Topic: Media Research Center
In the midst of a rant about whether a transgender high school student should use the bathroom that's the opposite of their biological sex, Lauren Enk writes in a June 12 NewsBusters post:
Let’s get this straight (no pun intended). The person in question is not a girl. He is a boy. Despite [New Republic writer Adam] Winkler’s insistence on using “she” and “her” to refer to Nicole Maines, the fact is that “Nicole” is a boy who “identifies as” – read, pretends to be – a girl. No matter how you slice it, the truth remains that he is a boy.
But Winkler wants him to be able to legally indulge his delusion and use the girls’ bathroom.
As the American Psychological Association notes, "Gender identity refers to a person’s internal sense of being male, female, or something else." They are not "pretending" to be the opposite sex; it is who they think they are, regardless of their biological orientation.
And it seems that trained professionals are in a much better position to determine whether a given person's identifying as the opposite sex is a "delusion" than a writer for a right-wing organization with an anti-gay agenda.
