Excellent piece, thank you! I would love to read more from you on social transition. I see this as the starting point, when the parents and other adults start lying to themselves and the child that sex can be changed. This can happen years before any medication is started, but is more harmful as it can lock everything in. I cringe when neighbors use the word “trans” when talking about the little boy down the road who wears skirts sometimes. We all need to say NO to any hint of accepting that a child could be trans.
The history of the "trans child" is that outcomes were so poor for adult men that clinicians "reasoned" the cosmetic benefits of an early start would do better for future satisfaction. The results were so poor that they tried it on kids to see if it works better. And then they redirected the entire culture to support this project.
Something else that has begun to bother me about these issues is that doctors don't even know what they are diagnosing. Trans rights activists will tell you that you don't have to take hormones to be trans, or to have any surgery. You don't have to dress any certain way, they will insist, nor do you have to adhere to this or that sexual stereotype, or even have dysphoria. So what the hell does it even mean to be trans?
As you say, adults can do what they want, provided they can find a doctor willing to assist. But no one should kid themselves that this is a well understood phenomenon. When it comes to defining what trans is, we're all just flailing in the dark.
Would love some guidance: A parent in my kid's elementary school community just challenged me with "Link me an example where a minor was given hormone treatment without parental consent in the US and it was legal. Or surgery."
We were discussing New York State's Proposition 1, which is on the ballot next week:
This parent's question requires a pretty complex answer. You can't just point to the lack of actual surgeries and be like "Nothing to see here. It's all culture-war hype."
This parent dismisses all of the concerns around gender/trans issues as "right-wing fearmongering" and insists there's "zero" chance that Prop 1 leads to the erosion of parental rights regarding medical decisions with minors.
I'm trying to respond in a way that's effective, but clear and concise enough to cut through the bias. It's almost like speaking to someone in another language when people come with these pre-shaped talking points. It's clear this person lacks a great deal of context.
There's also the immediate hurdle of someone likely refusing to acknowledge puberty blockers as "hormone treatments" because they'd be inclined to believe the language that puberty blockers don't have irreversible effects.
Any recommendations overall? (I'm combing through this post for a second time right now!)
Also, can anyone talk about the nuances of, say, custody discrepancies? (I'm not familiar with how "medical consent" is legally defined between two different parents from state to state in the US, and how those variations in state laws might leave one parent frozen out of the decisionmaking process.)
And can someone address how this issue might come into play when minors go to sanctuary states to have their care "affirmed" (perhaps without parental consent)? Much appreciated.
Now you are making me think about the information that most engaged me, so here's another one, so powerful - not quite a minor but pretty close to that mark. https://lacroicsz.substack.com/p/by-any-other-name
Very good article. I look forward to the rest of the series.
As another commenter mentioned, non-medicalized social transition also needs to be explored because it is not the better option that is often (perhaps unintentionally) implied when the focus is on medicalizing minors. The whole idea of a "gender identity" (what is that anyway? what even is an identity?) and trying to explore it, figure it out, live it "authentically," and have others recognize and validate it is psychologically harmful without any medicalization. I read your book. Your ex-husband's mental health, relationships with others, himself, and the word in general, and ability to live a happy, balanced, functional life were unraveled by his immersion in gender identity ideas and exploration long before there was any actual medicalization, correct? Was it any better that he did all this exploration as an adult with fully formed frontal lobes and years of life and relationship experience? Why would we want to take all those unhealthy ideas, ruminations, and obsessions with labels and boxes and the validation of others, formalize it and give it a stamp of approval of "gender identity exploration," then encourage children and teens to do it as long as they don't medicalize, or at least wait until they're adults to medicalize? I understand why people are focusing on medicalizing, especially in the context of kids, but medicalizing isn't the overarching problem. It's just one particularly nasty symptom of the bigger problem, which is this whole idea of "gender identity" as being the thing that is your "true and authentic self" that must be explored, discovered, labeled, lived and expressed the right way, and validated by others. Focusing on stopping medicalization while accepting social transitions and the ideas of gender identity and gender identity exploration is like focusing on stopping just one particular expression of OCD (hand washing) but ignoring all the internal thought processes behind it. As the parent of a desisted ROGD teen, I can attest to the fact that longterm harm occurs even without medicalization.
(As I'm reading what I write, I realize it sounds like I'm accusing you personally of believing this. That's not what I mean. I'm trying to express my concerns on unintended consequences of how the general debate has focused so much on medicalization as the only thing that is harming minors and adults).
Children can no more "consent" to have their healthy breasts and genitalia removed or take puberty blockers than they can
"consent" to have sex with an adult.
Similarly, parents and doctors can no more approve such permanent mutilation simply because a minor child desires it than they can approve their participation in pedophilia.
Ultimately society will see the truth and ban the practice as we have banned female genital mutilation. Do people support that practice if the parents consent? I truly hope not
It is monstrous to believe otherwise and those who do will ultimately be held to account for their actions. The obscene bureaucrat Rachel (Richard) Levine among those in the dock.
To whom you are attracted sexually is purely subjective and therefore cannot reasonably be contested by an outside observer.
Where you decide to live your life on a spectrum of superficial, stereotypical male to female attributes (and we all do) is also purely subjective and similarly cannot be questioned.
However, your biological sex reflects an objective reality which cannot be changed by your subjective personal view and futile attempts to do so can result in serious health impacts to you as well as harms to members of the sex you are impersonating (primarily women).
Others who are grounded in objective reality should never be forced to accept your subjective version of your actual biological sex.
Finally, it's past time for the LGB community to separate themselves from the trans activists who are trying to take away the rights of women to fairness in sports and to privacy and safety in their restrooms, locker rooms and prisons. They also advocate for the chemical and surgical mutilation of children many of whom would grow up gay.
Their actions are evil and the
understandable negative reaction to the harm they are causing is spilling over to innocent people who are just going about their business, marrying and leading their lives.
Something I’ve thought about is how even within the framework of “trans rights is the new gay rights” childhood transition makes absolutely no sense. When a child displays signs they may grow up to be gay, it’s common for adults to think “huh maybe he’ll be gay” and leave it at that. The adult life of a gay man is relationships and sex with other men, but we don’t push that adult aspect onto children. It would be horrific if we saw young children who might be gay and said “hey! You might be gay! Let’s discuss all of the ins and outs of what sex will look like for you in the future.” As teenagers, it’s appropriate for gay teens to experiment amongst themselves by seeing how it feels to maybe kiss other teens of either gender. With these teens though, it would be inappropriate for the adults in their life to pressure the teen to have sex or try to influence them into solidifying a sexual orientation. It would be the adults role to make sure they were staying safe and to help them with anxiety or other aspects of their mental health as they tried to explore the many aspects of their identity.
I think a reasonable approach to teenagers exploring their gender identities as adults would be to say, “you’re exploring gender identity amongst your peers by asking friends to call you different names and pronouns, but the adults in your life will be neutral and won’t affirm or dismiss these identities until you’re an adult.” The adult aspect of transition is to consider more permanent changes to their bodies. Just as having sex with other adults is the adult aspect of homosexuality. It is deeply inappropriate to advocate for permanent changes for children teens who are going through very developmentally appropriate identity exploration. If we let the teens explore with the understanding that the teachers and doctors and parents in their lives won’t change pronouns or allow for permanent changes until they are in their 20s, we’d see much more natural desistance.
I don’t believe that homosexuality and gender dysphoria are exactly alike or should be thought of as so. But even if that is the starting argument, childhood and teen social or medical transition has absolutely no role!
Thanks for providing such a cogent summary. I can point to it instead of sputtering incoherently.
Excellent piece, thank you! I would love to read more from you on social transition. I see this as the starting point, when the parents and other adults start lying to themselves and the child that sex can be changed. This can happen years before any medication is started, but is more harmful as it can lock everything in. I cringe when neighbors use the word “trans” when talking about the little boy down the road who wears skirts sometimes. We all need to say NO to any hint of accepting that a child could be trans.
The history of the "trans child" is that outcomes were so poor for adult men that clinicians "reasoned" the cosmetic benefits of an early start would do better for future satisfaction. The results were so poor that they tried it on kids to see if it works better. And then they redirected the entire culture to support this project.
I was thinking of mentioning that in part 3. Just need to dig up the links.
Thanks for this.
Something else that has begun to bother me about these issues is that doctors don't even know what they are diagnosing. Trans rights activists will tell you that you don't have to take hormones to be trans, or to have any surgery. You don't have to dress any certain way, they will insist, nor do you have to adhere to this or that sexual stereotype, or even have dysphoria. So what the hell does it even mean to be trans?
As you say, adults can do what they want, provided they can find a doctor willing to assist. But no one should kid themselves that this is a well understood phenomenon. When it comes to defining what trans is, we're all just flailing in the dark.
Great points. Those are things I hope to address in part 3.
good article. thanks for all your work.
Thank you so much for your work and your voice. ❤️
Would love some guidance: A parent in my kid's elementary school community just challenged me with "Link me an example where a minor was given hormone treatment without parental consent in the US and it was legal. Or surgery."
We were discussing New York State's Proposition 1, which is on the ballot next week:
https://www.tabletmag.com/sections/news/articles/new-york-proposition-one-parents-rights
This parent's question requires a pretty complex answer. You can't just point to the lack of actual surgeries and be like "Nothing to see here. It's all culture-war hype."
This parent dismisses all of the concerns around gender/trans issues as "right-wing fearmongering" and insists there's "zero" chance that Prop 1 leads to the erosion of parental rights regarding medical decisions with minors.
I'm trying to respond in a way that's effective, but clear and concise enough to cut through the bias. It's almost like speaking to someone in another language when people come with these pre-shaped talking points. It's clear this person lacks a great deal of context.
There's also the immediate hurdle of someone likely refusing to acknowledge puberty blockers as "hormone treatments" because they'd be inclined to believe the language that puberty blockers don't have irreversible effects.
Any recommendations overall? (I'm combing through this post for a second time right now!)
Also, can anyone talk about the nuances of, say, custody discrepancies? (I'm not familiar with how "medical consent" is legally defined between two different parents from state to state in the US, and how those variations in state laws might leave one parent frozen out of the decisionmaking process.)
And can someone address how this issue might come into play when minors go to sanctuary states to have their care "affirmed" (perhaps without parental consent)? Much appreciated.
I don't know much about parental rights. I would maybe ask January Littlejohn, Erin Friday, Vernadette Ramirez Broyles.
Thank you!
Here's one article that gets pretty in depth around parental rights, you can follow links instead of sharing the article itself? https://www.thefp.com/p/abigail-shrier-california-gender-law-newsom
But perhaps a better source is from the left - this documentary is written with lefties in mind: https://nowaybackfilm.com/about/
Now you are making me think about the information that most engaged me, so here's another one, so powerful - not quite a minor but pretty close to that mark. https://lacroicsz.substack.com/p/by-any-other-name
And yeah, I'd read that Abigail Shrier piece. It's a good place to start for sure.
Thank you!
Nice piece! And more concise than Jesse :)
Tradeoff is that Jesse definitely has a better depth of scientific/medical knowledge for parsing the studies.
Very good article. I look forward to the rest of the series.
As another commenter mentioned, non-medicalized social transition also needs to be explored because it is not the better option that is often (perhaps unintentionally) implied when the focus is on medicalizing minors. The whole idea of a "gender identity" (what is that anyway? what even is an identity?) and trying to explore it, figure it out, live it "authentically," and have others recognize and validate it is psychologically harmful without any medicalization. I read your book. Your ex-husband's mental health, relationships with others, himself, and the word in general, and ability to live a happy, balanced, functional life were unraveled by his immersion in gender identity ideas and exploration long before there was any actual medicalization, correct? Was it any better that he did all this exploration as an adult with fully formed frontal lobes and years of life and relationship experience? Why would we want to take all those unhealthy ideas, ruminations, and obsessions with labels and boxes and the validation of others, formalize it and give it a stamp of approval of "gender identity exploration," then encourage children and teens to do it as long as they don't medicalize, or at least wait until they're adults to medicalize? I understand why people are focusing on medicalizing, especially in the context of kids, but medicalizing isn't the overarching problem. It's just one particularly nasty symptom of the bigger problem, which is this whole idea of "gender identity" as being the thing that is your "true and authentic self" that must be explored, discovered, labeled, lived and expressed the right way, and validated by others. Focusing on stopping medicalization while accepting social transitions and the ideas of gender identity and gender identity exploration is like focusing on stopping just one particular expression of OCD (hand washing) but ignoring all the internal thought processes behind it. As the parent of a desisted ROGD teen, I can attest to the fact that longterm harm occurs even without medicalization.
(As I'm reading what I write, I realize it sounds like I'm accusing you personally of believing this. That's not what I mean. I'm trying to express my concerns on unintended consequences of how the general debate has focused so much on medicalization as the only thing that is harming minors and adults).
I agree. Social transition encourages unhealthy thought patterns, and is often enough the gateway to medical transition, too.
Thanks for supporting my book!
And yes, the unraveling for my ex occurred long before medicalization.
Children can no more "consent" to have their healthy breasts and genitalia removed or take puberty blockers than they can
"consent" to have sex with an adult.
Similarly, parents and doctors can no more approve such permanent mutilation simply because a minor child desires it than they can approve their participation in pedophilia.
Ultimately society will see the truth and ban the practice as we have banned female genital mutilation. Do people support that practice if the parents consent? I truly hope not
It is monstrous to believe otherwise and those who do will ultimately be held to account for their actions. The obscene bureaucrat Rachel (Richard) Levine among those in the dock.
To whom you are attracted sexually is purely subjective and therefore cannot reasonably be contested by an outside observer.
Where you decide to live your life on a spectrum of superficial, stereotypical male to female attributes (and we all do) is also purely subjective and similarly cannot be questioned.
However, your biological sex reflects an objective reality which cannot be changed by your subjective personal view and futile attempts to do so can result in serious health impacts to you as well as harms to members of the sex you are impersonating (primarily women).
Others who are grounded in objective reality should never be forced to accept your subjective version of your actual biological sex.
Finally, it's past time for the LGB community to separate themselves from the trans activists who are trying to take away the rights of women to fairness in sports and to privacy and safety in their restrooms, locker rooms and prisons. They also advocate for the chemical and surgical mutilation of children many of whom would grow up gay.
Their actions are evil and the
understandable negative reaction to the harm they are causing is spilling over to innocent people who are just going about their business, marrying and leading their lives.
Something I’ve thought about is how even within the framework of “trans rights is the new gay rights” childhood transition makes absolutely no sense. When a child displays signs they may grow up to be gay, it’s common for adults to think “huh maybe he’ll be gay” and leave it at that. The adult life of a gay man is relationships and sex with other men, but we don’t push that adult aspect onto children. It would be horrific if we saw young children who might be gay and said “hey! You might be gay! Let’s discuss all of the ins and outs of what sex will look like for you in the future.” As teenagers, it’s appropriate for gay teens to experiment amongst themselves by seeing how it feels to maybe kiss other teens of either gender. With these teens though, it would be inappropriate for the adults in their life to pressure the teen to have sex or try to influence them into solidifying a sexual orientation. It would be the adults role to make sure they were staying safe and to help them with anxiety or other aspects of their mental health as they tried to explore the many aspects of their identity.
I think a reasonable approach to teenagers exploring their gender identities as adults would be to say, “you’re exploring gender identity amongst your peers by asking friends to call you different names and pronouns, but the adults in your life will be neutral and won’t affirm or dismiss these identities until you’re an adult.” The adult aspect of transition is to consider more permanent changes to their bodies. Just as having sex with other adults is the adult aspect of homosexuality. It is deeply inappropriate to advocate for permanent changes for children teens who are going through very developmentally appropriate identity exploration. If we let the teens explore with the understanding that the teachers and doctors and parents in their lives won’t change pronouns or allow for permanent changes until they are in their 20s, we’d see much more natural desistance.
I don’t believe that homosexuality and gender dysphoria are exactly alike or should be thought of as so. But even if that is the starting argument, childhood and teen social or medical transition has absolutely no role!
These are great points. Thank you.
Hyggieia: Completely agree.
Follow the money; works every time. https://lucyleader.substack.com/p/gender-affirming-care-for-children
The Right's Gender Scam: How They're Conning America with Fake Outrage
A grotesque theater of bathroom panic and pronoun hysteria, designed to keep you scared, distracted, and obedient—while they ignore the real problems.
https://open.substack.com/pub/patricemersault/p/moral-panic-for-dummies?r=4d7sow&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&showWelcomeOnShare=true
The Right's Gender Scam: How They're Conning America with Fake Outrage
A grotesque theater of bathroom panic and pronoun hysteria, designed to keep you scared, distracted, and obedient—while they ignore the real problems.
https://open.substack.com/pub/patricemersault/p/moral-panic-for-dummies?r=4d7sow&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&showWelcomeOnShare=true