An unadulterated “Scout,” I mean.

One of the most iconic and endearing characters in both American fiction and film is Miss Jean Louise Finch – or “Scout” as she’s nicknamed – daughter of Maycomb, Alabama lawyer Atticus Finch in “To Kill a Mockingbird.” Six-year-old Jean Louise is the narrator of the book, and a pivotal character, along with her brother Jem, of all the events that roil their small AL town over a 3-year period. She is 100% tomboy. Talking about all LITTLE girl, but all dirt, coveralls, piss, and vinegar, too.

We all knew girls like her – some of us can even relate, having been a whale of a tomboy our ownselves. (Although, while sorely tempted, I never thumped a boy on the playground – my parents were nowhere near as benign as Atticus.)

I worry for the Scouts of today, especially in places where the “transgender/woke” mentality has taken a firm hold in both the academic and medical communities. In places where the schools see themselves as the first line of defense against the influence of parents, as opposed to partners with parents, raising well-educated, functioning, civil members of society.

As for today’s pediatric “medical establishment,” everyone’s (hopefully) familiar with the magnificent Matt Walsh’s recent exposure of Vanderbilt’s unconscionable gender transitioning – couched as “gender-affirming” (the fuzzy warm phraseology deception makes me ill) – facility for children…

I provided video evidence that Vanderbilt is performing “gender affirming” double mastectomies on minors. A fact beyond dispute. They are also giving chemical castration drugs and irreversible hormones to children. Another fact beyond dispute and supported by documentation https://t.co/qWRr7nkR3K

— Matt Walsh (@MattWalshBlog) September 23, 2022

…and my friend David wrote about how, with the castration and mutilation of children being big business, drumming up that business is a lucrative, loathsome concern in its own right.

… Surgeons and other doctors looking to cash in on the transgender craze are advertising their services on TikTok and making bank by doing so. The New York Times profiles one surgeon cashing today, but she is hardly alone in trolling the Internet for new customers. The easiest target is young teen girls–a fast growing segment of the self-identified transgender population–because surgeons can perform surgeries on them at a younger age than young men because lopping off a child’s breasts is less controversial and physically challenging than reconstructing the nether regions.

Then this headline from a Wall Street Journal op-ed broke my heart thinking about it.

Every Tomboy Is Tagged ‘Transgender’
The terminological change behind the push to ‘treat’ sex-role nonconformity with surgery or hormones.

Wait, wait, WAIT!! I thought about ME growing up. I’m the oldest of four, only girl, and have always been…well, let’s just say not a shrinking violet, debutante type. I loved horses, mudpies and was the best tree climber in our neighborhood when I was Scout’s age. God bless my parents, they tried. I got the Chatty Kathy doll one year, my 3 years younger brother got the kiddie tool kit, and, by the end of Christmas evening, he had the doll and I was busy hammering away. It all shook out in the wash, as it was meant to, hello.

Neither of us were “confused.” We were just living in the moment, which is what kids do. Sure, we both wound up as Marines, but he’s a longshoreman/outdoor mountain man, and I’m delighted to be a handy-around-the-house/can-use-a-chainsaw housewife and mother. But JEEZ LOUISE, reading this piece, I was heartsick wondering how many kids will not have the chance to experience all of that and more, because some woke whack job parent and/or teacher will strip those later year options off the table permanently?

The number of young Americans who describe themselves as “transgender” has exploded over the past decade, increasing by a factor of 20 to 40, according to gender clinic referral data and a recent Williams Institute report based on surveys by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Why? Jody Herman, author of the report, calls that a “bewildering question.” Clinical psychologist Erica Anderson tweeted that the surge “defies explanation. . . . Something is going on that we don’t yet understand.”

The two leading explanations are greater social acceptance and social contagion. Both are likely contributing factors, but I think the main reason is simpler. It comes down to a change in terminology.

Until recently, the term “transsexual” referred to people with a cross-sex identity, a desire to be the opposite sex or even a diagnosis of gender dysphoria. “Transgender,” the favored term now, is far broader. It encompasses mere nonconformity with rigid traditional sex roles. If you’re a tomboy or a feminine boy—if your expression or behavior is different from what is “typically associated” with your sex based on “traditional expectations”—you’re transgender. No wonder so many young people think they need medical help to “correct” their sex.

WHAT?! I was never, and am not, “transgender.” I liked horses, guns, pick-up basketball, and wars in the backyard. Having a full childhood running wild and being imaginative is not a syndrome, people. (It used to be healthy and was considered quite strange if you didn’t.) But they are determined to pigeonhole everything as something to be “treated.”

…Hospitals don’t even hide that they are medicalizing nonconformity. The Gender Affirming Health Program at the University of California San Francisco describes the “hormonal and surgical transition” considerations for “people who do not live within the binary gender narrative,” which they say includes people who identify as “genderqueer, gender non-conforming, and gender nonbinary.” The Children’s Hospital of Chicago says its patients include “gender expansive or gender non-conforming children,” which it defines as “children and adolescents who exhibit behavior that is not typical of their assigned birth sex.”

The Biden administration, Democrats, alphabet groups, and schools are actively working against parents to facilitate this madness, even if there are state laws in place outlawing their interference. The Human Rights Campaign has a guide for circumventing parental oversight, for crying out loud.

The groundbreaking guide, written for administrators, teachers, parents, and other adults who work with youth, covers topics ranging from basic concepts of gender and the importance of affirming gender identity, to best practices for restroom access and working with unsupportive parents. The National Center for Lesbian Rights (NCLR) and Gender Spectrum led the effort to produce the guide, joined by HRC Foundation, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), and the National Education Association (NEA).

This resource also:

· Offers guidelines for meeting the needs of transgender students, including tools for supporting students who are transitioning;
· Addresses issues specific to transgender youth, including chosen names; pronouns; confidentiality; restroom and locker room access; sports; and harassment or bullying;
· Outlines best practices for working with parents who may be unsupportive, or who disagree about how to respond to their child’s gender identity;
· Gives an overview of the legal landscape that administrators, educators, parents, and students should be aware of as they work to create safe and supportive school environments for all.

OH. MY. GOD. STOP! As if childhood these days wasn’t stressful enough, they are piling on all this pseudo babble argle-bargle, and trying to knife each other in the back to see who can find the damaged child first. And “fix” them.

Leave the kids alone. Let there be Scouts, and thoughtful little guys who like dolls, little men who watch out for baby ducks, and hurt bunnies, and little girls who like guns.

Leave the kids alone.