On August 20 of this year, Monica Cole, director of One Million Moms, a subsidiary of religious right hate group the American Family Association, made this post to the AFA’s website:
She called for a boycott of “I Am Jazz,” the new (over the summer) reality TV series on the basic-cable channel, TLC. Jazz Jennings, the star, is an extraordinary teenage transgender girl who first entered the news over a decade ago, when she came out as transgender at a very young age.
Cole has this to say about I Am Jazz:
The show is attempting to normalize the transgender lifestyle and make it appear OK while using a young cast member to lure a young audience. This docu-series is about the real life of a young person and that will attract young viewers to watch.
Of course, being transgender isn’t a “lifestyle,” any more than having green eyes or detached earlobes is a “lifestyle.” Otherwise, it’s curious wording for a piece meant to encourage a boycott. The show is “about the real life of a young person”? Ooh, sick burn!
When I read this post back in August, I keyed on the headline, which is a common argument among the homophobic and transphobic religious right. I submitted this thought, verbatim, to the comment section:
God makes mistakes all the time: congenital heart conditions, missing limbs, cystic fibrosis, many other conditions present at birth. God’s seemingly a very poor craftsman.
And some people are born transgender. It’s not for anyone other than the person so afflicted to decide what to do about it, but it IS on Christians to love and support such persons regardless.
Every treatment for gender dysphoria other than a gender transition has been found to be ineffective. Allowing transgender people to transition, and supporting them through their transition, makes them happier, healthier, and more productive citizens. There is nothing about that that is opposed to God.
The site administrator (or perhaps Ms. Cole herself!) promptly deleted the comment. This is how the religious right typically deals with criticism and opposing views: block them from sight and pretend they don’t exist.
Disqus, bless its electronic heart, preserved my deathless language for me to re-post here. Monica Cole and her mob of malignant matrons (which, I suspect, numbers significantly less than one million) cannot suppress truth outside their dingy cave of ignorance! I reproduce it here, where OMM can never delete it!
Please share widely.
