Letter: What role do we play in gender dysphoria?

Posted 3/23/23

To the editor:

I have been following the discussion initiated by Aaron Ley’s spirited defense of drag shows at the Town Council meeting several weeks ago. I was interested because I had …

This item is available in full to subscribers.

Please log in to continue

Log in

Register to post events


If you'd like to post an event to our calendar, you can create a free account by clicking here.

Note that free accounts do not have access to our subscriber-only content.

Day pass subscribers

Are you a day pass subscriber who needs to log in? Click here to continue.


Letter: What role do we play in gender dysphoria?

Posted

To the editor:

I have been following the discussion initiated by Aaron Ley’s spirited defense of drag shows at the Town Council meeting several weeks ago. I was interested because I had just read about the CDC statistics citing a dramatic rise in gender dysphoria, anxiety, and suicide in children, particularly teen girls. Obviously, drag shows are not the sole, or even a major cause of this, but they don’t help.

Puberty is a difficult time. There is a lot to sort out in a few tumultuous years. Questions about sex and gender are central to the process. Children look to us and to the culture for answers. What they see and hear from us matters.

We have to consider — is gender dysphoria a good thing? It is okay?

Is it possible that men in women’s bathing suits swimming on women’s swim teams, or a Supreme Court candidate who cannot (or will not) annunciate the difference between a man and a woman, or a man in makeup and women’s clothing reading to children at the library might be sending messages to children that are at odds with the evidence of their own eyes?

Is it okay to let the kids pick up the tab for their elders’ orgy of open-ended, uncritical tolerance?

Drag shows have been around for generations, but it is incumbent on us to ask if the mainstreaming and Main Streeting of gender confusion is without consequence.

With malice towards none.

Will Harmon
High Street

2024 by East Bay Media Group

Barrington · Bristol · East Providence · Little Compton · Portsmouth · Tiverton · Warren · Westport
Meet our staff
Jim McGaw

A lifelong Portsmouth resident, Jim graduated from Portsmouth High School in 1982 and earned a journalism degree from the University of Rhode Island in 1986. He's worked two different stints at East Bay Newspapers, for a total of 18 years with the company so far. When not running all over town bringing you the news from Portsmouth, Jim listens to lots and lots and lots of music, watches obscure silent films from the '20s and usually has three books going at once. He also loves to cook crazy New Orleans dishes for his wife of 25 years, Michelle, and their two sons, Jake and Max.