# The Right Wing Paranoids Are Right Again **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [May 13, 2016, 12:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-right-wing-paranoids-are-right-again/754667 "2016-05-13T12:49:20Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 13
**Author:** ![lance\_strongarm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/87869e/32.png) [@lance\_strongarm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lance_strongarm)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2016, 7:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-right-wing-paranoids-are-right-again/754667/241 "2016-05-19T19:42:45Z")
> [@Bridget\_Burke](#): > > If you really want to postpone gender determination, start a crusade against pink baby clothes for girls & blue for boys. Make all the clothing departments–even for the very young–offer only unisex outfits. Reorganize all the toy departments–why shouldn’t dolls & action figures be intermingled? Or should those toys even be allowed? Why not just sell abstract objects that teach hand-eye coordination instead of preparing kids for gender specific “roles?” > > Let them be “kids.” I can’t tell if you’re being serious or sarcastic. The idea that we shouldn’t socialize kids to only play with toys or wear clothes based on their sex is a serious movement today. ---
**Author:** ![Una\_Persson](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/una_persson/32/346_2.png) [@Una\_Persson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Una_Persson)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2016, 8:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-right-wing-paranoids-are-right-again/754667/242 "2016-05-19T20:13:44Z")
> [@TroutMan](#): > > **Una Persson** , I am in awe of the way you respond to antagonistic questions on a personal topic with answers that are respectful, informative, and always aim to teach rather than berate. You inspire me to be a better person. Thank you, but I know I’ve been losing my temper a bit lately with a couple of people on here who are deliberately trolling the issue. I’ve thought about stepping away a few times like **Eve** did. ---
**Author:** ![Una\_Persson](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/una_persson/32/346_2.png) [@Una\_Persson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Una_Persson)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2016, 8:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-right-wing-paranoids-are-right-again/754667/243 "2016-05-19T20:17:12Z")
> [@lance\_strongarm](#): > > This seems like a reasonable list for anyone, and it allows for the possibility that a child may be “mistaken” and not permanently transgender. Reading this list, I imagine that this protocol is often not followed, even in “enlightened” countries, either because doctors and parents aren’t aware of it or they reject transgenderism out of hand, and that’s unfortunate. Well with parents who reject it, the process is often: - Child approaches parents about feelings. - Parents berate child. - Child approaches parents repeatedly, and other adults. - More berating, groundings. - Child continues being consistent, persistent, and insistent in their gender identity. - Parents continue being consistent, persistent, and insistent in their denial. - Corporal punishment normally follows. Sometimes (rarely) fatally. - Child either suffers until they leave home at 18, runs away from home, self-harms - or suppresses their gender identity for years or decades, suffering silently the entire time. ---
**Author:** ![Una\_Persson](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/una_persson/32/346_2.png) [@Una\_Persson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Una_Persson)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2016, 8:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-right-wing-paranoids-are-right-again/754667/244 "2016-05-19T20:19:22Z")
> [@Fenris](#): > > …this was an excellent post, but I feel it missed the coveted 10/10 mark by not expanding on the opossumsexual bit as I feel strangely drawn to it. > > 😉 I saw an opossum in my front yard last night, which is why it was on my mind. 🙂 And seriously, who wouldn’t want to be a marsupial? Although some are fluid, and identify with monotremes sometimes… ---
**Author:** ![andros](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e480ec/32.png) [@andros](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/andros)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2016, 8:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-right-wing-paranoids-are-right-again/754667/245 "2016-05-19T20:21:52Z")
I identify as cisechidna. ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2016, 8:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-right-wing-paranoids-are-right-again/754667/246 "2016-05-19T20:28:16Z")
> [@Una\_Persson](#): > > I saw an opossum in my front yard last night, which is why it was on my mind. 🙂 > > And seriously, who wouldn’t want to be a marsupial? Although some are fluid, and identify with monotremes sometimes… I found one in my trash can. They have a lot of teeth. I turned the can over so that it would be easier to get out. He played dead. I walked a distance away and watched. I was curious how long it would take him to leave, and I wanted the trash can back. He was very convincing, but he would look up at me every few minutes, “Dude, I’m pretending to be dead. How am I doin’?” ---
**Author:** ![Fenris](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fenris/32/498_2.png) [@Fenris](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fenris)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2016, 8:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-right-wing-paranoids-are-right-again/754667/247 "2016-05-19T20:38:58Z")
> [@Una\_Persson](#): > > I saw an opossum in my front yard last night, which is why it was on my mind. 🙂 > > And seriously, who wouldn’t want to be a marsupial? Although some are fluid, and identify with monotremes sometimes… I just changed my species-identity. I want to be a MONOTREME-EXTREME! Platypusexual, that’s me! (By mentioning monotremes, combined with your discussion of oppossums in the grass (alas), I rerate your earlier post as an 11/10.) 😉 ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2016, 9:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-right-wing-paranoids-are-right-again/754667/248 "2016-05-19T21:22:49Z")
> [@Fenris](#): > > I just changed my species-identity. I want to be a MONOTREME-EXTREME! Platypusexual, that’s me! > > (By mentioning monotremes, combined with your discussion of oppossums in the grass (alas), I rerate your earlier post as an 11/10.) > > 😉 Do you get a poison spur? ---
**Author:** ![Una\_Persson](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/una_persson/32/346_2.png) [@Una\_Persson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Una_Persson)\ **Post date:** [May 20, 2016, 2:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-right-wing-paranoids-are-right-again/754667/249 "2016-05-20T02:30:21Z")
> [@Fenris](#): > > I just changed my species-identity. I want to be a MONOTREME-EXTREME! Platypusexual, that’s me! You could be platypussy whipped. > [@](#): > > (By mentioning monotremes, combined with your discussion of oppossums in the grass (alas), I rerate your earlier post as an 11/10.) Aw, thank you! ---
**Author:** ![Kimstu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/ecd19e/32.png) [@Kimstu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kimstu)\ **Post date:** [May 20, 2016, 3:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-right-wing-paranoids-are-right-again/754667/250 "2016-05-20T03:19:48Z")
> [@lance\_strongarm](#): > > I can’t tell if you’re being serious or sarcastic. The idea that we shouldn’t socialize kids to only play with toys or wear clothes based on their sex is a serious movement today. Hell, I remember the **last** time it was a serious movement, too. And it seemed blindingly obvious back then that it’s silly to segregate children’s stuff by clothing color or toy type just because some children are boys and some are girls. And then, apparently, the manufacturers of children’s stuff figured out that they were losing a shit-ton of money by making toys that siblings or friends of both genders could get use out of, and the Pink Tsunami of Marketing turned all children’s things back into either “boy’s stuff” or “girl’s stuff”. :rolleyes: If it’s the issue of transgender rights that finally reawakens awareness that it’s silly to force children into rigid gender roles, then hurray (again) for transgender rights. Speed the day, sez I. ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [May 20, 2016, 4:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-right-wing-paranoids-are-right-again/754667/251 "2016-05-20T04:59:06Z")
> [@Una\_Persson](#): > > I saw an opossum in my front yard last night, which is why it was on my mind. 🙂 > > And seriously, who wouldn’t want to be a marsupial? Although some are fluid, and identify with monotremes sometimes… Marsupials are definitely kinky. While males have a [two pronged penis,](http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-2V4Fl4GgSBw/TZu8ljLzY_I/AAAAAAAAGXg/uRkqkz_N0qU/s1600/20110405_27.JPG) females have not one, not two, but three, count 'em, [_three_ vaginas.](https://grist.files.wordpress.com/2012/04/kangaroo-vaginas.jpeg?w=500) Monotremes, on the other hand, have one of the [world’s most terrifying penises.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=96jdqDSDE2E) ---
**Author:** ![Gyrate](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gyrate/32/3588_2.png) [@Gyrate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gyrate)\ **Post date:** [May 20, 2016, 8:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-right-wing-paranoids-are-right-again/754667/252 "2016-05-20T08:53:39Z")
> [@Fenris](#): > > I just changed my species-identity. I want to be a MONOTREME-EXTREME! Platypusexual, that’s me! > > (By mentioning monotremes, combined with your discussion of oppossums in the grass (alas), I rerate your earlier post as an 11/10.) > > 😉 It’s not right that those platypodes get to use both the “mammals” bathroom and the “egg-layers” bathroom. Clearly they are an abomination against nature and the Lord. ---
**Author:** ![Una\_Persson](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/una_persson/32/346_2.png) [@Una\_Persson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Una_Persson)\ **Post date:** [May 20, 2016, 12:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-right-wing-paranoids-are-right-again/754667/253 "2016-05-20T12:01:18Z")
> [@Colibri](#): > > Monotremes, on the other hand, have one of the [world’s most terrifying penises.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=96jdqDSDE2E) Yes. Yes, they do. :eek: ---
**Author:** ![Damuri\_Ajashi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/898d66/32.png) [@Damuri\_Ajashi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Damuri_Ajashi)\ **Post date:** [May 20, 2016, 2:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-right-wing-paranoids-are-right-again/754667/254 "2016-05-20T14:43:27Z")
> [@Cyros](#): > > Not for nothing but my daughter has had an incredibly strong sense of her gender identity since she was about 4 (she is 10 now). She completely rejected any suggestion that she partake in any activity that she had tagged as masculine in her mind. I thought it quite odd at the time as we had never been the kind of parents who made a big deal of gender related activities. > > She watched Dora the Explorer, played house and restaurant, and loved her stuffed animals. She also watched Diego, played with frogs and bugs, went hiking and kayaking, and never really got into dolls. > > When it came to things she had tagged as gender separated in her mind she absolutely refused to have anything to do with something that was “for boys”. Lego had to be Friends lego as that was for girls and anything else was for boys. She refused to even think about Nerf guns until they came out with the Rebelle Nerf line. Once she saw that she was all about the Nerf, but only the Rebelle stuff. > > I know that anecdote doesn’t equal data but I truly believe that she would have been quite upset to have people insist that she act as if she was the opposite gender. Based on my experience with this little girl I have to laugh at the suggestion that young children don’t have a sense of their gender identity. I think there is a difference between girls acting like girls in a world that expects them to act like girls and treating a tomboy like a boy for all purposes including which bathroom they use. ---
**Author:** ![Damuri\_Ajashi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/898d66/32.png) [@Damuri\_Ajashi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Damuri_Ajashi)\ **Post date:** [May 20, 2016, 2:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-right-wing-paranoids-are-right-again/754667/255 "2016-05-20T14:55:19Z")
> [@TroutMan](#): > > Maybe you should re-read the part I emphasized, and let people who actually are child psychologists and have studied the topic make those decisions. Your feelings about the best way to treat kids don’t carry much weight. And perhaps you should read about the inconclusive and controversial positions of professionals on prepubescent transgender kids. My opinions are as much in line with professional consensus (or lack thereof) as anyone’s. ---
**Author:** ![Damuri\_Ajashi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/898d66/32.png) [@Damuri\_Ajashi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Damuri_Ajashi)\ **Post date:** [May 20, 2016, 2:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-right-wing-paranoids-are-right-again/754667/256 "2016-05-20T14:57:03Z")
> [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](#): > > I have trouble following why you think you know shit about about how to paraphrase, but other than that, thanks, no, I’m following just fine. > > This is all true. It still doesn’t mean what you terribly paraphrased it as. So then your post had nothing to do with the post it was responding to other than to share a Wikipedia page with the class? I apologize, I will stop making the mistake of assuming that your posts are relevant or responsive. ---
**Author:** ![TroutMan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/troutman/32/6721_2.png) [@TroutMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TroutMan)\ **Post date:** [May 20, 2016, 3:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-right-wing-paranoids-are-right-again/754667/257 "2016-05-20T15:06:54Z")
> [@Damuri\_Ajashi](#): > > And perhaps you should read about the inconclusive and controversial positions of professionals on prepubescent transgender kids. My opinions are as much in line with professional consensus (or lack thereof) as anyone’s. Keep on teachin’ the controversy, **Damuri**. You’re doing a heckuva job. ---
**Author:** ![Damuri\_Ajashi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/898d66/32.png) [@Damuri\_Ajashi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Damuri_Ajashi)\ **Post date:** [May 20, 2016, 3:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-right-wing-paranoids-are-right-again/754667/258 "2016-05-20T15:09:57Z")
> [@Moriarty](#): > > Once more, with emphasis: I was addressing the sentiment, not you the poster. Maybe if I had written, “people who think like that need to grow the fuck up”, it would have been more palatable to you. You claim that it was sarcasm; I claim I recognized that you were engaging in hyperbole, and are largely adopting a devil’s advocate… > You know what? Screw it. If it helps you move on with your life, I am sorry that you believed I was personally attacking you. That’s not much of an apology. An acceptable apology would be to admit YOU did something wrong rather than apologize that I misread what you wrote. That’s like calling me ugly and then apologizing that I am so ugly. > [@](#): > > This I disagree with. Liberals are not proposing a change to the status quo. The status quo has been that people are entitled to use the bathroom that corresponds to their gender. It’s only when some ignorant hatemongers realized that gender does not always neatly correspond to sex that the status quo became a problem, and we needed laws to ensure that people went into the bathroom that matches their apparent genitalia when they were born. The issue is not permissive bathroom use. The issue is people who don’t understand that whether someone is a boy or girl is not necessarily dictated by their anatomy. You realize that the north Carolina rule was a response to a law passed in Charlotte North Carolina, right? So it was in fact liberals who were pushing the envelope. Rightly or wrongly, it was a response to liberal action. > [@](#): > > Are you suggesting that pre-pubescent kids should not be assigned a gender at all? Before puberty, you are neither a boy or girl (Schrodinger’s kid)? Because the current situation is that people guess at the gender of a child, and just assume that their guess is correct, unless and until that child rebels from that label. Nobody I know leaves gender determination until after puberty. No. I am suggesting that we don’t really need to send 6-12 year old boys into the girls bathroom because they feel more like girls. I don’t know what the answer is but the solution cannot be to turn a problem for a tiny minority into a problem for that large minority of folks who don’t want their child sharing a bathroom with a child of the opposite sex. You can’t just tell them to suck it up and live with it. I think that an ADA undue burden analysis appropriate in this case. If you can accommodate the transgender child without undue burden, then you must, otherwise it is up to the transgender community to come up with a solution that does not present an undue burden. ---
**Author:** ![Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/left_hand_of_dorkness/32/7156_2.png) [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Left_Hand_of_Dorkness)\ **Post date:** [May 20, 2016, 3:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-right-wing-paranoids-are-right-again/754667/259 "2016-05-20T15:14:00Z")
> [@Damuri\_Ajashi](#): > > So then your post had nothing to do with the post it was responding to other than to share a Wikipedia page with the class? The best thing I can say about this post is that it correctly uses a question mark. The answer to your question is, are you drunk? Of course that’s incorrect. My post had everything to do with what it was responding to. Of course trans issues have been around a long time. THAT IS NOT THE SAME THING AS BEING NEXT ON SOME IMAGINARY AGENDA AS SOON AS SSM IS TAKEN CARE OF, YOU HALFWIT. ---
**Author:** ![Damuri\_Ajashi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/898d66/32.png) [@Damuri\_Ajashi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Damuri_Ajashi)\ **Post date:** [May 20, 2016, 3:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-right-wing-paranoids-are-right-again/754667/260 "2016-05-20T15:20:18Z")
> [@SpoilerVirgin](#): > > Having read the articles linked above about the two differing psychological approaches, I have to ask what you mean by “just let them be kids”? If you have a child identified at birth as male who only wants to play with girls, wear dresses, and have pink ponies and princess dolls, is it “just letting them be a kid” to just let them engage in those behaviors? Or is it “just letting them be a kid” to require them to play with boys, wear pants and have trucks, even when you have to coerce them to do it, or forbid them to do the things they really want to do? I’m not saying that one approach or the other is the correct one, but it’s not as simple as “just let them be kids.” You’re right. I was speaking too simply. There comes a point in treatment of gender identity issues where you are calcifying that boy’s feeling when in the natural course of things, more than 80% of those boys decide that they don’t actually feel like girls after they go through puberty. My objection is to the growing trend I am seeing of treating these children (sometimes very young children) like the opposite gender to the point of having them use the bathroom to which they currently identify. If your boy likes wearing dresses, then let them wear a dress, if your girl like playing ball then let them. None of this is new behavior among children but treating that boy like a girl and treating that girl like a boy including bathroom use is what I object to. Once you are post pubescent, the incidence of recidivism seems pretty low. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-right-wing-paranoids-are-right-again/754667.md?page=12) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-right-wing-paranoids-are-right-again/754667.md?page=14)