It’s hard to admit being wrong. Nobody likes it but sometimes, events and facts accumulate and reveal our errors. Having spent some time as a newsman, I’ve written my share of corrections, taking no joy in doing so. I didn’t like it but admitting my mistakes was the right thing to do.
There are countless examples of people acknowledging they’re on the wrong side of history. French philosopher and well known Communist Jean Paul-Sartre was an admirer of the Soviet Union. He eventually denounced “both the USSR and its communist system following the brutal Soviet invasion of Hungary,” in 1956.
Germans who supported the National Socialist German Workers' Party found themselves on the wrong side of history when World War II ended. Former war correspondent Ray Moseley’s book Reporting War recounts the story of “American journalist Martha Gellhorn observing that many of the people she had met in Germany denied being Nazis and claimed to have helped Jews.” Maybe they were honest, maybe they weren’t. But being a Nazi in 1946 was considerably different than it was in 1940.
More recently, we’ve learned about terrible mistakes involving the COVID-19 response. Events continue revealing how proponents of lockdowns, school closures and other calamitous decisions were fantastically wrong. Some will never admit being on the wrong side of history; others will simply ignore their errors hoping others will too.
The response of people upon learning they’re on the wrong side of history varies. Cowards lie about their involvement and beliefs, or dogmatically cling to their mistakes in defiance of reality. Braver people recognize their incorrect beliefs and repudiate them. Today, supporters of transgender ideology are approaching their own moment of truth; they’re on the wrong side of history.
Esteemed British pediatrician Dr. Hilary Cass this week released a lengthy and “damning review” of gender treatment for children by the UK’s National Health Service. It seems people got almost everything wrong when dealing with children and trans ideology.
The Cass Review is so seismic, The Economist reported it “is damning of practices that were commonplace in England until recently and remain widespread in other countries, notably America.” According to Dr. Cass, children have been subjected to irreversible damage from hormone and puberty blocking therapies for which there is “remarkably weak evidence.” The review also determined that many children were suffering not from gender dysphoria but degrees of other mental illnesses, and were not treated appropriately.
The Cass Review further recognized the corrosive social aspects of trans ideology. Writing for The Telegraph, columnist Suzanne Moore sums up the review’s critique of these medical mistakes writing, “This has all been allowed to happen because children have been lied to. They are told they can change sex; they are told that puberty will be awful; they are told they will feel suicidal. Anyone who challenges this has been deemed a pariah.”
Also this week, the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA) determined that men should not be allowed to compete against women in college sports. The Council of Presidents of the NAIA, which governs sports at mostly smaller colleges, voted unanimously to keep men out of women's sports as a matter of simple fairness.
The Vatican weighed-in too. Its long-awaited statement on trans ideology says it “risks threatening the unique dignity,” of men and women. According to National Review, “the Vatican doctrine office formally rejects gender theory and any attempt to change one’s gender, for the most part, while upholding the fact that men and women are biologically different.” Given the progressive leanings of Pope Francis, the statement carries additional heft.
These medical, athletic and spiritual repudiations reflect a growing body of information that is inexorably revealing the deceits of trans ideology. Now, those who support it find themselves on the wrong side of history. People are realizing they have been lied to, and now know that affirming trans ideology is destructive and harmful to the body and soul.
Hardened Leftists promoting these lies will never admit their mistakes. For them, trans ideology is aligned with a broader neo-Marxist political agenda. Their worldview does not allow for admitting mistakes or feeling ashamed for remaining on the wrong side of history.
But for millions of ordinary Americans - people who were deceived into going along with trans ideology believing it was some form of kindness or tolerance - the truth is dawning on them. It takes courage to admit they were lied to and cajoled into believing an evil ideology. Other people will take the path of cowardice, refusing to acknowledge the truth. They are weaklings whose self esteem is too damaged to admit an error, even when it’s spawned by lies they were told.
Being on the right or wrong side of history is a matter of choice. For supporters of transgender ideology, the moment for choosing has arrived.
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