‘What Planet Am I On?’: Stumbling Across The ‘Protect Trans Youth’ Booth In My Small Town

Matt KeenerJuly 15, 2022

There is a scene from the original Star Wars where Luke Skywalker stumbles into a cantina on the planet Tatooine with Obi-Wan Kenobi and C-3PO. With carnival-sounding music playing in the background, one of the bar patrons resembles lucifer — with horns on his head. Another one looks sort of reptilian.

As Skywalker scans the room in awe of all the different shaped and sized alien life forms he finds crammed into one bar, it is clear that he is very out of place. Sometimes I picture that scene as the future radical leftists want for our kids. Sometimes it feels like I stumbled into that bar.

Over the Fourth of July weekend, like a typical American family, some family members of mine celebrated with bonfires, cookouts, and fireworks. One of the sons — 15 years old — asked to have a sleepover. It does not get much better than that at 15 years old in the summertime.

Shortly after midnight, the parents at the party began the tedious task of navigating through the conversation with one of the partygoers who is “transitioning.”

A 15-year-old girl who identifies as a male said she too wanted to spend the night with the rest of the boys at the party. The child sports a buzz cut — although it was coupled with high heels at the party.

Her mother, while supportive, still refers to her by her female name.

“The father is not much in the picture, I don’t think,” said the dad hosting the party.

“Of course not,” I responded.

A few weeks prior, I had walked through the farmer’s market/pizza palooza event in my hometown in the middle of June — dog on one arm, fruit and today’s breakfast in the other.

As I passed through the picturesque square and gazebo where the farmer’s market takes place, I was taken aback by one of the booths. Not by the rainbow colors that adorned this particular tent, which has become relatively commonplace, but by the “protect trans youth” signs that were being passed out.

“Even in little old Medina, Ohio?!” I thought and almost said out loud.

I was stunned and wanted to ask the people at the booth what they mean by that when they say it? Do they even know?

“Protect trans youth?” What is a trans youth exactly?

Are you for puberty blockers for adolescents and teens?

Are you for castrating children? Having “top” or “bottom” surgeries?

As I was standing there thinking about asking some of these questions, I heard a friend I haven’t seen since the pandemic started, who tapped my shoulder from the booth she was working at as I stared in a bit of disbelief.

“I am sorry,” I said shortly after we exchanged pleasantries. “I am sort of shocked by the ‘protect trans youth’ signs.”

“Yeah,” she said. “They were kind of worried about it. They wanted to be sure there were enough police.”

Contrary to a rude reception, the booth was well attended and supported by those in the crowd. As I walked past, I spotted my old high school honors English teacher at the booth, picking up material and showing her support.

A child, perhaps 3 or 4, approached to get some of the pride “bling” being passed out.

“You want to take a (rainbow) flag or we have these stickers? Those have been flying off,” the middle-aged woman said to the child.

The organization was OutSupport, based out of Ohio, and a quick cursory visit to its website boasted of its plans for that day:

“A limited supply of Hate Has No Home Here and Support Trans Youth signs will be available for a donation of any amount! Also, stop by the Pizza Palooza for your favorite rainbow bling!”

It mentioned that the local library would offer a monthly LGBTQIA+ Teen Craft Club. From schools, to libraries, to the local farmer’s market, we appear to have gone all in on the idea that the trans movement is something we should mix well and often with our kids.

I do not know how in 2022 the idea that children or teens should not make decisions with regards to “altering” their gender, reproductive organs, or genitalia became remotely controversial, but it has. And the bulk of people remain silent out of fear of being labeled bigots.

The leap we have made since I went to high school in the late ’90s and early 2000s — when it seemed easy to conclude that someone like Matthew Shepard in no way deserved to die for what was ostensibly his sexual preference — to present day, force-feeding children gay and trans propaganda 20 years later in elementary schools, is extraplanetary.

As a society, we do not let these children drive, vote, get married, drink alcohol, or buy a gun, but they are ready to make permanent alterations to their development or mutilate their genitals?

In so many instances, it seems these children need love, care, and a mom and dad. Instead, we are indoctrinating them on the trans movement and offering a sex change as the solution.

Perhaps the most horrifying indictment of the whole transitioning children phenomenon comes from our very own assistant secretary of health, Rachel Levine. Levine, born Richard, is the first openly transgender federal official.

Levine openly advocates for puberty blockers, chemical castration, and physical alterations to underage children. “Most children’s hospitals will be doing this,” Levine boasted in 2017 at Franklin & Marshall University:

“First phase, at a young adolescent age-is to give what are called a pubertal blocker… so you don’t go through the wrong puberty and then to continue some counseling and then somewhere between 14-16 to start slowly cross-gender. Under 18 and there not an emancipated minor– meaning if they’re under 18 and they’re on the street or they’re completely emancipated from their parents then you can do treatment.”

The targeting of and emphasis on at-risk youth or emancipated minors seem especially cruel and predatory. In the same speech, Levine jokingly told the story of a boy named “Johnny” referring to his testicles as tentacles.

“This little boy was great—he said, ‘Puberty was awful. My body changed from what I wanted. I grew hair and tentacles,’” Levine recounted. “And I went, ‘Johnny you grew tentacles? you mean testicles.’”

“And he went, ‘Oh, yeahhh. Yeah, testicles.”

Levine laughed. The audience laughed. I just want to know what planet I am on?

Confusing testicles with tentacles is a good indication that perhaps Johnny was in no way prepared to make this permanent and monumental change.

Levine is a divorced father of two children who was married to a woman until 2013 and did not make the decision to transition until he was in his 50s. Levine experienced childhood, adolescence, puberty, and adulthood before deciding to “transition.” Levine should afford these children the same opportunity.

Fifty years from now, as the first generations in this “new frontier” of “trans children” reach their infertile adulthood and their genderless “golden years,” perhaps we will look back on this period of human history and realize that even though we were capable of taking a scalpel to today’s youth or placing them all on puberty blockers, that does not mean we should have done so.

Matt Keener is a writer, small business owner, and journalist from Ohio concerned about the state of affairs. His writings have also been featured in American Spectator, American Greatness, American Thinker and Real Clear Politics. You can find him on Twitter @keenermb.