I must confess that I'm transphobic, by the current definition.  My condition is unchangeable and intrinsic.  As I listened to medical experts and pundits on several Fox shows talk about the questions Rand Paul asked, and that Dr. "Rachel" Levine (birth name Richard) refused to answer during his HHS assistant director confirmation hearing, I was reminded why I am firmly against the phenomenon of humans pretending to transition from one to the other sex.

In the animal world, there are hermaphrodites.  I am willing to agree that there may, indeed, be a parallel, similar type naturally occurring in humans, although I've never heard of it.  I am also aware some people are born with ambiguous sexual organs and must make a choice.  These are rare occurrences.

I am, if I could define it more closely, uncomfortable with the political "transgendered" person who, because of the modern condition labeled gender dysphoria, decides to become a semblance of the opposite sex, most often male to female.  The result is a confused-looking, sometimes bearded lady with boobs, lipstick, a softened but still deep voice, and sometimes athletic prowess.  This is a person who is making a point politically by using and sacrificing his own body.

Some parents are manipulating their normal children toward gender confusion to take the game of dress-up to a new and frightening level and satisfy this urge vicariously.  The example that always comes to mind is of James, the little boy in Texas.

In 2019, his mother wanted him to "transition" as a 7-year-old and was insisting he live as a girl.  His father didn't go along with it, and the divorce, and court battle, were hot news for a while.  It came to pass that the boy simply wanted to be a boy, but the back-and-forth battle has to have taken its toll on his childhood.  So far as I know, the dad won the last round of the battle.  Nothing I can think of would make such a proceeding normal or healthy for a child.

I doubt that most of the adults who transition themselves are mentally stable.  I have read ample stories of buyer's remorse, and I've seen plenty of reports of suicide among transitioned people.  That's not even considering hormone-induced physical ills, from osteoporosis to infertility to cancer.

The fact that our president nominated such a confused human for a position of power and responsibility in the country is symptomatic of Biden's irresponsibility with, and lack of care for, the people he pretends to lead.  Not only is Levine presenting himself as a female, but he also was the author of the same policy in Pennsylvania that Andrew Cuomo is being accused of using to kill 15,000 seniors in New York.  Levine had made news, however, when he pulled his own mother out of her nursing home and installed her in a hotel, just before initiating the policy.  You just can't get more craven.

Rand Paul's questioning of Levine during the senate hearing elicited responses confirming my supposition that Levine is all in on promoting transition for any and all.  Paul asked whether children should be able to initiate a transition, pre-puberty, without their parents' permission.  Levine would not even give an answer.

To me, the discussion of initiating this treatment without parental consent is an important aspect of the question, but hardly the whole point.  There are plenty of mad, stupid, and deluded parents who would give permission.  These would include parents using a transitioning child as an attention-getting tool or to raise a parent's status in the woke milieu.

Why would anyone want to subject an impressionable child to such barbaric treatment, whether self-initiated or pushed by a parent?  Even a child confused about his identity should be allowed to grow up; figure out who he is, given time; and decide as an adult, preferably after a serious amount of psychotherapy.

Why would imposing transition on a child not be wholly illegal?  Society and the law won't allow your child to drive a car as a child, or get a tattoo before coming of age, even with parental permission.  A pre-pubescent child doesn't even have the self-discipline to be left unsupervised with friends.

Subjecting a child to unnatural hormonal treatments will dictate that the rest of his life will be spent as a societal misfit, no matter how hard the activists push to normalize this process.  It will most probably cause future physical illness.  It is cruel and unusual punishment.  There is no argument that convinces me otherwise.  Levine should never be put in charge of a department regulating the health of our populace.  I hope our Senate realizes that and scuttles his nomination.

Toby Ranley is a pseudonym.

Image: Desmond is Amazing.  YouTube screen grab with added text.