This is well written. I agree with Shane Getson.

OLDCORN: Transgender youth surgery controversy — Getson’s ‘livestock’ comparison wasn’t cruel, it was common sense
The Alberta MLA’s blunt words about irreversible gender surgeries exposed more truth than many in politics are willing to admit.
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"Gender Affirming" Clinic CartoonImage courtesy of Wokely Correct
Christopher Oldcorn
Christopher Oldcorn
Published on:
21 Nov 2025, 1:30 pm
The progressive Left is in full outrage mode again, this time over a simple, uncomfortable analogy from United Conservative MLA Shane Getson.

During debate on Alberta’s new legislation restricting gender surgeries and hormone treatments for youth, Getson compared irreversible operations on minors to the castration of livestock.

Predictably, progressives pounced.

Headlines called his remarks “offensive,” “heartless,” and “dehumanizing.”

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But lost in the progressive noise is that his point was logically and morally sound.

When a child undergoes surgery that permanently alters their body, there is no undoing it.

That was Getson’s essential message, and it’s one most rural Albertans understand instinctively.

You can’t reverse castration, whether it’s on a farm animal or a human being.

Once you remove healthy reproductive organs, you take away the possibility of natural adulthood permanently.

That’s not hatred.

That’s biology.

Critics accuse Getson of “degrading” transgender youth.

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But his statement wasn’t about human worth.

It was about permanent medical intervention before a young person has the maturity to understand its consequences.

According to the Mayo Clinic, irreversible surgeries for gender dysphoria “remove or alter” sexual organs and reproductive function.

The reputable medical consensus has long held that operations of this kind carry profound, lifelong implications.

No amount of ideological spin changes that.

It is misleading and problematic that Global News and the Canadian Press refer to castration of young people as “gender confirmation surgery,” a term that obscures the serious and irreversible nature of these medical interventions.

Supporters of the youth surgery bans argue that delaying these interventions until adulthood isn’t cruelty, it’s caution.

The government of Premier Danielle Smith didn’t draft these laws out of malice.

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It acted because evidence is mounting worldwide that many young people who transition as teens later regret it.

Studies published in outlets such as the British Medical Journal and national briefings in countries like Sweden and the United Kingdom have led to severe limits or outright pauses on medicalized gender transitions for minors due to safety concerns.

Alberta is hardly out on a limb here.

So when Getson said, “You’re not going to grow back those parts,” he was stating a scientific fact.

Young people can experiment with clothes or pronouns and still grow up healthy.

But surgery crosses a line that no therapy or personal exploration can reverse.

That’s precisely why adults, especially legislators, must safeguard children from decisions they can’t possibly comprehend.

Getson’s second point, about “bad parents,” also deserves more attention than ridicule.

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Alberta’s child welfare system exists precisely because not every parent acts in their child’s best interest.

Governments regularly intervene when neglect or abuse are suspected.

Refusing puberty blockers or surgeries for minors who cannot legally get a tattoo or buy alcohol isn’t government tyranny, it’s protection.

If lawmakers can stop a 15-year-old from gambling or skydiving, surely they can delay decisions that alter fertility and anatomy forever.

This entire controversy exposes a double standard within the progressive activist crowd.

When parents disagree with ideology-driven lessons on gender identity in classrooms, they’re told to stay out of it.

When they resist medical transition for their kids, they’re accused of abuse.

Yet when activists want minors to access these treatments, “parental rights” become irrelevant.

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Getson’s argument forces the question of who really stands up for children?

The people defending irreversible surgeries, or the ones insisting on biological reality and adult oversight?

The reaction to Getson’s metaphor shows how fragile the public debate has become.

Rural Albertans understood exactly what he meant.

They live close to the land, know what irreversible means, and rely on plain talk instead of academic jargon.

Progressives recoil at that honesty because it punctures the myth that all opinions are equally valid, even when nature itself disagrees.

Getson’s comparison may have sounded harsh to progressive journalists, but it resonated with those who work hard, raise families, and believe kids deserve to grow up before making life altering choices.

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Sometimes the truth stings.

Sometimes it shows up wearing muddy boots instead of polished language.

And sometimes it takes a straight-talking MLA from rural Alberta to remind the rest of us what common sense still sounds like.