Penna Dexter

On three successive days last week, three disturbing stories appeared in my inbox. The first reported that Amazon is blocking sales of the book, When Harry Became Sally: Responding to the Transgender Moment. The author is Ryan Anderson, who made a name for himself as a brilliant scholar at the Heritage Foundation and was recently appointed president of the Ethics and Public Policy Center. We occupy a bizarre moment in history, when lots of people believe — and others pretend to believe — that a person’s sex is not biological but assigned at birth and, if they want to change it, they can do so by altering their body. Dr. Anderson is simply the latest truth-teller to be cancelled for explaining the science regarding gender. He does so, with clarity and compassion, concluding that: “The best biology, psychology, and philosophy all support an understanding of gender as a social manifestation of bodily sex.” The next day, I received a story describing a bill that’s been introduced in the California Assembly that, if approved, will require retailers to display children’s clothing, toys and other items for kids, together in a “gender neutral” fashion. California-based stores selling these products online will have to show them in a “unisex” or “gender neutral” format. Retailers will be fined $1000 per violation. The bill states that keeping similar boys’ and girls’ items separate “implies that their use by one gender is inappropriate.” And then, a headline from ABC News — “A mister no more: Mr. Potato Head goes gender neutral.” After manufacturing and marketing Mr. Potato Head for 70 years, Hasbro announced a gender-neutral new name: Potato Head. They’re now reconsidering, but a new Potato Head playset to be released this fall will allow kids to create families with two moms or two dads. When media giants can cancel truth-tellers, when state legislators can bully retailers to blur gender distinctives, when toymakers indoctrinate children, the “transgender moment” threatens to become a permanent reality.