The phrase “Republicans pounce” is commonly used to illustrate media bias against conservatives. When Harvard University President Claudine Gay resigned in the wake of allegations of plagiarism in 2024, the Associated Press described plagiarism as a “new conservative weapon against colleges.” When Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) and her staff accidentally published an unedited version of the progressive congresswoman’s “Green New Deal,” containing measures that Democrats who had endorsed the plan did not agree to support, The New York Times ran the headline “Ocasio-Cortez Team Flubs a Green New Deal Summary, and Republicans Pounce.”

The implication, of course, is that Republicans and conservatives are almost always framed by left-leaning media outlets as political opportunists, preying upon the honest mistakes of Democrats and progressives. In point of fact, however, it is the leftists in the media who habitually “pounce,” never missing an opportunity to promote their twisted worldview.

Father’s Day netted a prime example. Since the Medieval Ages, Father’s Day has been celebrated in the Western world on the Catholic feast day of St. Joseph, the earthly foster father of Christ, and has been dedicated to honoring fathers, their uniquely masculine role in the life of the family, and their influence in society and culture. In Catholic studies and devotion, Joseph is upheld as the ideal example of manhood, second only to Christ, who is both God and Man. Joseph evinces profound trust in God by taking Mary as his wife; he saves the infant Jesus from mortal danger by guiding his family to Egypt when King Herod I, in his attempt to maintain his throne and slay the newborn King of the Jews, massacres the Holy Innocents; he mentors his foster son Jesus in the trade of carpentry and models earthly manhood through his love for both his Son and his wife, Mary.

In 1910, the state of Washington celebrated Father’s Day as a holiday in June, deciding to honor the unique role of fathers shortly after the institution of Mother’s Day, honoring mothers. Much of Europe has adopted the American model and celebrates Father’s Day in June, although some countries and communities still celebrate the holiday in March, around St. Joseph’s feast day, or in November. Universally, however, Father’s Day has long been understood as a special time to honor fathers, their unique role in the family, and their masculine influence on society.

Despite more than a century of history behind Father’s Day in America — and centuries upon centuries before that of understanding the role of fathers and the unique differences between men and women — The New York Times “pounced” on the holiday to promote an LGBT agenda. In a “guest essay” published on Father’s Day, the biological female “Zach” Ellams wrote about identifying as a man — more specifically, identifying as a “father.” Illustrated with sloppy, childish comic-strip-style cartoons, the article was entitled “To My Daughter, My Gender Was Never Complicated.”

“I’ve been living as a trans man since I was 18 years old. But when my wife and I had Elliot, I had to learn how to be a trans dad,” the comic article’s first few panels read. “I wasn’t out to everyone as trans, but with Elliot I had to learn how to talk about it.” Over the course of the 25-panel comic article, Ellams is repeatedly embarrassed by her “daughter” bringing up her gender transition, asking questions like, “How did you grow a mustache if you were a lady?” or “How long did you have breasts for, dad?”

“The more I’ve watched Elliot embrace who she is, moving through the world with her wild and free spirit, and her sense of humor, the more I’ve learned to embrace who I am,” Ellams writes, alongside an illustration of the author staring at her “male” reflection in a lake. “I thought I was teaching Elliot how to be happy and secure, yet all along she had been doing that for me.”

As a father to a little girl myself, The New York Times article — or series of doodles or whatever this trash is — both breaks my heart and makes my blood boil. A father plays a critical role in the life of his sons, of course, modeling masculinity for them, giving them an example to follow, and guiding them through the difficulties of manhood, but plays an equally important role in the life of his daughters. It is from her father that a little girl learns how to interact with men, develops an understanding of how she should be treated by men, and even derives some of her earliest and most foundational concepts of self-worth.

Every little girl should be able to rely on her father. She should know that she is loved unconditionally, that she is worth being loved, that she does not need to trade favors or habits in exchange for affection and devotion. Later on in life, such a transactional understanding of love almost always results in promiscuity, with a young woman feeling the need to exchange sexual favors and use of her own body to receive love and affection. A loving, consistent, present father can prevent this dangerous behavior, instilling in his daughter the lifelong belief that she is worthy of love no matter what she “brings to the table,” that she ought to be treated with respect, dignity, and even reverence.

It is from her mother, of course, that a little girl learns of femininity and womanhood, but it is from her father that she learns that her womanhood does not exist in a vacuum, that God created both male and female (Genesis 1:27) as complementary partners. “This at last is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh,” the first man, Adam, exclaims upon beholding the first woman, Eve (Genesis 2:23). Man and woman were created by God as partners, two complementary halves of one whole, the earthly fruition of which is found in the sacrament of marriage, which itself mirrors the eternal fruition, in which man and woman are united with God in Heaven in perfect communion. A mother will teach her daughter how to be a woman and how to live out the earthly purpose for which God created women; her father will teach her how a woman ought to be treated and how a man lives out the earthly purpose for which God created him, namely, to provide and to protect.

It is thanks to the father, providing for his family and keeping them safe, that the mother is at liberty to teach her daughter how to be a woman. It is thanks to the love of her father that a girl understands what it means to be loved. It is thanks to his daily sacrifices — his time, his toil, the exercise of his masculine virtue — that she comes to know who and what a man is. The way that a father treats his daughter will shape her expectations of men for the rest of her life: if her father is protective, prudent, resolute, courageous, disciplined, attentive, and loving, she will naturally search for these qualities in her future husband, providing her own children with a stable, healthy home to grow up in.

A father’s love not only influences his daughter’s decisions later in life but crucially provides her with what women so crave and need in their hearts: safety and security. Just as a father’s protecting and providing allows a mother freedom to nurture her daughter in her femininity, so also his love serves as a foundation for his daughter’s identity. Secure in her father’s unconditional love (of course, “unconditional love” here means not simply affirmation of whatever stupid or fanciful whim comes along, as progressives erroneously proclaim, but the active discerning, willing, and pursuing of the ultimate good of the beloved), a daughter is free to immerse herself in her identity as a daughter of Christ and come to recognize her own dignity and worth, which is so carefully protected, preserved, and cherished by her father.

The role of a father cannot be replaced. It cannot be “swapped out.” The little girls — and little boys — who grow up with “two mommies” are deprived of a father’s love. The children who are raised without a father are denied the emotional and spiritual foundation that he and he alone can afford them. Little Elliot is not being raised by a dad, but by a woman who is so broken, likely herself deprived of a father’s love, that she play-acts as a man and demands that everyone else go along with it. So fragile is this warped fantasy, as the comic article makes clear, that she carefully keeps her charade a secret (or thinks she does; those identifying as transgender are not terribly difficult to spot) from those who might give her a reality check.

“I thought I was teaching Elliot how to be happy and secure, yet all along she had been doing that for me.” This is not some cute little empathetic epiphany; it is an indictment. A father’s role in the life of his daughter is to give her safety and security, to provide her with a firm foundation upon which to build her identity and sense of self-worth, and to love her enough to set her straight when she questions, doubts, or lashes out at that identity and self-worth.

What The New York Times no doubt intended as a deceptively playful affirmation of the LGBT worldview is, in fact, a horror story. Poor little Elliot has been denied the blessing of a father. Her childhood is being sucked dry by a confused individual masquerading as a “dad” and thirsting for the love and stability that she likely never received from her own father. A father should not be learning “how to be happy and secure” from his daughter but expending and exhausting himself to ensure that she is reasonably (in accord with the ultimate good of her soul) happy and secure.

Giving a little girl a “trans dad” does not achieve this, but instead inverts the father-daughter relationship, thrusting a father’s responsibilities and duties upon the shoulders of a child, leaving the delusional adult unburdened and free to pretend to possess a masculinity that she never understood in the first place. In the end, The New York Times “guest essay” is not a touching story of a father and his daughter, but a sad and anguishing tragedy of two females in need of a father’s love.