Hello, world, I'm the dad of a trans kid
Hello, world. I'm the dad of a trans kid.
I first voiced those words about a decade ago. They would have seemed completely foreign to my younger self, but life has a way of reminding us that this beautiful, maddening, largely unpredictable world still has plenty of surprises in store for us.
To this very point, I could never have anticipated the journey my family would be on when our young son made it painfully clear there was something very wrong with his assigned gender. I would spend the last decade and a half dismantling my old worldview and constructing a new one that actually matched with reality. I also watched as enormous political energy and resources were poured into a campaign to dehumanize that child and falsely portray him and the trans community as a threat to God and country.
This podcast series is based on a soon-to-be-published book of the same title. But it is not just about my trans son, although his existence is the reason I'm speaking. It is about a country that has become increasingly addicted to certainty. Certainty about who counts as a real American. About what a real family looks like. About whose children have the right to exist and whose don't. About what God wants and what God forbids and which laws should be written to enforce the answers.
What we could use now, more than ever, is a superpower. Luckily, we already have one. Every one of us. It has just gone largely unrecognized and under-utilized.
Consider for a moment the uniquely human capacities for curiosity and critical thinking—traits that are powerful, transformative, and too often under-appreciated. Traits that in combination, produce the closest thing we have to a superpower. The ability to make informed decisions based on facts and evidence. The ability to see the world as it truly is, while also imagining the possibilities of creating a better world.
This is the superpower we must urgently embrace today if we are to prevent the rise of authoritarian regimes. Regimes that sow fear and rage in an effort to divide us, and that thrive on disinformation and an uninformed public.
Scientific Rebellion is a movement dedicated to restoring critical thinking as a foundational principle of American democracy. To reviving the spirit of curiosity and critical inquiry, that when embraced, has resulted in extraordinary achievements — and that when suppressed, has led to some of the darkest periods in our history. It is a movement unafraid to confront the manufactured certainty currently being weaponized against transgender kids, teachers of honest history, climate experts, and doctors who follow the evidence.
Are you ready?
This is Peter Tchoryk. Welcome, to the rebellion.
Hello, world, I'm the dad of a trans kid
Origins of Scientific Rebellion
Use Left/Right to seek, Home/End to jump to start or end. Hold shift to jump forward or backward.
“Hello, world. I’m the dad of a trans kid.”
That was how I started my first post to address the explosion of false accusations and conspiracy theories stemming from another parent outing our family on Facebook. I went on to explain that our young trans son was not actually a threat to God and country, or his 2nd grade class.
That was back in the Spring of 2016.
It seems like another lifetime ago when our son first made it clear that someone got it wrong on his assigned gender. And he was right. Gender, like many other things in nature, is on a spectrum. The year was 2011, and he wasn’t yet three years old.
The need for Scientific Rebellion grew out of my experience advocating for the trans community over the past decade and a half. The world unfortunately, is now a far more dangerous place than it was just a few short years ago.
While I still believe sharing our story is worthwhile and necessary, it has become painfully clear that it is in no way sufficient. It will take a heck of a lot more to overcome the intentional dehumanization and vilification of the trans community and its allies.
And it is not just the trans community that faces persecution and elimination from American life. Critical thinking and scientific discourse itself are under fire, and anyone who does not fit the far right’s white patriarchal Christian standard may find themselves an enemy of the state.
Every generation has its challenges. But the youngest generations inheriting the world today face trials across the spectrum of existential threats, including some that could make the planet itself uninhabitable. From social injustices to genocide. From environmental disasters to climate crisis. From terrorism to nuclear war. It is no wonder why so many people today disengage from the political process altogether. We seem to be trying the same things over and over again, hoping for a different outcome.
So how do we motivate people in the face of such daunting challenges? How do we reconcile the America that exists today against the vision of our Declaration of Independence and Constitution? How do we confront an American culture that has benefited so greatly from the technological advances of the modern age while simultaneously rejecting scientific discourse on the issues that matter most?
It may seem a tall order, but there is a path forward. And the best news is we already have the tools to make it happen: curiosity and critical thinking. These tools, used together, are the closest thing we have to a superpower.
But even the most powerful tools are useless if we don’t commit to using them. I believe – and I think the evidence will show – that humanity’s failure to move beyond a medieval mindset is a direct result of our lack of commitment to curiosity and critical thinking. We are choosing, individually and collectively, to suffer through crises and a never-ending cycle of violence and oppression that are largely of our own making.
The Scientific Revolution gave humanity the tools to challenge the manufactured certainty so often used to oppress and control the population. It’s time we pick up where the Scientific Revolution fell short and recommit ourselves to finishing the job. It’s time we take direct, non-violent action to ensure all our laws and public policies are based on facts and evidence.
Are you ready?
This is Peter Tchoryk. Welcome, to the Rebellion.
