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On the Existence of Two Genders

Note: This poem is written in response to the trans-driven push to promulgate the idea that gender is either non-binary or does not exist at all—a nonsensical notion which is nevertheless gaining ideologically-driven traction as official policy in numerous “progressive” medical, legal and social settings. The record needs to be set straight.

A temperature of ninety-eight point six;
Your life expectancy, your height, your weight—
All gauged with baselines; figures one may fix
Upon an axis—quite divorced from hate—
From which we then assess a deviation.
We don’t claim nature’s failed. We simply see
A reference point which serves as a foundation,
A standard which marks objectivity

It is of baselines now that I must speak.
Specifically, I bring up “him” and “her.”
I celebrate that everyone’s unique—
Appearance, faith, the foods that they prefer.
But when self-interest feeds on fabrications
What’s real is threatened. It’s not merely diction.
Such falsehoods poison simpleminded nations
With claims a standard baseline is just fiction.

Before a generation was deceived,
Before the gender brainwashing began,
We all knew how a baby was conceived:
One female joined in coitus with one man.
It’s true for mammals, reptiles, even birds
You think me bigoted to speak this way?
Or ignorant? Don’t rush to scorn my words.
I know my subject well. You see, I’m gay.

I’ve been through every wringer you can name
From threats of harm to rank discrimination.
But I don’t manufacture foes to blame
Or hijack churches, press or education.
I’ve marched to claim my rights. That battle’s done.
We vote, we wed, we enter any store.
But you, transgender friend, forget you’ve won.
And so you escalate a gender war.

Acceptance matters, but I can’t engage
In calumny, coercion or extortion
To soothe my ego. This is why I rage
When you aggrandize gender rights distortion.
You’re gaslighting. You claim that black is white,
The sky is red; it’s virtuous to steal.
I pity you your psychiatric plight
But don’t you dare claim gender isn’t real.

I do not fight how you should live your life.
Have surgery, wear make-up, change your name,
Take hormones if that heals your inner strife.
Get married as you will, love as you claim.
But have the decency to certify
That gender’s real and binary. Your hate
Must not outweigh the truth. Do not deny
The baseline norm from which we deviate.

As for the monolithic views of those
Who push the union of L-G-B-T…
It’s time for a divorce. I never chose
Alliance with the Trans Hegemony.
For what has gay to do with the bizarre
And bullying transgender push to change
All aspects of our world to who they are.
In fact, most gays I speak with think this strange.

With godless anarchy as your prime goal
What loyalty should I give to your issues?
You trade all dignity for thought-control,
Demanding pity. Let me grab some tissues.
You threaten lawsuits. Parents must be stopped
From interfering with indoctrination!
Then force some trembling doctor to adopt
Woke medicine. What an abomination!

Cry victim when we dare resent the endless
Entitlements you foist on our good will.
Just scream “transphobe” until the sane are friendless.
Consume us all—you’ll never eat your fill!
You hypocrites claim gender isn’t binary.
But speak of women’s sports and then you fight
For status as “full female” in drag finery
As if the fact you’re trans dare not see light.

But this is wrong! Anatomy is real.
With rare exceptions, skeletons display
Two genders irrespective how you feel.
The mandible, the pelvis are not gay
Or lesbian or trans. You claim to be
A follower of science and not hexes.
There are no errors in an autopsy—
The genitals alone prove just two sexes

I have a small suggestion to propound:
Read history, psychology and learn
How mass delusions gain steam and confound.
Then grasp uniqueness as a gift you earn;
A surgeon’s knife can’t change the soul inside;
The drugs prescribed can’t alter who you are.
A change of clothes won’t make the groom a bride.
Ignoring baselines is a losing war.

It’s time to make a U-turn and deny
Coerced approval to define your worth.
My life, all that I am, demands no lie.
I seek no validation for my birth.
I’ve suffered too with all I am and claim
But I will give you love the best I can.
Despite my flaws, can you give me the same?
Do what you will. I still shall be a man.

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Editor’s Note: This poem, originally published in September, 2023, had been removed wrongly and on reflection is now being restored. This was a poem which generated much comment activity and those comments are, unfortunately, lost.

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Brian Yapko is a retired lawyer whose poetry has appeared in over fifty journals.  He is the winner of the 2023 SCP International Poetry Competition. Brian is also the author of several short stories, the science fiction novel El Nuevo Mundo and the gothic archaeological novel  Bleeding Stone.  He lives in Wimauma, Florida.

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7 Responses

  1. Brian Yapko

    I appreciate Evan Mantyk republishing this poem in a context where it was originally published on September 4, 2023 and then at some point in the last few months silently removed without obtaining my copyright permission to do so and without any notice to me. This poem had over 50 comments, most of them highly complimentary concerning the reasoning set to verse and the personal price paid by the poet for the obvious risks taken in writing and publishing this. I appreciate Evan recognizing the ethical and legal error in removing a published work and at least the poem will be part of the permanent SCP archive even if all of those comments are permanently lost.

    On the plus side, today is the last day of Pride Month and perhaps it is appropriate that this poem be revisited for the common sense views contained therein.

    Reply
  2. Roy Eugene Peterson

    I remember commenting that I am not of that persuasion, but I recognize great poetry when I see it! This is an excellent common-sense poem that castigates and skewers the nonsensical transgender concept from a perspective that many of us do not have. Fantastic job of clear-headed thinking and exposition.

    Reply
  3. Joseph S. Salemi

    When I saw this poem back in 2023, I knew that it was one of tremendous force and unexampled bravery. I also knew that it was profoundly conservative in its clear-headed sanity and rejection of the absurdities that fraudulent “gender-theory” was spawning in an attempt to make everything “non-binary.” This poem gives intellectual tranniedom a well-deserved kick in the teeth.

    Unfortunately, a problem within the conservative movement that must be faced is the presence of censorious, Comstockian religionists who, guided by the tenets of their sectarian creed, want to silence any poem that deals with sexual or behavioral issues that they are uncomfortable with.

    Yes, we have to fight the crackpot left and its bizarre nostrums, and that’s just what Brian’s poem does. But sometimes we have to fight the hidden enemies within our own ranks, and that is an especially bitter fight.

    Reply
  4. Michael Vanyukov

    As a university student, I once knew a young man, a patient in a psychiatric hospital where I was learning some genetic methods. He helped as an assistant in the lab, which was for him part of what was considered treatment of schizophrenia, his diagnosis. He was completely normal and well adapted – except for one detail: he thought he could survive on air only. For all his “normalcy,” that was a more dangerous delusion that some other patients had: Caesars, Napoleons, etc. Some men may think they are women, and vice versa. Nobody should be forced to give scepters to Napoleons though, nor indulge other fantasies people may have. Whatever they do in their bedrooms is their personal business.

    Reply
  5. Susan Jarvis Bryant

    I thoroughly appreciate your courage at making a huge poetic stand against radical and rabid transgender ideology that is ruining many children’s lives with its indoctrination, chemical castration, and mutilation. Brian, you are a brave man in an age that has lost sight of reality and rationale in favor of insidious idiocy from those who believe that gender is fluid and hormone blockers and a scalpel are the magic cure for gender dysphoria – a mental condition often forced upon those too young to understand the implication of taking the surgical path to utopia by “experts” who are keen to sexualize children before they’ve had a lesson in Human Biology or explored the possibility they may homosexual or simply confused… I believe many minors are confused and need gentle guidance NOT neutering. This is exactly why your voice is so important, Brian, and I thank you again for your bravery. I believe when something sad or bad happens, good often comes from it. I am sorry your comments have been lost – that is sad – but this subject needs a constant spotlight on it, and I am heartened to see it out there on the front page of the SCP for a second time. Brian thank you very much indeed!

    Reply
  6. Mike Bryant

    Brian, this is a brave and necessary poem. Thanks for standing up for the children. I am with you, I have been pro-child and anti-expert, in every field, since I was a kid. It seems to me that the experts in religion, science and everything else in the supervisory establishment have formed an unholy coalition against “we, the people.” Of course, that includes our children. Part of that utopian vision was well explained in “It Takes a Village.” But, no, it turns out they were wrong. Look what the expert class is doing to our country, our states, our cities, our people. The expert class is faltering now only because of free speech.

    Brian, I’m sorry this poem was deleted, but I am thrilled to see this issue arising again into the spotlight because the numbskulls need to be confronted again and again. Where are those experts now? I have a feeling they know they are losing and will not try to hold up their completely discredited suppositions. Your voice is especially important.

    Turley has written about how the “experts” are being marginalized. A big first step was the SCOTUS takedown of the Chevron Doctrine. Good read here:

    https://jonathanturley.org/2025/06/26/the-icarian-gene-the-rise-and-fall-of-the-expert-class/

    Reply
  7. Mark Stellinga

    I honestly believe that all children over 6 or 7 know, in their hearts, what they’re common-sense-challenged parents are co-opting them to risk is totally F’d-up, Brian. It seems, more often than not, to be genetic, seeing the typical fools who’re fighting to legalize it nation wide. Like DJT, I’m a very strong believer in stopping very-destructive-practices in a seriously-once-and-for-all manner. Your piece is of the sort that can only be created by a very talented and extremely passionate poet – and you’ve definitely ground your ‘point’ to razor’s edge with this one, my friend, and I’m with you all the way. 🙂

    Reply

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