If a teenager goes to a therapist already believing they're trans (and the parent doesn't understand what that's all about - hence seeking professional help), the teenager might already know what they want, from doing "research" online or from social media, they want a referral for the puberty blockers and hormones for transitioning. If the therapist tries to slow things down to see if that's really the right decision, and to make sure there isn't something else going on, the teenager might decide they don't like that therapist and go to a different therapist. This is something that's already understood to be a shortcoming of therapy, patients will often seek out therapists who will tell them what they want to hear, rather than what they need to hear. That means teens may be more likely to end up with an affirming therapist, even if that's not what they need, and the more "cautious" therapists might feel pressure to be more affirming. This also goes for medical suppliers. Maybe the hospital won't approve puberty blockers or hormones until a patient has gone through a significant amount of therapy, but maybe a private clinic or non-profit will, so the teens just gravitate to those that give them the drugs they want.
The other thing to consider is that a lot of these teens, due to having comorbidities like ADHD, depression, anxiety, BPD, etc might be on all sorts of pharmaceuticals that impact their psyche and make it more difficult for them to assess who they are and see things clearly.
It's not quite that simple either - many people whom I know who are or have been against immigration ARE racists. It's just convenient for them that housing has become an issue as it takes attention away from their racism.
One conversation from a few years back with a visitor who volunteered that immigrants should stay in their own countries. To which someone else responded, "Your mother was an immigrant." To which the person responded blithely: "I mean non-white immigrants."
Same person said recently that only two religions ought to be allowed in Canada - Christianity and atheism.
Same person makes nasty remarks about transgender and gay people without reading the room.
Although, as you know I am not for kids changing their gender, I recognise that those that share my views are mostly people I wouldn't care to associate with. The welfare of children is not what's driving their views.
This is all no doubt true, but I don't think one should base one's opinion solely on who is for something and who is against it. I know it's hard not to do that, but the truly analytical rational person will assess issues based on facts and merits, not based on what their favourite people think.
The other thing to watch out for is question of what happens if parents have split custody and one parent agrees with their child's trans identity and wants to go forward with a medical gender procedure, and the other parent does not. We have seen cases in the US where the more conservative parent gets over-ruled (I think in some cases even lost custody?).
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The case you are probably thinking of actually happened in BC.
Those who are racist will almost certainly be on the anti-immigration side, and those who are homophobic will almost certain be on the anti gender ideology side (although trans neo-Nazis apparently exist), however I think people who hold such bigoted views are a relatively small proportion of Canadians, and yet, the number of Canadians who are okay with some immigration, but not this much, and are okay with gays, but think transgender activists are taking things too far, are not a small minority, and there are a lot of moderate Canadians in that camp as well.
I would say you just described in the vicinity of 80% of Canadians. They're not hateful. They just want a bit of common sense injected into the debate.
I am not a parents' rights absolutist either. For example, I am not super-keen on home schooling and even unsure if it actually should be allowed except under extremely unique conditions. Of course, to counter home schooling you also need to not have a public school system that is going off the rails...
As for other issues, parental abuse where the state has a legitimate need to step in is already covered by law. So parents don't "own" their children entirely like private property. There are limits, though obviously no one can be said to "own" children and have absolute authority over them more than their parents, subject to that authority being exercised reasonably properly.
Now, what the trans activist crowd says is that if parents don't support and even encourage gender transition, treatments, etc. that this is akin to literally physically abusing your child. That is what all of this is about fundamentally. And therefore the state is justified in going behind your back with your kids, as if you were literally beating the crap out of your kids or sexually abusing them.
It's worth mentioning that there are strict limits as to how and when the state can intervene with kids against the will of the parents. For example the state can't and won't do anything if you let your kids stay up until midnight on school days, only eat junk food, or allow them to neglect their homework. It seems to me that not fully embracing gender transition or even daring to question it, probably falls into the same categories.
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