I am commenting on a commentary headlined “Weaponizing children” by John Donegan (March 16). I believe the opinion piece in question is harmful to the LGBTQ community and could lead to hate. I believe, as do many, that San Luis Obispo is no place for such discrimination against the LGBTQ community and request similar opinions not be published in the future. This is clearly a far-right extremist trying to harm the LGBTQ community, as SLO is one of the few nearby cities that I and many others would consider safe for LGBTQ adults and youth alike. Please consider my concern. I thank you for your time.
Skye Morris
San Luis Obispo
This article appears in Mar 23 – Apr 2, 2023.
Skye, you live in a world in which you will find that others frequently disagree with you on all sorts of issues. It really isn’t “harmful”, and in fact makes life a lot more interesting than living in a monoculture in which everyone is locked in ideological consensus. You apparent have been living in an environment in which your feelings are the final word on what is permitted. Your request to suppress opposing opinions is not likely to be successful.
John, you live in a world where others will read your dumb opinions, tell you that you’re dumb, and ask you to do it less, or better. It isn’t harmful. Your opinions aren’t being suppressed. They’re just being called bad and dumb. You’ve apparently been living in an environment where your dog nods at all of your opinions and calls you a very smart and reasonable man. Your request to not be criticized and labelled as dumb is not likely to succeed.
I’m left handed. Those right handers have me scared to death.
Transgender people are what they are because of a clinical phenomenon called gender dysphoria, a little understood condition where a person really does feel trapped in the wrong body & they are miserable at being compelled to conform to the gender with which they were assigned at birth. Hence, for good or ill, they will, if they can, seek out life-altering hormonal & surgical procedures in an attempt to transform themselves into into the gender they identify with. Whatever we may think of this, these people do not choose their condition, which many experts today think may involve chromosomal anomalies. Trans folk are vulnerable & should not be persecuted, punished or discriminated against. Even if gender dysphoria is a “disorder ” of some kind, society should be willing to show compassion & recognize that it is not a sinful or unnatural choice but something ontological; i’e., an inborn difference that appears in some human beings, perhaps something like left-handedness or having red hair & freckles.,No one should be hurt for something beyond their control or understanding.
Neighborhood: My dog not only agrees with me, but informed me that you were the one responsible for the mess on the front law that he got blamed for. And if you read the letter more carefully, you will find that the writer is asking the New Times to stop publishing my column. That sounds like an attempt at suppression.
Jay Bonestell: I agree that the transgendered deserve compassion. It must be very difficult. However, I don’t think it is unreasonable to require them to wait until adulthood for anything as irrevocable as surgery. Young people often change their minds, or make unwise decisions. Lobotomies were once touted as a cure for emotional problems, and we all know how that turned out. Even psychologists seem uncertain whether being transgendered is a disorder or not. They recently changed the DMSO to call it “gender incongruence” instead of the more negative “gender dysphoria”. My hunch is that they’d emotionally prefer to declare that it is not a problem at all, but they need to consider it a pathology in order to get paid for treating it.
John Donegan, yes, many psychologists and even many older transgender people encourage youngsters seeking affirative care to wait until they are of legal age to make adult decisions in this regard. It’s true that children and teens often go through phases and changes in their young lives that are not permanent so a person considering transitioning has to be absolutely certain about all that is involved in the procedures.
John, if I operated a weekly newspaper, I would simply choose not to print the bad pieces that people don’t want. If that’s suppression, then you seem pretty intent on everyone else honoring your own feelings. Maybe we can find you a safe space.
I wouldn’t argue that Mr. Donegan’s opinions should be “suppressed,” but his columns aren’t fit to print. I grew up reading conservative columns from folks like George Will and William Buckley Jr., neither of them felt compelled to write these knee-jerk emotional screeds on “culture wars,” and making mountains out of molehills as a way to marginalize already-marginalized communities. Yet when he’s criticized over his painfully obtuse views, he quakes in his boots over people having the chutzpah to disagree. He hides his fear in condescension.
Looking forward to reading a conservative columnist that discusses and debates policy, not persecution.
John Donegan – do you proofread before you hit the Send button?
John Donegan – you tell another commenter “If you read the letter more carefully, you will find that the writer is asking the New Times to stop publishing my column.” Maybe you should re-read her response to you more carefully to learn that no where in it does she ask New Times to stop publishing your column. What she does request of New Times is that they consider not publishing articles that are nothing more than far-right extremism discriminating against and targeting specific lifestyles because she fears it could lead to hate. That’s very different from you twisting her words so that you end up being the victim of suppression.
M. Slivinske: When you argue that the request that “similar opinions not be published” is not “suppression”, you are doing actual physical damage to the English language. Please stop. Legions of English and semantics teachers are suffering from your assault.
John Donegan – for someone who writes an opinion column for a local newspaper and claims to enjoy arguing politics, your apparent inability to come up with actual arguments to debate what responders are actually saying is astonishing. Your propensity to put words in other people’s mouths, twisting their words to fit your desire to paint yourself as a victim of suppression, is disturbing. When Skye responded to your latest opinion piece of how dangerous drag queens are to children and that we need to protect children from them, she made the valid point that such articles could lead to hatred in our community which could lead to violence against certain people and requested that New Times take this into consideration when making the decision to print such articles. With freedom of speech comes responsibility, an important word in the English language that you are doing damage to by your irresponsibility and lack of awareness of your own community. When you are bold enough to write opinion pieces for a newspaper, you also have to be brave enough to allow others their opinions as well rather than using insults in an attempt to beat them into submission.
“Never argue with stupid people, they will drag you down to their level and then beat you with experience.” – Mark Twain
I believe it’s time for me to take Mr. Twain’s sage advice now and tap out of this waste of time.
John, there’s a fellow called Mario Savio the leader of the Berkeley Free Speech Movement who brought free speech to the forefront of American consciousness. He knew the responsibilities of his actions as he forged his platform on the steps of Sproul Plaza only to have his head cudgeled by the Police and then arrested. The point is, as he later wrote, with free speech comes responsibility and that no one owes you a platform. Nobody owes you a platform either, John. Cry your free speech on a soap box from the streets of SLO but have the courage as Mario did for the consequences.
Steve: Of course no one owes me a platform. New Times can give me the boot any time they choose, and it wouldn’t be a violation of my freedom of speech. But New Times has the right to publish opinions that readers may disagree with, and seems committed to the free exchange of opinions, rather than letting a reader shut down opinions that they disagree with.
Then we can agree John, that if you get the boot it won’t be because of an infringement upon your freedom of speech rights.
John donegan is spot on …. logical… thoughtful…..keep on annoying theses lefty’s…it’s great reading!
I appreciate the the letter writer pointing out the real risks of incitement of violence towards members of the LGBTQ community. Hate speech/commentary doesn’t really have a place in the media I choose to read. It’s ugly and deplorable. And there’s an abundance to be found on many platforms. The bigots and haters are low hanging fruit that I hope this paper can do better than. It becomes clear that the all too common hate and hate crimes are build up gradually by homophobic commentaries, casual insults and jokes, and dehumanizing myths, etc…It’s not too much to ask our local newspaper not to allow itself to used for this .
Richard Tanner: Perhaps you can point out to the places in my column in which I incite violence or hatred, or engaged in a “hate crime”? You are creating your own narrative, which does not exist, based solely upon my reluctance to jump on board your latest bandwagon. I merely deplored the practice of taking children to drag reviews and readings, a stance which the majority of Americans agree with. Your sort of shrill hyperbole makes it difficult to take you seriously.