Charlize Theron. Dwyane Wade. Cher. Jamie Lee Curtis. Annette Benning.
And now, Jennifer Lopez.
This hodgepodge list of celebrities all has something significant in common: each is raising non-binary or transgender children.
Outside of this group, there is a whole community of Hollywood elites who are choosing a progressive, non-gendered approach to parenting.
Most recently, Jennifer Lopez made headlines when she brought her 14-year-old daughter, Emme, out to sing a duet at the LA Dodgers Foundation Gala and introduced her using gender-neutral they/them pronouns. The internet erupted in support of Lopez’s progressive parenting as she helped Emme come out as non-binary on the world’s stage.
I was immediately transported back to my childhood. My brothers and I won the lottery with a mother who would walk through fire for us and actively sought out opportunities to support our interests and unique quirks, but she was no JLo. She didn’t enable delusions.
By all standards, my mother was strict. Any independence we had was earned through mutual trust and respect. She was a parent first and a friend second. Up until recent years, I would’ve thought that this parenting style was the norm.
But not in 2022.
Today, there is a dangerous trend of parents blindly going along with their children’s every whim and demanding that the rest of the world follow suit. These parents are quick to lean into progressive gender theory and affirm their children — of all ages — as the opposite sex, or in some cases, no sex at all.
I believe that, on the surface, many of these parents are simply misguided and have been convinced that this is the most loving and supportive path to take, even though science suggests that it’s not.
However, I think most of these parents are deeply fueled by fear — the fear of getting canceled by the progressive mob, the fear of their children lashing out, and the fear of the government coming after them.
While that may seem like a significant statement, it’s not off base.
On a state level, many governors, like Ron DeSantis (R-FL) and Kay Ivey (R-AL), are taking powerful steps to protect parental rights and protect minors from gender reassignment procedures, but that is far from the case in more progressive states.
In California, legislators are working to pass Senate Bill 107 which would turn the state into a transgender sanctuary for minors seeking gender reassignment and “authorize a court to take temporary jurisdiction because a child has been unable to obtain gender-affirming health care.”
You read that correctly. Legislators want the state to be able to take custody of your children if you do not affirm their social-contagion-fueled transgender feelings with puberty blockers and surgeries.
Shockingly and sadly, this isn’t new. Individual cases have been popping up around the United States for years. In Canada, laws already exist that “[prevent] parents from challenging a child’s same-sex orientation, or with identification not with the gender that he or she was born, but rather the opposite one,” according to Family LLB in Ontario.
This might not be far off for Americans.
Just last Wednesday, President Biden announced a new executive order aimed at the GOP’s “Ultra-MAGA agenda,” which he accused of targeting families and harming transgender children.
This executive order directs the Department of Health and Human Services to do everything in its power to protect LGBTQ+ children’s access to “gender-affirming health care” and asks the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and other departments to begin cracking down on therapeutic practices that attempt to “suppress or change the sexual orientation or gender identity of LGBTQI+ people,” which he defines as “conversion therapy.”
But here’s the thing, conversion therapy hasn’t been used by the American Psychiatry Association since 1973, so what is Biden vaguely asking the FTC to police? If a child goes to their therapist with concerns about gender, will their psychologist have to affirm these feelings for fear of a conversion therapy accusation?
We are living in a society that is so afraid of a loud, extremist minority that people are willing to roll over and allow — or even worse, encourage — irreversible damage to be done to their children.
Therefore, it was reasonable for HBO talk show host and comedian Bill Maher to question why the spike in transgender youth is regional, saying “Either Ohio is shaming them or California is creating them.”
It’s a simplistic statement but it rings true. In the most progressive places, the people who are supposed to protect children are the ones enabling and supporting this dangerous, experimental trend.
Whether it is related to gender or not, parents, therapists, and teachers are not there to affirm a child’s every impulse and fantasy. This does nothing but harm young people and makes them wholly unprepared for the harsh realities of the adult world.
And considering the astounding number of Gen Z members who are struggling with mental illness or gender confusion in their late teens and 20s, it’s clear we’re already seeing the dire ramifications of this attitude.
It is imperative that we change course before it is too late. Young people deserve better.
Brett Cooper is The Daily Wire’s newest personality and host of The Comments Section. She’s a professional actress turned political commentator — she previously contributed to the Foundation for Economic Education, Young Americans for Liberty, and PragerU.
The views expressed in this piece are those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.