by Debbie Hayton
Monday, 24
April 2023
Debate
15:45

In America, trans activists are turning to vandalism

A Utah ban on 'gender-affirming care' for children has prompted a fierce backlash
by Debbie Hayton
The graffitied exterior of state senator Mike Kennedy’s home

An American politician appears to have been targeted by transgender activists intent on imposing their beliefs on the country. Mike Kennedy, a Utah state senator, reported that his house had been daubed with graffiti on Friday evening.

The vandal, or vandals, left messages in red spray paint across the senator’s garage: “fash” — presumably meaning fascist — and “these trannies bash back”. Kennedy shared the images on his Facebook pages, telling the perpetrators that “I will not be deterred by your cowardly actions.”


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Earlier this year, Utah banned so-called “gender-affirming care” for trans youth. A better term might be “experimental treatment that can lead to permanent and irreversible changes, with unknown long-term consequences on both physical and mental health”. Less catchy, perhaps.

Senate Bill 16 prohibited giving “hormonal transgender treatment to new patients who were not diagnosed with gender dysphoria” before the bill went into effect, as well as banning “sex characteristic surgical procedures on a minor for the purpose of effectuating a sex change.”

Utah was right to exercise caution. But that’s not the way that some transgender activists see it. To them, drugs and surgery are the answer to what — until recently — was regarded by the World Health Organisation as a mental health condition: gender identity disorder of childhood. The latest version of the International Classification of Diseases might have changed the language — it’s now “gender incongruence of childhood” but the condition remains the same. And one where we need to tread carefully. 

In England, the Cass Review of Gender Identity Services for Children and Young People has found that “there is a lack of consensus and open discussion about the nature of gender dysphoria and therefore about the appropriate clinical response.” In America it seems that the discussion has now been overtaken by more direct measures, with an act of vandalism against a politician. 

Gender identity ideology presents an open door to abusive men who want to usurp the rights of women. It also offers a shield for anarchists, trouble makers and those looking for a fight, if they can paint themselves as allies of what some consider to be the most vulnerable and oppressed group in society. They seem to think they can act with impunity.

But it is not fascism to protect children from harmful medical interventions. Ironically, one definition of fascism is “a tendency toward or actual exercise of strong autocratic or dictatorial control”. Those with the red paint might not be in government but their actions suggest that they are out to control the narrative.

Meanwhile, transsexuals like me are not “bashing back”. We want nothing to do with this. We transitioned to be able to get on with our lives in peace, not to impose ourselves on other people, nor to change the way they think and regulate the language they use.

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Robert Crane
Robert Crane
1 month ago

Gender identity ideology presents an open door to abusive men who want to usurp the rights of women. It also offers a shield for anarchists, trouble makers and those looking for a fight, if they can paint themselves as allies of what some consider to be the most vulnerable and oppressed group in society.

Very well said. This is precisely what’s happening.

Coralie Palmer
Coralie Palmer
1 month ago
Reply to  Robert Crane

After seeing the material highlighted by the excellent Graham Linehan, I am beginning to find myself wondering if, in a couple of years, we’ll be dealing with trans terrorism. Its extremists do seem to have the wholly one-dimensional world view that sooner or later leads to violent action.

Terry M
Terry M
1 month ago
Reply to  Coralie Palmer

Like eco-terrorism. Extremists often go to violent means. These people have a lot in common with the 1930’s KKK.

Ray Zacek
Ray Zacek
1 month ago
Reply to  Coralie Palmer

We are already dealing with it. The ‘manifesto’ of the Nashville shooter has been supressed for a reason.

Gerald Arcuri
Gerald Arcuri
1 month ago

Transfascism: jackboot tactics reveal their inner “man” – violent, repressive, absolutist, anarchist. These are SICK human beings. They must be resisted at every turn.

John Murray
John Murray
1 month ago

Abusive men often resort to violence when they cannot get their way.

Philip Stott
Philip Stott
1 month ago

I would bet a great deal of cash that not a single transsexual person was among the idiots that vandalised that house.

Glyn R
Glyn R
1 month ago
Reply to  Philip Stott

Well perhaps they hadn’t committed to the extent of castration but they may well have died their hair pink or purple in order to prove their femininity. Surely pink hair and make up is enough?

Last edited 1 month ago by Glyn R
Adrian Smith
Adrian Smith
1 month ago

Fascist has come to mean a name you call someone you don’t agree with when you can’t think of a civilised counter-argument.

David Ryan
David Ryan
1 month ago
Reply to  Adrian Smith

I agree. I was in a pub the other night for the first time in ages, and happened to mention that I didn’t Trump was any better or worse than the average politician. The barman, sporting a hipster beard, told me they didn’t tolerate fascism there. The mind boggles.

R Wright
R Wright
1 month ago

I am still waiting for the release of the trans school shooter’s manifesto by the authorities. Expect more violence over this debate in the coming years.

Toby Firman
Toby Firman
1 month ago

The term “fash” has got to be one of the cringiest, most infantile words ever created. It reeks of sweaty teenage hormonal angst and I can almost hear the 17-year-old pimpled anarchist say it with such an excited shrill, like a young child swearing for the first time. Go home a listen to your punk music in the confines of your cockroach infested bedroom in your upper-middle-class neighbourhood. Your mother is worried about you.

Frank McCusker
Frank McCusker
1 month ago
Reply to  Toby Firman

We had post-punk, in 1979. Punk has been dead for 45 years.

Ray Zacek
Ray Zacek
1 month ago

Trans is a cult proliferated by social contagion.

Last edited 1 month ago by Ray Zacek
Sandra Currie
Sandra Currie
1 month ago

I am alarmed by the growing authoritarianism worldwide. The trans ideology is leading all the countries they’ve captured with all the hallmarks of authoritarianism.

Richard Craven
Richard Craven
1 month ago

My former lodger was a trans rights activist. She shouted at me for wearing a t shirt bearing the slogan “I stand with J.K.Rowling”. So I evicted her. Words have consequences.

Alison Wren
Alison Wren
1 month ago
Reply to  Richard Craven

Well done you. Viva the Bristol fightback!!

Sandra Currie
Sandra Currie
1 month ago

There is a hit list, and I’m on it.

Matt Sylvestre
Matt Sylvestre
1 month ago

Ms. Hayton – Your clear, rational, and direct approach to this important issue is to be admired…

Steven Carr
Steven Carr
1 month ago

I blame toxic masculinity for what these transactivists are doing.

Dominic A
Dominic A
1 month ago
Reply to  Steven Carr

Weird that you have 7 downticks and John’s quote below, saying exactly the same thing gets 14 upticks. Maybe some people got triggered by the phrase ‘toxic masculinity’ and stopped using their brain at that point.

Terry M
Terry M
1 month ago
Reply to  Steven Carr

Excellent satire!

Paul T
Paul T
1 month ago
Reply to  Steven Carr

Why so many down votes for something so obviously true?

Dominic A
Dominic A
1 month ago
Reply to  Paul T

I think it may be sense of humour failures. Many of our American cousins struggle with irony.