A response to Rosemarie M.

It cannot be denied that transgender surgery has become a highly politicized and polarized issue. But does it have to be?
Thanks for speaking honestly about your views (June 20 letter), even if your beliefs uphold the illusion that doctors are so evil that they want to mutilate and torture children with transgender-affirming surgery. And by default your frequent criticisms of Democrats and medical science suggest that you blame liberals for the sexual liberties which you think are being used to destroy heterosexuality? However, even if you don’t truly hate Democrats, gays or transgender people, attitudes like yours provide fuel to stoke the intense political divides between Trumpers and Democrats.

The fact is, that the fires of hatred and condemnation (are) stoked by (both) Democrats and Republicans. Trump himself has claimed he offers revenge and retribution for his supporters, as well as the many extreme right-wing groups that also support him, including autocratic strongmen and fascist rulers. So truly, how can anyone conclude that the Proud Boys, the Oath Keepers and even Marjorie Taylor Greene, are (not) filled with hatred that influences ordinary people?

As of the mid-1970s psychiatrists, plus many psychologists and medical doctors, still considered homosexuality a pathological condition, but after decades of scientific research, they concluded that gay couples are no better or worse than hetero couples, except that sometimes gay parents appear to be better parents. Some gays hire surrogates to carry their children or use invitro fertilization to facilitate pregnancies. Currently, no law says that people who want children, must be straight, and many heterosexual couples decided to use birth control or vasectomies to voluntarily forgo having children. But nowhere has Jesus called gays and transgender people evil, for simply not being “normal.”

I was confirmed in a small Lutheran church that did not emphasize sexual issues, and I still love Jesus as a source of incredible and transformational love. And like many, I am moved to tears when reading the account of Christ’s crucifixion, as Roman soldiers gambled for his clothes and he asked God to forgive them, because, “They know not what they do!” Stuff like that cannot just be fiction designed by ordinary men, because no ordinary man has ever had such a loving heart.

Unfortunately Rosemarie, here are some facts which you will not accept, quoted from the following website:
https://cashp.columbian.gwu.edu/trans-genes:
“Researchers at the Medical College of Georgia at Augusta University now suggest that they have identified 21 gene variants that could link to gender dysphoria – a condition where an individual’s assigned sex does not agree with their true psychological gender, and which could lead to major distress and functional impairment unless they receive the necessary support.” 

Members of the transgender community frequently experience violence and bullying at the hands of classmates or adults who hate and fear them for not being normal.
No matter how loving a person you are Rosemarie, as long as you buy into conspiracy theories that demand absolute conformity to “normal” sexual roles, you are still denying the human suffering of young people who feel they are trapped in the wrong body, and who can only become happy after receiving gender trans-formative surgery and societal acceptance, a process that requires both children and parents to give their permission to undergo years of medical treatments and psychological counseling, and, (if at any stage) the child or his parents decide not to allow such surgery (it will simply not be done)!

It’s always been easier to fight for conformity than to acknowledge human differences that require us to change our physical and/or mental attitudes. But for someone who speaks so strongly in support of the loving and compassionate roles of nurses, it’s unfathomable that you insist that doctors and parents are evil enough to support conversion therapy merely to inflict sadistic and cruel punishments on innocent children! No Rosemarie, virtually all doctors really do try to do no harm! But in this case, the damage is done by holding on to inflexible social beliefs that only cause more suffering in transexual children, whose brains are influenced by certain genes, while other genes influence their bodies! Do you think children just decide to change their genders for kicks?
Peter W. Johnson
Superior, Wisconsin

The rest of the story

Regarding Jill Biden’s secretive last minute visit to Duluth on June 13: while “Nana” Biden gave her “pep talk” inside, telling the carefully selected audience that her husband is making sure they enjoy the “benefits of living a long life,” the genocide Israel is conducting in Gaza (with the unqualified support of her husband) continued to extinguish the lives of entire families. The Biden administration is “pro-aging” but not for the 16,000 dead children in Gaza.

An article in the Minneapolis Star Tribune simply states “Grandmothers for Peace gathered on the sidewalk outside the Lincoln Park venue.” It does not mention why we were there with several brave young allies. It does not mention that Northland Grandmothers for Peace has been holding vigils in Duluth every Friday and every Sunday in Superior, calling for a permanent ceasefire and an end to Israeli occupation of Palestinian territory in keeping with international law.  It does not mention that as seniors and grandmothers, we are not fooled by Jill Biden’s claim that “we live in a democracy and we’re able to voice our opinions.”  Two voices raised against the murderous policies of the Biden administration in Gaza were silenced and hustled out of the event as she spoke, and thousands of peaceful protesters have been violently attacked and jailed over the last months for “voicing their opinions” in this “democracy.”  We are not fooled by Duluth PD trying to coerce and cajole us into a “free speech zone” at the Biden event to be ignored.

The “activist” quoted in the Star Tribune who gloated over “living in a democracy with my grandchildren” does not represent grandparents who have any sense of shared humanity or who care about our grandchildren growing up with adults who value the lives and wellbeing of children around the world. Jill Biden and the Biden administration she is campaigning for do not value the lives of children. Their war mongering is plain evidence. 

Northland Grandmothers for Peace was not included in this “invitation only” event in Duluth, but we are part of the movement for peace and justice for all, and we will not be scared off with threats or cheesy platitudes. As Biden gushed to her sycophants in Duluth, also true for us: “when people underestimate, they do so at their own risk.” 
Dorothy Wolden
President, Northland Grandmothers for Peace
Lake Nebagamon, Wisconsin

June 24 marked the anniversary of women losing their reproductive rights in our country

Thank you to all the brave women who stood up for me when Roe v Wade was passed 51 years ago. I was but a sophomore in high school when Roe passed. Thank you for all the reproductive freedoms you worked so hard for so I could have control over my reproductive health. I now carry that torch for the nightmare it has turned into. I won’t stand quietly and watch an America where I grew up with more reproductive rights than my daughter. As a mother, I now live in fear that she could be denied the care that she would need.

In the aftermath of post-Roe America, we see maternity care deserts and a rise in maternal and infant mortality rates. Abusers are exploiting abortion bans as a means of control. Women face prosecution for miscarriages, and the lives of pregnant people seeking abortion care are at risk daily due to restrictions. Abortion bans don’t eradicate the need for abortion care; they only dictate who has access. I won’t stand by while the most vulnerable among us are targeted.

All across this nation, the “good ol’ boys” are doing whatever they can to consolidate their power, to control women’s bodies and to silence our voices. Judges are disregarding the law and the limits of their own authority to take away our right to access abortion care. Legislators are going beyond gerrymandering and voter suppression to stripping democratically elected officials of their authority and criminalizing our right to protest. Don’t let your freedom of speech be silenced.

 In the words of Alice Walker, “The most common way people give up their power is by thinking they don’t have any.” Your vote is your power. Use that power.
Nancy Stencil
Rib Mountain, Wisconsin