Columnist shows exactly why ‘people who are trans need protection’ | READER COMMENTARIES

Impressionable youth should be shielded from bigotry

I am horrified and sickened by the latest column from Armstrong Williams, “Armstrong Williams: The rise of transgenderism” (May 8).

The mind of a child is, indeed, sacred and should never be exposed to bigotry and prejudice born of ignorance. I mourn for any young person who might be exposed to this thinking.

— Heather Martley, Baltimore

‘Careful, charitable and clear thinking’

I write to thank Armstrong Williams for his excellent column in The Sun on transgenderism. We are distributing his column to our list. And we are so grateful for your careful, charitable and clear thinking on the subject.

— Jeff Trimbath, Annapolis

The writer is president of the Maryland Family Institute.

Keep misinformed opinions to yourself

I can usually ignore Armstrong Williams’ pompous pontifications — “Truth is a good thing!” “Education could be better!” — but today’s diatribe against transgenderism is too hateful to go without comment. Most notably, he mentions that “nearly half of transgender youth have considered suicide and nearly 20% have attempted it.” He goes on to say, “The first question we must ask is, What is this depression caused by? “ and then, as his only answer, declares that it ISN’T caused by their rights being violated, since, “on the contrary,” they are “thriving.”

After the usual blather about bathrooms, fear-mongering about surgically removing penises from 6-year-olds, and faux compassion for “real” women, however, in his final paragraph he shows us why so many transgender youth attempt to kill themselves: the absolute arrogant certainty of the uninformed that transgender people simply do not exist. I  am not sure why Mr. Williams thinks he is qualified to declare, against all medical evidence to the contrary, that there is really no such thing as a transgender person — but until he has had to choose between a transgender child and a dead one, as I have, he should keep his misinformed opinions to himself.

— Mary Shoemaker, Towson

What a canard of a column

Armstrong Williams, now part owner of The Sun, has really excelled himself in a hate-filled column on “transgenderism,” positing that this is a major movement that may push even elementary school children into surgery, etc. What a canard.

He reaches back into 1952, to make a weak argument that the trans “movement” is a scary irresponsible specter stalking everyday political discussion.

Well, I was born in 1952, and am a male, married to a wonderful female, and I support young people (late teens at earliest, or voting age?) who have been deeply uncomfortable for years in their own female or male skin. Let them carefully make a decision with the support of their health care provider and (if they are under 18) their parents/family.

Willliams’ columns are divisive and fear mongering all too often. He warns of particularly young people using “depression” as a weak excuse for changing their sexual orientation. This is a straw man argument of the sort Williams delights in, in his Sun platform on the editorial pages.

Now that is depressing.

— Michael H.C. McDowell, Chestertown

Has Armstrong Williams talked with anyone in the LGBTQ community?

I read your Armstrong Williams’ column with interest. He quoted a lot of data and background information. Numbers only tell part of the story. Lived experiences are much richer. As I read, I wondered if he has had the opportunity to talk with members of the LGBTQ community, especially someone who is transgender. They are more than a number.

I recommend a book “Becoming Nicole” by Amy Ellis Nutt, which tells the experiences of a family with a transgender member. What I found enlightening was the information about the biology of how sexual/reproductive organs are developed at one time during gestation and how gender identity develops at a different time in a different way.  Are you familiar with the term intersex, which refers to “a person who is born with reproductive or sexual anatomy that doesn’t fit the boxes of “female” or “male””? Everyone is not male or female.

Are you aware of the data on suicide attempts by people who are transgender? Perspectives such as yours have life-threatening consequences. I believe we are all made in the image and likeness of God. I am pretty sure you do too.

— Elaine Crawford, Parkville

Don’t speak of what you don’t know

After yet another know-nothing commentary from Sun co-owner Armstrong Williams, I have canceled my print subscription.  Having been a subscriber for more than 50 years, I feel betrayed.

I was unaware of the “transgender movement.”  In the 1970s and 1980s, I was the unofficial transgender social worker, as well as the official homelessness social worker, for the Baltimore City Department of Social Services and can attest to the severe discrimination and victimization faced by folks whose gender identity was non-normative.  It was nearly impossible to find emergency shelter (all praise to Project PLASE), permanent housing and health care for transgender folks.

The sarcasm and disdain of Mr. Williams, not to mention the lack of logic, is intolerable. Of gender dysphoria, Mr. Williams writes, “Such a serious injustice necessitates immediate rectification and reform.  Students in elementary school have limited knowledge regarding education.”  Who though has limited knowledge when Mr. Williams conflates gender and sexuality?

“Could it be … that transgender rights are persistently violated?  Of course not.”  Brilliant, Mr. Williams.  Has he ever listened to a transgender person?  To paraphrase Wittgenstein, of that which we do not know, we should not speak.

— Jeff Singer, Towson

Deliberate demonization of trans people shows why they need protection

Armstrong William’s column, “The rise of transgenderism” was the usual formulaic, right-wing expression of antipathy for transgender men and women. Diatribes against transgender folks are couched, by right-wingers, in concern for the definition of the word “woman” and the status of women in sports and other arenas when men who’ve changed gender hijack women’s role in the world.

First of all the word “transgenderism” that Armstrong Williams uses in the title of his article is an offensive term. People who are transgender do not like that term because it implies being trans is like embracing a political persuasion, like socialism, or communism.  It is not. The word transgenderism is a weapon in the hands of the political right to wage the culture wars that the right so loves to wage.

In his article Williams says, “the term transgender is widely known and the left has adopted it as a social cause, even though only 1.6 % of adults in America assert that they’re transgender or non-binary according to a Pew research survey.”  What I don’t understand is why the right is so bothered by only 1.6% of the population identifying as transgender.

I also don’t understand why a minority of the population that identifies as transgender, should not be protected, especially when folks like Armstrong Williams undermine this group as not deserving of protection or rights because they’re in the minority.  If what Mr. Williams propounds is true, then civil rights for Black people should be redundant because they’re only 12 to 13% of the population as opposed to the white population that is currently in the majority.

A democracy ensures minority rights and it is not easy to be transgender in the atmosphere created by the right, where trans men and women are constantly bombarded with denigration and loathing because they are perceived as a political creation of the left and not as a medical mismatch of gender identity at birth.

Mr.Williams is not a doctor.  Right here in Johns Hopkins University, there’s a Center for “Transgender and Gender Expansive Health.” At that center, there are experts in transgender care, top-notch professionals, nurses, psychologists, endocrinologists and social workers, who work in teams, to give empathetic and appropriate care to trans children and adults.  Politics is not their game.  Medicine and medical research in the area of trans care is what they do with dignity and respect for their patients.

The right has just undermined women’s rights by abrogating Roe v. Wade, causing havoc for women’s reproductive health care and bodily autonomy all across the country. And the right has just said that the revival of the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA) in the Maryland House of Delegates was mere virtue signaling and sound and fury on the part of some, because women have arrived and don’t need legal protection. And now, they’re worried that transgender women, less than 1.6% of the population of America are bad for all women?  At least that’s what Armstrong Williams is saying. That deliberate demonization of transgender women and men, is why people who are trans need protection in the law and that’s precisely why they’re a cause for those who advocate for the safety and rights of all trans people.

— Usha Nellore, Bel Air