The move to normalise ‘transgender’ will bring a massive change within our culture

But it is one which very few politicians and even fewer in the media and indeed in church seem to recognise or care about. And it will inevitably happen precisely because very few people recognise the importance of the subject and even those who do so are intimidated by the tyranny of the progressives.

The ‘debate’ about the issue in the House of Commons recently was a classic example of how a small well-organised minority can create a social change which will do untold harm. This is how it works:

Step One – Dramatise and talk up the problem

There is no question that Gender Dysphoria is a real psychological problem for which a small minority of the population require help. Figures vary from 0.1% of the population to 0.3%. But this is now the cause celebre, the new shibboleth of progressive culture, the new anti-racism or anti-homophobia, so it is of course ripe for virtue signalling and for the emotive horror stories that no compassionate person would ever question. If you want post-truth, where policy is made by emotion, not by facts and empirical evidence, then this debate was a classic example.

We were told that transgender people are far more likely to commit suicide (apparently 48% have attempted it) and that trans women were 49 times more likely than heterosexuals to get HIV. That they are far more likely to suffer from depression and to engage in alcohol and substance abuse. No one bothered to ask, if this is such a problem, why we are encouraging and promoting such risky behaviour? The answer is just assumed. It is because trans people are bullied, stigmatised, discriminated against that these things happen. But is that assumption correct?

It becomes a completely circular argument: if you dare to question it, then you yourself are transphobic and contributing to the problem. It’s emotional blackmail in its most vicious form. Which then leads on to…

Step Two – Make sure that no proper debate happens

Can you imagine what would have happened if anyone had dared raise the inconvenient fact that the vast majority of children who feel they are trans in their teens, have reverted by the time they are in their twenties (if they have not had medical procedures)? Or that the negative outcomes of trans surgery are enormous? Or that telling children and young people that they can get to choose their gender is a form of abuse? Or that giving children puberty blockers is an invasive and harmful chemical treatment? Or that gender identity theory is a political/philosophical theory and nothing to do with the science at all? Or that to be classified as a hate crime, no crime actually has to be committed, no evidence is required, only the mere fact of reporting it means that it has to be classified as such? Cue lots of people trying to claim ‘hate crimes’. Even then, according to one MP, there have still been only 585 ‘hate crimes’ against trans people this year. I wonder how many hate crimes there have been against other groups – including Christians.

Even more than in the same sex marriage debate (for which Maria Miller, Conservative, one of the few MPs present, was largely responsible) – there was no discussion, no debate… just virtue signalling and politicians trying to outdo one another in showing how ‘progressive’ they were. If anyone had dared to point out that the Emperor had no clothes, they would have been shot down in flames. If you want to see what real hate is like, just try being the party pooper at a political progressive love in!

Step Three – Use the mainstream media and public institutions

The media were congratulated on taking up the ‘Cause’. Although the BBC did not cover this non-debate, true to form they came up with suitable propaganda and gave us yet another pro-trans narrative.1

But social revolutions don’t just come through elites working through the media. They also need the public state institutions to come on board. And the MPs went on to insist that the government made sure that they all get with the programme.

Step Four – Use the education system to indoctrinate children

The aforementioned Maria Miller said we needed to use education to prevent hate crimes. And all the sheep agreed.

The MPs saw that education (by which they mean indoctrinating children in schools in the new morality) is the key. ‘Inclusive education does pay off in the long term …young people are the key to transforming our society.’ Make no mistake. Our progressives want to transform society and they want to use our children to do so. The education system is no longer seen as a place where children are educated, but rather where they are engineered by the great and the good, who just know what is best for the rest of us.

Step Five – Legislate and get the government to spend more money

Much more money must be spent by the NHS on transgender clinics and practice. Never mind the fact that people are struggling and suffering because of cuts in the NHS. We are a caring and compassionate country and if you don’t spend lots of money on this particular issue, then you are to be condemned.

I found it more than a little ironic that as the government were committing to spending many more millions on this tiny percentage of the population, BBC Scotland carried a news story about the number of Lollipop ladies/men being drastically cut by councils, in order to save £800,000.

Step Six – Intimidate

Tell people that they are ‘on the wrong side of history’. One MP talked about how there ‘are great changes in attitudes occurring in this country’. So, we had better get with it!

Tell people that if we do not step up to the mark then we will be a backward country, like all those African/Asian/Eastern European and now American countries. One Labour MP warned that we have to keep an eye on America. Apparently we are now the moral police of the world.

The irony here is that in the name of tolerance our progressives impose their intolerance and tyranny. There is apparently no ‘one size fits all’ when it comes to gender, and yet there is a one size fits all when it comes to educating children and indeed the whole world in the new progressive morality. Everyone in society is to be treated fairly and with dignity – except those who don’t agree with the progressive agenda! They genuinely believe that they alone have the truth and that anyone who doesn’t accept the trans agenda is guilty of hate crime.

How intimidation works

Let me give just one small example of how this intimidation works. During the debate Labour MP Caroline Flint questioned whether transgender toilets would be dangerous for women and cited the example of an incident at the University of East Anglia2.

She was of course immediately slapped down and just for good measure Pink News outed her as a possible transphobic and demanded that she retract her comments3.

One more example. I was asked to appear on Radio 5 Live as a newspaper reviewer. The programme itself went well – we had a good discussion involving all kinds of people. And then I was banned from doing any further programmes. I was never informed of this (apparently there were LGBT groups who were opposed) but I was just quietly dropped. No more shows. Inclusive Britain where all are included does not include those who don’t agree with the latest zeitgeist morality. The thought police rule.

Who is going to stand up against this intimidation? The combination of virtue signalling politicians, (trying to outdo one another with their grandstanding), a compliant media, big corporations equally wanting to show how for ‘equality’ they are (as long as it’s not equality of income or opportunity!), and the social media mobs stirred up by well-funded lobby groups, means that there will be little opposition to this from the elites. And ordinary people won’t get a say – because we don’t have the money, the connections or the celebrities and anyway we are just a bunch of (probably religious) backward, nasty cranks.

David Robertson blogs as The Wee Flea www.theweeflea.com This article is an extract from The Tyranny of the Progressives – Another Step Backwards. He is the minister of St Peter’s Free Church in Dundee.

1 www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-38132301 
2 www.newstatesman.com/2016/11/whats-missing-transgender-debate-any-discussion-male-violence
3 www.pinknews.co.uk/2016/12/01/labour-mp-caro-line-flint-claims-trans-friendly-toilets-are-dangerous-for-women/