One of the greatest demonstrations of leftist arrogance is the continued attempt to rewrite the natural laws of biology to score political points. Over the last several years, we have seen leftist ideologues try not only to redefine the roles of men and women in American society, but also to redefine gender itself, and even create new genders along the way.

Unfortunately, this has gone from a sad social experiment to an even more terrifying reality with devastating consequences for our society.

Aided by a compliant media that consistently vilifies men at every turn and a college campus crowd that has made higher education downright hostile to young men, the Left is deconstructing what it means to be a man in the world today.

Whenever anyone discusses this persistent attack on masculinity in the public square, leftists will say that such talk only proves that masculinity is toxic. One “LGBTQ” group at Goldsmiths University in London suggested that people who oppose the homosexual agenda should be placed in Soviet-style gulags, where they could be compassionately “rehabilitated” just like they used to do in Stalinist Russia. Compassion? Did anyone clue these people in to what happened to homosexuals in those gulags? Apparently not.

The Left has made any attempt at rational conversation of gender and sexuality appear to be a symptom of the problem. If you are not in lockstep with allowing boys who claim to be girls to share locker rooms and bathrooms with your daughters, then you are a monster. If you do not support any and every woman who claims to have been sexually assaulted (well, except Bill Clinton’s accusers), no matter the evidence or lack thereof, then you are complicit in the crime. If you do not show reverence and preferential treatment to homosexuals, then you are homophobic. And if you are a man who is anything but a liberal squish who compliantly does what he is told, then you are exhibiting “toxic masculinity.”

The term “toxic masculinity” is just more leftist word play aimed at defining masculinity itself as bad for society. Glenn Stanton at The Federalist points out that the problem men suffer today is not too much masculinity, but too much passivity. “Masculinity is a trait, not a biological feature,” Stanton writes. Masculinity is a learned behavior that suggests leadership, the desire to get things done, to stand up and take action. Masculinity, by this definition, can also be found in women who still readily maintain their feminine qualities.

Passivity in men is the real problem that needs to be fixed. Men who have been raised under the Left’s new definition of manhood or men who have been beaten into submission by dogmatic groups have shrunk into the background. They fear standing up; they lack courage and assertiveness. A nation filled with men like these will not possess the toughness to defend us in a crisis; they will not have the drive to strengthen our economy, or the fortitude to raise the next generation of young men.

The damage being done by the Left’s war on gender is also having a devastating effect on transgender individuals. A recent study published by the American Academy of Pediatrics found alarmingly high rates of attempted suicide among teens suffering gender dysphoria.

Fully half of all adolescents who are born female but “identify” as male attempted suicide. The rate of attempted suicide among those born male but “identifying” as female was 30%. And over 40% of adolescents who “identify” as gender nonconforming — that is neither male nor female — attempted suicide.

While transgendered individuals make up a tiny fraction of the population, these numbers still suggest that something is drastically wrong with the way physicians, school administrators, families, and the community are handling gender dysphoria in young people.

Rather than address this as a mental illness or offer the help teens need, the very same American Academy of Pediatrics issued guidelines not related to this study suggesting that parents accept the preferred “gender identity” of their children. The AAP also suggested that, in some cases, “gender affirming” health care in the form of surgical intervention or hormone treatments may be necessary.

This is nothing more than heinous child abuse behind the mask of health care.

There is reason to believe that the high suicide rates among these youths may be related to the very guidelines that AAP is proposing. Adolescence in general is a very trying time. Hormonal changes, psychological and physical changes, and the weight of peer pressure can create a toxic stew from which it is very difficult to make logical long-term decisions. Putting kids suffering from gender dysphoria in charge of such irreversible medical decisions is just asking for trouble.

Child psychologists like Dr. Kenneth Zucker who have suggested more cautious treatment of transgender youth have been fired for sharing their views. The Left has so viciously dominated the conversation that there is no room for sincere medical inquiry and debate.

In sum, men can’t be men because boys are told to be more like girls. Women, meanwhile, are told to be like men — or at least do everything men do. And those suffering gender dysphoria are told to be whatever they feel like. It’s time to put a stop to this leftist social engineering. Lives are at stake, and our society is paying an immense price. It’s one thing if these leftists want to live in a fantasy world of their own, but we must draw the line when they force everyone else to submit.