An Open Letter to Administrators of Institutionalized Dysphoria

A Dad’s Reflection Outside His Daughter’s Public Bathroom

I’m standing in the corridor of a public law school and imagine my younger daughter is with me. She walks into the women’s restroom while I wait outside. As I stand there, I notice a sign on the door.

This part is not imagined.

At first, the words seem reasonable—a recognition of simple biological reality:

“Ohio law recognizes that bathrooms are designated based on biological sex.”

This is, after all, a fundamental truth—one affirmed by the “Protect All Students Act,” signed by Governor Mike DeWine in November 2024.

But then I read the next part, the real message, which essentially says:

"To ensure inclusivity, we ask that all members of our community respect individuals’ rights to use the restroom aligning with their gender identity. Safety, dignity, and respect for all are our highest priorities."

I take a breath.

I imagine, just for a moment, that a biological male—physically intact, fully capable of overpowering any woman in that restroom—decides to walk past me and enter that space simply because he "identifies" as female.

Would I allow it?

Would I, as a father, stand idle under the pressure of progressive ideology? Would I reassure myself that I had done my duty to inclusivity, that I had participated nobly in this grand societal experiment of redefining truth itself?

Or would I do what any sane man—any responsible father—would do? Would I step forward and say:

“No. This is not happening.”

Because at some point, compassion ceases to be compassion and becomes capitulation.
It becomes cowardice.
It becomes an abdication of our responsibility—not only to our daughters but to the very fabric of public order itself.

And if I refuse to speak up—if I nod along and pretend this makes sense—then I am not merely tolerating another’s mental illness. I am adopting it as my own.

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America’s Verdict: An End to Institutionalized Dysphoria

Regardless of what anyone may think of Donald Trump, the 2024 presidential election made one thing unmistakably clear:

Americans rejected the forced institutionalization of gender ideology.

Trump’s decisive victory (312 electoral votes to Kamala Harris’s 226) was, in large part, a referendum on policies that sought to enforce subjective identity over biological reality.

His campaign consistently emphasized rolling back gender ideology in federal policy, banning biological males from women’s sports, and reasserting the rights of states to protect sex-segregated spaces (AP News).

This was not intolerance. It was clarity.
It was sanity.
It was an acknowledgment by Americans that our laws, institutions, and public policies must remain rooted in objective truth—not individual preference.

Yet institutions—particularly universities—continue resisting. In doing so, they are not modeling courage or compassion; they are guaranteeing their own irrelevance.

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The Tyranny of Subjective Caprice

The most potent tenet of transgender activism is that self-identification trumps biology. We are told that to be a woman (or a man) is merely a matter of declaring it so. The body is irrelevant. Chromosomes are irrelevant. Medical and scientific history are irrelevant. What matters is the feeling.

But let us press this logic further. If self-identification is the defining marker of reality, what stops a 15-year-old from identifying as 21? What stops a man from identifying as disabled and demanding government benefits?

If a person struggling with anorexia identifies as obese, do we affirm their delusion and starve them further? If a person with Body Integrity Identity Disorder insists their leg does not belong to them, do we amputate it to match their internal perception?

We do not affirm delusion in any other area of mental illness. Why should we do it here?

A society that demands validation of a psychological disorder as objective truth does not just fail those who suffer; it forces their illness upon all of us.

This is not inclusion. It is the mass institutionalization of mental illness—an insistence that we abandon truth itself for fear of offending.

And what is the cost?

The emotional distress associated with gender dysphoria is profound, manifesting in depression, anxiety, and, in severe cases, suicidal ideation (Mount Sinai). Studies confirm that individuals struggling with gender dysphoria are at heightened risk for mental health disorders (NCBI).

The pursuit of gender transition involves hormone therapies and surgeries that carry serious medical risks. Yet many who undergo such treatments later express deep regret, acknowledging that their distress was psychological rather than physical (Daily Telegraph).

True love is not affirming suffering.
True love is desiring another’s objective greatest good.
Not because we decide it, but because it is.

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A Message to University Administrators: Appeasement is Not a Strategy

First, mere acknowledgment was required.
Then, mandatory pronoun usage.
Then, biological men entering women’s spaces.
Then, open punishment of dissent—firings, lawsuits, and ostracization.

Administrators in educational institutions face immense pressures. Activist factions demand ideological conformity, threatening lawsuits if definitions of "inclusion" and "equity" are not continuously accommodated. The easiest path appears to be acquiescence—to quietly yield ground rather than confront uncomfortable truths.

But avoidance is not a solution; it is a pressure cooker. The more institutions accommodate ideological demands, the more extreme these demands become.

Administrators, this is not leadership; it is appeasement.
And appeasement only ensures the problem worsens.

As John Adams aptly noted:

“Facts are stubborn things; and whatever may be our wishes, our inclinations, or the dictates of our passions, they cannot alter the state of facts and evidence.”

If institutions reject objective, universal truth, they cease to educate—they merely perpetuate absurdity.

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The Loving Response.

I imagine my daughter stepping out of that restroom, unaware of the ideological war waged outside that door.

And I know, with absolute certainty:

If a man—regardless of how he feels—attempted to enter that space, I would not hesitate.

Not because I hate him.
Not because I lack empathy.

But because compassion does not require me to abandon truth.
Because my duty as a father does not require me to participate in a delusion.
Because when society demands that I accept mental illness as reality, it is not just the mentally ill who suffer—sanity itself is at stake.

I will not surrender to madness.
I will not allow compassion to make me a coward.
And I will not allow my daughter—or any girl—to bear the cost of society’s self-inflicted confusion.

Truth matters.
A culture that abandons truth abandons itself.

Therefore, to any such proposition to surrender my humanity and others, the loving and compassionate response—is clear: “No.”

To those in positions of leadership: Do not yield.
To those who know the truth: Speak boldly.
To those who believe in the dignity of all: Protect it.

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