To the editor:

I have been following the discussion initiated by Aaron Ley’s spirited defense of drag shows at the Town Council meeting several weeks ago. I was interested because I had just read about the CDC statistics citing a dramatic rise in gender dysphoria, anxiety, and suicide in children, particularly teen girls. Obviously, drag shows are not the sole, or even a major cause of this, but they don’t help.

Puberty is a difficult time. There is a lot to sort out in a few tumultuous years. Questions about sex and gender are central to the process. Children look to us and to the culture for answers. What they see and hear from us matters.

We have to consider — is gender dysphoria a good thing? It is okay?

Is it possible that men in women’s bathing suits swimming on women’s swim teams, or a Supreme Court candidate who cannot (or will not) annunciate the difference between a man and a woman, or a man in makeup and women’s clothing reading to children at the library might be sending messages to children that are at odds with the evidence of their own eyes?

Is it okay to let the kids pick up the tab for their elders’ orgy of open-ended, uncritical tolerance?

Drag shows have been around for generations, but it is incumbent on us to ask if the mainstreaming and Main Streeting of gender confusion is without consequence.

With malice towards none.

Will Harmon
High Street