Gender Affirming?

April 26, 2022

Dear Time Magazine,

I read with interest the current article under “Nation” entitled “For trans youth, lifesaving care is on the line as their doctors face increased harassment.”

I just don’t understand. Maybe I am dense but throughout the 6 pages of the article a term with which I was unfamiliar was used. I think it was a mistake or it seems to say the very opposite of what it was seeking to express. I refer to “Gender-affirming.” The article seems to promote denying one’s “gender” and promoting something else.

I looked this up in the dictionary, of course. We know what “affirm” means, “to declare positively or firmly; maintain to be true” (The American Heritage College Dictionary). Thus, the term seems to be saying that one’s gender is something to be promoted or accepted—not denied or changed.

But the 6 pages of the article is saying that a woman is to “affirm” that she is a man and a man is to “affirm” that he is a woman. Thus, would this would be “gender affirming”? No, it would be gender-denying, not gender-affirming. Yet the article seems to be saying that a person (especially a young person) should affirm the exact opposite of what is true—his or her gender. In other words, the way God has made him or her.

I would encourage you to look carefully into this and either change your policies or have someone check the accuracy of what is stated. Of course, I would not accept at all that we should or anyone should change the way that God has created or made us. We surely would not want to be found fighting against God our Creator. The same would be true of the positive slant that the article has on sodomy (or “gayness”). This would be wrong also.

Thank you for reading this critique!

Richard Hollerman

Note: This hospital and its doctors that promote and treat sexual perversion (that they call “transgenderism”) treats children. This definitely is an evil practice and doesn’t belong is Seattle, Washington, or any other medical establishment!