In April 2022, we visited Purdue University for a Reverse Q&A event. Our host was Tushar Sonvani, a Critical Thinking Fellow with the Ayaan Hirsi Ali Foundation (AHA). Tushar had met Peter at an AHA event in 2021 and was excited to bring him to Purdue.
To me, as a woman who has been riding horses for decades, I find it so telling that even in equestrian sports where the horse is doing most of the hard work male riders typically outperform female riders. This is especially obvious in equestrian sports where the strength and stamina of the rider are key: flat and steeplechase racing, three-day eventing, show jumping. Even in dressage men seem to have an edge. And it's not because men love horses more than women do--quite the opposite say I who slept with her riding boots under the pillow! It just takes a heck of a lot of strength to control a 2000 lb animal. Of course it hardly needs to be said that colts (especially stallions) nearly always outperform fillies in every equestrian sport.
These students were wonderfully thoughtful and well-spoken. I'd like to see the question of whether the risks of cross sex hormones and surgery (including possible permanent incontinence, bone demineralization, stroke and cardiac disease), should any doctor recommend this treatment path? As well, I'd like to know if any of these students believe that a man, father of children, who decides he's 'trans" is accepted as "another mother?" This is not well-known, but it happened to me. The father of my sons calls himself their mother. I've had new acquaintances tell me I can't be the mother of my sons. I think this is wrong. Why does the entire field of psychology follow the money, rather than the science?
Ute Heggen, author, In the Curated Woods, True Tales from a Grass Widow (iuniverse, 2022)
To me, as a woman who has been riding horses for decades, I find it so telling that even in equestrian sports where the horse is doing most of the hard work male riders typically outperform female riders. This is especially obvious in equestrian sports where the strength and stamina of the rider are key: flat and steeplechase racing, three-day eventing, show jumping. Even in dressage men seem to have an edge. And it's not because men love horses more than women do--quite the opposite say I who slept with her riding boots under the pillow! It just takes a heck of a lot of strength to control a 2000 lb animal. Of course it hardly needs to be said that colts (especially stallions) nearly always outperform fillies in every equestrian sport.
These students were wonderfully thoughtful and well-spoken. I'd like to see the question of whether the risks of cross sex hormones and surgery (including possible permanent incontinence, bone demineralization, stroke and cardiac disease), should any doctor recommend this treatment path? As well, I'd like to know if any of these students believe that a man, father of children, who decides he's 'trans" is accepted as "another mother?" This is not well-known, but it happened to me. The father of my sons calls himself their mother. I've had new acquaintances tell me I can't be the mother of my sons. I think this is wrong. Why does the entire field of psychology follow the money, rather than the science?
Ute Heggen, author, In the Curated Woods, True Tales from a Grass Widow (iuniverse, 2022)
uteheggengrasswidow.wordpress.com