Matt Walsh, Johnny The Walrus

Matt Walsh has once again gone out of his way to make it known that he thinks being transgender is nothing more than a delusion. In case anyone is unfamiliar with Matt Walsh, he is a conservative political commentator who is primarily platformed on the conservative news website The Daily Wire. Matt Walsh is no stranger to sharing his anti-trans views, one of his most recent antics involved him going out of his way to mislead the school board of Loudon County, VA about his residency to attend a school board meeting. In case you are unfamiliar with Loudoun County, the meeting Walsh attended was in reference to their new transgender policies that would allow trans students to use the restrooms of their gender identity. In this meeting Walsh accuses the teachers of being child abusers, predators, and that transgender “ideology” is a cult.

There must be a certain level of bigotry, or maybe insanity, that someone possesses for them to go out of their way to attack and defame an entire community along with teachers and children. Here we are again though, months later, and Walsh has written a “children’s book” that reaffirms his belief that if someone can be transgender, then someone can also be trans-walrus. Let’s dive into Johnny the Walrus and see if Johnny’s transition is a success.

On the very first page, Walsh writes “Johnny’s a boy”, with boy being colored blue, because of course colors correlate to masculinity and femininity.

The next few pages are normal, talking about how Johnny enjoys playing pretend and that, from day to day, he goes from pretending to be one animal to another. His mother mentions loving when Johnny has his make-believe time, but suddenly stops to look at what is presumed to be Instagram. Here is where Walsh begins his descent into make-believe of his own.

On page 9 Johnny’s mother uploads a photo of him pretending to be a walrus with the caption “You’re Johnny the walrus ‘til you change your mind!” However, on page 10 Johnny’s mom begins to start getting dislikes on the photo and comments such as “Only a bigot would say that!” and “How dare you offend!” This is where Walsh escapes reality and begins the comparison between being transgender and childlike imagination. Page 12 then goes on to show protestors holding signs that say, “Johnny is a real walrus” and “Let Johnny transition”. It is after these incidents that Johnny’s mother decides to take him to the doctor for a check-up.

Now, I want to pause and take a moment to discuss these last couple of pages. In Walsh’s first few pages, he writes that Johnny pretends to be a different animal from day to day. This is nothing like those who experience gender dysphoria at a young age. I did not pretend to be a girl one day, a boy the next, and so on and so forth. Typically, those who experience gender dysphoria only want to live their lives as the opposite gender and be referred to and treated as that gender. There is usually an extremely lengthy period of time where these feelings were present and were not just a “I woke up one day and felt like this.” If Walsh was trying to make the comparison, then he misses the mark, because what is being represented here is nothing like those who experience gender dysphoria, yet he makes the comparison that it is the same as pretending to be an animal for the day. But honestly this isn’t surprising considering Walsh doesn’t even believe in being transgender.

Let’s also look at the reactions that Johnny’s mother is experiencing from online strangers. Walsh makes the comparison here by saying that these protestors and people commenting on Johnny’s photo are the same as those who protest anti-transgender laws and defend children who want to take hormone blockers. Once again this makes me question the reality that Matt Walsh is living in, as he somehow believes that trans activists are questioning parent’s every decision in how they respond to their children’s identities. No person would negatively comment on a photo of a child pretending to be an animal with the caption that was written, nor would anyone comment negatively if Johnny was dressed as a girl with the same caption. If anything, there would more than likely be nothing but positive responses. “You’re Johnny the girl ‘til you change your mind”, this would not be something that activists would have an issue with. Honestly, it just doesn’t make sense what Walsh is trying to say, because it isn’t based on reality. This is no different than the Dave Chappelle jokes that fall flat, i.e., trans women using the urinals in the men’s bathrooms.

The next few pages show Johnny’s mother taking him to the “woke” doctor, donned with pink hair to get a checkup, where the doctor goes over what Johnny must do if he wants to be an actual walrus. The doctor says he needs to eat worms, wear grey makeup, and cut his feet off. This is absolutely not what happens when children begin to exhibit gender dysphoria. Firstly, most of the time children are referred to gender therapists where multiple sessions are done to elaborate more on the dysphoria a child may be feeling. This is mostly done via talk therapy where the child discloses any information they want to reveal. It isn’t a doctor telling you what you must do, it is up to the patient and or patient’s family. Secondly, gender reassignment surgeries are not something that are performed on children. Children are also not talked to by doctors of these types of surgeries until they reach the age of 18 or older. Lastly, hormones such as estrogen and testosterone are not prescribed to children under the age of 18 like the next few pages suggest. Let’s take a look.

On one of the next pages, it shows Johnny taking his “wormones”, really clever of you Walsh. Johnny describes that the worms make him twitchy, and the makeup makes him itchy. Now I want to reiterate here because Walsh has not done his research in trans medication, at all, but children are not prescribed hormones. What happens is that children will often be prescribed puberty blockers, which simply pauses someone from going through their puberty at roughly the same time as others may be going through theirs. It puts a halt on it that allows for the child to decide whether or not they want to begin hormones when they reach the age or stop taking the blockers so that they can continue with the puberty of their biological sex. They are not only safe, but also reversable. Point here is that children are not prescribed hormones and Walsh clearly does not understand this nor has he done the research on what the actual process is for children who may identify as trans. Also, I will point out, there are side effects as with every single medication in the world. Puberty blockers are not void of side effects, but they certainly don’t make people itchy.

Next up Johnny’s mom takes him to the zoo, so that he can see what it is like being around other walruses. In these pages Walsh is trying to make the comparison between taking a trans child to be around other, more than likely, cis children. Walsh writes that the walruses grunted and that, an adult that looks very much like Walsh, tells the child that he isn’t a walrus but a boy (in blue text again I might add). If Walsh knew anything about kids, he would know that this comparison is ridiculous. Depending on how a child is raised, most children are not going to tell a child who may be trans that they aren’t a boy or a girl. Most children are extremely accepting of others, and typically don’t care what another child wears or what they play with. It is only when a parent instills in them a certain mindset, such as blue is for boys and pink is for girls, that makes them act like they need to correct what someone else is doing.

The zookeeper who tells Johnny that he’s a boy looks a lot like Walsh, and as Walsh explains it himself this character is the “voice of reason”. Come on Walsh, you really needed to boost your ego that much that you needed to include yourself in your own “children’s book”, get over yourself dude. After the zookeeper tells this to Johnny’s mom, she says that she can’t say that otherwise people will call her “phobic”, as if children are going to understand what that word means.

At the end of the story Johnny’s mom no longer listens to what social media is saying, and instead tells Johnny that he isn’t a walrus. Shortly after on the way home from the zoo however, Johnny then pretends to be a bird. I find this ending very interesting, because ultimately Johnny ended up continuing to act like something that he wasn’t. Even though the zookeeper told his mom that he’s a boy and he isn’t a walrus, Johnny just simply moved on to imagining himself as a bird instead.

Now, I understand what the book is trying to convey, but unfortunately it doesn’t do a very good job of it. Walsh is trying to make the comparison between parents allowing their children to transition at an early age, or in his mind, forcing their children to transition. Ultimately this comparison doesn’t work, as being trans-walrus isn’t real, unlike people who exhibit gender dysphoria. This is the same for trans racial, it simply isn’t backed by any medical associations that this is an identity. Walsh also blatantly lies about the entire process for which children undergo a transition. From the hormones, to surgeries, Walsh hasn’t researched that there are heavy guidelines for these things, and a way to do them that isn’t as simple as speaking to a doctor one time. Walsh also tries to point out that social media is the influence for many of these parents letting their children transition, and though I agree that some parents may be unsure of what to do and go to extremes, these are very rare cases. By extremes I mean, taking control of their child’s identity in a way that no longer allows them to do what they want. Children need freedom to express themselves, and it is up to them to come to the parent and let them know how they’re feeling and how and who they want to be. Parents also just need to listen, but not feed into whatever social media is saying that may sound a little too controlling of the situation.

Walsh really needs to educate himself more on trans identities, as he clearly doesn’t know anything about them or the difficulties that trans people must face to be themselves. My guess is that Walsh hasn’t spoken with any trans people before, and most of his information about trans people comes from his own delusion of who we are.

Resources:

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/05/11/well/family/what-are-puberty-blockers.html

https://www.endocrine.org/clinical-practice-guidelines/gender-dysphoria-gender-incongruence#2