Recently, there was an avalanche of outrage when President Trump announced he was renaming Lake Ontario as Lake America. As you can imagine, the Canadians were outraged, as was virtually every media outlet in the United States.

Here at JDFI, we don’t have a position on who decides the names of bodies of water. But I couldn’t help but notice the hypocrisy on display as the controversy unfolded. There are many more serious examples of things being renamed, and we have all been victims of this malicious trend.

Today, unbiblical forces are doing the naming and the result is pure evil. Take the debate over abortion, for example.

For virtually the entire history of our country, people would call a child in the womb a “baby.” But the pro-abortion movement did not like referring to what was being aborted as a “baby.” So, almost overnight, the Left replaced “unborn baby” with “fetus.” By the way, “fetus” is a Latin word mean “unborn baby.” But the issue is even deeper.

Not that long ago, the pro-abortion movement decided it was not going to win hearts and minds by promoting something as gruesome as abortion. So, instead of “pro-abortion,” the movement was rebranded as “pro-choice.” In short order, pro-abortion politicians suddenly became “pro-choice,” even though the only choice they were in favor of was abortion.

But somewhere along the line, the power to describe themselves became the power to define what we are called, too. We say we are “pro-life.” In discussions about abortion, “pro-life” reminded people what was really being debated—life and death. The pro-abortion movement did not want to be seen as “pro-death.” So, it labeled us as “anti-choice.” Pro-life groups became known as “anti-choice” organizations. Pro-life politicians were called “anti-choice” politicians.

This deliberate misnaming has real-world consequences. Phrases like “reproductive rights” and “freedom of choice” in ballot initiatives have caused tremendous confusion.¹ It has resulted in people voting for pro-abortion ballot measures because they didn’t understand the terminology.

But the power of the pro-abortion lobby to dictate what names are used pales in comparison to that of the transgender movement, which would take the gold medal for dystopian discourse.

We have all understood that when a child is born, the doctor announces to the proud parents, “It’s a boy” or “It’s a girl.” The doctor is simply making a physiological observation. But that has been replaced now by a really odd phrase. People now ask, “What gender was your baby assigned at birth?” There’s no “assigning” going on. The doctor wasn’t guessing the gender of the newborn baby. But that is exactly what the Left wants you to believe—that only the child can determine his or her gender at some later date.

Since everyone is born male or female, the so-called “gender identity” has not been a battlefield until relatively recently. All of us go through life as little boys and girls, then as teenage boys and girls, and then as adult men and women. This is normalcy, which the Left rejects. So, the transgender movement relabeled us “cisgendered.”

What does that even mean? The word “cis” is now making its way into all forms of media. “Cis” means you kept the gender you were born with. But it doesn’t stop there. The little boy who becomes confused or indoctrinated or suffers from the delusion that he is a girl becomes a “trans girl.” That’s ridiculous. He’s not by any stretch a girl—he’s a boy.

This deceitful terminology has led to the whole debate over sports. The Left and the media will say, “Why are some “girls” not allowed to play in girls’ sports?” Of course, no girls are being denied the right to play in girls’ sports. It is boys claiming to be girls who are being denied the right to play in girls’ sports.

The transgender movement has become so powerful that it even tries to force us to lie. We’re being ordered to use female pronouns to describe a boy or male pronouns to describe a girl who claims to be the opposite gender.

If that’s not insane enough, some individuals insist on being called “they” while claiming to be a girl one day, a boy the next day, and perhaps both or neither the following day.

I saw a news story about a robber who was caught stealing. The article said, “They were apprehended leaving the house.” Foolish me thought there were two robbers. It was just one person who identified as multiple genders.

This almost demonic renaming of reality is causing a degree of social confusion that half the country still cannot process. So, now we are being told that men can get pregnant and that there is a desperate need for tampons in boys’ school bathrooms.

And words such as “mother” and “father” are forbidden. In states controlled by the Left, the individual once described as a “mother” is now called a “birthing person” or “gestating parent.”² Breast feeding, which of course requires a female breast, has become “chest feeding” in order to accommodate “men” who “nurse” babies.

The renaming and outright denial of reality has become so overwhelming that a Democrat Supreme Court nominee could not answer the question, “What is a woman?”³

Isaiah 5:20-24 warns us against this denial of reality. It is almost always a sign of a society in decay and decline:

“Woe to those who call evil good and good evil, who put darkness for light and light for darkness, who put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter” (v.20).

“Woe to those who are wise in their own eyes and clever in their own sight . . . for they have rejected the law of the Lord Almighty and spurned the word of the Holy One of Israel” (v.21).

Just a reminder: It’s an election year. Candidates from the Left virtually unanimously support the nonsense I just described. Conservative candidates support the Natural Law and God’s creation. It does make a difference who we elect.

At the James Dobson Family Institute, we will continue to fight for faith, family, and freedom and against those at war with God and the Natural Law.

1. “WaPo: Pro-Abortion Groups Targeted Moderate Voters Using Language of ‘Personal Freedom,’” Breitbart, November 11, 2022, https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2022/11/11/wapo-pro-abortion-groups-targeted-moderate-voters-using-language-of-personal-freedom/.
2. Sean Cavanaugh, “New York Bill Would Replace ‘Mother’ and ‘Father’ With ‘Gestating Parent’ in Court Docs,” CBS 6 Albany, June 17, 2026, https://cbs6albany.com/news/local/new-york-bill-would-replace-mother-and-father-with-gestating-parent-in-court-docs.
3. “Sen. Blackburn asks Supreme Court nominee Ketanji Brown Jackson to define ‘woman,’” Fox News, May 3, 2023, https://www.foxnews.com/video/6326685782112.