Instead of having sincere concerns about what transgenderism entails, we’re allegedly just “repulsed” and “disturbed” by it. Gillespie, in other words, is refusing to allow for a fair debate; he instead prefers to present conservatives as mentally and emotionally deficient, unable to engage in rational discourse about this incredibly important topic. Shame on him.

As my colleague Robert Tracinski recently pointed out, the growing normalization of insanity has resulted in the concurrent stigmatization of normalcy itself. Perhaps more than any other political and philosophical debate in recent memory, transgenderism has revealed this dismaying tendency in much of politics: if someone does not agree with the tenets of Progressive gender politics, then he will be painted as a deranged, antediluvian, backwards-looking hatemonger who can’t get past his own outmoded psychological neuroses. Conservatives are increasingly on the receiving end of a full-blown gaslighting, while progressives and libertarians congratulate themselves on how open-minded and tolerant they are.

Meanwhile, the transgender suicide rate hovers around 40 percent. That is the data Williams and everyone else should be looking at. But they refuse to examine this, for fear they might look like they have “hang-ups.” They would much prefer to look like cowards instead.