By Kyle Smith
Monday, May 23,
2022
Bill Maher is still a Democrat, but he’s
become the kind of Democrat who posts National
Review headlines on Real Time and makes points that echo
the ones we make all the time here. In other words, he’s a National Review kind of Democrat.
Welcome, Bill.
In a piercing and astute Friday monologue on his HBO talk show, Maher noted that “if something in the human
race is changing at a previously unprecedented rate, we have to at least
discuss it,” and cited polls showing that the percentage of Americans
identifying as lesbian, gay, bisexual, or transsexual is roughly doubling every
generation, now surpassing 20 percent: “If we follow this trajectory we will
all be gay in 2054. When things change this much this fast, people are allowed
to ask, ‘What’s up with that?’ All the babies are in the wrong bodies? Was
there a mix-up at the plant?” He noted that when adults used to ask children
what they wanted to be when they grew up, “They meant what profession.”
Maher said he was happy for gay (etc.)
people who get to openly be their authentic selves, adding, “We should all be
mindful of respecting and protecting. But someone needs to say it: Not
everything’s about you. And it’s okay to ask questions about something that’s
very new and involves children.”
Maher worries that “we’re literally
experimenting on children. Maybe that’s why Sweden and Finland have stopped
giving puberty blockers to kids.” As he spoke, Maher posted the headline
of this NR piece.
What are we doing to kids who say they’re
transgender?
We just
don’t know much about the long-term effects although common sense should tell
you that when you reverse the course of raging hormones there’s going to be
problems. We do know it hinders the development of bone density, which is kind
of important if you like having a skeleton. Fertility and the ability to
have an orgasm seem also to be affected. This isn’t just a lifestyle decision.
It’s medical. Weighing tradeoffs is not bigotry. Yet when a
book questioning the sudden uptick in transitioning children was
released, a trans lawyer with the ACLU tweeted, ‘Stopping the circulation of
this book and these ideas is 100 percent the hill I will die on.’ How very
civil liberties of him.
Maher said that increased frankness is
likely a factor in the polls showing more and more sexual minorities, saying,
“And that’s all to the good.” But he added, “Some of it is: It’s trendy. ‘Penis
equals man? Okay, boomer.’ Remember, the prime directive of every teen is:
Anything to shock and challenge the squares who brought you up . . . And if you
haven’t noticed that with kids, doing something for the Likes is more important
than their own genitals, you haven’t been paying attention.”
Maher pointed to the skepticism of Dr.
Erica Anderson, a transgender 71-year-old psychologist who questions the spike
in transgender children. “The L.A. Times summarizes,
‘She’s come to believe that some children identifying as trans are falling
under the influence of their peers and social media.’ If you attend a small
dinner party of typically very liberal upper-income Angelenos, it is not
uncommon to hear parents who each have a trans kid having a conversation about
that.”
Why are kids in major liberal enclaves
suddenly announcing they were born in the wrong bodies in numbers never dreamt
of even a decade ago? Maher suggests there is a mind contagion at work. He
asks, “What are the odds of that happening in Youngstown, Ohio? If this spike
in trans children is all natural, why is it regional? Either Ohio is shaming
them or California is creating them.”
Maher thinks a little frankness is in
order: “If we can’t admit that in certain enclaves there is some level of trendiness
to the idea of being anything other than straight, then this is not a serious
science-based discussion. It’s a blow being struck in the culture wars using
children as cannon fodder.”
When it comes to the long-term health of
our kids, some parents seem to think gender transitioning is the one safe thing
that children can do: “I don’t understand parents who won’t let their
nine-year-old walk to the corner without a helmet, an Epipen and a GPS tracker
— and God forbid their lips touch dairy — but ‘hormone blockers and genital
surgery? Fine.’”
To summarize: “Never forget children are
impressionable and very, very stupid . . . Maybe the boy who thinks he’s a girl
is just gay. Maybe the girl who hates girly stuff just needs to learn that
being a girl doesn’t mean you have to act like a Kardashian. Maybe childhood
makes you sad sometimes and there are other solutions besides ‘hand me the d***
saw.’’
And we seem to have forgotten that kids
have phases: “They’re kids, it’s all phases. The dinosaur phase, the Hello
Kitty phase . . . genderfluid? Kids are fluid about everything. If kids knew
what they wanted to be at age eight, the world would be filled with cowboys and
princesses. I wanted to be a pirate. Thank God nobody took me seriously and
scheduled me for eye removal and peg-leg surgery.”
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