It goes without saying at this point that the the political situation in the United States, especially with regard to social and political rights is, to use a technical phrase, fucked all to hell. We have a twice-impeached pussy-grabbing demented toad vying for control of the helm and, further, he is actually an option for some people. The politics of the right have descended into vituperative shouting at the State of the Union address, asinine non-sequitors or even not realizing that they’re making liberals’ points for them, and Marjorie Taylor Fuckwit Greene.
Amidst this cacophonous backdrop of slovenly stupidity, we have a sizable population who are generally trying to Do the Right Thing by people; all people, their family and neighbors and colleagues and friends and, particularly, the children of our country. While cities certainly do not have a monopoly on Doing Good, the metropolitan centers of the United States tend toward the left, and also tend to be where the majority of those supportive of LGBTQ community congregate. This is not universally true, of course. There’s bigots to be found in the swanky upscale coffeeshop and rural truckers bent on dismantling the patriarchy; but the generalities I speak of here broadly apply. It is against this backdrop of acceptance of sexual minorities that we also find a tendency to embrace progressive ideals, and in particular, a view of what I’ll call “gender identity ideology” that strikes me as an extreme overreaction to the Right Wing.
To be fair, the Right Wing that is being overreacted to is itself extreme, hell-bent not only on the utter destruction of LGTBQ people, their jobs, their healthcare, and in many cases their right to actually live but also on the imposition of an authoritarian theocratic state absolutely contrary to the ideals of secular democracy this country was founded on¹. An extreme position does not cancel out a extreme over-reaction, however, and it seems to me that in recent years, a reaction to the danger posed by the Right’s views on trans people has coalesced into – ironically – an almost religious-like set of moralistic injunctions and commandments that look increasingly unhinged. There are many aspects of gender identity ideology debate that I find are addressed with very little nuance, but I think what these all have in common is the phenomenon of self-identification, and the utter and absolute failure of well-meaning parents, educators, legislators, adults of all stripes, to approach this issue with the vaguest hint of incredulity.
What this ideology supposes, basically, is that when someone’s gender identity conflicts with whatever body parts they happen to have, or conflicts with how society views their body, then by definition that person is transgender. The goal here is that however a person says they feel inside, be that male, female, somewhere in between or something else entirely, their declaration should be the only thing that counts, and we should enact this into norm and law. According to this way of thinking about gender, once declared, this declaration is supreme, unassailable and unimpeachable, absolutely irrespective of biology.
This ideology is most often encountered in an educational context, where young people have latched onto this idea like so many lampreys on a shark. (More on that later.) But I also see many, many adults uncritically accept their children’s adherence to this set of beliefs as a way to push back against a dangerous conservatism.
This tendency is extremely evident at the house of worship I attend, a Universalist Unitarian church in Minnesota. Full of absolutely wonderful people who are truly caring and compassionate, with a sizable minority of parents claiming kids with a “gender expansive identity”. Boo recently was a part of the yearly youth musical, and fully a third of the kids in this production were using pronouns that clearly were in contradiction of their biology or names that they just chose because they thought they sounded cool. Which…fine. As I’ve explained before, kids play with language and identity as they grow. Squish went through phases where she insisted that she was Wednesday (because B (daughter) was super-into the show) or Elsa (because Squishy was super into Frozen) and obviously, with children and even older teens, this sort of experimentation is expected and appropriate. What strikes me as inappropriate is the earnestness with which adults seem to be taking this play, elevating it to a moral plane that it just truly does not occupy.
One of these parents made sure to tell all of us that her son, who by the way is somewhere around ten, uses they / them pronouns and goes by Three (yes, the numeral), and would we please all respect that? The star of the show wants to be called “Perseus”. Another teenager who is quite evidently a biological girl uses he / him pronouns, while another they / them goes by “Chime”². Another constant in our lives for a while was a biological girl who wanted to use he / him pronouns and went by Bunny, and another who wanted to be called Ghost. The name and pronoun silliness doesn’t end there. B’s friends (and she herself) have, throughout the years, asked for: mirror pronouns, “it” pronouns, random pronouns (wanting other people to switch them randomly every time they’re referenced) and various other pronoun additions, deletions, and haikus. I’ve sat at children’s birthday parties and church meetings where parents kvetched about teachers’ resistance to dealing with these pronoun and name changes, with no small amount of self-righteous sneer evident in their voices. As a Very Progressive Person, I would never think of misgendering / deadnaming another child, no matter how many times that identity had changed or how self-serving it appears. Those backward, wrong-headed conservative bigots stuck in the 1950’s. (The casual misuse of the term “deadname” absolutely sticks in my craw, but I’ve addressed this before.) These parents all seem not only to accept their children’s declarations (acceptance is one thing) but actively encourage a way of seeing gender and identity in a purely socially-constructed framework that I think gets close to science denialism in some instances, but beyond that, is serving as a distraction from real issues.
First, let’s address the probability that this post has Glenn Beck salivating like a rabid hyena. “Oh looky here” he croons, wiping his blood-covered hands on his ugly Christmas sweater before reaching up to adjust his pretentious and unnecessary film-school glasses. “Another crying snowflake liberal seeing the light of Reason and Science.”³
Kiss my ass, conservatives. If you think LGBT people shouldn’t have rights, be able to love who they want, marry who they want, have children by whatever means are available to them, think that trans people shouldn’t be able to use the bathroom that corresponds to their identity, represent some existential threat to you, or are abominations who go against God’s Natural Order or whatever, go kill yourself move to Russia or whatever. You aren’t who I’m talking to in this piece, and you’re a garbage human. Now that that’s out of the way..
To address the science claims, let’s start with a doozy that just about every teenager that has an opinion on the subject seems to espouse: the claim that gender is purely a social construct. The difficulty in analyzing this claim is that it’s vague: what exactly is meant by “gender”? Stereotypical gender roles? Social presentation? Population-level statistical preferences and interests? Untangling the meaning of the terms is tricky with so much widespread disagreement about what gender actually means. My understanding when people say “gender is a social construct” is that they’re really making two different claims: one, that gender roles are socially-constructed, and two, that biological sex is irrelevant when discussing abilities, interests, preferences. The former seems quite obviously true, the latter does not seem to me to be borne out by the data. Broad trends are clearly visible in the data: there is evidence to support that children tend to play more with gender-typed toys that match their sex, and this holds true even in countries that score lower than the United States on the Gender Inequality Index⁴. Biological sex also has a large effect on sexual preference at the population level, and there’s evidence to suggest effects on interests. Now, knowing someone’s sex doesn’t necessarily give you any particular predictive insight into that single person’s interests or behaviors (though statistically speaking, it does), and the existence of statistical profiles doesn’t justify stereotyping individuals, and these data do not mean we should abandon efforts to have gender-diverse populations in historically gender-segregated career roles. (Doctors, nurses, STEM, childcare, education, etc.) Again, the presence of these differences doesn’t mean they’re right, or preferable, or unable to be accounted for through policy. Merely that they are. However, the left seems extremely uncomfortable with the idea of biological sex playing any role whatsoever in a person’s life. And why shouldn’t they? Half the population didn’t get the right to vote until embarrassingly late in our history, and women today still have to contend with a Supreme Court hell-bent on turning the country into some sort of theocratic living nightmare where they exist simply for the pleasure of men.
This is unfortunate, to say the least. But it doesn’t change the fact that biological sex has an effect on populations and individuals. It also doesn’t mean that we abandon the ideals of egalitarianism and equality. It’s simply a fact that we accept and contend with; you can’t just throw it out because you don’t like it. The primacy of gender identity within gender identity ideology renders the concept of biological sex fundamentally, and wrongly, irrelevant.
The second science-related issue is a particularly thorny one, and that’s what to do, medically, about children who come out as trans. In my part of the country, the reigning medical SOP is gender-affirming care, which while it sounds like the most reasonable approach, isn’t necessarily. As the New York Times put it:
Transgender activists have pushed their own ideological extremism, especially by pressing for a treatment orthodoxy that has faced increased scrutiny in recent years. Under that model of care, clinicians are expected to affirm a young person’s assertion of gender identity and even provide medical treatment before, or even without, exploring other possible sources of distress.
As Kids, They Thought They Were Trans. They No Longer Do – New York Times
Even John Oliver, who I normally adore, jumped onto the gender-affirming train, claiming its tenants of treatment are completely reversible and totally fine, nothing to worry about here. I encourage readers to read both those links and the article, because a few things jump out to me. One, “gender-affirming care” lacks adequate scientific research. We simply don’t know the effects on, say, fertility down the road. Secondly, and I cannot stress this enough, there’s a huge gender imbalance that tilts toward girls, and in particular, tilts toward girls with significant mental health disorders. Even if that weren’t the case – which, I have to stress, it is – the gender imbalance points to girls in our society having a harder time with puberty, with social pressures, with school and misogyny, and, perhaps, seeing a potential way out of that by becoming a boy. Finally, as the Dutch Journal of Medicine put it:
The clinical lesson ‘Youth with gender incongruence’ by Dutch gender clinicians aims to describe Dutch adolescent gender care and its dilemma’s. This commentary discusses five serious objections. First, the lesson fails to draw the implications from its acknowledgement of the paucity of evidence: puberty blockers and cross-sex hormones most likely do not meet the requirements for standard care. Second, it does not make the crucial distinction between childhood and adolescent onset gender dysphoria. Third, its claim that from those children that continue from GnRHa [Gonadotropin-releasing hormone agonist, a class of drugs that affects sex hormones] to cross-sex hormones ‘98% continues to use these hormones in the long term’ is unfounded. Fourth, it does not acknowledge the dilemma that puberty blockers may impede, rather than facilitate, time for reflection. Fifth, it inaccurately represents the literature on the potential detrimental effects of GnRHa on brain development. The commentary concludes with a call to reform Dutch gender care, following the examples of Sweden and Finland.
[Uncertainties around the current gender care: five problems with the clinical lesson ‘Youth with gender incongruence’] , Nederlands Tijdschrift voor Geneeskunde (Dutch Journal of Medicine)
It does not seem to me that the current evidence – or a consensus of medical experts in the field of care for transgender child and teen care – points strongly toward doing things one way or the other. I’m struck by the disagreement amongst medical professionals as to what the right move is, and that sort of uncertainty typically points to a lack of high-quality evidence. What makes the case of trans children and teens particularly difficult is that conservatives regularly demonize trans people and their caretakers as child abusers, which makes speaking up about the need for a more cautious approach seem like siding with the Nutters. As the NHS noted about one of its Gender Identity Development Service (GIDS) clinics:
With respect to GIDS, we have been told that although there are forums for staff to discuss difficult cases with senior colleagues, it is still difficult for staff to raise concerns about the clinical approach. Also that many individuals who are more cautious and advocate the need for an exploratory approach have left the service.
Independent review of gender identity services for children and young people: Interim report
…
Some secondary care providers told us that their training and professional standards dictate that when working with a child or young person they should be taking a mental health approach to formulating a differential diagnosis of the child or young person’s problems. However, they are afraid of the consequences of doing so in relation to gender distress because of the pressure to take a purely affirmative approach. Some clinicians feel that they are not supported by their professional body on this matter. Hence the practice of passing referrals straight through to GIDS is not just a reflection of local service capacity problems, but also of professionals’ practical concerns about the appropriate clinical management of this group of children and young people.
…
GPs have expressed concern about being pressurised [sic] to prescribe puberty blockers or feminising/masculinising hormones after these have been initiated by private providers.
When the culture of care is such that arguing for caution with relatively new therapies in a population that for no apparent reason skews heavily to one biological sex along with a very high incidence of mental disorders gets you sanctioned, something akin to an orthodoxy is crystalizing, and orthodoxies can be dangerous.
These sanctions are frequently professional in nature, as in the aforementioned choosing to leave a career, but social sanctions can be just as damaging. Without going into too much detail because the issues are severe and ongoing, I can heartily identify with this paragraph speaking about parents of self-proclaimed trans children:
Parents told me it was a struggle to balance the desire to compassionately support a child with gender dysphoria while seeking the best psychological and medical care. Many believed their kids were gay or dealing with an array of complicated issues. But all said they felt compelled by gender clinicians, doctors, schools and social pressure to accede to their child’s declared gender identity even if they had serious doubts. They feared it would tear apart their family if they didn’t unquestioningly support social transition and medical treatment. All asked to speak anonymously, so desperate were they to maintain or repair any relationship with their children, some of whom were currently estranged.
As Kids, They Thought They Were Trans. They No Longer Do – New York Times
Coming from this sort of environment, I can absolutely attest to the fact that the overwhelming social pressure on parents in “liberal” cities like ours is that if you don’t wholeheartedly and instantly embrace your child’s self-identification, you’re a heartless bastard, a transphobe, a bigot who probably would have stormed the capitol with the other insurrectionists if you hadn’t been on your couch dying from COVID because you’re probably also unvaccinated, ew. What this attitude ignores, and which is absolutely contrary to my experience as a parent, is that kids play, and it makes no sense to me as a parent to “buy into” play uncritically and give it the imprimatur of parental acceptance.
Children and teens play with identity all the time. They have fun with gender roles, play-act at being the opposite sex, tell other people their names have changed, and in a thousand other ways, play with the concepts and gender and sexual identity as they know them. And they should! These things are fun, and fun is good⁵. But play need not be taken seriously. Squishy may tell me today that “I’m Elsa”, but I will not act on this information to submit official paperwork to the Kingdom of Norway informing them that Harald better get his frozen ass off the throne. She doesn’t really believe she’s Elsa, and neither does anyone else.
Teenagers do this too, but in more subtle ways. In the 90s and 2000s, teenagers experimented in the ways that they knew how: how they styled their hair, the clothes that they chose specifically to piss off adults, their provocative t-shirt slogans, etc. To imagine that children and teenagers overnight as a bloc conspired to only ever be absolutely serious and introspective about their gender identity is an absurd proposition. Further, it presumes that these nine to eighteen year olds even know who or what they are, or have a complete and full understanding of their sexual identity, and that this identity is stable and will not change. Anyone who has spent any time with children should immediately know that these are highly suspect propositions. No high schooler, let alone any elementary or middle-schooler, has a fully-formed picture of who they are inside. Now, this is not to say that examples of children who know that they’re trans from a very early age and who exhibit symptoms that resolve upon living a life in accordance with who they really are inside aren’t real. This is not to say that someone can’t come to understand that their brain and body differ in profound ways, ways that cause issues that transitioning eases or even eliminates. What I am saying is that trans ideology goes beyond these claims into territory that, while perhaps well-meaning, gives the weight of adult wisdom and approval to kids who might be just messing around, or who have other severe mental health issues that then fail to get addressed because of the supposed supremacy of expression of gender identity to one’s mental health. This ideology has truly reached a fever pitch in the “liberal” areas of the country, to the point where any disagreement with the orthodoxy gets you looked-askance at, if not directly scolded or shunned as a bigoted conservative asshole.
It is absolutely tragic that The Right are the only ones interested in looking at this issue skeptically. When, in the span of less than a decade, rates of transgenderism shoot through the friggin’ roof, and teen girls with mental health issues are heavily over-represented, it stands to reason to ask what the hell is going on. Instead, the issue becomes politicized, with the dumb fucks in the Iowa senate pushing narratives about trans kids and bathrooms and litter boxes, and the progressive left – leftists, remember, generally giving greater weight to the care / harm moral foundation than the others – rushing to protect what they rightly view as an attack on trans people / children. What gets lost when trans-identifying children become political pawns in this Balkanized environment is any sense of nuance or any toleration by either side for dissenting viewpoints. Many parents – and the Times article I’ve referenced speaks to this – have the view reinforced through conversation after conversation that instant unquestioning acceptance of gender questioning is the only way to care for their kids, or even avert disaster. This gender identity ideology totally disregards any insight that parents might have into the reasons for their teenager’s thoughts, totally disregards social influence as a factor in a case of sudden gender dysphoria or wish to transition, totally disregards that children and teenagers are immature by definition and prone to making mistakes and shortsightedness in ways that adults are not. They’re kids, ferchrissake. From Reuters:
Kelly, a 43-year-old parent who asked that her full name not be used to protect her family’s privacy, told Reuters that her child was heavily into highly sexualized anime and transgender online forums when the 12-year-old started experimenting, seemingly overnight, with being a transgender boy. The child’s therapist encouraged medical intervention, Kelly said, but while Kelly supported social transition outside the home, she made it clear that her child would have to wait until she was 18 for hormones and top surgery.
After several years of living as a boy and using “he” and “him” pronouns, Kelly’s child, now 18, is back to using her female name, dressing in feminine clothing and using “she” and “her” pronouns. “We would have lost our daughter if we had followed what the therapist was telling us to do,” the mother said.
A gender imbalance emerges among trans teens seeking treatment, Reuters
I haven’t really touched on the social aspect here, but it’s worth mentioning: kids are driven by their peers to do things. Sometimes, things they wouldn’t have thought to do before. This stunning revelation has been known to parents since the dawn of humanity but breathe one word about “social contagion” theory and prepare to be flamed into oblivion. Here, again, is a case where extreme politicization causes all nuance to be tossed Some youths, as they grow older, decide that being trans wasn’t all it was cracked up to be, The Right seizes on this and aggressively promotes their story as proof that all trans-ness is a made-up fad invented by purple-haired piercing artists on TikTok, and then they rush out to push legislation limiting or even outright banning access to lifesaving medical care for trans people while bleating all the while about protecting children. Meanwhile, The Left rushes to defend children and teens as universally wise, inerrant knowers of their sexuality from the time they can crawl and accusing anyone who says otherwise of being a transphobe.
As a parent, I find it difficult to understand where either side is coming from here. Kids change their minds all the time about all sorts of things. Some things remain stable (Boo hates mushrooms, I don’t think that will change) and some things change (B wanted he / him pronouns, now, for reasons I don’t think even she understands, she doesn’t.) Kids absolutely influence other kids, and there is a certain amount of “fad-ism” in LGBTQ issues, especially with younger kids. Because it’s so accepted, in some cases I get the feeling it’s almost a badge of honor to be gay, or lesbian, or bisexual, or ace (don’t ask) or trans. It’s another identity they can experiment with. If they don’t feel sufficiently special or unique, and they see the extra love and support their LGBTQ peers get, the assurances that their friends are allies and have their back, then they can convince themselves that this label applies to them too, and attempt to reap the social rewards, because in the current high school climate, LGBTQ-ness is generally rewarded, in opposition to the climate when I was growing up⁶. Is every case of a child being trans one of seeking social acceptance or having an idea that wouldn’t have occurred to them had they not heard it or saw it on some Snapchat reel? No, of course not. But a non-zero number certainly are, and to acknowledge this fact is not transphobia. Again, kids try on all sorts of identities – goth, geek, jock, princess, science nerd, anime nerd, the funny guitar player, the theater kid, whatever. They try them on, they keep some, they discard them. The leftist dismissal of social influence seems so plainly wrong-headed to me. The trans ideology assertion that “children know their gender best” disregards what parents have known forever. Teenagers have particularly dynamic relationships to their social scene and their friends and peers, and very often come at you with nothing short of absolute certainty about something new that they’ve just learned about or something their friends have convinced them of.
Ayad, a co-author of “When Kids Say They’re Trans: A Guide for Thoughtful Parents,” advises parents to be wary of the gender affirmation model. “We’ve always known that adolescents are particularly malleable in relationship to their peers and their social context and that exploration is often an attempt to navigate difficulties of that stage, such as puberty, coming to terms with the responsibilities and complications of young adulthood, romance and solidifying their sexual orientation,” she told me. For providing this kind of exploratory approach in her own practice with gender dysphoric youth, Ayad has had her license challenged twice, both times by adults who were not her patients. Both times, the charges were dismissed.
Studies show that around eight in 10 cases of childhood gender dysphoria resolve themselves by puberty and 30 percent of people on hormone therapy discontinue its use within four years, though the effects, including infertility, are often irreversible.
As Kids, They Thought They Were Trans. They No Longer Do – New York Times
It’s worth pointing out here, for people who are not parents, just how utterly bull-headed and intransigent teenagers can be, especially if they think they’re being told something. I imagine that people think they know this, but the lived experience is nothing like laughing at a Friday-night sitcom about it. The ability of young people to dig in their heels even after it becomes clear that they’re fighting for something they don’t really want – because fuck you, that’s why – is surpassed only by congressional Republicans. Non-parents don’t seem to understand that kids are really good at generating ad-hoc justifications and engaging in motivated reasoning for their decisions that, on a moment’s reflection, are laughably flimsy. There’s also underestimation of potential embarrassment if you decide that you aren’t trans later down the line, and that embarrassment can be a real source of dread and pain for an adolescent.
I’ve used the term “orthodoxy” here a few times, and my use of that term is deliberate; much of the trans ideology shares common aspects with a cult: the absolute refusal to allow anyone to criticize the cause, silencing, smearing, and ostracizing those who ask question as “transphobic”, pressuring people (from parents to health professionals) to blindly adhere to a view that self-identification is the supreme and only way of knowing if a person is trans, that very early medical intervention, such as puberty-suppressing drugs, hormones, and various surgeries, rather than with psychological intervention to start with is the best way to treat these patients.
What is utterly disheartening is how alone this position feels. I’m no right-wing asshole who hates trans people, or trans children, and I don’t deny that trans children exist (though in far smaller numbers than I think the progressive-parent-sphere probably thinks) and I don’t deny that trans people have rights and deserve legal and political protections. At the same time, I can’t deny that I think a lot of the progressive-parent-sphere, and certain sectors of the medical field support an interventionist model and acceptance (and even encouragement) of self-identification that goes beyond what the evidence suggests is the best care. What is truly lamentable is the politicization of an issue that needs truly sober, cautious, considered science and medicine to be performed and the results respected.
“Caution” does not mean “denial of care”, and it doesn’t mean “moving legislation so slowly that it makes people suffer”. The medical community ought to get its bearings better, resist pressure from The Right and resist the temptation to show how much they care by rushing too fast in the other direction. While certain sectors of the trans community would have us believe that not instantly accepting every child’s claim of being trans is a recipe for disaster in the form of a suicidal kid, scientific rigor requires time and thoughtfulness. Again, it doesn’t mean you say “No, you’re not.” to the child in question, it doesn’t mean you shut the conversation down, it means quite the opposite. It means encouragement of continued talking and dialogue, preferably with a psychologist who can make a considered assessment without blindly deferring to gender-identity ideology, asking thoughtful and yes, difficult questions, especially if this gender questioning came up suddenly, from a child with an unremarkable history of gender identity. And, assuming all parties – including the parents – are acting in good faith, then looking into various means of sexual transition, starting with reversible ones first (by which I mean social transitioning, not drugs, in most cases. These things are not completely cut-and-dried) and only continuing if the trans identity remains stable past the time when kids normally desist, all done in consultation with experts in the field.
Finally, the other half to the truly regrettable nature of this is just how much of a distraction this is from issues that really matter, especially in schools. Something like two thirds of kids can’t read at grade level, and somewhere around forty percent are nonreaders. The collapse into culture-war idiocy at the expense of schools performing their raison d’être is tragic. Math and science literacy is laughable, and we’re arguing about whether schools should have to respect student’s “chosen” names⁷ when communicating with their parents? Really?
In conclusion, the elevation of this issue to culture-war status, particularly in schools, is a happening of such monumental stupidity that it boggles the mind. At the same time, the political situation on both sides reflects a failure to govern effectively, and in many cases a disregard for the well-being of gender-questioning kids and teens. The GOP should stop wanting to murder / make a Handmaid of anyone who isn’t a white landowning cisgender male, and the left needs to stop their overreaction to their insane policies with, well, sane policies.
Trans people, and trans children who are truly transgender, should be able to use the bathroom that makes them feel most accepted and good inside. In fact, while we’re on that topic, why gender bathrooms, at all? Stop building shitty old-west style stalls with gaps so big Ted Cruz could slither through and build actual stalls with actual doors that close where nobody can see in so we can all take a shit in peace, and have a common area for sinks and hand dryers. Seriously. I’ve used these a few times in my travels and they’re great⁸.
Gender-identity ideology should be looked at with extreme skepticism, because it fails to adequately take into account the malleable and undeveloped nature of the adolescent brain. Giving self-identification the ultimate weight in deciding if someone is trans doesn’t make any sense for a population that is only beginning to have the capacity to understand themselves sexually, much less as whole beings. Just because a twelve-year-old says they’re trans doesn’t mean you need to fall over yourself to get them into hormone therapy.
Cantor says “Although almost all clinics and professional associations in the world use what’s called the ‘watchful waiting approach’ to helping gender diverse children, the AAP statement instead rejected that consensus, endorsing gender affirmation as the only acceptable approach’.c6 This is despite research findings which strongly suggest that most of these cases would eventually desist if left untreated.c7,c8
Freedom to think: the need for thorough assessment and treatment of gender dysphoric children
From the same paper:
‘There has been a 3264% rise in referrals to the national gender identity service at the Tavistock and Portman NHS Trust in London over the past 10 years (from 77 in 2009–2010 to 2590 in 2018–2019).c1 The profile of referrals has also undergone a major transformation: we have seen a reversal of the gender ratio from two-thirds male:female to two-thirds female:male, with a recently described clinical phenomenon of as yet uncertain diagnostic significance making up a substantial proportion. This gender dysphoria of recent onset among adolescents (sometimes termed ‘recent-onset gender dysphoria’ or ROGD, ‘rapid-onset adolescent dysphoria’c2 or ‘adolescent-onset transgender historyc3) lacks an agreed name or established diagnostic criteria, but its emergence has been documented by a number of gender clinics worldwide.c4’
‘Bernadette Wren, the then associate director of the Tavistock and Portman NHS Foundation Trust’s Gender Identity Development Service (GIDS), gave evidence to a House of Commons select committee in which she summarised the GIDS intake in the following terms: “many of the young people, and increasing numbers of them, have had a gender-uncontentious childhood, if you like, and it is only when they come into puberty and post-puberty that they begin to question. That now represents a substantial proportion of our group”.c5’
(Emphasis mine)
When the left gives up facts and denies the phenomenon of kids with no history of dysphoria suddenly claiming they’re trans, or doesn’t want anything to do with people who now regret their transitioning, they cede credibility to the Right. When, if you question whether all this is really necessary or even helping, you’re labeled a transphobe and spreading “dangerous myths”, you cede your credibility.
There are absolutely cases of children who know, persistently and from a young age, that they feel like they’re in the wrong body. Early intervention and treatment can help these young people. Politics should stay the fuck out of medical care. We don’t need to roll back safety and rights for trans people, in fact, we probably need more of them, with exceptions that allow for truly single-sex spaces in some settings, such as rape shelters. But particularly in the case of kids and teens who espouse gender dysphoria after never having had any such thought, we absolutely as a society need to pump the brakes a bit and ask what’s really going on. It seems with how often untreated cases desist on their own that 30% of teenage girls aren’t really transgender. While we figure out what’s going on, we need the medical community to take the concerns of parents seriously, especially when they tell doctors that they have doubts about the validity of trans claims, and not just dismiss them with scare tactics like trans teen suicide rates. (I realize that in certain parts of the country / populations / cultural pockets, you might have extremely conservative parents who don’t really have the best interests of their children in mind, and that is unfortunate.) We need the medical community to realize that the gender-affirming care model, whether medical or social or both, may not reflect the best interests of this population at large.
Most of all, we need to stop sanctioning parents and others who raise valid concerns in good faith. The desire to protect people that The Right demonizes is admirable, but doing so does not require abandoning our brains for our hearts.
1: Yes, yes, I can hear all of you now, and I don’t care. What I said is broadly true, and yes, I’m aware that it comes with about a billion caveats and exceptions. We aren’t talking about those here.
2: I have changed all of these names slightly because these are kids and I’d like to avoid the social sanctions that I’m talking about here.
3: Behind him, members of the the Heritage Foundation set up their new gay-illotine outside of JesusTrump’s new “LGBT Reeducation Center”.
4: Social factors do of course have an influence, and the paper found that both likely have an influence, but it’s not purely social.
5: Suess et al, One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish
6: This is region-specific, but around here, the tables have absolutely flipped to near-universal acceptance.
7: I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again here: giving yourself a cool nickname doesn’t make you trans, it doesn’t make your birth name your “dead name”, and schools should absolutely be under no obligation to use your chosen name in any official capacity, like calling on a student in a classroom. To do otherwise mocks a serious part of a trans person’s experience as a facetious affection.
8: Locker rooms and other sports-specific issues are…their own thing, and one I’m not prepared to take on here. Lots of thorny issues there.