Remember a couple years ago when right-wingers spread false panic about classrooms purportedly adding litter boxes for students who claimed to identify as a cat? That never happened, though the ConWeb refused to meaningfully call out that lie. Well, Michael Brown decided he wanted to revive the furry panic in his Nov. 15 WorldNetDaily column:
Although what you’re about to read sounds preposterous, it is absolutely true. And while it sounds laughable, it is sadder than it is funny. Let me give you the background first, then I’ll share with you the reason for this article.
In my 2015 book, “Outlasting the Gay Revolution,” I referred to what is called “species dysphoria.” This describes a phenomenon of “people who are convinced that they are part (or all) animal, who become more convinced of their animal identity as they get older, and who dress up like animals and legally change their names to fit their animal identity.”
I continued, “And is it a coincidence that it was Logo TV, the gay TV channel, that began airing a series in 2013 called, ‘What? I Think I’m An Animal’? As the blurb explained, ‘I Think I’m An Animal reveals the truth behind the Otherkin movement’s furry costumes and explores what it’s like to inhabit an animal identity.’
The fact the Brown has to go back to something he wrote nearly a decade to set up his fearmongering tells us the specious nature of this. He did try to make things more relevant by citing a more recent incident based on Christian youth:
You would think, then, that nothing could really surprise me anymore. After all, I’ve been talking about this stuff for a long time – not to mock, but to draw attention to what happens when perception is substituted for reality.
Well, you can now consider me surprised.
Early this month (November), I was speaking to about 700 Christian young people (almost all college-age) at the massive YWAM (Youth with a Mission) base in Kona, Hawaii. I was teaching on what the Bible said about gender and sexuality, saying that we must have hearts of compassion and backbones of steel.
Wanting to understand the world in which they were living, I asked, “How many of you had to start one of your classes in high school or college by giving your name and preferred gender pronoun.”
To my surprise, less than 20% of the kids raised their hands, perhaps closer to 10 or 15%. I really thought it would be much higher.
Then, just to ask out of curiosity, I said, “How many of you went to school with someone who identified as a furry?”
Almost half the hands went up! We were all stunned.
I asked for some of the representative identities, which ranged from bumble bee to fox to wolf to cat, among other animals, as well as to more abstract identities including “dirt” and “the universe.” (For a relevant Piers Morgan video, see here.)
I then asked, “Do you think these kids are just trying to be silly or get attention?”
Overwhelmingly, the answer was no. (Subsequently, I asked the young people to stand behind me on the platform for a picture, and again, we were stunned at the sight, even though quite a few of them standing in the back can’t even be seen in the picture.)
Then again, these “Christian young people” have presumably been indoctrinated in the type of anti-LGBT hate that causes them to believe the absolute worst about people not as staunchly pro-Christian as he is. Brown concluded with anbother bit of faux compassion before attacking others:
As for those who truly struggle with their true identity, I pray for God’s mercy and help. I can’t for a moment even try to imagine what they’re feeling.
But let us not miss the lesson of the moment. People identifying as animals is, ultimately, no different than biological and genetic males identifying as females, and vice versa.
This is what happens when we deviate from the divinely ordained trajectory, which includes marriage being the union of one man and one woman. May the Lord help us return to reality – and may it be quickly rather than slowly for the sake of all of us.
Meanwhile, Brown has been having his own return to reality of late, having been compelled to take responsibility for his inappropriate behavior with a young woman who was a secretary at a Christian school tied to a revival movement he was involved with. Brown hasn’t written a column since that story went public.