Let’s be honest -- there’s something intrinsically creepy about the whole transgender idea. Pretend all you want, say all you want, but the idea of a man asking to be castrated, taking hormone shots, and putting on a dress makes one’s skin crawl.

This transgender mania began with the sudden obsession and mass glorification of a celebrity who decided to switch genders. You may remember the orgiastic reaction by the leftist media: “Bruce Jenner is courageous! He’s very courageous! She’s so courageous! Let’s give her the Arthur Ashe Courage Award. I’m so inspired by how courageous he/she/it is! Aren’t you?”

Predictably, the LGBTQBSLMAO community embraced the latest movement. So did feminists. For decades, the Lysenko-feminists proclaimed that sex is a social construct, not genetic, not biological, that culture determines gender. Sex is arbitrarily assigned at birth. Sexuality is, therefore, fluid and can be changed like one’s shirt. Jim Goad’s retort is perfect: “It never seems to occur to these dolts that culture is an expression of biology.”

"Women's March," Washington, DC, January 2017  (Photo credit: Ted Eytan)

A rush of transgender propaganda has flooded the media, not just in America, but in Canada and across the pond, (where every leftist trend in the U.S. is instantly copied), determined to ram transgenders down society’s throat. We are supposed to admire them, we are supposed to emulate them, we are supposed to think like them. The American Psychological Association, --always a festering sore of political correctness -- jumped into the transgender bandwagon. Even the National Geographic magazine, which embraced Political Correctness under the new editor, ran a cover article eulogizing transgender children (the reason given for doing so was moronic). And the TV series Supergirl now has a transgender character.

Aesop’s fable about the tailless fox is relevant.

Some of us that were around in the 1970s will remember that feminists pushed an “androgynous” ideal, a physical look of flatchested, hipless women, and thin, flabby, weak men, both with short, identical hair, dressing sloppily. For some reason, it didn’t catch on. Biology was irrelevant to gender. Transgender is now the substitute for androgyny and the impression that we are given is that every man, woman, boy and girl wants to be transgender (and, although transgenderism applies to both genders, make no mistake, the real target is masculinity; leftists of all variations despise masculinity).

However,  a lot of physicians have warned against this mania, that many persons who have gone through the change have experienced “transgender regret” and even committed suicide. Gender dysphoria does occur with some individuals. It is also proven that many of them get over that phase and look back with distaste and wonder at their previous state of mind. The media is silent.

(If I may present a hypothesis, this could be due to a recently discovered phenomenon, wherein maternal cells occasionally are transferred to the fetus and stay within the child for years. Presumably, what influence those cells have on the child may decline with age.)

And, as is always the case with leftists, they have censored, persecuted, or ostracized those who do not conform to the official ideology. Professionals have even been excluded from presenting their findings. Scientific research has been shaped, if not mutilated, to fit the ideology. Any scientific research that contradicts the ideology is ignored. It seems that transgenderism has adopted the totalitarian tactics of the left. If you have any doubts of that, some leftists want to send skeptics to a gulag. Yes, the mainstream media has been silent on this, too (what is particularly curious is that the most rabid “activists” are often not the transgendered; rather, the “activists” have seen fit to be the self-appointed advocates). And, yes, we have the occasional RINO that wants to fit in.

One of the things that is disturbing about this frenzy is the intimidation, the drive for total conformity, the insistence that everyone must adhere to the transgenders’ fantasies (that they have become an actual woman or an actual man), that people must act accordingly, and that they must jettison any feelings of disgust at the idea of sexual self-mutilation. The world must accommodate them, must go along with their fantasies. And since distorting language is one of the goals of totalitarians, persons must address them in the appropriate way and must treat them like they want to be treated. The transgender must be addressed in their preferred pronouns; people must be forced to do so (or, as in the case of the University of Minnesota they can be fired or expelled. In California,  New York City and Canada, they will be sent to jail. You can lose your Planet Fitness membership. Or your Twitter account). No matter how self-evident a fact one cites, one can be penalized.

Essentially, their belief is that wishful thinking and ideological fanaticism trumps reality and everyone must conform in this pretense.

However, there is a much more sinister aspect to the transgender movement and that is that it has set its sights on children. First, there is transgender propaganda being introduced in schools aimed at young children (in addition to Marxist propaganda. In both, few parents are fighting back) as well as in the now “progressive” Boy Scouts. This goes hand in hand with gays also targeting children in a number of venues. Second, some parents have lost parental rights over their child over this issue. Parents are being attacked for resisting transgender mania. Third, questionable “treatments” are being implemented on children which do not appear to have had thorough research. Lastly, and absurdly, boys who are transitioning into girls still retain a physical advantage that, when applied to competitive sports, such as the Women’s World Cycling Race, puts girls in a distinct disadvantage. It is reminiscent of the East German Olympic teams. It is grotesque.

To quote Stephen Crane:

A man said to the universe: “Sir, I exist!” “However,” replied the universe, “The fact has not created in me a sense of obligation.”

Armando Simón is the author of A Cuban from Kansas, Very Peculiar Stories, and The Cult of Suicide and Other Sci Fi Stories.