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If you say something even vaguely critical, or something that is even perceived as critical of the move to allow boys and girls to transition from one gender to the next, you run the risk of being suspended from social media, fired from your job or shunned by your friends. That can even happen if you are a respected United States senator at the confirmation hearing of a deputy secretary of health. Well get to that in a minute, so hold that thought.

I sometimes make jokes about the fact that people are now using personal pronouns in the way prior generations used hair color, tattoos and love beads: An effort to express ones identity. Th people who usually laugh at the jokes are the ones who understand that playing around with grammar to make yourself feel better about whoever it is you think you are is rather ridiculous. The ones who dont laugh are the kind of people who think that (1) a single person calling himself they is perfectly reasonable and (2) would absolutely let their adolescent daughter take hormones so she can become their adolescent son.

Have I been canceled yet? Are you still able to read this column? On the assumption that you can, lets move on to the respected U.S. senator.

Last week, Rand Paul questioned Pennsylvanias erstwhile Secretary of Health, Rachel Levine, about gender reassignment procedures for adolescents. We used to call it sex-change operation, but in this more enlightened age with experts who tell us that there are more than just two genders, we use the term gender reassignment. I suppose thats because we dont want to admit that anyone is really changing anything. Or, as some have said, God doesnt make mistakes, humans just mislabel.

Levine was appearing before a Senate committee on her nomination to be assistant health secretary in the Biden administration. Rand asked her a very pointed question about a fundamental trans issue, which is extremely fair since Biden has made a very big deal about nominating a trans woman for such an exalted federal office:

Do you believe that minors are capable of making such a life-changing decision as changing ones sex? Critics have pointed out that Sen. Paul used the wrong terminology since they would argue nothing is being changed, let alone sex. Remember, its gender, and its being reassigned. But even with that little clarification, there was no answer from Levine.

Then Paul asked, Do you support the governments intervening to override the parents consent to give a child puberty blockers, cross-sex hormones, and/or amputation surgery of breasts and genitals?

Again, Levine did not answer the question, other than to politely suggest that she would be more than willing to meet with the senator if and when she were confirmed, so they could hash these things out after the fact.

Of course, the whole point of a confirmation hearing is to determine whether someone is even qualified to be in a position to hash these sort of things out, and it is incumbent upon the senative to advise and give consent on any nomination that requires the confirmation.

Rand Paul was destroyed in the media because of his blunt comments. The legacy print media went after him as a bigot, and the LGBTQ (hard to keep up, am I missing a letter?) and their cis/straight/single-pronouned allies went ballistic. How dare he question whether a 13-year-old is qualified to make such momentous, permanent decisions about their bodies! How dare he suggest that a kid who isnt yet old enough to drive a car is, however, able to determine whether he wants his penis or her breasts removed, or whether they should take drugs to block the onset of natural puberty?

I mean, who does he think he is, a doctor? (Actually, yes, he is. But lets not let the facts get in the way.)

This was not Marjorie Taylor Greene getting into a dust up with her colleague in the House, the one who planted a rainbow flag outside of her office to support her trans daughter.

This was not some Facebook commentary about there only being two genders or a Twitter hashtag like #BelieveTheScience.

This was a medical doctor using his expertise to help inform his obligations as an elected public official. This was a senator, stating the case that so many of us believe to be the truth but who are prevented from making, namely, that allowing adolescents to make these decisions is tantamount to child abuse.

There are numerous cases of children who were allowed by their parents to choose their identities and then dealt with the devastating consequences later in life. One of them was profiled in a National Review article. Keira Bell was a 14-year-old who read about transsexuals on the internet, convinced her parents to let her have surgery, had her breasts removed, and now at the age of 23 deeply regrets the move. In the piece written by Madeleine Kearns, she says: I made a brash decision as a teenager, as a lot of teenagers do, trying to find confidence and happiness, except now the rest of my life will be negatively affected.

You might say that each case is different, and that we shouldnt judge how someone decides to deal with complicated identity questions. But society does that all the time, when it comes to kids. We make laws that protect them from themselves, and we even limit the authority of parents in order to safeguard the welfare of minors. We also have laws that absolve minors from criminal liability. We erect walls between what they want, and what they need.

We do it because kids are not equipped to make these decisions, no matter what the experts in this new boutique area of gender science might say.

Thats not bigotry, my friends. Thats common sense.

Its troubling that Dr. Levine cant admit it.

Christine Flowers is an attorney and a Delaware County resident. Her column appears Thursday and Sunday. Email her at cflowers1961@gmail.com.

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Christine Flowers: We have to protect children from themselves - The Delaware County Daily Times