Still relevant after all these years

Why Family First plays a key role in modern New Zealand

It’s almost twenty years since the indefatigable Bob McCoskrie began Family First, an organisation whose mere name explains simply what it’s about.

Unashamedly founded on Christian values, Family First has established itself in the last two decades as the leading conservative voice on a myriad of the country’s social issues.

Whether it’s smacking your kids, abortion, same sex marriage, assisted dying, marijuana or transgender matters Family First will present an always well researched point of view in its bid to influence the nation’s conversation.

It's often been successful – witness the marijuana referendum of 2020 – but as time’s gone by, the increasingly liberal mainstream media now bypasses Family First when it comes to important national discussions.

McCoskrie leads a team of eight full time staff from their base in South Auckland and funds the operation from thousands of what’s known in the political and social activism space as small dollar donations.

With mainstream media now not bothering with McCoskrie’s opinion on anything anymore – he reckons it’s six years since he was part of a TV debate on a social issue – Family First have taken a leaf from the Donald Trump playbook, by-passed them and now use modern technology to go straight to the people.

The organisation has at least one live show from its website five days a week and has just concluded another highly successful gathering known as Forum on the Family where 650 attendees heard speakers from the US and Australia, as well as numerous New Zealanders, discuss matters like transgenderism, child exploitation and assisted dying.

For this writer, who played a minor part in one of the panel discussions, the most chilling moments of the Forum were videos and then on stage appearances by a couple of young New Zealand women in the process of “detransitioning.”

They are now in their early to mid-twenties, but as teenagers transitioned to male. Both are now again proudly women.

No other information was given to the audience about them. We don’t know their surnames. We don’t know where they live. We don’t know what schools they went to. That doesn’t matter and considering the hateful attacks – online and in person – they would undoubtedly receive if any information about their identities was made public, it’s best they are protected as much as possible from the rampant army of transgender conversion soldiers diligently working our education and media ecosystem – still with taxpayer money.

The most extraordinary part of their stories was the haste and convenience these women found when they told medical professionals they wished to transition to male. Appointments were quickly arranged with sympathetic psychiatrists, the testosterone medications dispensed without complications and arrangements made for what is known as “top surgery” – the removal of breasts.

They are still affected by the treatments. Both have deep male-like voices. Both still sweat more than they’d like although with the end of the testosterone treatment they’ve stopped growing facial hair.

Sadly one went ahead with the top surgery. The other was on the cusp of the operation when the surgeon informed her the double mastectomy was an operation usually performed on breast cancer patients. That was when she said no, stopped the process and decided to regain her womanhood.

What was distressingly revealing were their nearly identical stories about the convenience and the speed at which they could transition. When they decided to turn back, the roadblocks were up and the support from both medical and psychological services was reluctant and barely forthcoming.

These stories deserve a wide audience as they explain the dangers of confused teenagers making life altering physical decisions. But they’re unlikely to get wide reach because these are outcomes that are contrary to the prevailing media and education narrative that your “sex assigned at birth” does not define who you can be.

These young New Zealand women told their story immediately after New York psychiatrist Miriam Grossman talked to the Forum via video link. But her lack of physical presence didn’t detract from her key assertions - sex is not assigned at birth because it’s established at conception, sex is binary, sex is permanent, males cannot become females and females cannot become males.

As Dr Grossman went on to tell the audience, and as she writes in her new book Lost in Trans Nation, doctors, therapists and others who lead young people to believe otherwise are guilty of malfeasance and ”they must be stopped and held responsible for the damage inflicted on children and families.”

Miriam Grossman writes of her country lost in trans madness. Many is a parent of New Zealand teenagers who will tell a similar story. But the experiences of the two young women who spoke at the Forum on the Family are freely fluttering red flags against this madness.

Family First has a simple mantra: strong families are a foundation for a strong nation. Trans gender activism is designed to break up families, hence the campaigning from McCoskrie and his team on this and other significant social issues.

New Zealand would be a poorer place without them.

NB: Standby for a report on Israel and Maria Folau’s first interview since the Wallaby great was fired from his national team in Rugby World Cup year because of a social media message based on a verse from the Bible. Bob McCoskrie achieved what the big money offers from Australian TV could not – an exclusive interview with the superstar sporting couple. You’ll hear about the time when the Wallabies were playing Wales in RWC 2019. Maria was watching game on TV while her husband was across the room .. reading his bible.