R. Emmett Tyrrell Jr.: Are You a Boy, or Are You a Girl?

WASHINGTON — The song, now almost an anthem I believe, begins thus:

“Are you a boy, or are you a girl?

“You look like a girl with your long, blond hair.

“Yeah, it looks like a girl.

“You may be a boy (Hey) you look like a girl.”

Etc., etc.

Geoffrey Morris composed the song and it was performed by The Barbarians. Their peak years were in the late 1960s. Geoffrey and The Barbarians are now gone. But I believe that they are on the verge of a revival which will be even more powerful than what the original Barbarians could ever have imagined. Although you may believe that The Beatles are big, wait until The Barbarians return to the scene. After all these years, it is possible to find any Barbarians. Their promoters should look for them among San Francisco’s homeless, or among the mentally ill.

You might be wondering how this song will become an anthem. It could be adopted by transgender activists, just as civil rights movements adopted something much more melodic. “We Shall Overcome” Sing at rallies, church gatherings, etc. It is not hard to imagine a few thousand marchers from the transgender community strutting down Pennsylvania Avenue with their hortatory placards raised above their heads, singing and waving. “Are you a boy, or are you a girl? etc. etc.” Though promoters — or, as we say, “activists” — will have to come up with the original Barbarians. Promoters will have to create a new group of Barbarians in the event that the original Barbarians become unavailable. It may not be as easy or as straightforward as you might think. They might be reluctant to accept transgender Barbarians who have to undergo the most recent surgery or hormone treatments.

One thing is marching in a parade. It’s one thing to march in a parade. Another is to take puberty inhibitors or even go so far as to use the public toilet of choice. Transgender people may find it more difficult than civil rights activists to get their way. When the Rev. The Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. was marching at the moment, and there was already a substantial majority of Americans who took it seriously and wished them well.

It seems that the gimcrack civil right movements today, such as the transgender group, don’t realize how difficult King and his fellows made it. They had to go back all the way to 1865 and Frederick Douglass. The route they chose was not easy, from the Civil War to the 1970s. Now according to officials from Do No Harm, an American organization critical of the transgender hysteria, America leads the world in availability to gender clinics, puberty blockers, cross-sex hormones and surgeries — yes, surgeries! This is true for both adult sex and minor sex. Some of these transgender people want their breasts back and private parts restored to them, according to reports. This is an example what economists might call buyers’ regret, but the surgeons and economists cannot do much for them.

Things are changing. The Washington Times recently reported on a Do No Harm study. “Its study emphasizes countries that are rethinking gender transition procedures or hormone treatments. It points to Finland, which in 2020 issued guidelines that say psychotherapy, rather than puberty blockers and cross-sex hormones, should be the first-line treatment for youths experiencing gender dysphoria.” Even the French have grown sceptical. The French National Academy of Medicine declared “great medical caution should be taken in children and adolescents, given the vulnerability, particularly psychological, of this population and the many undesirable effects and even serious complications that can be caused by some of the therapies available.”

My guess is that transgender activism is at its peak in America. At least, in the American red states. Florida’s Gov. Ron DeSantis last year banned certain gender transition procedures. The rest of the red states will follow. Perhaps I was too optimistic about The Barbarians’ chances for a comeback. However, I am a optimist.

Ukraine: Glory!

R. Emmett Tyrrell Jr., founder and editor-in chief of The American Spectator, is also the father of The American Spectator. He is a Senior Fellow with the London Center for Policy Research. “The Death of Liberalism,” Published by Thomas Nelson, Inc.

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