The Anchorage Assembly is set to proclaim Nov. 20 as a “Transgender Day of Remembrance” at its Nov. 19 meeting. A resolution to this effect is scheduled for a vote to “honor transgender people around the world whose lives have been lost to anti-transgender violence.”
The resolution aims to support “a forum for the transgender community and allies to raise awareness of the threat of violence faced by transgender people, and the prejudice and discrimination that they face in their daily lives.” The resolution further states that “transgender people are disproportionately affected by hate crimes and violence, and experience discrimination, high levels of unemployment, and barriers to accessing adequate, quality health care.”
With the resolution, the Assembly plans to “recognize and honor the bravery and resilience of all of the transgender people who live, work and play in Anchorage as their authentic selves.” It adds that Trans Leadership Alaska will be hosting a Transgender Day of Remembrance event on November 20 at Cyrano’s Theatre in Anchorage.
Trans Leadership Alaska is a political activist group that campaigned in support of an Anchorage law requiring businesses to allow men who identify as women to use showers and changing rooms designated for women. Most recently the law made headlines when Anchorage officials tried to force Hope Center, a faith-based women’s only shelter, to allow a man who identified as a woman access to the nonprofit’s facility. The city eventually backed off after the shelter took them to court.
While violence against anyone is widely condemned by groups across the cultural and political spectrum, the national push to observe a transgender day of remembrance is seen by some as a tool to advance acceptance of LGBTQ political goals which are being contested in schools, government policies and religious freedom court cases.
Walt Heyer, who formerly identified as a transgender and underwent surgeries to appear as a woman, is now a leading voice against the transgender movement in the United States. He deeply regretted his decision to undergo surgeries and hormonal treatment to appear as a woman and eventually re-transitioned back. He has called the Transgender Day of Remembrance trend “total propaganda” for a cause that actually does more harm than good.
Heyer maintains a website and travels extensively to share his story of redemption and freedom from the transgender lifestyle. He has appeared on numerous radio and television shows in the U.S. and Canada. In an August article written for the Public Discourse Heyer spoke of his experiences with transgender surgery.
“When my gender therapist, Dr. Paul Walker, told me the only effective treatment for my severe gender distress was hormones and surgery, I regrettably followed his recommendation,” Walker wrote. “I was happy as a trans woman at first, but within a few years, I felt worse off than before … living in my adopted female persona for eight years didn’t solve my troubles, but instead made them worse. I became suicidal.”
According to Heyer the transgender political movement causes more pain and confusion for people who experience gender-dysphoria. Political activism in support of “unnecessary surgeries” and hormonal treatments does little address the core issues, he notes.
“So-called “gender-affirming” therapy almost caused me to end my life. I thank God it didn’t,” he wrote. “Years of heart-wrenching counseling under multiple therapists, faithfully pursuing sobriety, and an encounter with Jesus Christ restored my sanity.”
Heyer also said that the transgender movement is itself “intolerant and non-compassionate” and aims to “silence anybody who has been harmed by transgender-affirming treatment.”
Heyer argues that encouraging people to believe they have a different gender than their biology puts them “on a path to transition while trivializing and dismissing contributing factors such as alcohol and drug abuse, sexual fetishes and co-existing psychological disorders.”
He said the trans “treatment” phenomena of cutting off breasts, filling patients with powerful cross-sex hormones and mutilating bodily organs needs to “meet the same fate as lobotomies, tooth pulling and colon removal – tossed on the historical rubbish heap of debunked horrific experiments perpetrated on innocent, hurting people.”
The Anchorage Assembly is scheduled to vote on the Transgender Day of Remembrance resolution at its Nov. 19 meeting. The meeting starts at 5 p.m. in the Assembly Chambers at the Loussac Library (3600 Denali, Room 108). To contact Assembly members, click here.
