Another magazine turns political

When little kids play soccer, just about all of them—whether they’re defenders or even goaltenders, and no matter where they are on the field—run toward the ball. (A few occasionally stay on their sidelines with their security blankets and favorite thumbs.) Some adult football players on kickoff teams also have trouble staying in their lanes, and that’s when speedy kick returners have a shot at 100-yard touchdowns.

Now, some venerable publications are showing editorial dysphoria. Last week I noted Sports Illustrated’s new political correctness. The latest example: National Geographic, long known for taking readers to far-away countries, long held onto by subscribers who would place issues on neat bookcases in chronological order, long relished (at least in pre-internet days) by boys who would seek out photos of breasts in places where toplessness was standard.

National Geographic’s January issue touts its “Special Issue: Gender Revolution,” which features “9-year-old transgender activist Avery Jackson” on its cover, with this line: “The best thing about being a girl is, now I don’t have to pretend to be a boy.” A video of Avery shows him saying, “When I was born, doctors said I was a boy, but I knew in my heart I was a girl. So I may have some boy body parts, but that’s not wrong, that is OK.”

Some agree that’s OK, but the conservative American College of Pediatricians (ACP) calls this early re-gendering fad “child abuse.” Its statement: “[A]s many as 98% of gender confused boys and 88% of gender confused girls eventually accept their biological sex after naturally passing through puberty.” Avery’s prominence will make his probable psychological return a tougher go.

The conservative American College of Pediatricians (ACP) calls this early re-gendering fad “child abuse.”

The ACP also declared, “A person’s belief that he or she is something they are not is, at best, a sign of confused thinking. When an otherwise healthy biological boy believes he is a girl, or an otherwise healthy biological girl believes she is a boy, an objective psychological problem exists that lies in the mind not the body, and it should be treated as such.”

But what do we do about a magazine’s belief that it is something it’s not? When editors of otherwise healthy magazines like Sports Illustrated or National Geographic decide they have to become political, what’s the best way to treat their confused thinking?