With a lot of talk today about the apparent mental health crisis afflicting left of center women, it’s worth noting that masculine men who suddenly decide they are women late in life are usually right of center. For example, in today’s Washington Post:

Giselle Donnelly can finally be herself

By Josh Rogin

Columnist
October 12 at 8:00 PM

Giselle Donnelly is a renowned national security expert, author and conservative think-tank scholar — and even though she’s 65 years old, she was “born” only this year. That’s because Giselle has just recently transitioned to living openly as a trans woman. She is now re-introducing herself to the Washington community she has been a part of her entire adult life.

Giselle came into the world as Thomas Donnelly, the name most of Washington’s foreign policy establishment has known her by over her long career in media, policy and politics. She has now “changed her name and crossed genders,” she told me in an interview.

Giselle’s public acknowledgement of her gender identity comes after decades of secrecy, followed by five years of self-exploration and personal evolution.

It’s a story of suffering, struggle, loss and love — with a distinctly avant-garde twist. But, for Giselle, it’s simply the story of what happened to her as she gradually found the courage and support to understand — and then outwardly show — who she was on the inside all along. …

The conservative national security community in Washington is not known for its enlightened thinking on gender identity. Yet, so far, Giselle said, she has received nothing but support from her bosses at the American Enterprise Institute, where she works as a resident fellow in defense and security studies. …

A turning point came five years ago, when, a few months after separating from her first wife, Giselle met a photographer and makeup artist named Elizabeth Taylor. A former naval nuclear inspector, Taylor opened up a beauty shop in Washington called Makeovers that helps trans women find their style. The shop became an important node in a small but growing trans community in D.C., and was featured by the Washington Post in 2015.

Giselle and Beth shared a love of national security, wine, gender fluidity and BDSM. They soon began dating, and last year they were married. Those close to them who missed this time in their lives will soon be able to see it up close and personal. For about two and a half years, a film crew followed them and documented their relationship, along with Giselle’s gender journey.

Called “The Makeover,” the film debuts next month at the Alexandria Film Festival. The filmmakers call it “a distinctly traditional love story set in a decidedly non-traditional milieu of shifting gender.” The movie follows Giselle from when her female identity was a part-time alter ego in a fetish setting to her emergence as the full-time Giselle she is today. …

In one scene, the film shows Giselle reading a letter she sent to one of her two sons, she said. …

I’ve known Giselle for over a decade, and I can attest she is still the same neoconservative, wonky, rock guitar-playing, offbeat writer she has always been.

Giselle was always a true woman on the inside, a genuine woman who is obsessed, like all normal girls, with thinking about war, military hardware, neoconservatism, wonkery, and playing electric guitar rock.

Seriously, this is the kind of thing doesn’t happen often among liberal men. NPR announcers don’t sign off on Fridays by saying that when they come back on Monday, they’ll be a woman.

Granted, this doesn’t happen much among anybody, but there is a distinct rightwing tilt among the subset of late-onset M to F trans. Why?

There’s a fair amount of evidence that this kind of high IQ fetish-based M to F transgenderism correlates with something to do with Asperger’s syndrome. Perhaps this is related to not so much a lack of a theory of mind about other people as a lack of empathy for other people: I must fully live out my sex fetish like the Ayn Rand hero that I am, and if my self-actualization messes up my wife, kids, and grandchildren, well, that’s their problem, not mine.

Listen, little Emma, I realize you are feeling bad about not having two grandpas anymore, but now you have three grandmas! So stop crying. Just man up, dammit, and deal with it.

This kind of transgenderism is a bit like converting to Islam, which is a thing mostly done by criminals, explorers, military men, heavyweight champs, NBA all-time leading scorers, and the like. Tim Kaine isn’t likely to convert to Islam.

Maybe someday, some Real Man will pull off a double-switch:

Dear Navy SEALs:

For five years, it’s been my honor to lead you in war and peace. I hope to continue for many more years. But, as of Monday morning I will no longer be Admiral William Jones. From now on, please call me Admiral Princess Jasmine Mohammed to better reflect my new gender and religion.

Inshallah