Reversing Reality Dysphoria
The Trump administration has changed the name on the official portrait of Joe Biden’s assistant health secretary from Rachel to Richard Levine.
“Our priority is ensuring that the information presented internally and externally by HHS reflects gold standard science,” Health and Human Services spokesman Andrew Nixon said. “We remain committed to reversing harmful policies enacted by Levine and ensuring that biological reality guides our approach to public health.”
On the biological reality side, when Richard Levine began calling himself Rachel, he did not become a “trans woman” in the sense that others were duty bound to recognize. On the other side, the “harmful policies” of Dr. Levine could stand some explanation.
“Accredited medical professional groups agree that gender-affirming care is medically necessary, safe and effective for trans and non-binary youth,” Levine proclaimed in October 2023.
Let’s take a closer look at this “gender-affirming care,” which, as NBC News noted, “commonly includes cross-sex hormones, puberty blockers, and gender reassignment surgeries.”
Taking higher doses of hormones, “will not necessarily bring about faster changes, but it could endanger your health,” according to Dr. Maddie Deutsch, Associate Professor of Clinical Family & Community Medicine at the University of California San Francisco (UCSF).
“Your skin will become a bit drier and thinner,” Deutsch said. “Your pores will become smaller and there will be less oil production. You may become more prone to bruising or cuts and in the first few weeks you’ll notice that the odors of your sweat and urine will change.” In these conditions, “you can also expect your muscle mass and strength to decrease” and “your testicles will shrink to less than half their original size,” and so on. Some effects of hormone therapy are reversible “if you stop taking them,” but “possibly reduced or absent fertility are not reversible.” So it’s kind of like sterilization.
Puberty blockers, according to the Mayo Clinic, are hormone analogues that “can be used to delay the changes of puberty in transgender and gender-diverse youth who have started puberty.” Possible side effects of these treatments include: “swelling at the site of shot, weight gain, hot flashes, headaches,” and “mood changes.” Hormone analogues might have long-term effects on “growth spurts, bone growth, bone density,” and “fertility, depending on when the medicine is started.” Some of the changes cannot be reversed and “gender confirmation surgery” is necessary to complete the reassignment from the original design.”
For the male-to-female patient, surgical procedures may include: mammoplasty, orchiectomy, penectomy, vaginoplasty, clitoroplasty, vulvoplasty, labiaplasty, urethroplasty, and prostatectomy. Facial reconstruction, voice surgery, and liposuction may also be required.
For female-to-male patients, surgical procedures may include, subcutaneous mastectomy, nipple grafts, chest reconstruction, salpingo-oophorectomy, metoidioplasty, phalloplasty, vaginectomy, vulvectomy, scrotoplasty, and implantation of erectile and/or testicular prostheses. Some of these surgical procedures have variations.
A total vaginectomy, for example, “involves complete removal of all the tissue of the vagina and is considered risky,” according to the Mayo Clinic. It does not remove the uterus or ovaries, which are removed by salpingo-ooporectomy and hysterectomy. A muscosal vaginectomy removes some of the lining of the vagina and then closes up the entrance. The inside of the vagina then collapses in on itself. The effects of vaginectomy “are permanent and cannot be reversed.”
A penectomy, “completely destroys the penis,” leaving no skin for a vaginoplasty. For new genitals, the patient needs labiaplasty, clitoroplasty, and vaginoplasty by other means. According to the Oregon Health and Science University (OHSU) the risks to vaginoplasty include vaginal stenosis, narrowing of the vaginal canal, and “a second surgery is often required to fix it.” There is also a chance of injuring the rectum during surgery.
Fistula is a rare connection between body parts such as the vagina and rectum. “If you see fecal matter (poop) coming from the vagina,” according to OHSU, “you may have a fistula and should tell us right away.” A fistula requires “another major surgery,” probably on the expensive side.
According to the Cleveland Clinic, the two reasons for having a penectomy are cancer and “gender affirmation.” In a total penectomy “the entire penis, including the root that goes into the pelvis, is removed.” In this case, the urethra, the tube that allows urine to leave the body, is rerouted to a spot in the perineum, the area between the scrotum and anus. In a perineal urethrostromy, “you’ll need to sit when you urinate.” And so on.
It’s not exactly clear whether former Admiral Levine retains his rudder, or what other “medically necessary, safe and effective” procedures the doctor has endured. On the other hand,
Levine definitely shows symptoms of reality dysphoria, which derives from what I like to call the Dictatorship of the Subjunctive Mood (DSM). Under this totalitarian dynamic, people must accept that biological reality is a construct and Richard Levine is a woman. Meanwhile, the man who appointed the admiral recently made the news.
On Dec. 5, Joe Biden addressed the International LGBTQ+ Leaders Conference in Washington, which raises another issue. As Bruce Bawer points out, whatever one may think of homosexuality, it is an “utterly different” phenomenon from transgenderism, so the LGBTQ formulation is also a construct. In his speech, the barely coherent former president urged the construct leaders to “remember who the hell we are. We’re the United States of Amerigotit.” Biden renames the nation and Trump’s HHS puts Levine’s real name on his portrait. That seems fair but there’s more to it.
Under the DSM, people are supposed to believe that the dysfunctional Biden was really running the country. In 2026, Trump might reveal the names and faces behind the presidential autopen, but at this point it’s pretty easy to guess their real identities.
https://chroniclesmagazine.org/web/reversing-reality-dysphoria