Links about Autism and Gender Dysphoria

News Links

There is a known link between gender dysphoria and autism spectrum issues. Below are several links regarding this topic.

1) This is a study (Stagg 2016) confirming higher rates of ASD in trans and non-binary-identified individuals:

Results

Individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) or meeting the AQ cut-off score for ASD were over-represented in both the transgender and nonbinary groups. The key variables differentiating the transgender and nonbinary groups from the cisgender group were systematising and empathy. Levels of autistic traits and cases of ASD were higher in individuals assigned female at birth than those assigned male at birth.

Conclusions

A proportion of individuals seeking help and advice about gender identity will also present autistic traits and in some cases undiagnosed autism. Lower levels of empathy, diminished theory of mind ability and literalness may impede the delivery of effective support. Clinicians treating transgender and nonbinary individuals, should also consider whether clients, especially those assigned female at birth, have an undiagnosed ASD.

2) Another study, Kuvalanka et. al, 2017, discusses the views of mothers with trans-identified ASD, children.

3) Mahfouda et. al, 2019, is a study that acknowledges high rates of mental health problems in ASD and trans-identified youth:

Abstract: Research suggests an overrepresentation of autism spectrum diagnoses (ASD) or autistic traits in gender diverse samples, particularly in children and adolescents. Using data from the GENTLE (GENder identiTy Longitudinal Experience) Cohort at the Gender Diversity Service at the Perth Children’s Hospital, the primary objective of the current retrospective chart review was to explore psychopathology and quality of life in gender diverse children with co-occurring ASD relative to gender diverse children and adolescents without ASD. The Social Responsiveness Scale (Second Edition) generates a Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-5) score indicating a likely clinical ASD diagnosis, which was used to partition participants into two groups (indicated ASD, n = 19) (no ASD indicated, n = 60). Indicated ASD was far higher than would be expected compared to general population estimates. Indicated ASD on the Social Responsiveness Scale 2 (SRS 2) was also a significant predictor of Internalising behaviours (Anxious/Depressed, Withdrawn/Depressed, Somatic Complaints, Thought Problems subscales) on the Youth Self Report. Indicated ASD was also a significant predictor of scores on all subscales of the Paediatric Quality of Life Inventory. The current findings indicate that gender diverse children and adolescents with indicated ASD comprise an especially vulnerable group that are at marked risk of mental health difficulties, particularly internalising disorders, and poor quality of life outcomes. Services working with gender diverse young people should screen for ASD, and also provide pathways to appropriate care for the commonly associated mental health difficulties.

4) There is an article in Spectrum on autism and treatment guidelines that discredits the idea their gender obsession may be due to an over-focusing problem.

“New clinical guidelines address gender dysphoria in autism”

My argument is you need to understand the normal course of gender development for people with autism first.

5) This link from Seattle Children’s Hospital reviews treatment guidelines for gender dysphoric youth with autism.

6) Aeon has an article that discusses the harmful effects of attempts to depathologize autism spectrum disorders and reframe them as “neurodiversity” and an identity-politics activist issue. There has been a very similar trend in trans discourse in the mental health profession, where trans identity is framed as a normal part of gender expression (yet requires risky cross-sex hormones and surgeries that require a diagnosis in order for insurance to cover it.)

“Against neurodiversity:”

It is, therefore, time to start thinking differently about neurodiversity, and to recognise the importance of free speech in the public discourse on autism, because if neurodiversity means anything, it means accepting that we all think differently, and that not everyone takes pride in being autistic.

7) This study is a Yale review.

“Gender Identity and Autism Spectrum Disorders:”

it is unclear whether the most fruitful way to conceptualize this issue is in terms of comorbidity. A more complex approach that attempts to understand gender in developmental terms is potentially more salient for both research and clinical purposes. Our current understanding about the unique social development of individuals with ASD, which may impact the process of gender identity formation, underlines the need for such an approach...

...an exploration of sexuality seems especially pertinent given recent findings that most children with gender-related concerns eventually identify with their natal gender following puberty and frequently adopt homosexual and bisexual identities. It is possible that individuals with ASD may experience similar trajectories in their gender narratives, but potentially follow a different timeline than normally developing individuals owing to reduced social interaction and fewer opportunities to explore their sexual identity.

8) A quote (Glidden 2016) below:

Results

The literature investigating ASD in children and adolescents with gender dysphoria showed a higher prevalence rate of ASD compared with the general population. There is a limited amount of research in adults. Only one study showed that adults attending services for gender dysphoria had increased ASD scores. Another study showed a larger proportion of adults with atypical gender identity and ASD.

9) An adult autogynephile believes AGP is a syptom of autism in this video.

“Autogynephilia is a symptom of autism, not transgender identity"

10) Mahfouda (2019) is an Australian study:

Conclusions

This study expanded on previous research to replicate the finding of higher levels of autistic traits and ASD in a clinic-referred gender diverse sample in Australia. We found that gender diverse children and adolescents with indicated ASD comprise an especially vulnerable group that are at marked risk of mental health difficulties, particularly internalising disorders, and poor quality of life. These findings should be considered when developing best practice for working with gender diverse young people with ASD to ensure that their health care meets their unique needs.

11) Leef (2019):

The results of our study showed evidence of both specificity and nonspecificity with regard to ASD traits and caseness. Future research can adopt the principle of multifinality to understand better why only a minority of children with GD have a co-occurring diagnosis of ASD, but the majority does not.

12) Dr. Strang is a major researcher in the area of autism spectrum and gender dysphoria and a pro-transition, affirmitive model advocate.

Conflicts in the Debate about Gender Dysphoria And Gender Ideology

New Links

Trans-Identified Males In Services for Females

New research is proving medical transition does not erase the advantages biological males have over females. Placing them in female sports disadvantages girls.

1) Some states are seeking to ban males on female sports teams, as Title 9 is designed to protect girls based on biological sex.

"Tennessee bill would require students to play sports based on gender identified at birth:"

The bill's sponsor, state Rep. Bruce Griffey, called it a "proactive measure," meant to "maintain fairness" specifically for female athletes, he told CNN. Griffey said genetic males have "larger hearts" and more upper body strength that gives them an advantage in sports.

"It's not intended to demean, degrade, or diminish anyone," Griffey said. "It's just trying to maintain fairness."

2) Due to complaints about boundaries and privacy, schools in Australia are reversing decisions to make almost all toilets unisex.

PLANS for secondary school students to share gender neutral toilets at Brisbane's newest secondary school have been scrapped following severe public backlash.

Controversies around the affirmative model

1) Dr. Ken Zucker was libeled and fired from his job in the public Canadian healthcare system for being more cautious in medically treating gender dysphoria than those who support full validation under the “affirmative model.” Trans activists attempted to censor his talk at McGill University, but the talk proceeded anyway.

2) There has been a lack in transparency around an inquiry into the rising numbers of minors being put on puberty blockers in the UK:

In her fundraiser statement Sue Evans says: ‘The alarm bells began ringing for me when a colleague at the weekly team clinical meeting said that they had seen a young person four times and they were now recommending them for a referral to the endocrinology department to commence hormone therapy.’ Evans then quotes concerns about hormone treatment for teenagers cited in the British Medical Journal: ‘1) Young people are left in a state of ‘developmental limbo’ without secondary sexual characteristics that might consolidate gender identity; 2) use is likely to threaten the maturation of the adolescent mind, and 3) puberty blockers are being used in the context of profound scientific ignorance’.

Controversies Around Postmodern Gender Ideology

1) Not everyone appreciates the use of cultures who had concepts of a third gender, or who accepted effeminate males, to make what they see as invalid arguments to support postmodern queer theory influenced gender ideology.

“Toward an End to Appropriation of Indigenous “Two Spirit” People in Trans Politics: the Relationship Between Third Gender Roles and Patriarchy:”

What’s instead true is that American Indian nations that had more rigid gender roles and assigned women less power historically felt the need to strip male/female identities from non-conformers, while more egalitarian societies with less gender socialization lack two-spirit people because of, rather than in spite of, their lack of emphasis on sex-assigned gender roles.

2) A US court has found there is no legal right to demand to be called certain pronouns.

"‘Xemself,’ ‘Eirself,’ and ‘Verself’: U.S. Appeals Court Nixes Gender Neutral Pronouns"

3) Due to the influence of LGBT rights organizations, the census in Scotland originally was going to contain twentyone different sexualities.”

“Controversial list of sexualities could be dropped from Scottish Census”

4) Below is an article opposing an agenda to introduce postmodern genderqueer theory into school.

“Why children are being indoctrinated with gender ideology in kindergarten”

5) The Wall Street Journal has published an article laying out the conflicts gender activism has with women’s rights and the interests of the homosexual rights movement.

“The Dangerous Denial of Sex-Transgender ideology harms women, gays—and especially feminine boys and masculine girls”

6) This article reviews some data around who is funding LGBT organizations and their ties to the medical industry:

As the example of the Arcus Foundation shows, the LGB civil rights movement of yore has morphed into a relentless behemoth, one that has strong ties to the medical industrial complex and global corporatists. The pharmaceutical lobby is the largest lobbying entity in Congress. Although activists present the LGBT movement as a weak, powerless group suffering oppression and discrimination, in truth it wields enormous power and influence—power it increasingly uses to remake our laws, schools, and society.

Legal Conflicts

1) A BC Court in Canada ordered a father to refer to his child’s preferred pronouns, and that decision has been overturned:

The Justice Centre obtained intervenor status to make submissions to the Court of Appeal, which heard the case in September 2019. The Justice Centre argued that children have a legal right to the protection of those who love them the most and know them the best: their own parents. The Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms protects the liberty and security interests of parents in the raising of and caring for their own children, including a right to make decisions for them in fundamental matters such as participating in elective irreversible medical interventions.

2) “Oregon Appeals Case Could Set New Precedent for Nonbinary Rights:”

A case currently working its way through the Oregon legal system could set a new precedent for transgender and nonbinary rights in the state.

Jones David Hollister is a nonbinary person who lives in Lane County, Oregon. Earlier this year, they attempted to have their legal gender designation changed from female to nonbinary—meaning they would be seen as a nonbinary person in the eyes of the law—but their request was denied by Lane County Circuit Court Judge Charles D. Carlson.

3) “Former Nike contractor sues company for not using the right pronouns:”

Jazz Lyles, who uses the pronouns “they/them/their,” worked for the company out their Beaverton, Oregon headquarters. Lyles’ lawsuit, which was filed in Multnomah County Circuit Court, claims that Nike and Mainz Brady, California-based IT staffing firm, put her through discrimination, harassment, and retaliation for dismissing her request to use her they/them pronouns.

Medical Ethics and Pediatric Medical Transition for Gender Dysphoric Youth

News Links

Recently there have been many more health professionals, and others, who have been critiquing the pros and cons of pediatric medical transition, and the benefits of medical transition overall, to gender dysphoric people. We are updating these links to be tagged to our section on medical ethics for those who are interested in researching and understanding health and psychological consequences of transitioning minors.

Questioning Medical Ethics

1) Dr. James Cantor has written a critique of The American Academy of Pediatric’s guidelines on treating gender dysphoric youth. These guidelines ignore desistance statistics and support full social and medical transition for minors. Link to both the paper and a podcast interview below.

“PODCAST 68: Clinical psychologist Dr James Cantor Criticises the American Academy of Pediatrics’ Guidelines for Treating Trans Children:”

Dr James Cantor, clinical psychologist and sexologist, talks to Jonathan Kay about his recent peer-reviewed critique of the American Academy of Pediatrics’ guidelines on treating trans children.

2) Sky News has covered the ethics topic and the fact that therapists can not provide therapy to youth beyond fully affirming them as trans.

“NHS 'over-diagnosing' children having transgender treatment, former staff warn:”

Thirty five psychologists have resigned from the children's gender-identity service in London in the last three years, Sky News research suggests.

Sky News- clip of Dr. Evans:

Dr Marcus Evans resigned from the Tavistock & Portman NHS Trust over concerns about its gender identity service. He questions how a child of 11 can consent to treatment that will 'profoundly effect' their physical and psychological well-being.

3) Below is an article written by Marcus Evans about his deep misgivings about transitioning minors and the affirmative model.

“Why I Resigned from Tavistock: Trans-Identified Children Need Therapy, Not Just ‘Affirmation’ and Drugs”

A similar article exists on Medscape.

“UK Gender Identity Service at Crunch Point as Pressure Mounts”

4) Another article on the Tavistock gender clinic in the UK was published in The Telegraph.

“Children's transgender clinic hit by 35 resignations in three years as psychologists warn of gender dysphoria 'over-diagnoses'“

5) This is an article about another British psychologist.

“Transgender Children: 'The concept of being born in the wrong body is troubling'“

6) A former Tavistock employee is bringing a legal case:

Children cannot consent to transgender treatment, a nurse bringing a landmark legal case has said, claiming that many are autistic, homosexual or just confused. 

Susan Evans, 62, a former psychiatric nurse at the Tavistock and Portman NHS foundation trust, said that “experimental” and “invasive medical treatment” should be prevented in order to protect children. 

7) The Economist has printed an article on the possible dangers of pediatric medical transition and the use of hormone blockers. GHQ covers some of those risks here.

“What to do about puberty blockers”

8) The increase in and complexity of gender dysphoria cases are making ethical decisions more difficult and some Australian health professions believe there are problems with the quality of a new study in Australia designed to track outcomes in trans people.

“What are the health outcomes of trans and gender diverse young people in Australia? Study protocol for the Trans20 longitudinal cohort study:”

Our specific ethical concerns centre on whether the ‘informed consent’ offered to parents and their children reflect the rapid advances in complexity and uncertainty that have been reported in recent studiesiv,v,vi

9) Below are three links on The BMJ.

“Family doctors lack training and feel under pressure to prescribe, finds Sally Howard”

“The struggle for GPs to get the right care for patients with gender dysphoria:”

I am concerned to see yet another article in the BMJ trying to persuade GPs to get involved in prescribing for patients who express a desire to be the opposite sex. I am concerned at the journal’s editorial bias on this issue at a time when, as the article says, the number of young people wanting referrals to gender identity clinics because of gender issues has risen hugely and we are reading and seeing more cases of detransitioners who start going down the gender changing pathway and then regret it. 

And a response from a parent is linked.

10) Sasha Ayad is a therapist who supports mental health exploration for gender dysphoric teens.

“What does the word transgender mean?”

11) A psychiatrist, David Bell, is having to deal with legal fees for having raised alarms about what has been happening with the NHS in Britain, indicating there is a price to be paid by whislteblowers.

12) Some individuals have filed complaints against a plastic surgeon who posts pictures of young people who have had mastectomies along with pictures of biohazard buckets full of breast tissue for marketing purposes.

“News Release: Complaint Filed Against Gender-Affirming Surgeons:”

A coalition including Canadian Gender Report, Parents of ROGD Kids, Canadian Women’s Sex-based Rightsand GNC Centric have submitted a complaint to the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Ontario about the McLean Clinic and two of its physicians: Dr Hugh McLean and Dr Giancarlo McEvenue.

13) This paper (Steensma 2017) reviews the difficulties in these types of cases.

Abstract

Our analysis focuses on the importance of balanced decision making when counseling and treating adolescents with nonconforming gender identities. We argue that clinicians’ communicating appropriate expectations about the effectiveness and limitations of hormone therapy and the risks of psychological and physical iatrogenic effects is critical.

14) This is a translated version of a German presentation about the ethics of transitioning minors.

The AFFIRMATIVE MODEL

1) This is a pro affirmative model paper that doesn’t express concern that social transition could lead to inappropriate medical transition and argues transition should be allowed.

“Importance of being persistent. Should transgender children be allowed to transition socially?”

2) The below paper promotes the informed consent model, stating any gatekeeping is unethical:

“Gatekeeping hormone replacement therapy for transgender patients is dehumanising”

3) It appears therapists in the Seattle area actively encourage trans identification, even when a lesbian is attempting to detransition (see 56:00):

“Trauma and Transition | with Rachel”

Nature and Nurture- Trans and LGB Research Update

News Links

Brain Research

Researchers (Gliske 2019) propose some new theories about the cause of gender dysphoria that goes beyond the popular “pink brain/blue brain” narrative that emphasizes cross-sex brain similarities (true in homosexual transexuals, not in autogynephilic transexuals). The term this paper uses for this is “cross-sex brain theory.” The authors point to regions in the brain relating to dissociation from the body and anxiety about the body and the networks between brain regions. This is different from the more common and simplistic view of innate brain sex. Gliske uses the term “multisense.” Below is a summation of the findings:

We hypothesize that in individuals with gender dysphoria, the aspects of chronic distress, gender atypical behavior, and incongruence between perception of gender identity and external primary sex characteristics are all directly related to functional differences in associated brain networks. We evaluated previously published neuroscience data related to these aspects and the associated functional networks, along with other relevant information. We find that the brain networks that give individuals their ownership of body parts, that influence gender typical behavior, and that are involved in chronic distress are different in individuals with and without gender dysphoria, leading to a new theory—that gender dysphoria is a sensory perception condition, an alteration in sense of gender influenced by the reflexive behavioral responses associated with each of these networks. This theory builds upon previous work that supports the relevance of the body ownership network and that questions the relevance of cerebral sexual dimorphism in regards to gender dysphoria. However, our theory uses a hierarchical executive function model to incorporate multiple reflexive factors (body ownership, gender (a)typical behavior, and chronic distress) with the cognitive, reflective process of gender identity…

After considering this hypothesis, we present a new theory of gender dysphoria, consistent with the latest neuroscience data, that stands in contrast to the common opposite brain sex theory and builds upon the work relating body perception with gender dysphoria (Burke et 112  al., 2017b; Manzouri et al., 2017; Manzouri and Savic, 2019). We denote this new theory the multisense theory of gender dysphoria. This new theory focuses on function, including sense of gender and its inputs, rather than male/female dichotomy in anatomical size and shape (the focus of the opposite brain sex theory). For clarity, in this document we use “sense of gender” to refer to the emergent sense arising from the function of multiple networks, and “brain sex” to refer to anatomical characteristics of the brain relative to male/female dichotomy. We also use the term “transgender” throughout this manuscript, though recognize that some references instead use the word transsexual to refer to the same concept. We observe, based on previously published data, that the primary mechanism behind the experience of gender dysphoria appears not to be that the anatomical brain sex is opposite to gender assigned at birth. Instead, we propose that systemic changes in functional networks, specifically the distress, social behavioral and body-ownership networks, result in the incongruence between sense of gender and gender assigned at birth.

Newsweek published an article that contains critiques of the paper’s positions and Gliske’s suggestion that there may be other alternatives to help GD beyond medical treatment. In current gender discourse, there tends to be strong pushback if any person suggests it would be a better outcome to avoid genital surgery, mastectomy, and the known negative side-effects of taking high doses of cross-sex hormones:

Simona Giordano, an expert in gender identity and Reader in Bioethics at The University of Manchester Law School, who did not work on the study, told Newsweek she was surprised Gliskesuggested altering neural structures and networks is less invasive than providing gender-affirming treatment.

Giordano also argued Gliske's suggestions for treatment would "get rid of gender incongruence," and expressed concern this amounts to a form of "medical conversion." 

While understanding the mechanisms of sexual orientation and gender identification is a "legitimate scientific effort," Giordano argued, she said "science that singles out gender minorities as subjects of study might inadvertently suggest that there is an underlying medical problem."

"Should we use these hypothetical therapies, we would no longer have gender dysphoria sufferers because we would no longer have transgender people," she said.  

Giordano highlighted that various international organizations, such as UNESCO, and the Council of Europe, have called de-pathologization of gender diversity. Last year, the World Health Organisationrenamed gender identity disorder as gender incongruence to "reflect the international consensus that gender diversity is not a disorder or illness," she said.

Professor Catherina Becker, acting director of the Centre for Discovery Brain Sciences at the U.K.'s University of Edinburgh, who did not work on the paper, also critiqued the work. She commented in a statement: "The present paper is a review and reinterpretation of other studies without providing significant new experimental or epidemiological data.

Here are two other articles from The Daily Mail and Inverse.

Biological Factors in In Identity & Orientation

A new study (Nila, 2019) confirms the fraternal birth order (FBO) effect noted in homosexual males in an Indonesian population:

Abstract

Male homosexual preference (MHP) is an evolutionary enigma because it is partially heritable and imposes a fertility cost. In occidental societies, homosexual men are feminized at various levels and they have more older brothers than heterosexual men. To evaluate whether femininity and the fraternal birth order (FBO) effect are universal features of MHP or not, we collected original data from homosexual men, heterosexual men, and heterosexual women from Java (Indonesia). Facial photographs were used to test whether homosexual faces are feminized when compared with heterosexual ones. We found that faces manipulated to resemble the average face of homosexual men are perceived as facially feminized, suggesting that homosexual men are facially feminized compared to heterosexual men, although a higher facial femininity was not captured by morphological analyses. Then, family data were used to detect differences in siblings’ composition between homosexuals and heterosexuals. Homosexual men displayed a higher number of older brothers than heterosexual men, even when sibship size was controlled for, suggesting that the FBO effect exists in Indonesian populations. Independent of sexual orientation, men with older brothers seem more feminized than those without older brothers, consistent with the immune origin of the FBO effect. In conclusion, MHP in Indonesia is partially feminized and they have more older brothers. Such features are also associated with MHP in other cultural contexts, suggesting a cross-cultural effect of men homosexual preference. An evolutionary explanation is available for the feminizing effect, although the FBO effect remains unexplained even if proximal mechanisms start to be identified.

A new study (Rahman 2019) reviewing the populations of lesbian, gay, and bisexual people in various countries supports arguments for innate sexual orientation:

Abstract

The prevalence of women’s and men’s heterosexuality, bisexuality, and homosexuality was assessed in 28 nations using data from 191,088 participants from a 2005 BBC Internet survey. Sexual orientation was measured in terms of both self-reported sexual identity and self-reported degree of same-sex attraction. Multilevel modeling analyses revealed that nations’ degrees of gender equality, economic development, and individualism were not significantly associated with men’s or women’s sexual orientation rates across nations. These models controlled for individual-level covariates including age and education level, and nation-level covariates including religion and national sex ratios. Robustness checks included inspecting the confidence intervals for meaningful associations, and further analyses using complete-cases and summary scores of the national indices. These analyses produced the same non-significant results. The relatively stable rates of heterosexuality, bisexuality, and homosexuality observed across nations for both women and men suggest that non-social factors likely may underlie much variation in human sexual orientation. These results do not support frequently offered hypotheses that sexual orientation differences are related to gendered social norms across societies.

A quote from the article appears to show possible cultural influence on whether or not men will identify as gay and there is more variability in countries around women and bisexuality:

However, prevalence rates of men’s homosexual identity were more variable, across nations, than prevalence rates of women’s lesbian identity, p = .009. When sexual orientation was assessed in terms of participants’ same-sex attraction, women were more variable than men, across nations, in their prevalence of being moderately attracted to the same sex, p < .004. However, women and men did not differ significantly in the variability of their prevalence of not being attracted to the same sex and being predominantly attracted to the same sex (all ps > .05).

There appear to be more gay men than lesbians but more bisexual females than bisexual males:

However, a higher percent of men (4.9%) than women (2.1%) reported a homosexual identity, t(54) = 5.22, p < .001, whereas a lower percent of men (5.1%) than women (7.2%) reported a bisexual identity, t(54) = − 3.25, p = .002

In summary:

Finally, the relatively small cross-nation SDs reported in Table 4—particularly for prevalence rates for homosexual identities and predominant same-sex attractions—suggest substantial consistency across nations. Thus, despite the existence of variations across nations, sexual orientation rates were nonetheless relatively stable across nations.

A study on feminine Samoan males (called fa ‘afafina) reveals men who have sex with feminine (intact) males display a variety of orientation patterns from bisexual to primarily homosexual or heterosexual. This shows that these men are a diverse group. Ray Blanchard, a gender dysphoria expert and psychologist, coined the term gynoandromorphalia for males who are interested in trans MtFs or cross-dressing males. But it appears this may be a diverse group:

Abstract

In Samoa, feminine natal males who possess male-typical genitalia are known locally as fa’afafine. Some Samoan men express sexual interest in fa’afafine, whereas others do not. To assess the sexual orientation of men who are sexually interested in fa’afafine, we collected sexual attraction ratings and viewing times of Samoan men’s and women’s faces. Study 1 (N = 130) focused on men who were insertive or versatile during anal sex with fa’afafine partners. These men were compared to each other, as well as to males (i.e., men and fa’afafine) who were exclusively sexually interested in either women or men. Study 2 (N = 180) compared men who had sex with fa’afafine and women; men who had sex with fa’afafine, women, and men; and men who had sex with fa’afafine and men. These men were compared to each other, as well as to males who were exclusively sexually interested in either women or men. These studies suggest that men who have sex with fa’afafine are a heterogeneous group. A small portion of the men who are sexually interested in fa’afafine shows a relatively bisexual pattern of sexual attraction ratings and viewing times, namely men who have sex with fa’afafine, men, and women. In contrast, a larger number of men who were sexually interested in fa’afafine responded in a manner similar to men who were exclusively sexually interested in either women or men. The present research suggests that additional insights into male sexual orientation can be garnered by focusing on how sexuality is expressed in non-Western cultural contexts.

Social Contagion

GHQ reviews the large rise in young people identifying as trans in Topic 10 and Topic 11. A parent group called the Kelsey Coalition made a post reviewing some more recent statistics concerning the large increases of trans-identification in teenagers:

-In Oregon, 6% of 8th graders and 5.5% of 11th graders identify as transgender or non-binary. 2019 Oregon Health Teens Survey. 

-In Hawaii, over 3% of over 38,000 public high school students surveyed identify as transgender. Hawaii Sexual and Gender Minority Health Report (2018):

-2% of Minnesota 8th grade girls identify as transgender, while an additional 3% were not sure. Minnesota 2019 Student Survey

-Among Wisconsin high school students, 1% identified as non-binary, 1% as gender fluid, 1% as transgender, and 2% were not sure. Dane County, Wisconsin Youth Assessment Survey, 9th-12th Grade Report (2018). Among Wisconsin middle school students, 2% identify as non-binary, 1% as transgender, and 3% were nv County, Wisconsin Youth Assessment Survey, 7th-8th Grade Report (2018).

-Surveys of Maine high school students found 1.5% identify as transgender and 1.6% of students were unsure of their gender identification. Maine Integrated Youth Health Survey (2017)

This paper reviews the data indicating a major increase in trans-identified young people in Nordic countries:

Abstract

Purpose: To explore whether the increase observed in referrals to child and adolescent gender identity services (GIDSs) has been similar in four Nordic countries and in the UK.

Materials and methods: Numbers of referrals per year in 2011–2017 were obtained from all GIDS in Denmark, Finland, Norway, Sweden and the UK and related to population aged <18.

Results: A similar pattern of increase in referral rates was observed across countries, resulting in comparable population adjusted rates in 2017. In children, male:female birth sex ratio was even; in adolescents, a preponderance of females (birth sex) was observed, particularly in Finland.

Conclusions: The demand for GIDSs has evolved similarly across Nordic countries and the UK. The reasons for the increase are not known but increased awareness of gender identity issues, service availability, destigmatization as well as social and media influences may play a role.

Body dysmorphia around gender isn’t the only body dysmorphia increasing rapidly. More you females are seeking labiaplasty surgery:

Dr Naomi Crouch, a leading adolescent gynaecologist, said she was concerned GPs were referring rising numbers of young girls who wanted an operation.

Labiaplasty, as the surgery is known, involves the lips of the vagina being shortened or reshaped.

The NHS says it should not be carried out on girls before they turn 18.

In 2015-16, more than 200 girls under 18 had labiaplasty on the NHS. More than 150 of the girls were under 15…

Anna - not her real name - considered having labiaplasty from the age of 14.

"I just picked up from somewhere that it wasn't neat enough or tidy enough and I think I wanted it to be smaller.

"People around me were watching porn and I just had this idea that it should be symmetrical and not sticking out.

"I thought that was what everyone else looked like, because I hadn't seen any normal everyday [images] before then.

"I remember thinking, 'If there's surgery for it, then clearly I'm not the only one who wants this done, and maybe it won't be that big a deal.'."

References

Gander, K. (2019, December 12). Transgender People Suffering From Gender Dyphoria May Have Key Brain Differences, Scientist Says. Newsweek. Retrieved from https://www.newsweek.com/transgender-people-gender-dysphoria-brain-differences-scientist-1475013

Kaitiala, R, Bergman, H., Carmichael, P., de Graaf, N., Rischel, K., Frisen, L. (2019). Time trends in referrals to child and adolescent gender identity services: a study in four Nordic countries and in the UK.

Mackenzie, J. (2017, July 3). Vagina surgery 'sought by girls as young as nine.' BBC. Retrieved from https://www.bbc.com/news/health-40410459

Nila, S., Crochet, P., Barthes, J., Rianti, P., Juliandi, B., Suryobroto, B., Raymond, M. (2019). Male Homosexual Preference: Femininity and the Older Brother Effect in Indonesia. Evolutionary Psychology. doi.org/10.1177/1474704919880701

Petterson, J. L., Dixson, B.J., Little, A. C. (2020). Heterogeneity in the Sexual Orientations of Men Who Have Sex with Fa’afafine in Samoa. Archives of Sexual Behavior, 1-13. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10508-020-01646-6

Rahman, Q., Xu, Y., Lippa, R.A. et al. (2019). Prevalence of Sexual Orientation Across 28 Nations and Its Association with Gender Equality, Economic Development, and Individualism. Archives of Sex Behavior, 1-12 doi.org/10.1007/s10508-019-01590-0

Opposing Opinions Around Pediatric Medical Transition And Gender Ideology

News

This post will contain several examples of varying opinions about pediatric medical transition and gender activism.

Trans Opposition to Pediatric Medical Transition and Gender Activism

Not all trans people believe in pediatric medical transition as the medical side effects can be intense, and surgeries and hormones have risks. Scott Newgent, an FtM trans person, has circulated a petition, “Adult Transgender & Non-Transgender People Against Medically Transitioning Children opposing medical treatment on minors.”

Scott has suffered serious damage due to phalloplasty surgery, a dangerous operation with high rates of complications:

Well, we are the marginalized group, along with the support of Non-Transgender adults, and we are telling you that medically transitioning children is wrong. In remaining quiet, we have cut a safe corner out for ourselves to live peacefully, but with the massive influx of children transitioning, we can in good conscience, stay silent no longer. Together, arm in arm, we come together from the LGBT community, the straight community, the conservative community, the liberal community, the Christian community, the Jewish community, and many more to save Transgender identifying children.

A trans person in Canada is calling for an Inquiry into the rising numbers of children being treated for gender dysphoria, many of whom are in the foster care system.

We are adding an older article that highlights the reality that there are disagreements, even among trans people, as to how gender non-conforming people should exist in society. The article, “Pakistan's traditional third gender isn't happy with the trans movement,” is about the conflict between tradition “third gender” culture and modern trans activism:

For centuries, South Asia has had its own Khawaja Sira or third gender culture. The community, identifying as neither male nor female, are believed by many to be "God’s chosen people," with special powers to bless and curse anyone they choose.

The acceptance of Khawaja Sira people in Pakistan has been held up internationally as a symbol of tolerance, established long before Europe and America had even the slightest semblance of a transgender rights movement.

But the acceptance of people defining their own gender in Pakistan is much more complicated. The term transgender refers to someone whose gender identify differs from their birth sex. This notion is yet to take root in Pakistan and the transgender rights movement is only beginning to assert itself formally. Now, some third gender people in Pakistan say the modern transgender identity is threatening their ancient third gender culture.

A “third gender” traditionalist comments on an MtF who uses female pronouns and is currently a supermodel:

Bindiya Rana is the grand matriarch of the third gender community in Karachi. She doesn’t prescribe to the transgender identity. She is a Khawaja Sira, so revered that she is a guru (teacher) to more than 50 chelahs or apprentices. 

This relationship has a parental element and is a cornerstone of Khawaja Sira culture. Each chelah pledges allegiance to their guru, as they did to their guru before them. These family trees provide acceptance, social support and financial backing. Most chelahs give a percentage of their income to their gurus. It’s a lifetime commitment that allows the establishment of families that often replaces biological lineage. 

But those who identify as transgender, like Choudary, don’t subscribe to the guru-chelah system. As a result, Rana and her chelahs view the transgender identity as alien and even immoral.  

“If you don’t have a guru, we don’t recognize you. These people who say they are transgender; that concept is just wrong," says one of Rana's chelahs. "They can never be women. They cannot give birth. Even if they change their bodies they can’t change who they are. We are not women. We are what Allah has made.”

The Pakistani example highlights that there is more acceptance of trans than the concept of homosexuality in the Muslim world where homosexuality is punishable by death.

Trans Identity as a form of Self-Harm

GHQ is adding an older article from the New Statesmen, which discusses how female body hatred around gender dysphoria is being normalized despite the fact that doing things like breast binding is physically damaging:

And yet, look again at that list of side effects: breathing difficulties, skeletal problems, fainting, inability to participate fully in exercise. The female adolescents wearing binders have reproduced all the problems of tight-lacing corsets, this time in the service of restrictive anti-femininity rather than restrictive femininity. So is issuing guidance to reduce the harms of binder-wearing in schools an act of care for transgender children, or an abdication of it? Is the role of adults in authority – whether parental, educational or medical – to validate everything that comes under the rubric of transition, regardless of long-term consequences, or could another approach be better?

LGB Conflicts with Gender Politics

Andrew Sullivan made a brief reference to gender identity politics in a discussion about the sweep by the conservative Tories in Britan in a recent election. We cover some similar opposing viewpoints that are a reaction to some of the cultural influences of postmodern queer theory.

It is clearer and clearer to me that the wholesale adoption of critical race, gender, and queer theory on the left makes normal people wonder what on earth they’re talking about and which dictionary they are using. 

A paper called Disaffirming Gender: Somatic Incongruence as a Co-function of Ideological Congruity covers the conflicting interests that can exist between concepts of sexual orientation and gender identity:

The activist conjunction of sexual orientation and gender identity is questioned by demonstrating how the concerns of the transgender movement run contrary to an agenda of liberation from gender ideology. The confused vocabulary of trans discourse articulated in the language of somatic incongruence (so-called gender dysphoria) is exposed, using an analysis of the concept of somatic incongruence and the various interventions through which bodies are apparently restored to ideological congruence constructed upon, inter alia, gender, race, and age. The paper rejects transgender medical treatment and surgery as nothing but the most brutal affirmation of gender stereotypes and, in conclusion, calls for a radical and total disaffirming of gender, analogous to the termination of racial classification and segregation. 

Below are several articles about the formation of the LGB Alliance in the UK. The organization was formed to advocate for LGB interests away from the demands of trans activism, which include transitioning young children and MtFs taking positions on girls’ sports teams.

This article covers the views of a former member of Stonewall UK who supports the breakaway LGB organization:

Fanshawe believes that the Stonewall of today is undermining the rights of lesbians and putting women and girls at risk by “unthinkingly” merging the rights of lesbians and gays with those of trans people through its ‘acceptance without exception’ dogma as it lobbies for transgender people to be able to legally self-identify as the gender they feel they are without having to provide evidence that they have lived in that gender for two years or by having gender dysphoria diagnosed.

LGBAlliance is going so far as to challenge Stonewall UK backed initiatives:

The LGB Alliance is of the view that Stonewall’s advice misrepresents the Equality Act, which recognizes sex as a protected characteristic. By replacing biological sex with gender identity, the LGB Alliance argues, Stonewall contravene legislation designed to uphold women’s rights. They describe this position as ‘Stonewall Law’ and fully intend to fight it.

There are always accusations of bigotry in LGBT discourse when other groups wish to advocate without adding trans interests. This is from Quillette.

Are gay people allowed to meet and organise in defense of their interests? A hard yes, you might have thought. But some apparently disagree.

Witness the response to the London-based LGB Alliance, a newly created British group that asserts “the rights of lesbian, gay and bisexual people to define themselves as same-sex-attracted.” The group’s creation has sparked vitriol, not from the traditionalist Christians or social conservatives who might have opposed such groups in the 1980s or 1990s, but from the self-described progressive left.

There is an article in the Spectator that covers trans activist approaches to promoting trans acceptance in women’s spaces like sports and prisons and pediatric medical transition. The information comes from a report from a British law firm:

The report is called ‘Only adults? Good practices in legal gender recognition for youth’. Its purpose is to help trans groups in several countries bring about changes in the law to allow children to legally change their gender, without adult approval and without needing the approval of any authorities. ‘We hope this report will be a powerful tool for activists and NGOs working to advance the rights of trans youth across Europe and beyond,’ says the foreword.

Below are some relevant quotes from the article about strategy:

‘While cultural and political factors play a key role in the approach to be taken, there are certain techniques that emerge as being effective in progressing trans rights in the “good practice” countries’…

‘In many of the NGO advocacy campaigns that we studied, there were clear benefits where NGOs managed to get ahead of the government and publish progressive legislative proposal before the government had time to develop their own. NGOs need to intervene early in the legislative process and ideally before it has even started. This will give them far greater ability to shape the government agenda and the ultimate proposal than if they intervene after the government has already started to develop its own proposals’…

‘In Ireland, Denmark and Norway, changes to the law on legal gender recognition were put through at the same time as other more popular reforms such as marriage equality legislation. This provided a veil of protection, particularly in Ireland, where marriage equality was strongly supported, but gender identity remained a more difficult issue to win public support for.’

‘Another technique which has been used to great effect is the limitation of press coverage and exposure. In certain countries, like the UK, information on legal gender recognition reforms has been misinterpreted in the mainstream media, and opposition has arisen as a result. ….Against this background, many believe that public campaigning has been detrimental to progress, as much of the general public is not well informed about trans issues, and therefore misinterpretation can arise.

In Ireland, activists have directly lobbied individual politicians and tried to keep press coverage to a minimum in order to avoid this issue.’ (Emphasis added).

The Times of London posted another article about trans activist money in politics:

A pharmaceutical firm that markets drugs used in gender-identity clinics to delay puberty has given £100,000 to the Liberal Democrats.

Jo Swinson’s party has already upset feminists, who worry that the “extreme trans-ideological” policies in its manifesto will put vulnerable women at risk.

Denying Trans People Emotional & Sexual Access is “Transphobia”

There is an ongoing narrative that people should be emotionally and sexually available to trans people based on the trans person’s gender identity, or that person is a bigot or a transphobic.

This is from a recent article in Slate:

Stoya: I’m having difficulty putting myself in to the shoes of a person who is so off put by genital configuration.

Rich: Look, I’m way more into dick. Maybe I need to work on that, but it feels OK to like what I like. I don’t fantasize about vulvas; I do dicks. It’s plausible that someone has a type formed by a bunch of factors that are specific and don’t make him a bad person. But it’s also not just possible but observable and prevalent to have “preferences” that dog-whistle bigotry. I think these things require a lot of self-interrogation.

GHQ reviews the conflicts this is causing here and here.

Comments from Jesse Singal:

@jessesingal

The Advocate also published an article arguing it’s transphobic not to date trans people as some trans people are trying to make this concept mainstream:

The question that gets danced around, however, is: “Are all these numbers indicative of transphobia?” The answer, I believe, is clearly yes.

The Spectator commented on the strained arguments in the Advocate article:

Those who deny the existence of biological sex and insist a person can change sex through self-declaration have made a number of grave mistakes — some of which harm their own community. The promise of ‘passing’ — a term that refers to trans-identified people who are perceived to be the opposite sex, rather than simply a male attempting to dress ‘like a woman’ or vice versa — is in fact quite cruel. Most trans-identified people won’t ‘pass’ in public; but even if they manage to appear as the sex they wish to be on a day to day basis, all sorts of subtle cues betray them when it comes to attracting their desired partner. 

Trans Activism

Trans activists have reacted angrily to a book promoting body positivity in children called My Body is Me! due to the fact it promotes body acceptance and was cosponsored by Transgendertrend, a group that questions the ethics of pediatric transition:

My Body is Me is an upbeat, rhyming picture book, aimed for 3-6 year olds, written by Rachel Rooney and illustrated by Jessica Ahlberg in consultation with TransgenderTrend. It introduces children to the workings of the human body, and celebrates similarities and differences while challenging sex stereotypes. It also aims to promote a positive self-image and foster self-care skills. The text is inclusive for children with physical or sensory disabilities.

In an example of extremist gender activism, Debbie Hayton (who is on the GHQ Board) is trans and is being targetting for not believing it is possible to change your biological sex:

A transgender woman has been accused of transphobia for wearing a T-shirt saying she is really still a man.

Debbie Hayton, 51, a physics teacher in the Midlands, who transitioned from male to female in 2012, is facing expulsion from the LGBT committee of the Trades Union Congress (TUC) for the slogan: “Trans women are men. Get over it!”

Jake Pyne is an FtM activist who is part of GDAWorkinggroup.com. This website was set up with almost the same name as a group of health professionals (GDworkinggroup) who advocate a more cautious approach in an apparent attempt to challenge them. The site members consist of the people at the forefront of trans activism and the affirmative model, such as Diane Ehrensaft and Johanna Olson-Kennedy. Jake Pyne is also allegedly responsible for spreading a false allegation against Dr. Ken Zucker in order to get him fired for his more conservative approach to medically transitioning minors.

Below is a screencap of Pyne laughing at a joke about murdering a reporter, which is common behavior over the internet:

Multiple trans voices take issue with pediatric medical transition and some of the more radical aspects of trans activism.

Changing Laws and Policies to Allow Pediatric Medical Transition Without Parental Consent

The below case is an example of the new normal. Parents will lose the ability to have their children wait until they are adults to alter their body medically. This case is in Europe, but the same activist push exists in all Western countries:

By the parents' admission, they warned “Nea” that sex change is a complex and traumatising procedure, and that some of its effects are irreversible. They suggested waiting until the school year's end, going back to Finland, undergoing a thorough medical examination, and learning more about the consequences of getting a sex change.

However, “Nea”, with the help of a representative from a local trans organisation, went to the police and reported her parents for opposing her gender reassignment procedures. The authorities in the unnamed EU country supported the underage girl.

The Conservative think tank site Public Discourse reviews some conflicts of interest in allowing trans-identified students in girls bathrooms:

The case against compelled affirmation policies needs to be more explicitly and vividly sexualized. The argument against these policies must be rooted in the civil liberties of objecting students and the right not be forced to be the object of another’s sexual gaze. Opening intimate facilities to anyone of the opposite sex imposes psycho-sexual trauma on countless non-consenting youths, and constitutes a form of sexual exploitation.

The case:

Consider the experience of some northern Illinois high-school girls, as one federal court recently described it. In Students and Parents for Privacy v. High School District 211, Judge Jorge Alonso wrote that several of them were “startled, shocked, embarrassed, and frightened by the presence of a male in the girls’ restroom,” most especially when “female student A” was “exposed to this male’s penis.” No wonder: he also found that these students “are at continual risk of encountering (and sometimes do encounter), without their consent, members of the opposite sex while disrobing, showering, urinating, defecating and while changing tampons and feminine napkins.”

The naked guy was no streaker or everyday pervert. He was a student. The school did nothing to discipline him. In fact, the school authorities had sent him there under what they unapologetically called a “compelled affirmation” policy governing transgendered students’ access to intimate school facilities. Judge Alonso dismissed all complaints about the policy that were based on rights protected by the Constitution, including the free exercise of religion, students’ right of bodily privacy, and parents’ right to direct the education of their children. He did, however, permit statutory claims for sexual harassment and violation of the Illinois Religious Freedom Restoration Act to go forward, possibly to trial.

The legal expert wants these cases to elicit sexually in the minds of the public:

I think that the case against compelled affirmation policies needs to be more explicitly and vividly sexualized. By that I mean that the argument against these policies must be rooted in the civil liberties of objecting students, as they pertain to the morality of acts which cause sexual arousal; which instigate impure thoughts; and which threaten both the healthy psycho-sexual development of young people and—most importantly in our cultural moment—the right not to be forced to be the object of another’s sexual gaze—the occasion for the arousal of another person. This improvement synthesizes the prevailing privacy contentions (which, again, are sound so far as they go); extends them; and focuses the argument on something that even judges who have been mesmerized by transgender-affirming propaganda might find hard to sanction: opening intimate facilities to anyone of the opposite sex (that is, anyone bearing the sexually provocative body parts of the opposite sex) imposes psycho-sexual trauma on countless unconsenting youths, and constitutes a form of sexual exploitation.

Most MtFs who transition at young ages are not sexually attracted to females. They are very effeminate homosexual males. However, most MtFs are autogynephilc males, are sexually attracted to women, and appear to be coming out at younger ages. The school system in these cases would be putting heterosexual males in with teenage girls in situations that involve nudity.

Gender ideology, something some LGBT people strongly disagree with, is taught to children in schools in multiple countries in the world:

For trans ideology to truly spread, it needs to become an inherent part of our core belief system. As natural as the sky being blue, and the earth being round, we must all have the truth of trans as a foundational element of our understanding about the world for it to thrive. Convincing adults is one thing, but to really make this wash, it’s children that need to taught the dogma of multiple gender identities and the ability of humans to swap their sex for its opposite. The purported goal behind teaching children that male and female are nothing more than feelings is compassion, empathy, and anti-bias.

The work to bring children into the trans fold is pervasive and growing, and we’ve seen it in the US and Canada. In Sweden, the government is pouring money into an educational program for drag queens to read to children with disabilities. Meanwhile, in the UK, where trans advocates have a major head start, the BBC is airing educational programming to teach children that there are as many genders as stars in the sky.

The article “Schools told all lessons for five-year-olds should include gay and trans themes” discusses the issue of when and how to teach children about gender identity and sexual orientation.

South Carolina wants to ban underage medical treatment for trans-identified youth.

There is a recorded video of a conservative father rebelling against gender ideology being taught to children in school.

Miscellaneous

Here is an account of a medical student who believes the sciences are embracing ideology over scientific facts regarding gender identity and biological sex.

References

A Concerned Medical Student Speaks Out. (2019, December 2019). Retrieved from https://www.kelseycoalition.org/pubs/A-Concerned-Medical-Student-Speaks-Out?fbclid=IwAR2DbQujxTiw29Pbd_mL_mHUq_beuD9sOoii-RjAZpOPFHGzH2v3fZOaPj4

Azhar, M. (2017, July 29). Pakistan's traditional third gender isn't happy with the trans movement. PRI. Retrieved from https://www.pri.org/stories/2017-07-29/pakistans-traditional-third-gender-isnt-happy-trans-movement

Bradley, G. (2019, December 1). Compelled Sexual Affirmation in the School Bathroom. Public Discourse. Retrieved from https://www.thepublicdiscourse.com/2019/12/58498/

Ditum, S. (2016, October 25). How society is failing transgender children. New Statesman. Retrieved from https://www.newstatesman.com/politics/feminism/2016/10/how-society-failing-transgender-children

Griffiths, S., Walsh, J. (2019, December 1). Schools told all lessons for five-year-olds should include gay and trans themes. Retrieved from https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/7d300e42-13ad-11ea-b97d-3a49c0ea7ce7?fbclid=IwAR0C9LRDIB3bzIcj-Tu-H2ooFxf7B8AtRsDP8ooB49WtNZNtLG7zTcDjsf0

Emmons, L. (2019, November 22). Teachers are indoctrinating our children in radical trans ideology. The Post Millenial. Retrieved from https://www.thepostmillennial.com/teachers-are-indoctrinating-our-children-in-radical-trans-ideology/

Hellen, N., Wheeler, C. (2019, December 8). Puberty-blocker drug firm donated cash to Lib Dems. The Times[London]. Retrieved from https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/puberty-blocker-drug-firm-donated-cash-to-lib-dems-cf3x77nh3

Hellen, N. (2019, December 22). Trans woman Debbie Hayton faces ban for transphobia. The Times[London]. Retrieved from https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/trans-woman-debbie-hayton-faces-ban-for-transphobia-96tfkl5gc?fbclid=IwAR0glDgonjBJMJwv0-iYMY468WrPD72KSAps3-n46Pz4I2uUrC5NbS4PMlY

Heuchan, C. (2019, November 7). LGB Alliance asks Human Rights Watchdog to Investigate ‘Stonewall Law.’ After Ellen. Retrieved from https://www.afterellen.com/general-news/573118-lgb-alliance-asks-human-rights-watchdog-to-investigate-stonewall-law

Jenn Smith Calls for Provincial&National Inquiries into mass gender transitioning of Vulnerable kids. (2019, October 19). Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aPBfHgxWGwE

Joyce, H. (2019, November 4). Meet the Gay Activists Who’ve Had Enough of Britain’s Ultra-Woke Homophobes. Quillette. Retrieved from https://quillette.com/2019/11/04/meet-the-gay-activists-whove-had-enough-of-britains-ultra-woke-homophobes/

Kiirkup, J. (2019, December 2). The document that reveals the remarkable tactics of trans lobbyists. The Spectator. Retrieved from https://blogs.spectator.co.uk/2019/12/the-document-that-reveals-the-remarkable-tactics-of-trans-lobbyists/

Losing a Daughter, Not Gaining a Son: Finnish Parents Who Opposed Teen's Sex Change Lose Custody. (2019, December 12). Sputnik News. Retrieved from https://sputniknews.com/society/201912121077550078-losing-a-daughter-not-gaining-a-son-finnish-parents-who-opposed-teens-sex-change-lose-custody/

Murphy, M. (2019, December 19). Are you heterosexual? Or simply transphobic? The Spectator. Retrieved from https://spectator.us/heterosexual-simply-transphobic/?fbclid=IwAR27cIwt6-CxA0mabnlg4iX1kfDrkeX8SNbLcZ-XlgKWxbOId4bKrHaIGO0#

North, A. (2019, November 25). South Carolina wants to ban lifesaving medical treatments for trans kids. Vox. Retrieved from https://www.vox.com/2019/11/22/20977721/south-carolina-trans-transgender-youth-gender-reassignment

Olver, T. (2019). Disaffirming Gender: Somatic Incongruence as a Co-function of Ideological Congruity. The Psychoanalytic Review 106(1),1-28. DOI: 10.1521/prev.2019.106.1.1

Phalloplasty gone wrong. (2019, September 4). Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FAJSILE_wGc

Rhodes, M. (2019, November 4). Co-founder of Stonewall calls for calm. Holyrood. Retrieved from https://www.holyrood.com/inside-politics/view,cofounder-of-stonewall-calls-for-calm_14648.htm

Rooney, R., Ahlberg, J. (2019). My Body is Me!. Published by Transgendertrend.

Singal, J. (2017, February 7). How the Fight Over Transgender Kids Got a Leading Sex Researcher Fired. The Cut. Retrieved from https://www.thecut.com/2016/02/fight-over-trans-kids-got-a-researcher-fired.html

Stoya, R. Juzwiak. (2019, November 7). “I Hope This Doesn’t Make Me a Terrible Person." Slate. Retrieved from https://slate.com/human-interest/2019/11/ask-trans-women-about-their-genitals-while-dating.html

Sullivan, A. (2019, December 13). Boris Johnson Is Showing Western Politicians How to Win. New York Magazine. Retrieved from http://nymag.com/intelligencer/2019/12/andrew-sullivan-boris-johnsons-winning-formula.html

Tannehill, B. (2019, December 14). Is Refusing to Date Trans People Transphobic? The Advocate. Retrieved from https://www.advocate.com/commentary/2019/12/14/refusing-date-trans-people-transphobic?fbclid=IwAR3sftFezusxMKMsL5i0tDzKTQKx_nx2-s7O0y6IWFmZ3jkURrp3a7DUMjU

Adding Three Studies Regarding the Ability of Minors to Consent to Medical Treatment

News

GHQ tries to document all of the pertinent research studies and news articles regarding the issue of pediatric medical transition for gender dysphoria.

We are adding two links and tagging it to Topic 3, the section on age and the ability to consent to medical treatments.

”Ethical issues arising in the provision of medical interventions for gender diverse children and adolescents” is by Bernadette Wren from the Tavistock clinic in Britain. It is an attempt to balance all of the arguments about how able minors are to consent to the irreversible effects of hormones and surgery.

A letter to BMJ expresses that there are reasons to be concerned about giving minors hormone blockers:

Gonadotrophin releasing hormone (GnRH) agonists are generally given under the premise that they provide “breathing space” for a child or teen to explore their identity without the distress caused by pubertal changes.3 It is becoming clear, however, that once started on GnRH agonists to block puberty almost all children go on to receive cross sex hormones.4 The information given to parents and children that GnRH agonists are completely reversible might therefore be construed as misleading.

“The Medico-Legal ‘Making’ of ‘The Transgender Child’” discusses trans identity and cultural context in terms of the medical ethics of medically altering minors:

Abstract

Thirty years ago, the transgender child would have made no sense to the general public, nor to young people. Today, children and adolescents declare themselves transgender, the National Health Service diagnoses ‘gender dysphoria’, and laws and policy are developed which uphold young people’s ‘choice’ to transition and to authorize stages at which medical intervention is permissible and desirable. The figure of the ‘transgender child’ presumed by medicine and law is not a naturally occurring category of person external to medical diagnosis and legal protection. Medicine and law construct the ‘transgender child’ rather than that the ‘transgender child’ exists independently of medico-legal discourse. The ethical issue of whether the child and young person can ‘consent’ to social and medical transition goes beyond legal assessment of whether a person under16 years has the mental capacity to consent, understand to what s/he is consenting, and can express independent wishes. It shifts to examination of the recent making of ‘the transgender child’ through the complex of power/knowledge/ethics of medicine and the law of which the child can have no knowledge but within which its own desires are both constrained and incited.

References

Brunskull-Evans, H. (2019). The Medico-Legal ‘Making’ of ‘The Transgender Child’. Medical Law Review 27(4), 640- 657. doi.org/10.1093/medlaw/fwz013

Maxwell, J. (2019). Gender dysphoria: a question of informed consent. BMJ (367), 16442. Retrieved from doi.org/10.1136/bmj.l6442

Wren, B. (2019, June 14). issues arising in the provision of medical interventions for gender diverse children and adolescents. ACAMH National Conference. Retrieved from https://www.acamh.org/app/uploads/2015/06/16_05_Dr_Bernadette_Wren.pdf

Censorship and Avoidance of Problems in Pediatric Transition for Gender Dysphoria

News Commentary

The GHQ website has a section on trans activism and censorship and harassment of people who raise issues around the safety of pediatric transition for gender dysphoria. This is an ongoing issue.

Censorship

The Pediatric Endocrine Society does not want its members to discuss the safety of hormone blockers, their use in treating gender-dysphoric tweens, and whether or not minors can consent to irreversible medical treatments. “They strongly oppose” discourse. The below is a letter they sent out to members on October 29, 2019:

It appears a story about our organization was removed from an LGBT news site, the Star Observer, in Australia. The LGBT press does not print any negative information about transitioning children or teens, nor do they mention the association of childhood gender dysphoria with adult homosexuality. Gender Health Query sent Australian officials a letter in support of other people in Australia who are alarmed about the spiking numbers of minors presenting to services for gender transition. We sent the letter to LGBT organizations and media there, including the Star Observer. This link was only up for a short time before they removed the mention of it. If LGBT media entities will not discuss the risks involved in childhood and teen gender transitions to pre-gay and lesbian youth it is best for them to advertise themselves exclusively as trans rights organizations:

4thwavenow is a site for parents skeptical of pediatric medical transition. There are multiple accounts on their website of female teenagers, often same-sex attracted, who went through long periods of identifying as trans (a year or more) and then desisted. They were locked out of their account for using the term “natal male.” This term is widely used and doesn’t violate Twitter’s policy and wasn’t directed at a trans individual. Jesse Singal, a journalist who has received a lot of harassment and verbal abuse for writing accurately about youth and gender dysphoria, stated he contacted a Twitter employee who replied the lockout was a mistake. However, their account is still locked. This is suspicious, and it appears Twitter may be targeting this account. All other social media companies have similar policies as people opposing aspects of trans activism are often removed from social media platforms.

GNC-Centric, a Canadian detransitioned lesbian and activist, whose work is linked on the GHQ site, was removed from Twitter for using the biological term “male” for an individual. Scientifically accurate terms are disallowed on major platforms. As all other major platforms (Facebook, Youtube) have these policies, discussing the reality of a person’s biological sex is now widely banned on the internet. This calls into question why they should essentially own the public square and something that functions as a utility.

This Federalist article documented a case of a doctor accurately discussing the medical risks in transgender medicine. The video was worded in ways many people would find offensive. The author, Michelle Cretella, is also an anti-same-sex marriage activist as a member of the anti-LGB American Academy of Pediatricians. But it highlights the power social media companies have to silence criticism of pediatric transition.

In the original video, Dr. Michelle Cretella, a pediatrician and executive director at the American Academy of Pediatricians, commented on the insanity of wanting to mutilate one’s body for the sake of becoming transgender.

Marcus Evans, a British psychologist who has called into question the safety of the affirmative protocol in treating gender dysphoria, also had his account temporarily banned by Twitter.

Poor Reporting on Trans Issues

Jessie Singal writes about flaws in news articles reporting on gender dysphoria. The UK press has been reporting on the topic of detransition. As a result, Stonewall UK put out a “fact sheet” meant to “debunk” some information on detransition. We review some commentary Singal made about that here.

There are other articles Singal, one of the few reporters to cover this subject, has analyzed. This quote is from an article called How “'Science Vs' Made Two Gender-Dysphoria Errors:”

I’ve been worried, for a while, about the level of bias creeping into mainstream journalism about gender dysphoria, and the frequency with which major outlets make basic errors when covering this subject. I’ve touched on this from time to time: In one blog post responding to critiques of my own work I showed that two of the journalists who cover this subject regularly weren’t familiar with the well-documented phenomenon of trauma sometimes appearing to cause gender dysphoria — a phenomenon you will come across if you have conducted any in-depth interviews with gender clinicians, or read much of the literature on this subject. In another, I critiqued a Slate article that, in my view, took an irresponsible and unsupported stance on the complicated question of what it means when someone goes on hormones and finds their dysphoria has, at least temporarily, gotten worse.

Those older critiques can be found here.

He went on to cover two recent errors in the “Science Vs” podcast:

(1) Science Vs claims that in the fourth edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (the DSM-IV), “being trans” was a mental disorder, but that in the current edition, the DSM-5, being trans is no longer listed as such. This is incorrect on multiple counts…

(2) With regard to the gender dysphoria desistance debate — we’ll get there — the episode claims that “The only study we’ve found that zoomed in on kids [who identified strongly as being trans fairly early in life]… found that out of 45 of them… 44 grew up to be transgender.” Here Science Vs accidentally fabricated and published a study result. There is no such study. 

Below is a screencap pointing out the poor reporting by Vox:

@jessesingal

Rolling Stone is also involved with poor reporting on gender dysphoria. Rolling Stone is wrong that minors are not taking cross-sex hormones or even getting surgery:

@jessesingal

The Advocate failed to make several corrections to a defamatory article referencing Singal. The corrections they should have made can be found here.

Kirsty Entwistle is a British psychologist who has acted as a whistleblower around youths and the Tavistock clinic in the UK. She pointed out that Psychology Today deletes even reasonable comments that do not support anything other than total affirmation:

@seja_bondoso

The author of the article, Jack Turban, is also apparently unwilling to engage with arguments that present concerns about his research or possible false positives, even with other health professionals and scientists:

@seja_bondoso

Trans activists obtained a similar domain name to Transgendertrend in the UK, which is a group that addresses safety concerns around medically transitioning minors. Silencing campaigns commence against anyone who raises any issues or highlights negative outcomes that seem to be increasing. The similarly named site redirects people to Mermaids who believe in affirming all minors and providing them with surgery and hormones underage.

References:

4thWaveNow lockout: Twitter employee admits “mistake” to journalist, yet account remains disabled. (2019, December 11). Retrieved from https://4thwavenow.com/2019/12/16/4thwavenow-lockout-twitter-employee-admits-mistake-to-journalist-yet-account-remains-disabled/

Clark, Chrissy. (2019, November 5). YouTube Removes Video Of Doctor Discussing Medical Reality Of Transgenderism. The Federalist. Retrieved from https://thefederalist.com/2019/11/05/youtube-removes-video-of-doctor-discussing-medical-reality-of-transgenderism/

Singal, J. (2019, March 27). A Critique of the ‘Science Vs’ Episode on Being Transgender, Part 1. Retrieved from https://jessesingal.substack.com/p/how-science-vs-made-two-gender-dysphoria

Singal, J. (2018, November 21). Gender Dysphoria, Trauma, and Online Misinformation. Medium. Retrieved from https://medium.com/@jesse.singal/gender-dysphoria-trauma-and-online-misinformation-59a0ed43d275

Gender Dysphoria and Other Mental Health Issues are Rising in Teens

News

This post will add information about the rising rates of gender dysphoria and other mental health issues.

Recent Trans Mental Health Studies Criticized

Michael Biggs has been criticizing a study involving giving puberty blockers to tweens/teens, Costa (2015), that claims puberty blockers are psychologically beneficial. This study is from the Gender Identity Services (GIDS) in Britain, and Biggs writes the benefits to the patients may be exaggerated by the researchers:

RESULTS

At baseline, GD adolescents showed poor functioning with a CGAS mean score of 57.7 ± 12.3. GD adolescents' global functioning improved significantly after 6 months of psychological support (CGAS mean score: 60.7 ± 12.5; P < 0.001). Moreover, GD adolescents receiving also puberty suppression had significantly better psychosocial functioning after 12 months of GnRHa (67.4 ± 13.9) compared with when they had received only psychological support (60.9 ± 12.2, P = 0.001).

CONCLUSION: 

Psychological support and puberty suppression were both associated with an improved global psychosocial functioning in GD adolescents. Both these interventions may be considered effective in the clinical management of psychosocial functioning difficulties in GD adolescents.

He has published a letter about the Costa study stating the claim that blockers are beneficial is suspect.

“A Letter to the Editor Regarding the Original Article by Costa et al: Psychological Support, Puberty Suppression, and Psychosocial Functioning in Adolescents with Gender Dysphoria:”

He wrote another article about puberty blockers and the adverse effects on bone health which the researchers in the study also appear to downplay.

A Swedish study about trans people has been published using data from the registered Swedish public. This a beneficial longitudinal survey from an estimated 95% of their population. The study finds trans people have much higher rates for mental health problems and suicide risk.

“Reduction in Mental Health Treatment Utilization Among Transgender Individuals After Gender-Affirming Surgeries: A Total Population Study:”

Results:

Compared with the general population, individuals with a gender incongruence diagnosis were about six times as likely to have had a mood and anxiety disorder health care visit, more than three times as likely to have received prescriptions for antidepressants and anxiolytics, and more than six times as likely to have been hospitalized after a suicide attempt. Years since initiating hormone treatment was not significantly related to likelihood of mental health treatment (adjusted odds ratio=1.01, 95% CI=0.98, 1.03)…

But they state that with more time past medical transition attempts to access mental health services goes down. They say in the study this justifies medical transition: UPDATE: THE AMERICAN JOURNAL OF PSYCHIATRY NOW STATES THE DATA DOES NOT INDICATE SURGERY IMPROVES MENTAL HEALTH AND HAS ISSUED CORRECTIONS AFTER MULTIPLE LETTERS TO THE EDITOR EXPOSING THE STUDY’S FLAWS

However, increased time since last gender-affirming surgery was associated with reduced mental health treatment (adjusted odds ratio=0.92, 95% CI=0.87, 0.98).

Conclusions:

In this first total population study of transgender individuals with a gender incongruence diagnosis, the longitudinal association between gender-affirming surgery and reduced likelihood of mental health treatment lends support to the decision to provide gender-affirming surgeries to transgender individuals who seek them.

Mark Regenerus is a researcher out of the University of Austin who appears to have an anti-homosexual/bisexual bias. He wrote a much-criticized study that claims children of LGB parents do poorly and filed an amicus brief against same-sex marriage in federal court. Almost all research on children of gay or lesbian couples over the last several decades shows that children in gay/lesbian households do as well as other children. The study lumped in any single parent, divorced parent, or those with transient same-sex experiences all in together. This isn’t a comparison with a two parent home. The study was also criticized for sloppy data gathering and analysis. Criticism of Regnerus may be found here and the story was covered in the Washington Post and elsewhere. Due to this track record, GHQ corroborated his claims about the Swedish study.

Regnerus explains the data gathered in the study is very sound:

This is as good as it gets when it comes to studying transgender medical experiences and outcomes.

Like Biggs, Regnerus states the researchers’ claims of benefit of medical transition are inflated:

Data from a new study show that the beneficial effect of surgery for transgender people is so small that a clinic may have to perform as many as 49 gender-affirming surgeries before they could expect to prevent one additional person from seeking subsequent mental health treatment. Yet that’s not what the authors say. That the authors corrupted otherwise-excellent data and analyses with a skewed interpretation signals an abandonment of scientific rigor and reason in favor of complicity with activist groups seeking to normalize infertility-inducing and permanently disfiguring surgeries…

First, a word about the hormones: the study found no mental health benefits for hormonal interventions in this population. There is no effect of time since initiating hormone treatment on the likelihood of subsequently receiving mental health treatment. Given the surge in interest, demand, and supply of hormonal therapies to self-identified transgender persons today, you would think that it is a solution that pays obvious benefits in reduced subsequent need—over time—for treatment of mood or anxiety disorder, or hospitalization after a suicide attempt. Yet there was no statistically significant effect. In fact, the confidence intervals actually reveal a nearly significant aggravating effect of hormonal treatment on subsequent mental health needs.

It is the surgical effect, however, that has grabbed all the attention. Bränström and Pachankis detected a statistically significant effect of time since last “gender-affirming” surgery on reduced mental health treatment. The adjusted (for controls) odds ratio for this was 0.92, meaning that, among respondents diagnosed with “gender incongruence” who then received gender-affirming surgical treatment, the odds of being treated for a mood or anxiety disorder (in 2015) were reduced by about 8 percent for each year since the last surgery. In other words, it would appear that the surgery—or more typically, the series of surgeries—benefited their mental health.

The numbers are crunched here:

But the authors discuss a “linear decrease” in seeking subsequent mental health care that is simply not visible in the study’s graphs, where post-surgical mental health treatment hovers stably around 35 percent among those in their first nine years after surgery, and then drops to only 21 percent of those patients who are in their tenth (or higher) year since their last surgery. However, only 19 total respondents reported their last surgery as having been completed 10 or more years ago. By contrast, 574 (out of 1,018 total) reported their last surgery as having been conducted less than two years ago. (Surgical treatment is clearly surging.) This means that the apparently helpful overall effect of surgery is driven by this comparatively steep drop in mood/anxiety treatment among only 19 patients. By the math, that would seem to indicate that four out of these 19 Swedes (i.e., 21 percent) sought help in 2015 for mood/anxiety problems.

While the study reports the adjusted odds ratio of the overall effect of time since surgery (0.92), which I cannot replicate without having data access, you don’t need the data to calculate an unadjusted odds ratio from the information presented there. This can tell us the baseline effect of time since surgery on receiving mood and anxiety treatment, only without the controls (like age, income, etc.). Doing this reveals the fragility of the study’s key finding: if a mere three additional cases among these 19 had sought mental health treatment in 2015, there would appear to be no discernible overall effect of surgery on subsequent mental health. The study’s trumpeted conclusion may hinge on as few as three people in a data collection effort reaching 9.7 million Swedes, 2,679 of whom were diagnosed with gender incongruence and just over 1,000 of whom had gender-affirming surgery…

Another helpful statistic I calculated is called the NNT, or “Number Needed to Treat.” It’s a measure of clinical impact. In this study, the NNT appears to be a staggering 49, meaning the beneficial effect of surgery is so small that a clinic may have to perform 49 gender-affirming surgeries before they could expect to prevent one additional person from seeking subsequent mental health assistance 1. If no other treatment was available, or the treatment was not invasive and the hazards were insignificant, clinics might consider surgery a low-risk but low-payoff approach. But none of those applies here. Conducting 49 surgeries to secure one additional patient who benefits? Unheard of.

He goes on to criticize the optimistic interpretation of the research as justification for risky medical treatments:

Physicians should not be pushed to prescribe such profoundly consequential treatment by threat of call-out, malpractice suits, patient demand, or—in this case—the overreaching interpretations of quality data. Clinicians are being bullied into writing a radical prescription based on fear, not on sensible conclusions from empirical data…

This is not how normal medical research works.

He also criticizes a study on conversion therapy and suicidality here. He argues the framing was sloppy and conclusions overconfident.

First…

Psychiatrist and longtime gender identity expert Stephen Levine highlights the quandary facing professionals attempting to counsel transgender patients on the biological, social, and psychological risks posed by any treatment approach. Such risks are real and ought to be discussed. This is what ethical informed consent does. But in the USTS survey lingo, an ethical discussion of risk could be interpreted by the patient as “trying to stop you being trans.” In other words, obtaining informed consent may constitute GICE…

Second, the data come from a nonrandom, opt-in survey—the USTS—that only targeted networked, self-identified transgender or nonbinary persons by advertising their survey among “active transgender, LGBTQ, and allied organizations.” There’s nothing wrong with collecting data using a nonrandom approach like this—I’ve done it myself and will do it again. The problem is when such data are delivered to the reader, as these were, in a way that suggests the conclusions would be consonant with everyone who has identified as transgender or experienced gender identity disorder or dysphoria…

Third, building on the dubious perception of representativeness, the authors report “confidence intervals” for their statistical “estimates.” Why they do so is beyond me. It’s a charade.

Fourth, the authors seem largely uninterested in putting their implied causation—that past conversion attempts affect present mood and suicidality—to the test. Instead, a subtext of injustices committed against the respondents infuses the study, suggesting a decidedly external locus of control in the lives of transgender Americans…

Trans Youth, Mental Health, and Suicide Risk

*Suicide ideation is socially contagious in young people and caution in reporting is warranted to not sensationalize it or make things appear hopeless to troubled people. If you or someone you know is struggling with depression or has had thoughts of harming themselves or taking their own life, there's help for you and hope. The National Suicide Prevention Lifeline (1-800-273-8255) provides 24/7, free, confidential support for people in distress, as well as best practices for professionals and resources to aid in prevention and crisis situations.

GHQ strives to cover the issue of suicide risk as objectively as possible, and we never advocate shunning a transgender youth or minimizing their distress. One can find an objective review of the data around trans people and suicide risk in Topic 15 and a summary here.

A case study of a youth who attempted suicide despite a supportive environment provides salient quotes about current trans demographics:

Gender dysphoria (GD) among adolescents is not uncommon. A recent survey among high school students found that 1.2-2.7% considered themselves transgender or uncertain of gender [1-2]. Reports also suggest an increasing number of adolescents referred to specialized gender identity clinical services for the treatment of gender dysphoria [3]. Any clinician who cares for young patients should be well informed of the impact gender dysphoria and related treatments have on mental health. Awareness of the increased prevalence of depression, anxiety, and suicidal ideation among these individuals can prepare healthcare providers to anticipate and respond appropriately to their presentation.

A 2017 chart review from a transgender clinic in Cincinnati found that among youth aged 12-22 with a diagnosis of gender dysphoria, 58% had another psychiatric diagnosis, and 30.3% reported at least one suicide attempt [4]. Two similar studies support these findings, with attempted suicide rates of 31% and 26% among transgender or gender dysphoric adolescents [2, 5].

Recent cohorts of trans-identified youth seem to focus on weight issues heavily:

Discussion

While the long-term outcome of this patient remains to be seen, this is a significant example of the psychiatric complexity of gender dysphoria. Despite outpatient treatment and supportive family, this patient suffered from persistent suicidal ideation. The repeated expressions of extreme dissatisfaction with appearance were notable. It has been found that among transgender youth, a significantly greater proportion of those who had attempted suicide expressed weight-related body dissatisfaction than those who had not. They also had a higher rate of negative assessment by others of appearance [5]. More recently, another study confirmed a significant correlation between suicidality and a desire for weight change among adolescents with gender dysphoria [4]. There has long been a natural association between body dissatisfaction and gender dysphoria; however, these reports and this case highlight the importance of assessing the degree and characterization of body dissatisfaction as they may contribute to suicidal risk.

Just for perspective, several studies on the overall declining mental health and an increase in suicide risk in teens and young adults are included here:

Business Insider

Suicide rate for people aged 10 to 24 increased by 56% between 2007 to 2017, according to new data from the CDC.

-For children aged 10 to 14, the suicide rate tripled between 2007 to 2017 after years of decline.

-Suicide had increased among millennials, but the data suggests Gen Z might be most at risk for mental illness.

Social media seems to be a reason many people believe is a factor since the rise of it coincides with these increases:

Social media might be fueling the increase in mental illness, as Gen Z is the first truly digital generation. Pew Research Center found 45% of teens aged 13 to 17 said they use the internet "almost constantly." Over-use of social media can cause loneliness, depression, and anxiety, the Anxiety and Depression Association of America reported.

“Are Mental Health Disorder Rates in Youth Really Increasing?”

A 2019 Gallup poll found that sadness, anger, and fear have risen for the second consecutive year around the world.

However, it is also true that we’ve experienced a burgeoning of resources, the highest education rates ever in the country’s history, and an overall decreasing violent crime rate. The same innovations that are said to be isolating also allow us to express ourselves, connect with others around the world, and stay informed. Steven Pinker, a professor of psychology at Harvard University, showed that despite the bleak worldview of the 24/7 news cycle, many metrics reveal that we are living in the most peaceful time in human history.

A Rolling Stone article emphasizes the need to provide youth with support and hope:

That said, research does indicate that early intervention in the form of initiatives like suicide screening at emergency rooms and pediatricians’ offices does play a role in helping to prevent suicide, as does exposure to positive stories about people recovering from feelings of suicidal ideation. Which is why it’s important to interpret the CDC’s finding not as cause for panic or rampant speculation, but as a call for heightened awareness for teens who may be at increased risk.

Johnathan Haidt, the author of Coddling of the American Mind, discusses these increases in mental health problems. He also notes the fact that females are most at risk and offers some suggestions about how to approach this issue:

In 2018 Micheal Biggs (mentioned earlier) wrote an article about these increases affecting girls disproportionately when it comes to gender dysphoria for 4thwavenow (“A community of parents & others questioning the medicalization of gender-atypical youth”):

Micheal Biggs/4thwavenow: “Attempted suicide by American LGBT adolescents”

The graph above shows the estimated odds of a student reporting attempted suicide, compared to heterosexual boys. As the Advocate emphasized, teens who identified as female-to-male transgender had the highest risk of attempted suicide; the odds were four times higher than for heterosexual boys. What went unnoticed is that the risk was just as high for bisexual girls.

The next highest rates (triple the odds compared to heterosexual boys) were for bisexual boys, lesbian girls and for kids who identified as nonbinary. The latter’s sex was not recorded, but the majority are likely to be female; other survey evidence suggests that two-thirds of trans-identified adolescents are female (Eisenberg et al. 2017).

The next highest rates (roughly double the odds for heterosexual boys) were for gay boys, for male-to-female transgender kids, and for kids who were unsure of their gender identity (whose sex was not recorded). Finally, heterosexual girls had a significantly higher risk than heterosexual boys.

Stephanie Davies-Arai and Nic Williams’ critique of Stonewall’s School Report suggested that “[t]he ‘transgender’ category may just serve to cover up the scale of suicide attempts and self-harm rates of girls and young women.” Their conjecture is vindicated by this survey evidence from the United States.

“Reason Lost to Suicide in Trans Debate” is an article that lays out the politicization of the suicide issue in the debate around pediatric medical transition. There is increased suicide risk in dysphoric young people and at the same time this is often exaggerated and used to get the public to comply with activist demands:

Also troubling is the activist mantra that kids will kill themselves if the trans project encounters any obstacle, personal or political. Lil­lian says: “I don’t understand why this one mental health condition is the exception to international best practice around how we talk about suicide.” Some suicide appears contagious, hence the well-known advice: don’t harp on the risk for a specific group, don’t imply taking your life is a default option, don’t catastrophise setbacks, don’t oversimplify the causes of suicide. Activists rediscover the risk of suicide contagion when they misrepresent media coverage that questions their narrative.

This is an older survey but is included here for its interesting conclusion that people with alternative identities such as nonbinary and FtM are at greater risk for sexual assault:

ustranssurvey.org

ustranssurvey.org

There is a strong push to stop trans identity and gender dysphoria itself from being defined as a mental illness by trans activists and some doctors who provide trans healthcare. An example is provided by Dr. Micheal Frist and Dr. Jack Drescher who want it redefined in the next ICD-11 (“International Classification of Diseases”) and the DSM (a mental health diagnostic manual). They want it defined as a type of physical body defect that needs to be corrected and thus defined purely as a medical issue.

In the below screencap, Dr. Ray Blanchard mentions theories relating gender dysphoria to other body dysmorphias and paraphilias. He asks if those who have made this connection would argue for the same thing to apply to these other conditions. He is demonstrating that trans identity is politicized in ways other body dysmorphias aren’t:

@BlanchardPhD

References:

Attempted suicide by American LGBT adolescents. (2018, October 28). Retrieved from https://4thwavenow.com/2018/10/23/attempted-suicide-by-american-lgbt-adolescents/

Biggs, M. (2019). A Letter to the Editor Regarding the Original Article by Costa et al: Psychological Support, Puberty Suppression, and Psychosocial Functioning in Adolescents with Gender Dysphoria. The Journal of Sexual Medicine 16(12) 2043. doi.org/10.1016/j.jsxm.2019.09.002

Biggs, M. (2019, July 29). The Tavistock’s Experiment with Puberty Blockers. Department of Sociology and St Cross College, University of Oxford. Retrieved from http://users.ox.ac.uk/~sfos0060/Biggs_ExperimentPubertyBlockers.pdf

Bränström, R., Pachankis, J.E. (2019). Reduction in Mental Health Treatment Utilization Among Transgender Individuals After Gender-Affirming Surgeries: A Total Population Study. The American Journal of Psychiatry. doi.org/10.1176/appi.ajp.2019.19010080

D. Carpenter. (2015, May 10). A “reality check” for the Regnerus study on gay parenting [UPDATED]. The Washington Post. Retrieved from https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/volokh-conspiracy/wp/2015/05/10/new-criticism-of-regnerus-study-on-parenting-study/

Cheng, S., Powell, B. (2015). Measurement, methods, and divergent patterns: Reassessing the effects of same-sex parents. Social Science Research 52, 615-626. doi.org/10.1016/j.ssresearch.2015.04.005

Costa, R., Dunsford, M., Skagerberg, E, Holt, V., Carmichael, P., Colizzi, M. (2015). Psychological Support, Puberty Suppression, and Psychosocial Functioning in Adolescents with Gender Dysphoria. The Journal of Sexual Medicine 12(11), 2206 - 2214. doi.org/10.1111/jsm.13034

Day, D.S., Saunders, J.J., Matorin, A. (2019). Gender Dysphoria and Suicidal Ideation: Clinical Observations from a Psychiatric Emergency Service. Cureus. doi: 10.7759/cureus.6132

Dickson, E. (2019 October 18). Teen Suicide Is on the Rise and No One Knows Why. Rolling Stone. Retrieved from https://www.rollingstone.com/culture/culture-news/teen-suicide-study-increase-why-900711/?fbclid=IwAR0PUvjFbmcal-fZ4easCS266R37otmCguB-9T1gulKCylWnJTWNkWBag-M

Baiocco, R., Carone, N., Ioverno, S., Lingiardi, V. (2018). Same-Sex and Different-Sex Parent Families in Italy. Journal of Developmental & Behavioral Pediatrics 39(7). 555–563. doi: 10.1097/DBP.0000000000000583

Haidt, J. (n.d.). How to improve mental health using ideas from the book. The Coddling. Retrieved from https://www.thecoddling.com/better-mental-health

Kiersz, A., Akhtar, A. (2019, October 17). Suicide is Gen Z's second-leading cause of death, and it's a worse epidemic than anything millennials faced at that age. Business Insider. Retrieved from https://www.businessinsider.com/cdc-teenage-gen-z-american-suicide-epidemic?fbclid=IwAR0xFdMxxECTrJFnyKpSjUAxS8f6rq44ITk6LE7Pc0ooxEGcsnv-ZqrZnmk&utm_campaign=sf-insider-main&utm_medium=social&utm_source=facebook.com

Lane, B. (2019, November 2). Reason Lost to Suicide in Trans Debate. The Australian. Retrieved from https://www.theaustralian.com.au/inquirer/reason-lost-to-suicide-in-trans-debate/news-story/af31e3357a4ec08f9a3e91227b3424bf

Noam, G. (2019, November, 7). Are Mental Health Disorder Rates in Youth Really Increasing? Psychology Today. Retrieved from https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/the-inner-life-students/201911/are-mental-health-disorder-rates-in-youth-really-increasing

Regnerus, M. (2019, September 18). Does “Conversion Therapy” Hurt People Who Identify as Transgender? The New JAMA Psychiatry Study Cannot Tell Us. Public Discourse. Retrieved from https://www.thepublicdiscourse.com/2019/09/57145/

Regnerus, M. (2015). How different are the adult children of parents who have same-sex relationships? Findings from the New Family Structures Study. Social Science Research 41(4). 752-770. doi.org/10.1016/j.ssresearch.2012.03.009

Regnerus, M. (2019, November 13). New Data Show “Gender-Affirming” Surgery Doesn’t Really Improve Mental Health. So Why Are the Study’s Authors Saying It Does? Public Discourse. Retrieved from https://www.thepublicdiscourse.com/2019/11/58371/

The Rocky Road to Removing Gender Dysphoria from DSM-5. (2019, November 1). Retrieved from https://newyorkcomingout.org/events/event/the-rocky-road-to-removing-gender-dysphoria-from-dsm-5

The Report from the 2015 U.S. Transgender Survey. (2015). Retrieved from http://www.ustranssurvey.org

Turban J.L., Beckwith N., Reisner S.L., Keuroghlian A.S. (2019). Association Between Recalled Exposure to Gender Identity Conversion Efforts and Psychological Distress and Suicide Attempts Among Transgender Adults. JAMA Psychiatry(11), 1-9. doi:10.1001/jamapsychiatry.2019.2285

Articles: Nature and Nurture- Causes of Trans Identity and Sexual Orientation

News

On the GHQ website, Topic 10 ( NATURE VERSUS NURTURE: WHAT OTHER FACTORS BESIDES “INNATE GENDER IDENTITY” CONTRIBUTE TO TRANS IDENTIFICATION IN YOUNG PEOPLE) reviews the research that addresses biological and environmental factors in the formation of trans and LGB identities. We are updating our site with new articles and research addressing these issues.

*Blog posts updating relevant information regarding our 17 “Topics” are linked at the end of each topic to keep our site updated with the newest information to aid anyone who may be researching these subject matters.

Social Contagion

An article titled “Culture-Bound Syndromes: Satanic Panics, Multiple Personality Disorder & ROGD” on the website Areo discusses mental health issues and social contagions. GHQ covers this same subject in Topic 11, providing a long list of examples of social contagions, most involving female teens and young adults. This may be relevant to the large increases of female trans-identified teenagers.

The author, Louise Perry, first reviews the rise is diagnoses of MPD/DID (multiple personality disorder):

MPD/DID was a psychiatric phenomenon that appeared suddenly in the 1970s, following the release of Sybil, a book (and later a film) that portrayed a woman who had developed multiple personalities as a result of childhood trauma. Within a short time, the condition became astonishingly well known. More people were diagnosed with MPD/DID in the five years prior to 1986 than in the preceding two centuries. But then, just as suddenly, it disappeared.

Perry also covers the “Satanic panic” child cult-ritual sexual abuse scandals that started in the 1980s. A lot of damage happened due to false accusations and therapists were implicated in leading children on:

Satanic panic created an antagonistic binary, which still persists to this day, between those who believed in the existence of the cults, and those who didn’t. It was perversely difficult to adopt a position somewhere in between—to suggest, for instance, that, although the apparent cult victims had experienced sexual abuse, which had caused them long-term trauma, the satanic elements of their accounts were likely exaggerated or invented, the result of social contagion.

Diane Ehernsaft, one of the most aggressive supporters of the affirmative model in treating gender-dysphoric children/teens, was involved in reviewing claims by children of satanic sex abuse. She published a paper in 1992 covering this matter.

Perry describes the social contagions as “culture-bound syndromes” and provides several more historical examples of psychic epidemics to add to a long list covered on the GHQ website here.

We can now see, with the benefit of hindsight, that MPD/DID is an example of a culture-bound syndrome, an anthropological term for a psychiatric condition that is unique to one culture and historical time period. Examples from other parts of the world include Amok, a condition found in Malaysia, in which sufferers are understood to suddenly become extremely violent towards anyone in their immediate vicinity, having never previously shown signs of aggression. Another well-studied example is Dhat, a condition of the Indian sub-continent, in which men report physical weakness and impotence as a result of semen supposedly leaking out of their bodies when they urinate. Culture-bound syndromes have long been a source of fascination for anthropologists, as they often highlight crucial cultural differences in understandings of the relationship between mind and body. 

Such conditions are to be found in the western world too, although they may be harder for westerners to identify. Edward Shorter is a historian of psychosomatic illnesses, who has studied the psychiatric conditions of nineteenth-century Europe, including hysteria and neurasthenia, which fit the profile for culture-bound syndromes.

The author describes the relationship between suggestibility of these new diagnoses and Borderline Personality Disorder. BPD is known for identity instability and emotional dysregulation:

It is now known that patients diagnosed with MPD/DID are clinically indistinguishable from those diagnosed with Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD). This condition is characterised by emotional volatility, propensity to self harm, extreme vulnerability to negative emotions and difficulty in maintaining stable relationships. It is mostly found in women: it seems that men with similar tendencies are more likely to manifest Antisocial Personality Disorder.

This is relevant to the discussion of gender dysphoria because some GD mental health professionals are reporting a large number of females with BPD presenting to gender clinics. Aydin Olson, an affirmative model advocate, discussed this at a Gender Odysee conference in 2017. An anonymous source has told GHQ the same thing about a gender clinic in the central United States.

Perry then discusses “Rapid Onset Gender Dysphoria” which describes teens coming out as trans despite not expressing GD in childhood and studied by Lisa Littman. Affirmative model advocates and trans activists have strongly condemned the concept as the article points out. But there have been clusters of trans-identified teens in numbers unheard of in the past:

Aside from MPD/DID, there are a number of conditions recognised by contemporary Western psychiatry that seem to fit the culture-bound syndrome model. Anorexia nervosa is one example that has been a source of interest to anthropologists, and so-called Rapid Onset Gender Dysphoria (ROGD) is another—more controversial—possibility that has only recently emerged…

She [Littman] found that a large proportion of these young people had announced their intention to transition suddenly, out of the blue, having previously shown no signs of cross-sex identification. Littman also notes that:

​”The expected prevalence of transgender young adult individuals is 0.7%. Yet, more than a third of the friendship groups described in this study had 50% or more of the AYAs [adolescents and young adults] in the group becoming transgender-identified in a similar time frame, a localized increase to more than 70 times the expected prevalence rate”…

Other researchers have expressed support for Littman’s conclusions, among them Ray Blanchard and Kenneth Zucker, two of the leading experts on the treatment of Gender Identity Disorder. Moreover both Blanchard and Zucker have explicitly compared ROGD with MPD/DID. Some of the similarities are indeed arresting. Both the trans movement and the MPD/DID movement arose suddenly, although the groundwork had been laid over a long preceding period. Both saw a huge spike in diagnoses among young, vulnerable females. Both made extreme claims about the nature of identity, which seemed to defy conventional wisdom. Both were (and continue to be) politically charged, with an established dichotomy between goodies who are on the side of suffering victims, and baddies who refuse to accept those victims’ accounts of themselves.

Perry cautions the mental health profession not to promote potentially harmful fads:

Hence, patients unconsciously draw from what Shorter terms “the symptom pool”—the limited array of symptoms that are considered credible, not only by medical professionals, but by other members of a given society. For young women in nineteenth-century Vienna, this might mean sudden limb paralysis. For their counterparts in 1980s America, manifesting MPD/DID was a far more acceptable way of expressing trauma. Dogmatic therapists, who were convinced not only that MPD/DID was a real condition, but also that it was far more common than anyone else realised, subtly encouraged their patients to manifest the symptoms. Allen J. Frances, chair of the group who put together the fourth edition of the DSM, at the height of the MPD/DID phenomenon, writes now that the role of social contagion is indisputable…

However, we must be vigilant against the potential harms of psychiatric phenomena that offer false certainty to vulnerable people. Fear of causing offence should not be a barrier to rigorous research, particularly when patients are considering undergoing irreversible medical interventions. It is not kind to promote such conditions without evidence, nor is itcruel to be sceptical of them. Sometimes, in fact, scepticism can be a form of kindness.

Alexander Korte is a gender clinician and researcher who has expressed concern for early transition as being a form of gay and lesbian eugenics (Korte 2008):

(Korte 2008)

Interview with Dr. Alexander Korte contains commentary from his involvement in the treatment of youth with gender dysphoria. He addresses the drastic rise in referrals, the changing demographics towards large increases of trans-identified females, possible comparisons to the MPD craze, and discusses the risk of pediatric transition to LGB youth who may not be given enough time to mature. Some comments from the interview below:

Regarding this, we see a marked increase in the number of biological girls, especially teenagers, in early or mid-adolescence.

What are the reasons for that?

One important reason, I think, could be that puberty requires much greater integration and adaptation skills of biological girls than it does of boys.  In this sense, we may possibly draw a parallel to eating disorders.  For anorexia, we assume a similar cause, namely that female adolescents are overwhelmed with the integration of sexuality at this age.  Some fail to rise to this challenge in puberty.  In particular they are overwhelmed with the underlying beauty and body image ideals, which they perceive as a powerful stressor and which put a lot of pressure on them.

You want kids to go through puberty.  Why?

Evidence shows that puberty-blocking treatments, which are presented by the advocates of such treatments as medically harmless, further a transsexual development and render it impossible for the patient to make experiences necessary for the formation of their identity including socio-sexual formation, i.e. relationships.  These are necessary experiences, also, for a homosexual coming out.  So in this I see the real problem.  That a puberty blocking treatment, to put it bluntly, could possibly be something like a homosexuality averting project.  Now this is obviously unethical for a medical treatment and nobody would wish for something like that…

I think what we are dealing with is a zeitgeist moment…

I have taken a clear stance. I am critical of the treatment [puberty blockers]. I think it needs to be reconsidered. The problem is the proportion of children taking puberty suppressing drugs who later decide to take cross sex hormones as a further step: the proportion of these children is close to 100%…

From a cultural-studies or sociological perspective view I would summarize: what’s driving this is modern society’s utopian belief in progress. This belief promises total satisfaction of needs…

Yeah, well, so whenever you talk about it as a doctor or a scientist, you have to expect criticism. This really only shows how ideologically mined the terrain is. And it is just this mostly ideological discussion that makes a fact-based and calmly conducted scientific examination of the subject impossible at times. That’s tragic, of course. We know this: ideology is the death of science just as populism is the death of democracy.

Similarities between Trans & Opposite Sex Controls

We are adding three studies on “third gender” individuals not previously referenced on the GHQ website. “Striving for Prestige in Samoa: A Comparison of Men, Women, and Fa’afafine” discusses effeminate males in the South Pacific and their attitudes about altruism:

ABSTRACT

In numerous non-Western cultures around the world, a small but meaningful proportion of individuals occupy alternative gender categories beyond the man/woman binary. A substantial body of past research has shown that feminine, same-sex attracted males in Samoa—a nonbinary gender known as fa’afafine—are more altruistic toward their nieces and nephews than are Samoan men and women. The present study examined the degree to which these kin-directed altruistic tendencies of fa’afafine are motivated by striving for prestige, and hence demonstrating value, within their family. Results showed that cisgender men and women do not differ in the degree to which they seek familial recognition of their altruistic behavior toward nieces and nephews. However, compared to men, fa’afafine sought significantly more acknowledgment of this altruism. These results illustrate one proximate cognitive mechanism for the elevated kin-directed altruism of fa’afafine and highlight the importance of the sociocultural context in which these motivations develop.

“Birth order and recalled childhood gender nonconformity in Samoan men and fa'afafine” discusses homosexuality and fraternal birth order. It seems to be a fact that a male is more likely to be homosexual the more older brothers he has.

"A Retrospective Study of Childhood Sex-Typed Behavior in Istmo Zapotec Men, Women, and Muxes" is a very relevant study to the GHQ website as it compares transgender effeminate males and homosexual males and finds the transgender individuals tend towards more female pattern behavior than homosexual males.

It would be extremely helpful if there could be a way to identify these children in distinct categories to understand how best to help them deal with being gender nonconforming in the gender-focused culture that exists everywhere. However, much of the information on the GHQ website points to a continuum between gnc gay/lesbian and trans that makes the issue of medically altering minors much more complicated and likely to risk false positives:

Abstract

Previous research has consistently demonstrated that both transgender and cisgender androphilic males (i.e., males attracted to adult males) display and recall higher levels of childhood female-typical behavior (CFTB) and lower levels of childhood male-typical behavior (CMTB) compared to gynephilic males (i.e., males attracted to adult females). In adulthood, the recalled CFTB and CMTB scores of cisgender androphilic males tend to be intermediate to those of opposite-sex-attracted men and women, whereas transgender androphilic males tend to score similar to women. These studies have been mostly conducted in Euro-American cultures. We examined recalled childhood sex-typed behavior (CSTB) among the Istmo Zapotec—a pre-Colombian culture in the Istmo region of Oaxaca, Mexico, where cisgender and transgender androphilic males are recognized as a third gender, known locally as muxes. The present study sought to determine whether Istmo Zapotec men (n = 180), cisgender muxe nguiiu (n = 63), transgender muxe gunaa (n = 120), and women (n = 138) differ with respect to recalled CFTB and CMTB. Our results indicate that men recalled significantly less CFTB and more CMTB than women. Cisgender muxesscored in between men and women. Transgender muxes scored similar to women. These findings provide further evidence that childhood sex-atypical behavior is a cross-culturally universal and normative developmental aspect of male androphilia, regardless of whether it manifests in the cisgender or transgender form. This is the first study to present quantitative data comparing the recalled CSTB of cisgender and transgender androphilic males from within the same non-Euro-American culture.

The Trans Youth Project has released several papers around their study that shows trans-identified children look the same on gendered behavior measures as the opposite sex they identify with. This finding is similar to the prior study on trans muxes who also report gendered behavior and interests that match up with female averages.

“Similarity in transgender and cisgender children’s gender development” provides charts that show responses to tests on gendered behavior look very similar to cross-sex controls as demonstrated by the graphic below:

Gülgöz (2019)

There is an observable pattern that children who are more extremely gender nonconforming are more likely to have gender dysphoria and are more likely to seek social transition. Parental and other outside influences are not shown to affect the child’s gender nonconforming (gnc) behavior. This reality isn’t something that we argue against on our site. Gender Health Query opposes any gender behavior policing of young people. But the evidence points to a continuum of gender dysphoria where there may be some children at risk for over-medicalization as children/tweens/teens as they exist between a place of insistent trans-identified youth and youth who may accept themself as a gnc, likely gay/lesbian person.

A statement from their paper is an example of the variations in behavior and identification:

“Predicting Early-Childhood Gender Transitions”

They also speak to the power of gender stereotypes and their effects on children whether trans-identified or not (called here “essentialist” thinking):

Gülgöz (2019)

“Gender essentialism in transgender and cisgender children”

While these charts may be used to argue for gender essentialism in trans-identified children, the authors state this isn’t proof their identities are sure to be static as they grow:

Gülgöz (2019)

Autogynephilia

The GHQ website covers the topic of autogynephilic MtF trans identity in heterosexual/bisexual males. They generally reveal their identity post-puberty and differ from the homosexual transexuals who present as very feminine as children. A graphic by clinical psychologist Dr. Morandina, shows the developmental pathways:

@Morangreenie, Australian Association of Cognitive Behaviour Therapy (AACBT) lecture

Autogynephilia (AGP) is a typology coined by Dr, Ray Blanchard. Quillette interviewed Dr. Ray Blanchard on the subject (What Is Autogynephilia? An Interview with Dr Ray Blanchard”):

This typology—which continues to attract a great deal of controversy—categorizes trans women (that is, natal males who identify as women) into two discrete groups.

The first group is composed of ‘androphilic’ (sometimes termed ‘homosexual’) trans women, who are exclusively sexually attracted to men and are markedly feminine in behaviour and appearance from a young age. They typically begin the process of medical transition before the age of 30.

The second group are motivated to transition as a result of what Blanchard termed ‘autogynephilia’: a sexual orientation defined by sexual arousal at the thought or image of oneself as a woman. Autogynephiles are typically sexually attracted to women, although they may also identify as asexual or bisexual. They are more likely to transition later in life and to have been conventionally masculine in presentation up until that point.

A quote from the article references bioethicist Alice Dreger who has written on the subject:

Although Blanchard’s typology is supported by a wide range of sexologists and other researchers, it is strongly rejected by most trans activists who dispute the existence of autogynephilia. The medical historian Alice Dreger, whose 2015 book Galileo’s Middle Finger included an account of the autogynephilia controversy, summarises the conflict:

“There’s a critical difference between autogynephilia and most other sexual orientations: Most other orientations aren’t erotically disrupted simply by being labeled. When you call a typical gay man homosexual, you’re not disturbing his sexual hopes and desires. By contrast, autogynephilia is perhaps best understood as a love that would really rather we didn’t speak its name. The ultimate eroticism of autogynephilia lies in the idea of really becoming or being a woman, not in being a natal male who desires to be a woman.”

The theory is also supported by psychologist Michael Bailey who discusses this in “The Man Who Would Be Queen: The Science of Gender-Bending and Transsexualism.” Motivations for this are explained by MtF researcher, Anne Lawrence, who identifies as autogynephilic:

Autogynephilia is defined as a male's propensity to be sexually aroused by the thought of himself as a female. It is the paraphilia that is theorized to underlie transvestism and some forms of male-to-female (MtF) transsexualism.

Blanchard on autogynephilia and trans activism and the way this promotes denialism in the mental health profession:

Subsequently other strange and unexpected (to me) events befell my notion of autogynephilia. Modern trans activists reframed transsexualism/transgenderism as a political problem rather than a clinical problem. The flat denial that autogynephilia exists became a canon of modern trans activism, trans activism become a sub-department of the Social Justice Movement, and the Social Justice Movement became a primary combatant in the ongoing, pervasive Culture Wars…

Subsequently other strange and unexpected (to me) events befell my notion of autogynephilia. Modern trans activists reframed transsexualism/transgenderism as a political problem rather than a clinical problem. The flat denial that autogynephilia exists became a canon of modern trans activism, trans activism become a sub-department of the Social Justice Movement, and the Social Justice Movement became a primary combatant in the ongoing, pervasive Culture Wars.

The upshot is that most trans activists—and, in solidarity, their “allies”—deny that autogynephilia exists. Since most university psychologists, sociologists, and humanities professors are “allies,” the topic of autogynephilia may be omitted from Human Sexuality or Gender Studies courses for a generation. The other side in the Culture Wars (whatever one wishes to call that side) are prepared to recognize the existence of autogynephilia as soon as they learn of it, but they tend to hurl it as an insult at male-to-female trans who offend them. That, of course, is not what I intended when I coined the term 30 years ago…

At present, many heterosexual MTFs—in their own view, lesbian trans women—police online forums ceaselessly for any mention of autogynephilia.

Blanchard on the demographics of this fairly common paraphilia:

When I looked at the relative numbers of autogynephilic and androphilic gender-dysphoric males back in 1987, the autogynephilic cases were already a majority, approaching 60 percent. The proportion had reached 75 percent by 2010, and it might be even higher now.

Blanchard supports medical transition but not affirmation in all cases:

This depends on the intensity of the autogynephilia and, perhaps more importantly, on the severity of any gender dysphoria that arises in consequence of it. For mild or intermittent gender dysphoria, counselling or cognitive behavior therapy may be sufficient to help the patient through “flare-ups” of dysphoric feelings. This would be a logical choice of treatment if the patient has a marriage that he wants to maintain or a valued career that would inevitably suffer if he attempted to transition to the female role.

He does not believe trans activist agreements that females are also autogynephilic in their sexuality and thus “just like trans women”:

It seems a lot less feasible when one considers the various other ways in which some autogynephilic men symbolize themselves as women in their masturbation fantasies. Examples I have collected include: sexual fantasies of menstruation and masturbatory rituals that simulate menstruation; giving oneself an enema, while imagining the anus is a vagina and the enema is a vaginal douche; helping the maid clean the house; sitting in a girls’ class at school; knitting in the company of other women; and riding a girls’ bicycle. These examples argue that autogynephilic sexual fantasies have a fetishistic flavor that makes them qualitatively different from any superficially similar ideation in natal females.

There is also the telling phenomenon of autogynephiles who are involuntarily aroused by cross-dressing or cross-gender ideation, and who complain about difficulties changing into women’s attire without triggering erection or ejaculation. It seems likely that few natal women would give the analogous reports that they wish that they could put on their clothes without triggering vaginal lubrication or orgasm.

GHQ has discussed the rise in heterosexual females coming out as trans and identifying as gay men. Blanchard does not believe this is a reverse situation and refers to these individuals as autohomoerotics:

Do you think that natal females ever experience autoandrophilia [sexual arousal at the thought or image of oneself as male]?…

Until recent times, autohomoerotic female-to-male transsexuals were quite rare. The differences between autogynephilia in males and autohomoeroticism in females may seem subtle. Autogynephilic (male) gender dysphorics are attracted to the idea of having a woman’s body; autohomoerotic (female) gender dysphorics are attracted to the idea of participating in gay male sex. For autogynephiles, becoming a lesbian woman is a secondary goal—the logical consequence of being attracted to women and wanting to become a woman. For autohomoerotics, becoming a gay man appears to be the primary goal or very close to it.

There are also striking differences in developmental history. Many autogynephilic trans people report a period in their lives, usually during puberty, when they put on women’s undergarments (often “borrowed” from their mothers or sisters) and masturbated to orgasm. In contrast, self-reports of masturbating to orgasm in men’s underwear are missing in the histories of autohomoerotic females.

Due to the sexual nature of autogynephilia, there has been a strong activist backlash, involving very abusive behavior, that has been successful in eradicating this as a diagnosis among mental health professionals. The reasons for this are purely political. Due to the rise of the internet, there are AGPs who admit this this is the main motivation for heterosexual males who transition, and AGP narratives that fit this diagnosis can be found everywhere on trans social media sites. Some of them actually created an “Autogynephilia Awareness Day” for November 20th.

@AGPAwarenessDay

As a result of the charged identity politics around autogynephilia, the mental health community has not addressed the reality of this condition. Dr. Bailey believes this is dishonest and malpractice:

Examples of how some of these individuals seek validation for their autogynephilic drives from the lesbian community (which is causing a lot of conflicts within the LGBT population) can be found here.

Autism spectrum

Gender clinics have noted a consistent pattern of high rates of autism in people with gender dysphoria. We are linking a few studies here to understand this subject further.

“Is exposure to high levels of maternal intrauterine testosterone a causal factor common to male sex, autism, gender dysphoria, and non-right-handedness?”:

Abstract

We present evidence that male sex, autism, gender dysphoria and non-right-handedness share a common cause, viz. high levels of maternal first-trimester intrauterine testosterone. This provides an explanation for the (as yet unexplained) co-occurrences and co-morbidities between these conditions and pathologies…

“Initial Clinical Guidelines for Co-Occurring Autism Spectrum Disorder and Gender Dysphoria or Incongruence in Adolescents”:

Abstract

Evidence indicates an overrepresentation of youth with co-occurring autism spectrum disorders (ASD) and gender dysphoria (GD). The clinical assessment and treatment of adolescents with this co-occurrence is often complex, related to the developmental aspects of ASD. There are no guidelines for clinical care when ASD and GD co-occur; however, there are clinicians and researchers experienced in this co-occurrence. This study develops initial clinical consensus guidelines for the assessment and care of adolescents with co-occurring ASD and GD, from the best clinical practices of current experts in the field…

The paper “Perspectives of Mothers of Transgender and Gender-Nonconforming Children With Autism Spectrum Disorder” discusses parents reactions to having a child with GD and ASD:

This study represents findings from interviews at two time points with three mothers of transgender and gender-nonconforming (TGNC) children (ages 8 to 12 years at T1) with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Of interest was the mothers’ experiences of raising a TGNC child with ASD, and whether/how the children’s autism played a role in their understandings of their children’s gender identities and expressions. The mothers’ fear of a transphobic/cisnormative society and wondering about whether their children’s ASD influenced or caused their children’s gender variance were barriers to fully embracing their children’s gender nonconformity. Unclear causes of children’s social/emotional difficulties and lack of adequate resources and support were identified challenges. Positive interventions and resources were also discussed. Recommendations for clinicians and other professionals who serve TGNC youth with autism and their families are presented.

Like gender dysphoria, autism has become politicized with social justice and identity politics rhetoric. From Aeon:

Worryingly, this trend of romanticising autism has extended to other conditions that can be severe, debilitating, and life-threatening. There are now groups of self-advocates who celebrate depression and schizophrenia. This could also be related to the growth of pro-anorexia websites, as well as the more recent emergence of ‘addiction pride’.

The idea that autism is ‘a variation of normal’ is at odds with scientific understanding of the condition. The general consensus among neuroscientists is that autism has neurodevelopmental origins, with recent research showing that it is associated with abnormalities in brain cell numbers and white-matter structure, and defects in synaptic pruning, the process by which unwanted synaptic connections are eliminated.

There are some parallels to autism “social justice” and the demand society uses third gender pronouns for people with gender issues. And they blame higher rates of mental health problems non-binaries have on “bigotry.”

However, neurodiversity advocates reject the medical model of autism, in favour of an as-yet undetermined social model that blames the problems faced by autistic people on systematic ‘ableist’ discrimination. Some of their reasons for doing so are valid. Historically, autistic people have existed on the margins of society, and have been victimised by the medical-industrial complex that aimed to coercively eliminate them and others considered to be disabled. For example, Asperger was complicit in the Nazi regime’s euthanasia programme for disabled children…

Neurodiversity advocates still label those who express a desire for treatment or cure as Nazis and eugenicists. ‘When we fight for autism rights, we are fighting for our continued existence,’ wrote the self-advocate Jackson Connors in the People’s World newspaper this June. ‘Against our dehumanisation. Against a “cure”, which is a dogwhistle for ableist eugenics. And against the systems that push so many of us to poverty and suicide.’

In their zealous pursuit of autistic rights, some advocates have become authoritarian and militant, harassing and bullying anyone who dares to portray autism negatively, or expresses a desire for a treatment or cure. This extends to autism researchers in academia and the pharmaceutical industry, and also to the parents of severely autistic children. One widely used treatment is Applied Behavioural Analysis (ABA), which involves intensive one-on-one therapy sessions aimed to develop social skills. However, neurodiversity advocates consider ABA to be cruel and unethical, and campaign for withdrawal of government funding for the treatment

Yale has published a review of autism and gender dysphoria issues in 2015 we are adding here (“Gender identity and autism spectrum disorders”). A picture emergers that ASD youth take longer to mature which is why some parents and health professionals are concerned about pediatric transition and autism.

A Kinder Culture Towards Gender Nonconforming Youth?

“New intervention may help ease young children's biases against gender-nonconforming peers” is a study on the environmental and cultural effects of the way children see gender and other gender nonconforming children.

The study verifies the poor treatment of gender nonconforming children by other children:

The study found that the children as young as 4-years old gave less positive appraisals and shared less generously with peers who did not conform to stereotypical expressions of gender. This finding was stronger when the children watching the vignettes were older or the children in the videos were boys.

The study shows that children show more positive attitudes towards gnc youth if shared characteristics are emphasized:

"Our study suggests that highlighting positive attributes of individuals and qualities that gender-conforming and nonconforming children share more broadly--without highlighting whether they are conforming or nonconforming--could be helpful," according to Doug VanderLaan, assistant professor of psychology at the University of Toronto Mississauga and co-corresponding author of the study. "For example, teachers could create opportunities for children to learn about how each person is special as an individual and ways that they are potentially similar."

The authors of the study write:

“Our study breaks new ground by showing that 8- and 9-year-olds can be influenced to be more positive toward their gender-nonconforming peers," notes Ivy Wong, assistant professor of psychology and gender development at the Chinese University of Hong Kong and the University of Hong Kong, who led the study. "The findings can help develop strategies to reduce bias against gender nonconformity; a bias which appears to place some children at risk of peer rejection."

References:

Costandi, M. (2019, September 12). Against neurodiversity. Aeon. Retrieved from https://aeon.co/essays/why-the-neurodiversity-movement-has-become-harmful

Dreger, A. (2006, May 13). The Blog I Write in Fear. Retrieved from http://alicedreger.com/in_fear

Ehrensaft, D. (2019). Preschool child sex abuse: The aftermath of the Presidio case. American Journal of Orthopsychiatry, 62(2), 234–244. doi.org/10.1037/h0079332

EurekaAlert. (2109, October 24). New intervention may help ease young children's biases against gender-nonconforming peers. Retrieved from https://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2019-10/sfri-nim101719.php

Gülgöz, S., DeMeules, M., Gelman, S.A., Olson, K. (2019). Gender essentialism in transgender and cisgender children. Plos One. doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0224321

Gülgöz, S., Glazier, J., Enright, E., Alonso, D., Durwood, L., Fast, A.A., Lowe, R., J. Chonghui, Heer, J., Martin, C.L., Olson, K. (2019). Similarity in transgender and cisgender children’s gender development. PNAS. doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1909367116

Interview with Dr. Alexander Korte. (2019) Retrieved from http://gdworkinggroup.org/2019/11/15/interview-with-dr-alexander-korte/

James W.H., Grech, V. (2019) Is exposure to high levels of maternal intrauterine testosterone a causal factor common to male sex, autism, gender dysphoria, and non-right-handedness? Early Human Development. doi.org/10.1016/j.earlhumdev.2019.104872

Jiménez, F. R.G., Court, L., Vasey, P.L. (2019). A Retrospective Study of Childhood Sex-Typed Behavior in Istmo Zapotec Men, Women, and Muxes. Archives of Sexual Behavior. DOI: 10.1007/s10508-019-01544-6

Kuvalanka, K.A., Mahan, D.J., McGuire, J.K., Hoffman, T.K. (2018) Perspectives of Mothers of Transgender and Gender-Nonconforming Children With Autism Spectrum Disorder. Journal of Homosexuality 65(9), 1167-1189. doi.org/10.1080/00918369.2017.1406221

Korte, A. (2008). Gender Identity Disorders in Childhood and Adolescence – Currently Debated Concepts and Treatment Strategies. Deutsches Aerzteblatt Online. doi:10.3238/arztebl.2009.0318b

Perry, L. (2019, November 6). What Is Autogynephilia? An Interview with Dr Ray Blanchard.” Quillette. Retreived from https://quillette.com/2019/11/06/what-is-autogynephilia-an-interview-with-dr-ray-blanchard/

Perry, L. (2019, October 23). Culture-Bound Syndromes: Satanic Panics, Multiple Personality Disorder & ROGD. Aero. Retrieved from https://areomagazine.com/2019/10/23/culture-bound-syndromes-satanic-panics-multiple-personality-disorder-rogd/

Rae, J.R., Gülgöz, S., Durwood, L., DeMeules, M., Lowe, R., Lindquist, G. Olson, K.R. (2019) Predicting Early-Childhood Gender Transitions. Psychological Sciences. doi.org/10.1177/0956797619830649

Semenyna, S.W., VanderLaan D.P., Vasey, P.L. (2017). “Birth order and recalled childhood gender nonconformity in Samoan men and fa'afafine”. Developmental Psychobiology 59(3), 338-347 doi.org/10.1002/dev.21498

Semenyna, S.W., Vasey, P.L. (2018). Striving for Prestige in Samoa: A Comparison of Men, Women, and Fa’afafine. Journal of Homosexuality 66(11). 1535-1545. doi.org/10.1080/00918369.2018.1503461

Strang, J.F., Meagher, H., Kenworthy L., de Vries, A.L.C., Menvielle, E., Leibowitz, S., Janssen, A., Cohen-Kettenis, P., Shumer D.E., Edwards-Leeper L., Pleak R.R., Spack N., Karasic D.H., Schreier, H., Balleur, A., Tishelman, A., Ehrensaft, D., Rodnan, L., Kuschner, E.S., Mandel, F., Caretto, A., Lewis H.C., Anthony, L.G. (2018). Initial Clinical Guidelines for Co-Occurring Autism Spectrum Disorder and Gender Dysphoria or Incongruence in Adolescents. Journal of Clinical Child and Adolescent Psychology 47(1).105-115. doi: 10.1080/15374416.2016.1228462.

van Schalkwyk, G.I., Klingensmith K, Volkmar, F.R. (2019). Gender identity and autism spectrum disorders. Yale Journal of Biology and Medicine 88(1), 81-3.

Oregon Health And Sciences University: Shaky Science Around Gender Dysphoric Minors

News Commentary

The Federalist is a conservative news site generally unsupportive of LGBT issues.. However, an article from September accurately covers some of the shaky information being presented as hard facts in transgender medicine for children and teens. The article is called “How Oregon Built A Transgender Medical-Industrial Complex On Junk Science.” It is about the staunchly pro-pediatric medical transition culture in Oregon, where a 15 year old can undergo surgery without parental consent.

A quote from the article:

As a group of suburban Portland psychiatric nurses sat for training in late 2016, they had no idea they were witnessing a paradigm shift in public health policy. They simply wanted to know what to do about a sudden upsurge in young psychiatric patients who believed themselves to be in the wrong body. They had turned to a colleague from Oregon Health and Science University (OHSU) for help.

The reply was astonishing: The children’s claims should be taken at face value, and the children should be referred to OHSU, or like institutions, for a “Dutch Protocol” of puberty blockers and cross-sex hormones. Further, the nurses should expect such referrals to comprise 3 percent of the children in their care.

The author discusses an astronomical 3% estimate of trans children they expect at their hospital:

OHSU professionals have been asserting that 3% of children in their care will be transgender. The article takes them to take on this estimate:

Yet in a hospital training, administered by people with advanced degrees to other people with advanced degrees, no one questioned the assertion that 3 percent of local kids were in the wrong body and that the hospital on the hill could give them the right one.

‘A Quality Improvement Project’

The cultural trajectory — from “first do no harm” to “no holds barred” — that Oregon is traversing under a regulatory framework shaped by gender service providers, is reflected in the disparate responses the two institutions gave when asked about the invalid 3 percent citation.

This article highlights the reality that there are a lot of unsubstantiated assertions around the treatment of transgender youth. GHQ reviews many of them in Topic 4. It also highlights the fact that so many health professionals and people in media seem to have zero interest in asking why so many young people, particularly females, are identifying as trans, given the serious medical side effects that result from medical transition.

This should be of concern as there have been reports of transition regret and botched surgeries at OHSO and taxpayers are funding these surgeries by medicaid:

The first recommendations in the letter are to implement advanced transgender-specific surgical training for the surgeons and a formal grievance procedure for the patients. Ashe told me in an email he felt rushed and pushed into having surgery by all his medical providers — therapist, general practitioner and surgeon. He wrote:

“The doctor [Dr. Daniel Dugi III] basically used a bunch of trans people to experiment on and gain experience without being properly trained. I was denied by him for an orchiectomy [removal of the testicles] and coerced into having SRS [Sex Reassignment surgery] by him and my GP [general practitioner] who was stressing that I needed to be castrated ASAP. I had previously told my therapists who wrote my letters [of approval] I never wanted surgery. I feel like I was very much pushed into transition as an answer to my mental health problems that were ignored by my ‘gender’ therapist.”

Also:

As the stories in the letter to the university clearly show, the number of surgical complications in this small group far exceeds the program’s publicly stated total of three. These six stories and three more in the letter demonstrate why the group recommends that the OHSU THP begin collecting, evaluating, and independently reviewing patient results.

Another article was published on Medium highlighting questionable claims and statistics involved in transgender “science.” The article by vocal critic of trans activism, Julian Vigo, was removed by Medium and then reinstated. They likely removed it because activists sought to censor it despite the validity of its content. This is a common problem with current trans activism. This article is more critical of the concept biological sex is irrelevant, a common attitude in gender activism. We review the serious conflicts this ideology is causing within and outside of the LGBT population.

Quotes about a new agenda-driven UK survey study and confirmation bias and lack of scientific validity:

From the ground up, this project’s experts and advisory board have a clear agenda to install pro-transgender conclusions given the ethos of the research team, their political and theoretical motivations, and what seems to be a troubling push by many in academia around the English-speaking world to elide any discussions of material reality to the extent of removing sex as a legal characteristic.

And:

The imbalance in these studies bulldozes the survey-taker and passive reader into having to collude with the ethos that gender is “good.” These research projects never put into question the possibility that gender is uniquely a stereotype and harmful to males and females alike. The planned impact of Cooper’s project is formulated around the researcher’s assumption that the research findings will be “ideally placed to influence future legal and policy debate.” What this means, when you sift through the bios of the principal investigators and many on the advisory board who hold seats on other granting institutions, editorial committees, and institutional seats of great power, is this: that an enormous amount of money has been thrown at academics who are using public funds for political activism within a dishonestly formulated project.

References:

Heyer, W. (2019, December 18). 9 Transgender Patients Complain Of Mutilation, Botched Sex-Change Surgeries In Oregon. The Federalist. Retrieved from https://thefederalist.com/2018/12/06/9-transgender-patients-complain-mutilation-botched-sex-change-surgeries-oregon/

How to Stage a Study: The Transgender Lobby in British Academia. (2019, July 30). Retrieved from http://archive.md/vV8zf#selection-209.0-209.63

Kirkpatrick, K. (2019, September 16). How Oregon Built A Transgender Medical-Industrial Complex On Junk Science. The Federalist. Retrieved from https://thefederalist.com/2019/09/16/how-oregon-built-a-transgender-medical-industrial-complex-on-junk-science/#.XYBfLUNkRYI.twitter

Personal Historical Observations from a Trans Person on Social Media

From Social Media

Older transgender individuals have interesting observations about the evolution of trans activism and the trans community itself. Much has changed in the last ten years. We provide a link to this thread from “Radically Trans” who can be found on Twitter @Transradically:

Transgender As A Form Of Social Contagion.

I'm going to cover five different periods of time, and what I believe are four different changes within society. The backstory is needed to set up the first change, and I'll cover the ways in which that change increased exposure.

1). Before mid-to-late 90's.
2). Rise of Transgender and adding "T" to LGB.
3). Butch Lesbian out-migration
4). Rise of social media and self-identification.
5). Development of ROGD as a phenomenon.

Several New Groups Have Formed to Question the Safety of Medically Transitioning Minors with Gender Dysphoria And The Affirmative Model

News

Several new groups/organizations have formed to question the safety of social and medical transition of minors and young adults with gender dysphoria. These concerns are all in line with the concerns listed on the Gender Health Query website.

Rethinking Identity Medicine is based in the United States and says they will focus on best mental health practices and standards of care.

The MISSION of ReIME is to promote the highest standards of care and ethics in the area of identity medicine for children and youth.  To this end, we gather, curate and distribute up-to-date evidence-based information on best practices that ensure individualized, developmentally appropriate standards of care and treatment related to gender and identity non-conformity, variations and dysphoria. Our GOAL is to better inform individuals, friends, family members, communities including clinicians and policy makers at all levels who are seeking information to best safeguard the long term interests and physical autonomy of such children and youth.

We support the right of minors and young people to explore identities, including sexuality and gender that are developmentally appropriate. And that care is required to prevent prematurely foreclosing such exploration that may lead to permanent, invasive medical procedures.

Gender Identity Challenge is a group in Sweden and Norway.

Ever more parents feel that their child or adolescent wants to change their gender without previous warning. We wonder what has brought this about and how to deal with this phenomenon called

Rapid Onset Gender Dysphoria - ROGD

KIRJO is a group in Finland.

The transgender phenomenon is based on gender ideology which harms our society in many ways. It is now time to start the conversation about gender ideology. Is gender dysphoria the new anorexia?

PS. The word “Kirjo” is a Finnish equivalent to the English term “spectrum” (of color or types of people). You can follow and join us here.

Baywater Support is a group of parents from Britain and Ireland who wish to have a more cuatious approach to medicalizating minors:

We are a group of parents in the UK and Ireland who have been brought together by our experiences of parenting children with gender dysphoria or who have declared a transgender identity.

Having looked for the best support for our children, we have found only the 'affirmative' approach to their new identity, backed up by affirmative environments in schools and elsewhere. We've found little scope to explore the new identity as a young person's solution to trauma or distress, as a response to the challenges of adolescence, or to understand its role within underlying mental health or developmental contexts

A new consumer rights organization called Gender Care Consumer Advocacy Network has formed to support people questioning their gender, trans people, and detransitioners seeking mental health and medical services.

Their Mission:

Our mission is to empower recipients of gender transition-related care to become healthy and whole.

They have created a patients bill of rights:

GCCAN is a consumer rights group for any person who has previously or is currently receiving gender care related services. Our aim is to empower consumers of gender-transition related care to get the best health care possible.

GCCAN was founded by gender care consumers because we determined that the level of care we receive during or after gender care treatment is inadequate to achieve healthy mental and physical outcomes. Members of our group have been subject to harms from inadequate gender care services, and our goal is to reduce or mitigate similar harms to other consumers. The current delivery of care does not match established best-practice protocols. Established institutions often fail to balance the interests of consumers with the interests of gender care providers. We seek improvements to accountability, provider education, holistic care protocols, medical research, and public policies. We deserve better.

GCCAN is a registered 501(c)(3) consumer-run nonprofit organization that is non-partisan and non-ideological. Our membership represents many perspectives and experiences, and GCCAN is inclusive to all gender care consumers. As a result, our focus is on every consumer's wellbeing. We advocate for more informed consumers and better gender health care, under the presumption that the best outcome is different for each person. Our Consumer Bill of Rights outlines the necessary improvements to gender care that we seek.

News in Detransition

News

Over the last several weeks, there have been multiple articles on the once rare and under studied topic of detransition.

Charlie Evans is a bisexual woman and is starting a detransition advocacy organization. This is an article by Evans on Medium:

“The medicalization of gender non conforming children, and the vulnerability of lesbian youth”

More from her can be found here https://medium.com/@charlie.evans

This is a link to the crowdfunded page for the detransition advocacy organization:

“The Detransition Advocacy Network”

And a petition asking the public health service in Britain to study and support detransitioners:

“Support Detransitioners at the National Institutes of Health”

Two articles about detransition and Charlie Evens:

'Hundreds' of young trans people seeking help to return to original sex”

“Why is the progressive world so hostile to detransitioners?”

Evans identified as male for nearly a decade, but then changed her mind. And Evans is not alone. She says she has been in touch with hundreds of other young people who have detransitioned, mostly people in their early 20’s. Some of these individuals have had full gender reassignment surgery, and regret it. All are trying to figure out how to move forward and live happy, healthy lives.

There is a new detransition resource in Sweden:

“För mer kunskap och stöd kring detransition”

This is a Dutch documentary on detransition:

“Transgender Regret - A Dutch Documentary”

Below is a video of a story of a detransitioned woman who fit the definition of DSM-5 gender dysphoria from childhood and transitioned as an adult. She believes transition helped prevent her from committing suicide but also run from her butch identity:

“Thoughts of a detransitioned woman”

A personal story of homophobia and transition regret:

“I Spent a Year as a Trans Man. Doctors Failed Me at Every Turn”

At the time, you wouldn’t have been able to tell I was gay just from looking at me. I had long, blond hair, wore makeup, and carried myself rather femininely. But in my head, I knew I was gay—though I was more of a self-loathing gay. 

The truth is, I didn’t like gays, and didn’t want to be associated with them. Yet there I was, dating only other girls…

At age 18, I started seeing a bunch of transgender men’s “success stories” on Instagram. The trans men talked about how something had always “felt off” with them, and they said people couldn’t tell they had been the opposite sex after their transition.

Their stories all seemed to have a happy ending—and it made me rather jealous. 

Here I was getting frowned upon for holding hands with my girlfriend in public, feeling like I’m constantly being judged by everyone, while transgenders could date their same-sex significant other while looking like the opposite sex. 

I resented that and began to envy the transgenders. I looked into it for myself.

Stonewall UK added to the discourse by attempting to debunk some recent narratives emerging about detransition and attributing it to transphobia. These points run contrary to most recent stories about detransition. Many deransitioners claim they never report their detransition to any official entity and that they feel transition was a mistake:

”Dispelling myths around detransition”

Jesse Singal, who has been reporting on the contentious issue of pediatric medical transition and detransition, discussed some problems with the Stonewall UK statement on his personal blog:

”LGBT People Deserve Accurate Information From LGBT Organizations: But they aren't getting it”

The blog is behind a paywall, but he posted some of his commentary on social media:

Andrew Sullivan is joining the ranks of LGB people who are concerned about tranistion regret in LGB and other youth. He has written an article about detransition called “The Hard Questions About Young People and Gender Transitions:”

The widespread consensus today is that detransitioning is so rare even mentioning it borders on transphobic. But in reality, absolutely no one knows how rare detransitions are currently — the small set of research studies detransition skeptics present as evidence that it is very uncommon all come from vastly different contexts, in some cases decades-old, and arguably don’t capture what’s going on in 2019. These women live every day with the consequences of their decision: tenacious facial hair (one has to shave every three days) and body hair, deeper voices, permanently enlarged clitorises. They also suffer from the effects of “binding,” i.e. wearing a breast corset of sorts, to flatten their chests, so they can pass more easily as men. “I have back issues, lower lung capacity, and permanent dents around my shoulders,” one told me. “Every now and again, I have to push a rib back in to breathe,” another recounts. “I have permanent bruising,” another explains. “Serious back issues,” says another, who cannot carry a backpack for long without pain. “We get ‘sir’ed at Dunkin’ Donuts every time,” one joked…

By their own accounts, they had been adamantly trans in their teens. “I was the student trying to get a professor fired because he wouldn’t allow theyand them to be used for a singular person in my papers … I threatened my parents and friends with suicide. It became part of my identity to be suicidal. I screamed at my parents about this, even though I knew I wasn’t going to kill myself.” One went by the pronouns xe and xer and flew into a rage if she was misgendered. Once they had transitioned, and felt miserable nonetheless, they felt that this too was just part of being transgender. One talked of “the hunger to suffer.” Another spoke of “using your pain to validate your own destruction.”

A website called Canadian Gender Report has posted an informal survey of the r/detrans sub Reddit. Given that there is no formal attempt to study detransition at this time, informal surveys such as this one, and the one referenced, are the only efforts available to help understand this population.

References:

Canadian Gender Report. (2019, October 17). From trans to detransitioner – what can we learn from this growing trend? Retrieved from https://genderreport.ca/detransitioners-what-can-we-learn/

Evans, C. (2019, Septmember 9). The medicalization of gender non conforming children, and the vulnerability of lesbian youth. Medium. Retrieved from https://medium.com/@charlie.evans/the-medicalization-of-gender-non-conforming-children-and-the-vulnerability-of-lesbian-youth-10d4ac517e8e

Emmons, L. (2019, October 10). Why is the progressive world so hostile to detransitioners? The Post Millennial. Retrieved from https://www.thepostmillennial.com/why-is-the-progressive-world-so-hostile-to-detransitioners/

Lockwood, S. (2019, October 5). 'Hundreds' of young trans people seeking help to return to original sex. Sky News. Retrieved from https://news.sky.com/story/hundreds-of-young-trans-people-seeking-help-to-return-to-original-sex-11827740

Russell, N. (2019, October 8) What The First Nonbinary American Wants The Supreme Court To Know About Transgenderism. The Federalist. Retrieved from https://thefederalist.com/2019/10/08/what-the-first-nonbinary-american-wants-the-supreme-court-to-know-about-transgenderism/#.XZyM1mqNpSM.twitter

Singal-Minded. (2019, October 9). LGBT People Deserve Accurate Information From LGBT Organizations. Retrieved from https://jessesingal.substack.com/p/lgbt-people-deserve-accurate-information

Stella, C. (2016, September 3). Female detransition and reidentification: Survey results and interpretation. Retrieved from https://guideonragingstars.tumblr.com/post/149877706175/female-detransition-and-reidentification-survey

Stonewall UK. (2019, October 9). Dispelling myths around detransition. Retrieved from https://www.stonewall.org.uk/about-us/news/dispelling-myths-around-detransition

Sullivan, A. (2019, November 1). The Hard Questions About Young People and Gender Transitions. New York Magazine. Retrieved from http://nymag.com/intelligencer/2019/11/andrew-sullivan-hard-questions-gender-transitions-for-young.html?utm_medium=s1&utm_campaign=di&utm_source=tw

Thoughts of a detransitioned woman. (2019, September 27). Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=youtu.be&v=aVse3ZKD9hA

Wright, S. (2019, October 7). I Spent a Year as a Trans Man. Doctors Failed Me at Every Turn. The Daily Signal. Retrieved from https://www.dailysignal.com/2019/10/07/i-spent-a-year-as-a-trans-man-doctors-failed-me-at-every-turn/

A Recent Spate of Articles Regarding the Effects of Trans Activism And Cultural/Legal Conflicts

News

Recently there have been many articles that demonstrate there are conflicting opinions around pediatric medical transition for gender dysphoria and ideological views about sex and gender. These conflicts are happening around the medical treatment of minors, free speech and censorship, sex-based rights issues with girls, and cultural disagreements in and outside of the LGBT population.

Medical Ethics & Parental Rights

A Canadian Court declines to consider criticism that giving tweens cross-sex hormones is too experimental to be given to minors (“Consent form for trans child's hormone therapy was insufficient, lawyer argues at appeal court”):

The father takes the position in court filings that Bowden erred by delivering a “rush to judgment,” and Dunton on Wednesday questioned whether the risk of suicide may have been “trumped up.”

The child and his supporters state in court filings that proper consent was obtained and that the law in B.C. is settled when it comes to affording youth the authority to decide their own medical treatments.

A father in Texas is fighting the transition of his son. A video the father took of the child, circulating online, seems to indicate the mother is actively encouraging the child’s transition. He is now under a gag order from the judge.

The Texas Governor is calling for an investigation (“A Texas man says his 7-year-old isn’t transgender. Now his custody fight has reached the governor’s office’).

A politician in Georgia is proposing outlawing medical treatment for minors:

State Rep. Ginny Ehrhart, R-Powder Springs, wants to make it a felony to change a child’s gender through surgery or drugs and plans to introduce her “Vulnerable Child Protection Act” in the Georgia General Assembly.

The Endocrine Society has urged its members not to make statements against pediatric transition. They are commenting on a case where it appears the mother may be leading the child to identify as trans based on a video the father released to the public.

Suppressing puberty is fully reversible.

The claim puberty suppression is fully reversible is very debatable.

In the UK, a mother is suing Britain’s youth gender clinic, claiming minors can’t give consent to irreversible medical treatment or possible side-effects from hormone blockers (“Mother sues Tavistock child gender clinic over treatments”). Other parents have joined the lawsuit (“Parents battle ‘state‑sponsored sterilisation’ of trans children”):

More than 30 families with transgender children are to lobby the government and the NHS against what they claim is “coerced medicalisation” — propelling vulnerable young people convinced they are the wrong gender towards treatments that risk leaving them infertile.

The group, provisionally called Our Duty, was formed after one mother went public to describe gender reassignment medication and surgery for those with autism or psychological problems as “state-sponsored sterilisation”.

The London Times has released a statement skeptical of the safety of current pediatric transition protocols (“The Times view on the Tavistock clinic and hormone-blocking drugs for the young: Informed Consent”).

The Times concerns mirrors that of some people in the health professions. “Gender dysphoria in children: puberty blockers study draws further criticism” criticizes the handling of medical treatment of gender dysphoric youth in the UK.

An Australian doctor and lawyer have written a paper questioning the safety of puberty blockers for transgender youth.

The court decisions, as in other areas, have followed medical evidence applications where there appears to have been no contrary opinion argued for. It would perhaps be helpful for a matter to come before the courts where a contrary opinion may be fully ventilated – for example, where the parents of a child had different views (supported by appropriate expert evidence) on the merits of Stage 1 and or Stage 2 treatment in a particular case. The current relative ease by which gender dysphoric children

Not everyone believes promoting gender ideology to children is healthy and safe. The article “How the trans debate entered the classroom” covers commentary from several professionals on the rise in the number of medicalized young people. The article states that people want to remain anonymous for fear of backlash if they offer up their honest concerns. Censorship is an ongoing problem around this issue:

‘This is one of the most complicated clinical areas of mental health and clinicians are often put under huge pressure to refer individuals, who believe this will solve their dysphoria, on for medical interventions,’ Dr Evans says. ‘Adolescence involves biological, psychological and sociological changes, and feelings of anxiety and confusion about their role required by society, and experimentation. I’m not saying no to gender transition, but services should resist the pull towards a quick solution that bypasses thoughtful exploration. How an adolescent feels now may not be how they feel in ten years’ time.’…

A senior psychoanalyst (like many I contacted, they asked to remain anonymous) told me ‘children are being seriously damaged’. ‘Gender dysphoria is being treated like an aesthetic,’ he said. ‘How can you consent for a 12-year-old? They’ll be infertile, on medical treatment for life, and if you cut out a piece of their gut to turn into a vagina, you’re not really making them into a woman. There should be a distinction between what someone wants and what is good for them.

Jenn Smith, a transgender person who is opposed to pediatric transition, has released a video discussing Smith’s viewpoints. Smith was a foster child, and there appears to be a link with adoption and foster situations and an increase in gender dysphoria. A gender clinician in BC (Dr. Wong) where Smith is from has stated 1/2 of his patients are “from the Ministry” in Canada. That information can be found here.

Jenn Smith states a caveat that these numbers are going by what Dr. Wong said himself and have not been verified by official statistics. If true, these are very high numbers of trans-identified foster kids:

500 of Wong’s patients are from the Ministry. The Ministry has 6500 kids in it’s care. So when you do the math there what you discover is that that 7.7% of all the children is the Ministry’s care are identifying as transgender and under the care of one doctor, just one doctor. There are other doctors out thoere. Like any family physician can basically perscribe hormones or whatever to kids and stuff. So it is not unreasonable for us to conclude the numers of foster children idenifying as transgender, might be as high as 1 in 10.

Another trans person who is against pediatric medical transition, FtM in this case, has posted an article about the harshness of medical transition on the body (What the medical professionals won't tell you about Transitioning genders, but I will).

Open Debate, Free Speech, & Censorship Issues

Several law professors in Australia signed a letter pledging to support transgender students after a Dean made comparisons of the increase of trans-identified youth to eating disorders.

Almost 40 law academics at the University of Queensland have signed an open letter pledging to support transgender students after the university’s law school dean presented a paper that compared transgender children to teens with eating disorders.

The dean’s response:

‘None of my colleagues have raised any concerns with me, and none have asked for a copy of the 14,000-word paper that I delivered last week. Had they done so, they would have found that it deals with issues that are being widely discussed in the medical and scientific literature.’

‘‘My background is in child protection. To suggest that we don’t tackle difficult issues because it might be challenging is to avoid the responsibilities of intellectual leadership.’

It is a fact that even some experts in gender dysphoria are raising concerns that there may be cases that are influenced by body dysmorphia and social contagion. GHQ covers the reasons for these concerns here.

Below are two articles about the threats to people’s careers coming from trans activism. This topic is extensively covered in this section: Problems with a politicized climate of harassment & censorship. These problems include censorship, threats to one’s career, and threats to people's physical safety. or the safety of their family:

“The purge of trans-sceptical academics”

“Meet the academics hunted down and hounded out of jobs for having the 'wrong' thoughts”

“The trans-activists' witch hunt against academics threatens the whole of society”:

A chaperone accompanies you to your office. Inside, a panic alarm is kept within reach. Once, your office door was covered in urine. You’ve faced multiple death and rape threats. Abuse and harassment, delivered online and in person, have become routine features of your working life.

Sex-Based Rights and Trans Rights

MtF trans individuals have been dominating women and girls in sporting events. Recent research shows that males retain a biological advantage, even post medical transition. The article “‘Justice’ for trans athletes is unfair to girls like my daughter” article discusses the advantages MtF teens have over biological girls in high school:

Alanna has devoted countless days, nights and weekends to training. She pushes herself to shave mere fractions of a second from her race times, yet she positions herself at the starting line knowing that, even with all that training and with her best effort, the odds are against her, the numbers are against her and that fairness doesn’t really exist.

A school is reconsidering the transgender bathroom policy and has received backlash from trans activist:

PICKENS COUNTY, Ga. -- A Georgia school district says it's reversing its decision that would have allowed transgender students to use the bathroom that fits their gender identity.

The Pickens County school district cited death threats, student harassment and vandalism of school property in their decision.

The Economist has an article addressing the conflicts around trans policies in British schools where girls who are uncomfortable with dysphoric males in female changing areas are being expected to leave the area.

Cultural Conflicts within the LGBT Population

Some LGB people have split off from Europe’s largest LGBT organization, Stonewall UK, in Britain. Encouraging the medicalization of gender non-conforming children and the eradication of girls’ sex-based rights are cited as some reasons why. The new organization is called LGBAlliance.

Two articles about this split are below:

“Gay groups clash over ‘homophobic policies’”

“Lesbian barrister: my bosses bowed to transgender ‘hate mob’”:

Bailey was subjected to a torrent of abuse and death threats after she posted on social media: “Gender extremism is about to meet its match.”

Allison Bailey is a lesbian who supports the new LGBAlliance in the UK. She and others have received criticism and even harassment, mostly from the far left, because some believe they should not form their own LGB organization or be criticizing current trans activist policies. She responds in a Twitter thread saved here:

Stonewall UK is a political lobbying group. It‘s not democratically elected. It has no mandate to declare itself the voice of *all* LGBT ppl, yet it behaves as if it does — & is treated by government, charitable & private sector orgs as if it speaks for us all. It does not. 1/

Stonewall UK has spun LGBT rights so completely that *any* challenge or question to its agenda is deemed hate speech, rather than being a healthy & essential part of a functioning democracy. It made it respectable for youth to no platform, scream at & threaten feminists. 2/…

Brad Polumbo, a gay man, has written two articles supporting the concept of a separate LGB movement:

“Gay rights depend on our rejecting transgender radicalism and standing up for James Younger”

“It’s Time for ‘LGB’ and ‘T’ to Go Their Separate Ways”

Other gay men have started a Facebook group called Gay Men Address Gender Identity.

An article called “The Great Erasure” has been posted on Medium and is in line with the dissatisfaction some LGB people have with current LGBT organizations. The article is part opinion but is factually useful in tracking where funding is going for current LGBT organizations.

*GHQ remains a trans-inclusive organization as trans people are not all supportive of pediatric medical transition or denying the concept of biological, chromosomal, sex. Some LGB people are supportive of these things. But all identity groups should be free to organize individually to focus on specific issues.

Not everyone believes the current cultural obsession with pronouns, and identity in general, is healthy. GHQ holds that position as well. This culture is resulting in protests like the recent “S***-In” at San Francisco University protesting the need for more non-binary bathrooms. And this presentation of postmodern queer theory to children by the BBC that lacks scientific discourse and promotes views that are controversial within the LGBT population.

An article written by a GHQ advisory board member called “Amid ‘Erosion in Acceptance’ L Word Loses the Plot & GLAAD Targets Youth” covers some of these cultural issues and the growing numbers of lesbians critical of current “LGBT activism:”

Amid “erosion of acceptance,” the organizations that were supposed to protect us, have campaigned to silence us, using threats and slurs to invoke fear and shame. The L Word has lost all sense of the plot… Yet although mainstream media and “LGBTQ” organizations have pulled out every trick in their “playbook,” the one thing they’ve deeply underestimated is the power of dyke rage.

Andrew Sullivan, a gay man, has written an article about transitioning children and the effects of trans activism on gay rights called “When the Ideologues Come for the Kids”:

Last week, I defended drag queens reading stories to kids in libraries. I don’t take back my words. Getting children interested in reading with costumed clowns strikes me as harmless. But when I was directed to the website of Drag Queen Story Hours, I found the following:

“[DQSH] captures the imagination and play of the gender fluidity of childhood and gives kids glamorous, positive, and unabashedly queer role models. In spaces like this, kids are able to see people who defy rigid gender restrictions and imagine a world where people can present as they wish, where dress up is real.”

However well-meant, this is indoctrination into an ideology, not campy encouragement for reading and fun.

Sullivan included a link to our evidence supported section on the large increases of trans-identified youth ("sky-rocketed”):

In the last few years in Western societies, as these notions have spread, the number of children identifying as trans has skyrocketed. In Sweden, the number of kids diagnosed with gender dysphoria, a phenomenon stable and rare for decades, has, from 2013 to 2016, increased almost tenfold. In New Zealand, the rate of girls identifying as boys has quadrupled in the same period of time; in Britain, where one NHS clinic is dedicated to trans kids, there were around a hundred girls being treated in 2011; by 2017, there were 1,400.

It is not only LGB people critical of aspects of current trans activism. “I am a trans woman – but I think this woke world has gone too far” is written by an MtF trans person:

Trans people have lost the plot. Every day, an increasing amount of absurdity floods in as they do more harm than good. They scream for acceptance without realizing that the ones damaging their image aren't bigots, but themselves.

From anger directed at celebrities for the rational belief that parents shouldn't decide whether their three-year-old is trans, to a culture of outrage that freaks out at the most minor of offenses, transgender activists have become detrimental to my, and others', very existence.

Not helping matters is the fact that these people are laying bombs within our language in the hope they trigger, so they themselves can become triggered. Saying 'transgendered' instead of 'transgender' can see you labeled as transphobic, as can saying 'transwomen' instead of 'trans (notice the space) women.' This is a linguistic minefield with the sole intent of catching people off guard. And those who are caught in its blast are branded as bigots. 

Two articles have been released criticizing the recent pronoun announcements and the LGBT Townhall with Democratic candidates. The Townhall was complete with pronoun announcements, a trans-identified small child presented in front of the camera, and an accusation that misgendering is “violence:”

”Democratic Candidates Displaying Gender Pronouns On Their Twitter Accounts Are Making A Big Mistake”

“CNN LGBTQ town hall reveals the madness of identity politics”

Dr. Karen Blair, a psychologist and SOGI advisor in Canada, has released a video calling sexual orientation that is not inclusive of trans identities problematic and in need of social change. GHQ responded to this type of discourse by sending Dr. Blair a letter in June adhering to the reality that there are biologically driven sexual orientations and that people have the right to them without being painted as problematic and in need of social justice activism by the psychology profession.

From the video:

I, and this study’s researchers involved in this study, believe that this is an issue that needs to be discussed openly and honestly, not ignored. Because only then can we fix it.

This type of commentary is causing major conflicts within the LGBT population and is one of the reasons for the LGB split from Stonewall UK. We cover that issue here.

There are conflicts happening around race and identity at WPATH (who sets the standards for trans healthcare), where minorities took over the stage to call for more representation.

References:

Armus, T. (2019, October 24). A Texas man says his 7-year-old isn’t transgender. Now his custody fight has reached the governor’s office. Washington Post. https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2019/10/24/james-younger-luna-transgender-greg-abbott/

BBC. (2019). RSE KS2: Identity - Understanding sexual and gender identities. Retrieved from https://www.bbc.co.uk/teach/class-clips-video/rse-ks2-identity-understanding-sexual-and-gender-identities/zfqrhbk

Brunskell-Evans, H. The purge of trans-sceptical academics. Spiked. Retrieved from https://www.spiked-online.com/2019/06/26/the-purge-of-trans-sceptical-academics/?fbclid=IwAR3ixz9mTy2UeKeDmOYZ4RkKD2niM6c95lz3KHIyCzsaGl_l5ko5XtL8CUM#.XbDDKGf9i18.facebook

Cohen, B. (2019, July 22). Democratic Candidates Displaying Gender Pronouns On Their Twitter Accounts Are Making A Big Mistake. https://thebanter.substack.com/p/democratic-candidates-displaying

Cohan, D., Barnes, H. (2019, September 20) “Gender dysphoria in children: puberty blockers study draws further criticism”. The BMJ (366). doi.org/10.1136/bmj.l5647

Driscoll, M. (2019, September 19). Meet the academics hunted down and hounded out of jobs for having the 'wrong' thoughts. The Telegraph. Retrieved from https://www.telegraph.co.uk/women/life/meet-academics-hunted-hounded-jobs-having-wrong-thoughts/

Donym, S. (2019, October 16). The Great Erasure. Retrieved from https://medium.com/@sue.donym1984/the-great-erasure-203a124fa02c

Emmons, L. (2019, October 14). CNN LGBTQ town hall reveals the madness of identity politics. The Post Millenial. Retrieved from https://www.thepostmillennial.com/cnn-lgbtq-town-hall-reveals-the-madness-of-identity-politics/

Endocrine Society.. (2019, October). Endocrine Society Urges Policy Makers to Follow Science on Transgender Health. Endocrine News. Retrieved from https://endocrinenews.endocrine.org/endocrine-society-urges-policymakers-to-follow-science-on-transgender-health/

Gibbons, K. (2019, October 26). “Gay groups clash over ‘homophobic policies’.” The Times.[London]. Retrieved from https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/gay-groups-clash-over-homophobic-policies-t95958fmn?shareToken=c602067cb10e7c01e71fba89ac8bbdab

Hellen, N. (2019, October 27). Lesbian barrister: my bosses bowed to transgender ‘hate mob.’ The Times [London]. https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/lesbian-barrister-my-bosses-bowed-to-transgender-hate-mob-shm6x09v8?fbclid=IwAR1bP7iQHAj2hK7-xaV3v2AaTvOHy7wkkrT5ZcIxxWAqq7lc47ca7Lj6fKM

Hurst, G. (2019, October 12). Mother sues Tavistock child gender clinic over treatments. The Times.[London]. Retrieved from https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/mother-sues-tavistock-child-gender-clinic-over-treatments-r9df8m987

Intersectional Bullies Crash Trans Health Town Hall. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=69&v=zHlnQMY9KM0

Jenn Smith Calls for National Inquiry into mass gender transitioning of Vulnerable kids. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?app=desktop&feature=youtu.be&v=VxTtkI51xH4

Manins, R. (2019, October 30). Cobb legislator proposes new law to criminalize physical gender change of children. Marrietta Daily Journal. Retrieved from https://www.mdjonline.com/news/cobb-legislator-proposes-new-law-to-criminalize-physical-gender-change/article_01d7e572-fb4c-11e9-b280-5bf7ecee1ac6.html

O’Conner, M., Madden, B. (2019). In the Footsteps of Teiresias: Treatment for Gender Dysphoria in Children and the Role of the Courts. Journal of Law and Medicine 27 (1). Retrieved from http://sites.thomsonreuters.com.au/journals/2019/10/22/journal-of-law-and-medicine-update-vol-27-pt-1/

Narwitz, S. (2019, October 19). I am a trans woman – but I think this woke world has gone too far. RT. Retrieved from https://www.rt.com/op-ed/471025-trans-woman-woke-too-far/

Polumbo, B. Gay rights depend on our rejecting transgender radicalism and standing up for James Younger. Washington Examiner. Retrieved from https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/gay-rights-depend-on-our-rejecting-trans-radicalism-and-standing-up-for-james-younger

Polumbo, B. It’s Time for ‘LGB’ and ‘T’ to Go Their Separate Ways. Quillette. Retrieved from https://quillette.com/2019/10/26/its-time-for-lgb-and-t-to-go-their-separate-ways/

Radachowsky, C. (2019, October 13). ’Justice’ for trans athletes is unfair to girls like my daughter. New York Post. Retrieved from https://nypost.com/2019/10/13/justice-for-trans-athletes-is-unfair-to-girls-like-my-daughter/

Roberson J.D. (2019, September 10). Amid ‘Erosion in Acceptance’ L Word Loses the Plot & GLAAD Targets Youth. The Velvet Chronicle. Retrieved https://thevelvetchronicle.com/amid-erosion-in-acceptance-glaad-targets-youth-l-word-loses-the-plot/

Quan, D. (2019, September 4). Consent form for trans child's hormone therapy was insufficient, lawyer argues at appeal court. National Post. Retrieved from https://nationalpost.com/news/consent-form-for-trans-childs-hormone-therapy-was-insufficient-lawyer-argues-at-appeal-court

Smee, B. (2019, September 18). University of Queensland academics sign open letter after law dean's trans comments. The Guardian. Retrieved from https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2019/sep/18/university-of-queensland-academics-sign-open-letter-countering-law-deans-trans-comments?fbclid=IwAR3Rh2y75YlstvJ86xp0OjHzPajCgMghWaAIOBJjtiwUYrTlvk9iJg6EZZA

Stonewall UK . Retrieved from https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1190704005648965632.html

Sullivan, A. (2019, September 20). When the Ideologues Come for the Kids. New York Magazine. Retrieved from http://nymag.com/intelligencer/2019/09/andrew-sullivan-when-the-ideologues-come-for-the-kids.html?utm_medium=s1&utm_campaign=nym&utm_source=tw

Transgender rules for English schools face a backlash from women. (2019, )ctober 3). The Economist. Retrieved from https://amp-economist-com.cdn.ampproject.org/c/s/amp.economist.com/britain/2019/10/03/transgender-rules-for-english-schools-face-a-backlash-from-women

Terry, M. (2019, September 4). How the trans debate entered the classroom. Spectator Life. Retrieved from https://life.spectator.co.uk/articles/the-gender-agenda/

The Exclusion of Trans People from the World of Dating. Retrieved from https://www.patreon.com/posts/new-video-29553352

The Times view on the Tavistock clinic and hormone-blocking drugs for the young: Informed Consent. The Times [London]. Retrieved from https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/def68adc-ec4f-11e9-b931-c019e957f02a

Walsh, J. (2019, October 26). Parents battle ‘state‑sponsored sterilisation’ of trans children. The Times [London]. Retrieved from https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/parents-battle-state-sponsored-sterilisation-of-trans-children-mb55fxt60

WGXA. (2019, October 16). Georgia school district reverses decision on transgender bathroom policy. Retrieved from https://wgxa.tv/news/local/georgia-school-district-reverses-decision-on-transgender-bathroom-policy.

What the medical professionals won't tell you about Transitioning genders, but I will. (2019, October 15). Retrieved from https://thetransgendertruth.wixsite.com/mysite/post/what-the-physiologists-surgeons-and-physicians-don-t-tell-you-about-transitioning-genders

Williams, J. (2019, October 8). “The trans-activists' witch hunt against academics threatens the whole of society.” The Telegraph. Retrieved from https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2019/10/08/trans-activist-witch-hunt-against-academics-threatens-whole/?WT.mc_id=tmg_share_tw

Yavitch, E. (2019, October 24). Students hold ‘Shit In’ to demand more gender-neutral bathrooms. The College Fix. Retrieved from https://www.thecollegefix.com/students-hold-shit-in-to-demand-more-gender-neutral-bathrooms/

Tavistock's Hormone Blocker Study Cleared but They Admit Blockers are Given for Cosmetic Reasons, not to provide "Time for Exploration"

News

Due to criticisms of the study (also here) in the UK on hormone blockers given to gender dysphoric children to stop normal puberty, the Health Research Authority investigated the study. They claim it meets their ethical standards. The report can be found here. They describe the purpose of the original blockers study below:

The study 'Early pubertal suppression in a carefully selected group of adolescents with gender identity disorders' was developed in 2010 in response to broadening use of early pubertal suppression treatments across Europe, in the USA and in Australia. There were debates about the evidence of benefits and safety, and whether young adolescents could consent to treatments due to the potential for unknown risks or harms in the future. Some clinicians argued that the consequences of non-treatment were likely to be greater than those of treatment.

Michael Biggs, an Oxford sociologist who has been criticizing the study, comments below:

The Health Research Authority (HRA) has just published its investigation into the 2010 experiment with puberty blockers, or more precisely its role in giving ethical approval and oversight. The investigation was prompted by research published on Transgender Trend in March 2019, with an update in July (the full paper is here). The HRA report’s conclusions are predictably bland. Firstly, ‘the research team involved in the design and delivery of the study … worked in accordance with recognised practice for health research, and in some areas such as patient involvement and transparency were ahead of normal practice at the time’ (p. 11). Secondly, ‘The HRA has acted within its Standard Operating Procedures and its normal practice in relation to this study’ (p. 10).

He goes on to highlight that the main reason they are giving youth hormone blockers is so they pass better later and not to allow time for identity exploration. Identity exploration is often the reason affirmative model advocates give for putting youth on these powerful drugs that stop normal hormonal development by affecting the pituitary gland. Some of those quotes, as well as questionable claims hormone blockers are “fully reversible,” can be found here.

Dr. Biggs from “The astonishing admission in the Health Research Authority report: The purpose of puberty blockers is to commit children to permanent physical transition”:

On close reading, however, the report contains an astonishing admission. The paragraph deserves to be quoted in full:

“It would have reduced confusion if the purpose of the treatment had been described as being offered specifically to children demonstrating a strong and persistent gender identity dysphoria at an early stage in puberty, such that the suppression of puberty would allow subsequent cross-sex hormone treatment without the need to surgically reverse or otherwise mask the unwanted physical effects of puberty in the birth gender. The present study was not designed to investigate the implications on persistence or desistence of offering puberty suppression to a wider range of patients, it was limited to a group that had already demonstrated persistence and were actively requesting puberty blockers. (p. 5, my own emphasis added in bold)”

In fact the 2010 research protocol declared that one of its three aims was ‘[t]o evaluate persistence and desistence of the gender identity disorder and the continued wish for gender reassignment’ (Early pubertal suppression in a carefully selected group of adolescents with gender identity disorder, proposal submitted to Central London REC 2, November 2010, obtained under Freedom of Information from the HRA; italics added). History is being rewritten to alter the rationale for the experiment. It is not clear whether this revisionist history originates with the HRA, or whether the HRA is conveying the current views of the experiment’s chief investigator, Professor Russell Viner (Professor in Adolescent Health at University College London) or his co-investigator, Dr Polly Carmichael (Director of the Gender Identity Development Service, GIDS).

Whatever the source, this is a clear admission that puberty blockers were the first stage on the predestined path to cross-sex hormones. After four assessment interviews, a child of 12 would be consenting in effect to a lifetime of drug dependence and the loss of fertility and the probable loss of sexual functioning. Because the “treatment” was intended to enhance the child’s desire to change sex, it naturally exacerbated her or his gender dysphoria. ‘Worsening behavioural and emotional symptoms of dysphoria’, the HRA notes cheerily, ‘would therefore not in itself be unexpected’ (p. 6).

Micheal Biggs goes on to discuss what he believes to be other ethical problems with the study in the full article.

Two BBC reporters have covered this story in, “Questions remain over puberty-blockers, as review clears study”.

References:

Biggs, M. (2019, March 5). Tavistock’s Experimentation with Puberty Blockers: Scrutinizing the Evidence. Transgendertrend. Retrieved from https://www.transgendertrend.com/tavistock-experiment-puberty-blockers/

Biggs, M. (2019, July 22). Tavistock’s Experiment with Puberty Blockers: an Update. Transgendertrend. Retrieved from https://www.transgendertrend.com/tavistock-experiment-puberty-blockers-update/

Biggs, M. (2019, October 17). The astonishing admission in the Health Research Authority report: The purpose of puberty blockers is to commit children to permanent physical transition. Transgendertrend. Retrieved from https://www.transgendertrend.com/health-research-authority-puberty-blockers-commit-children-permanent-physical-transition/

Clay R. A. (2018). Embracing a gender-affirmative model for transgender youth. APA: CE Corner (49)8, 29. Retrieved from https://www.apa.org/monitor/2018/09/ce-corner

Cohen, D., Barnes, H. (2019, October 15). Questions remain over puberty-blockers, as review clears study. BBC. Retrieved from https://www.bbc.com/news/health-50046579

NHS Health Research Authority, (2019, October 14). Investigation into the study 'Early pubertal suppression in a carefully selected group of adolescents with gender identity disorders.' Retrieved from https://www.hra.nhs.uk/about-us/governance/feedback-raising-concerns/investigation-study-early-pubertal-suppression-carefully-selected-group-adolescents-gender-identity-disorders/

A Recent Spate of Articles about Doctors & Scientists Questioning Pediatric Medical Transition for Gender Dysphoria

News

While the majority of articles and discourse around socially and medically transitioning minors with gender dysphoria have featured positive stories, there have recently been more doctors, scientists, and academics publicly calling for proof of safety and claiming there are dangers involved.

Heather Brunskell-Evans (Philosopher/ Social Theorist) and Michele Moore (Professor, Social Justice & Global Responsibility) are the editors of a book with several contributors who believe trans identity is being actively promoted and over-diagnosed in minors. The book is called Inventing Transgender Children and Young People. Brunskell-Evans describes the threats of censorship and threats to their careers for holding these viewpoints:

Since the publication of the book Transgender Children and Young People: Born In Your Own Body there have been ferocious attempts to silence myself and my co-editor Michele Moore, including sustained attacks on our careers, livelihoods and reputations the likes of which we have never previously experienced in our long academic careers. The publication of our second book, Inventing Transgender Children and Young People, was temporarily interrupted following a threat of litigation by the NHS Tavistock and Portman Hospital Trust UK, home to the Gender Identity Development Services (GIDS). So, not only have we experienced constant attempts to silence our views on the transgendering of children, in the past few weeks we have undergone the nerve-racking fear that our second book might not even be published.

An interview with Brunskell-Evans can be found in “No child is born in the wrong body” with Michele Moore & Heather Brunskell-Evans.”

The Gender Identity Development Service (GIDS) in Britain hired lawyers in regards to the book:

“Britain's first children's gender identity clinic hired lawyers to 'silence' book publishers who warned the rocketing number of youngsters seeking to change sex is 'becoming a scandal’”

A law firm instructed by the Gender Identity Development Service (GIDS) wrote to the editors of 'Inventing Transgender Children and Young People', which warns that the rocketing number of youngsters now seeking to change sex is becoming a scandal.

Lawyers representing Tavistock and Portman NHS Trust, which runs the clinic, claimed many of those who had contributed to the book will have been employed by the gender service and may have broken NHS confidentiality rules.

They said the Tavistock feared the book may contain comments 'defamatory' of its staff.

There are health professionals from Tavistock (the clinic where youth with GD are treated in Britain by the GIDS) and the National Health Service also raising concerns:

“Transgender children who are medically treated risk 'serious and irreversible damage', leading psychiatrist warns”

Transgender children who undergo medical or surgical treatments risk “serious and irreversible damage”, a leading psychiatrist has warned, as he accuses lobby group of “silencing debate”.

Sue Evans is a former Tavistock therapist commenting on a mother’s lawsuit:

“Former Tavistock therapist claims doctors are over diagnosing transgender children”

Today we’re joined by former Tavistock therapist Sue Evans, who after becoming alarmed at the speed in which the clinic offered treatment to children, has now become a whistleblower in support of the mother’s legal action.

Marcus Evans, a former psychiatrist with Tavistock, criticizes what he feels is a lackadaisical attitude toward irreversible medical treatments offered to children/teens:

Normal medical practice is not taking place in my view. There’s not enough research. There’s not enough interest in the downside of what’s going on. There’s not enough scrutiny of the issue of consent. And I think we need an independent regulatory body that would oversee this controversial area.

This creative writing professor comments on transgender books in schools:

“Children being put at risk by transgender books that 'misrepresent' medical knowledge, academic claims”

Children are being put at risk by transgender books in primary schools that “misrepresent” medical knowledge on puberty blockers, an academic has claimed.

Books and lesson plans that are designed educate pupils about transgender issues “fail child safeguarding and conflict with the law”, according to Dr Susan Matthews, an honorary senior research fellow in creative writing at Roehampton University.

The below blog post contains commentary from a Swedish psychiatrist translated into English from this newspaper article:

“Psychiatrist: Gender dysphoria spreads like an epidemic online”

The number of cases of gender dysphoria has increased explosively in recent years, especially among young people. I am appalled at the drastic, irrevocable and unscientific treatment. This may be our country’s biggest healthcare scandal ever…

There needs to be an independent investigation into the probably biggest health scandal in our country’s history.

The public blogging platform Medium censored the original post by removing it altogether for an unspecified “violation.” Censorship around these issues is common.

The same author has written another other piece questioning the safety of pediatric medical transition:

“Läkartidningen: Off-label prescribing of hormones in gender dysphoria should be investigated”

In the United States, Dr. Laidlaw, an endocrinologist, discusses the serious health risks involved with the hormone blocker to cross-sex hormone protocol for minors:

Dr. Laidlaw on the real dangers of puberty and hormone blockers on young people

Another more cautiously minded US doctor:

Johns Hopkins professor on child transgender trend: ‘Many will regret this’

A psychiatrist from Johns Hopkins University has slammed the medical and psychiatric industries for what he says is reckless and irresponsible treatment of patients who claim to be transgender.

Julia Mason is a US pediatrician (and on the GHQ advisory board). Her comments are below:

“A physician is worried about gender transition in pediatrics”

I’ve learned that if I refer a patient to the gender clinic, they are going to get the maximalist treatment. They’re not going to get any help figuring out if they really need the full medical/surgical transition. I am now wary of referring to the gender clinic.

This letter from Australia, by the National Association of Practising Psychiatrists, was written in addition to one by several other doctors, scientists, and concerned individuals, calling for a government inquiry into the safety of pediatric medical transition.

The Hon Greg Hunt
Federal Minister for Health
Parliament House
Canberra

The National Association of Practising Psychiatrists respectfully request:

1. The commonwealth government set up a parliamentary enquiry into the treatment of gender dysphoria in children in Australia;

2. All medical colleges who have member doctors involved in treating gender dysphoria children (paediatricians, general practitioners, surgeons, endocrinologists, gynaecologists, psychiatrists), along with the AMA, the NAPP and other representative medical bodies, and the Medical Board of Australia form a joint committee to develop a set of practice guidelines for the assessment and treatment of children and adolescents under the age of 18 years presenting with gender dysphoria.

Psychologist Dr. Oren Amitay is a Canadian concerned about the affirmative model and the risks to young people who may need more mental hea;th exploration and time to mature. He has faced social punishment from other Canadian psychologists:

“Telling the truth on trans issues got me cancelled: one psychologist’s story“

These comments are in stark contrast to the opinions of affirmative model advocates, like Johanna Olson-Kennedy (head of USPATH), who believe in lowing age of consent for surgery and hormones.

References:

Amitay, O. (2019, September 20). Telling the truth on trans issues got me cancelled: one psychologist’s story. The Post Millennial. Retrieved from https://www.thepostmillennial.com/telling-the-truth-on-trans-issues-got-me-cancelled-one-psychologists-story/

Brunskell-Evans, H. Inventing Transgender Children and Young People. (2019, October 12). Retrieved from http://www.heather-brunskell-evans.co.uk/body-politics/inventing-transgender-children-and-young-people-2/Turner

Dr. Laidlaw on the real dangers of puberty and hormone blockers on young people. (2019, September 12). Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=04rbrvuV1z4&feature=youtu.be&fbclid=IwAR0dDYgL1p13SpKWBLe1R1RJAo6wCuBQhzgJW2M0VIshETuuqJW-AwK4r54

Kids Aren’t Alright. (2019, October 14). RT International. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vxL3uFGstmw

Lencki, M. (2019, September 17). Johns Hopkins professor on child transgender trend: ‘Many will regret this.’ The College Fix. Retrieved from https://www.thecollegefix.com/johns-hopkins-professor-on-child-transgender-trend-many-will-regret-this/

Manning, S. (2019, October 12). Britain's first children's gender identity clinic hired lawyers to 'silence' book publishers who warned the rocketing number of youngsters seeking to change sex is 'becoming a scandal.' Daily Mail. Retrieved from https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-7566851/Britains-childrens-gender-identity-clinic-hired-lawyers-silence-critics-new-book.html

Mason, J. (2019, October 7). A physician is worried about gender transition in pediatrics. Retrieved from https://www.kevinmd.com/blog/2019/10/a-physician-is-worried-about-gender-transition-in-pediatrics.html?fbclid=IwAR0J3bCERzR9hjAC1meocJJnEXUL5detxhyoNHPfpPs24ONyO3qAhYnOwjw

Lane, B. (2019, Septemeber 25). Doctors back inquiry on kids’ trans care. The Australian. Retrieved from https://www.theaustralian.com.au/nation/doctors-back-inquiry-on-kids-trans-care/news-story/6f352bc99da430b194620a2605e8a50d

NAAP. (2019, October 16). Gender Dysphoria – National Enquiry. Retrieved https://napp.org.au/2019/10/gender-dysphoria-national-enquiry/

Roman, S. (2019, September 13). DN Åsikt. ”Könsdysfori sprids som en epidemi på nätet”. Dagens Nyheter. Retrieved from https://www.ihmistenkirjo.net/blog/psychiatrist-gender-dysphoria-spreads-like-an-epidemic-online (English translation here)

Svens, K., Roman, S. (2019, October 10). Läkartidningen: Off-label prescribing of hormones in gender dysphoria should be investigated. KIRJO. Retrieved from https://www.ihmistenkirjo.net/blog/lkartidningen-off-label-prescribing-of-hormones-in-gender-dysphoria-should-be-investigated

Transgendertrend. (2019, April 17). Johanna Olson-Kennedy and the US Gender Affirmative Approach. Retrieved from https://www.transgendertrend.com/johanna-olson-kennedy-gender-affirmative-approach/

Transgendertrend. (2019, June 21). Transgender Trend Statement in Support of Michele Moore. Retrieved from https://www.transgendertrend.com/transgender-trend-statement-support-michele-moore/

Turner, C. (2019, September 4). Children being put at risk by transgender books that 'misrepresent' medical knowledge, academic claims. The Telegraph. Retrieved from https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2019/09/04/transgender-children-medically-treated-risk-serious-irreversible/

Turner, C. (2019, September 4). Transgender children who are medically treated risk 'serious and irreversible damage', leading psychiatrist warns. The Telegraph. Retrieved from https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2019/09/04/transgender-children-medically-treated-risk-serious-irreversible/

Womansplaceuk. (2019, October 14). “No child is born in the wrong body” with Michele Moore & Heather Brunskell-Evans. Retrieved from https://womansplaceuk.org/2019/10/14/no-child-is-born-in-the-wrong-body-with-michele-moore-heather-brunskell-evans/amp/

New Study Linking Conversion Therapy to Depression in Trans Adults & Criticism

News

Affirmative model advocate Jack Turban released a study linking suicide risk to childhood conversion therapy.

“Association Between Recalled Exposure to Gender Identity Conversion Efforts and Psychological Distress and Suicide Attempts Among Transgender Adults:”

Findings In a cross-sectional study of 27 715 US transgender adults, recalled exposure to gender identity conversion efforts was significantly associated with increased odds of severe psychological distress during the previous month and lifetime suicide attempts compared with transgender adults who had discussed gender identity with a professional but who were not exposed to conversion efforts. For transgender adults who recalled gender identity conversion efforts before age 10 years, exposure was significantly associated with an increase in the lifetime odds of suicide attempts.

The study was also criticized for having poor methodology by health professionals/scientists:

Misinterpretation of the findings of this study may limit safe, ethical treatment options for gender-questioning and gender-diverse people:

Prof Richard Byng, PhD, University of Plymouth, UK
William J Malone, MD St. Luke’s Endocrinology and Diabetes Clinic, Twin Falls, ID.
Prof David Curtis, PhD, Queen Mary University of London, UK

The study by Turban and colleagues reports that previous exposure to “gender identity conversion efforts (GICE)” is associated with suicidality among transgender-identifying adults. While the large sample size is a strength, the authors underplay the serious methodological weaknesses, particularly the likely confounding effects of co-existing mental health problems. They then take this association and in the abstract and conclusion seek to imply causation. Hence, the findings could mislead frontline clinicians and public policymakers alike.

The key limitation is that the study did not control for comorbid psychiatric illness, the greatest single predictor of suicidality. While mental health conditions are acknowledged as confounders, they are declared unlikely based on the spurious idea that this would require internalized transphobia. Rather, it seems likely that professionals encountering persons with gender dysphoria (GD) and significant mental health problems were more likely to engage in conversations about the merits of transition, which may later be recalled as a conversion effort. Thus, the association found is arguably more likely due to reverse causation.

Another limitation is that the study data are from a convenience sample of current transgender-identifying individuals, rather than all persons with a history of GD. The sample is highly unlikely to have captured individuals exposed to GICE who subsequently adopted a gender identity concordant with their biological sex. Thus, these data cannot be generalized to individuals as they present with GD.

Prepubertal-onset GD has a high rate of remission, while desistance of GD among those in adolescence with recent onset GD, the increasingly dominant presentation, is as yet unknown. We oppose coercive or unwanted deliberate attempts to change an individual’s gender identity and propose that a range of neutrally framed, supportive therapies and consultative approaches, which are neither affirmation nor conversion, be evaluated in randomized controlled trials. Outcomes of noninvasive treatments should be compared to those of “gender-affirmative models of care,” entailing hormonal and surgical interventions which are associated with increased heart disease, impairments in bone density, infertility, and high rates of suicide over the long term.

References
1. Turban J, et al. Association Between Recalled Exposure to Gender Identity Conversion Efforts and Psychological Distress and Suicide Attempts Among Transgender Adults. JAMA Psychiatry. 2019:1. doi:10.1001/jamapsychiatry.2019.2285
2. Franklin J, et al. Risk factors for suicidal thoughts and behaviors: A meta-analysis of 50 years of research. Psychol Bull. 2017;143(2):187-232. doi:10.1037/bul0000084
3. Steensma T, et al. Factors Associated With Desistence and Persistence of Childhood Gender Dysphoria: A Quantitative Follow-Up Study. Journal of the American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry. 2013;52(6):582-590. doi:10.1016/j.jaac.2013.03.016
4. Dhejne C, et al. Long-Term Follow-Up of Transsexual Persons Undergoing Sex Reassignment Surgery: Cohort Study in Sweden. PLoS ONE. 2011;6(2):e16885. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0016885”

References:

Turban J.L., Beckwith N., Reisner S.L., Keuroghlian A.S. (2019). Association Between Recalled Exposure to Gender Identity Conversion Efforts and Psychological Distress and Suicide Attempts Among Transgender Adults. JAMA Psychiatry(11), 1-9. doi:10.1001/jamapsychiatry.2019.2285

Two new studies on Gender Dysphoria in Minors

News

We are updating our site with two new studies about minors with gender dysphoria, one that shows a slight improvement in mental well-being in more recent cohorts, and one that calls into question the efficacy of social transition.

The researchers in the Netherlands, who started the hormone blocker to cross-sex hormone protocol, released a study called “Re-evaluation of the Dutch approach: are recently referred transgender youth different compared to earlier referrals?”

The Dutch clinic is seeing large increases in the number of females seeking transition. This is the case in all western countries.

Arnoldussen (2019)

They comment on this increasing number of females:

One suggested theory to explain this shift is that it is easier for birth-assigned females to be open about their transgender feelings, since they experience less stigma when they behave masculine than birth-assigned males who behave in a more feminine manner [16, 31, 32, 33].

Gender clinicians rarely consider the alternative, that masculine girls are bullied for being masculine and don’t value themselves as gender nonconforming girls. Several detransitioned lesbian/bi youth have said this was the case for them and there is evidence homophobic bullying of gender nonconforming youth (also never referenced in these studies) fuels trans identification.

Contrary to other studies with high rates of mental health issues, they note a slight improvement in their recent cohort:

In addition, although we hypothesized that is was possible that present referrals had more psychological problems, the opposite seems the case. Our analyses showed that psychological functioning of the referred adolescents improved somewhat over time. This could be explained by a subtle improvement in externalizing problems and better peer relations. It might be the case that it has become easier to openly identify as transgender in recent years, so that recent referrals do not have to stand up as fiercely for themselves as earlier referrals. In addition, they seem more accepted by peers.

The clinic expresses no concern about social contagion, as other scientists/doctors are, and attribute these increases to more youth coming out and feeling accepted. They also cite superficial similarities to earlier cohorts and recent cohorts, including a large increase in females, to possibly insinuate the groups are the same.

This may suggest that in the early years, only the tip of the iceberg of the actual number of transgender youth was presented to a transgender clinic and this iceberg has come to surface in recent years.

Wong (2019), "Childhood social gender transition and psychosocial well-being: A comparison to cisgender gender-variant children," is another recent study examining the mental health of youth who have been socially transitioned. The sample size is decent, 266 children. Unlike the Trans Youth Project studies often used to justify early social and medical transition, this study has a control group. And unlike Olson (2016), these socially transitioned young people may not have significantly improved mental health.

A quote from the results, emphasis ours:

Results: There was little evidence that psychosocial well-being varied in relation to gender transition status. Parents of CGV children were generally accepting of childhood gender variance, but only poor peer relations predicted lower psychological well-being among these children. Conclusion: Socially transitioned children appear to experience similar levels of psychosocial challenges as CGV children. While further research is needed to evaluate possible effects of childhood social gender transition on well-being, this study suggests experiences of psychosocial challenges among gender-variant children require monitoring irrespective of transition status, and relationships with peers may be especially important to consider.

They report peer relations is a key factor. Poor peer relations actually drives some children towards trans-identification as cited above. It’s worth exploring if more acceptance for gender-variant behavior reduces the need for medical transition to conform to heterosexual gender and sexuality norms.

References:

Arnoldussen, M., Steensma, T.D., Popma, A. et al. Re-evaluation of the Dutch approach: are recently referred transgender youth different compared to earlier referrals? European Child & Adolescent Psychiatry. 1-9 doi.org/10.1007/s00787-019-01394-6

Lane, Bernard. (2019, September 25). Trans care inquiry backed. The Australian. Retrieved from https://www.theaustralian.com.au/nation/doctors-back-inquiry-on-kids-trans-care/news-story/6f352bc99da430b194620a2605e8a50d

Olson, K. R., Durwood, L., DeMeules, M., & McLaughlin, K. A. (2016). Mental health of transgender children who are supported in their identities. Pediatrics, 137(3), e20153223. doi:10.1542/peds.2015-3223

Wong, W. I., van der Miesen, A., Tjonnie G., F., MacMullin, L., & VanderLaan, D. (2019). Childhood social gender transition and psychosocial well-being: A comparison to cisgender gender-variant children. Clinical Practice in Pediatric Psychology,7(3), 241-253. doi.org/10.1037/cpp0000295

Australian News Station Reports on Childhood Gender Dysphoria like a Liberal Tabloid Version of a Fox News Show

Opinion

by Justine Kreher

In tabloid-style, a national Australian news station (ABC) commented on the child/teen social and medical transition movement. More minors are being socially and medically transitioned to treat gender dysphoria in all western countries. The tone of the “media watch” segment is one of moral superiority. The content could be considered news-ish, rather than straight news. It is reminiscent of a Fox News O’Reilly Factor episode, only a left-wing version.

The show starts off quoting a native of the country who hates The Australian, a conservative paper. The Australian has recently published commentary from doctors and scientists who are alarmed by some aspects of pediatric medical transition. This is done to set the stage in everyone’s mind that everything the paper printed about safety and ethical issues should be discounted.

They proceeded to quote Benjamin Law, a gay man, and writer, who is part of ABC staff. Benjamin Law is dismissive of any points that raise red flags about pediatric transition. These include the possibility that early transition may prevent desistance, side-effects of hormone blockers, and large increases of female teenagers coming out as trans. He has been on social media calling for boycotts of The Australian and painting anyone with concerns as “transphobes.”

Benjamin Law, Australian LGBT rights activist

I have sent him numerous examples of liberal-minded, pro-LGBT health professionals, raising all of the same concerns raised by The Australian. I pointed out that false positives resulting from transitioning children, teens, and young adults will fall disproportionately on gay, lesbian, and bisexual youth, as GD happens in those populations, but transition may not be the best option. Despite presenting him with cited quotes from gender dysphoria professionals and research data showing an association with childhood GD and adult homosexuality, he had no interest in addressing these points. Instead, he prompted me to read his document that brushes aside any desire to consider negative outcomes as “moral panic.” One has to pay for it to read it.

The comments he refers to by saying “not sure your comments really cut it” were from the most experienced gender clinicians in the world who support transiting youth. They just acknowledge there are risks to grey-area young people, as gender dysphoria exists more as a spectrum than an either-or situation. There is no attempt to engage honestly with this topic with people of a certain mindset. There is plenty of evidence that there are grey area, dysphoric youth who may resolve GD with less drastic measures. Diane Ehrensaft, the most enthusiastic promoter of early social and medical transition, admits there are “fruit salad” children.

Benjamin Law does not know the effects of the push to socially transition small children on them.

Benjamin Law does not know the effects of giving children hormone blockers at the crack of puberty on them.

No one knows these answers, not Law, not pediatric transition enthusiasts like Johanna Olson-Kennedy, Dianne Ehrensaft, or Norman Spack. And not the Gender Health Query organization. One would have to have studies with control groups.

Benjamin Law doesn’t address the ethics of sterilizing and destroying the sexual function of minors while many trans adults make the choice to have children or don’t get bottom surgery. Benjamin Law does not engage with information sent to him about young, detransitioned people, physically altered with regrets. ABC in Australia has no interest in any of this either even though accessing this information is very easy.

These individuals are interested in exclusively protecting one group of youth, youth who are certain to identify as trans as children and adults. People with professional backgrounds, parents with desisted children, or detransitioners who say other vulnerable youth (LGB, autism spectrum, youth with trauma) may be hurt are irrelevant. And if anyone is concerned about those youth they will paint them as an evil cartoon villain tying children to railroad tracks. The irony is a gay man is doing this. Instead of promoting this baseless outrage towards safety skeptics Law and others who engage in this behavior should just promote what their argument really is:

• Trans youth are at risk for suicide ideation and mental health problems so we support the full affirmation of trans youth who will have stable identities.

• Whatever damage that may result from this is morally acceptable.

• We will attack you if you attempt to discuss that potential damage or damage that has already happened.

That is the honest argument and that is exactly what has been happening elsewhere.

Someone is going to have to be around to care about collateral damage. This collateral damage will likely be ignored by WPATH. Youth who have been harmed by this will be treated horribly by the contemporary “queer” community, as they will be viewed as the enemy of trans people. That is already happening.

The news presenter went on quoting a doctor (“They are castrating children”) in a mocking tone because the news station believes this man should be viewed by all as ridiculous:

While surgery doesn’t happen until age 18 in Australia, gender clinics are castrating children. Hormone blockers are a form of chemical castration. They are given to sex offenders to eliminate their sexuality. The blockers stop the normal adolescent process of puberty. There is information that these drugs have dangerous side effects. If a male youth goes on hormone blockers, and then onto cross-sex hormones, the cognitively immature minor may have permanently ruined their sexual function. Both sexes will be sterilized if they do this. Many trans adults say they want biological children. No one knows the cognitive effects of blockers that may influence gender identity by shutting down a youth’s physical maturation and burgeoning sexual identity. None of this is of any interest to ABC.

Another comment from Benjamin Law:

It is dishonest to paint people worried about pediatric transition as “fringe extremists.” They include some of the most experienced gender experts. Dr. Wren, Dr. Charmicheal, Dr. Steensma, Dr. Zucker, Dr. Susan Bradley and others have all stated there is a possibility that early social and medical transitions may lead to inappropriate transition of cognitively immature minors.

But the Australian’s coverage is shamelessly one-eyed.

The newscaster went on an ad hominem attack against John Whitehall while failing to discount Whitehall’s statements. And then goes on to promote WPATH’s statements. This is a trans advocacy organization and not an unbiased source.

Then there was the one-sided appeal to emotion argument in a parent’s response. It’s not that parents’ responses are invalid. They are valid. It’s choosing a statement that says questioning the safety of drastic body modifications is “demonizing trans children” that is the problem. It is an appeal to emotion argument, hyperbole, an ad hominem attack on people raising legitimate concerns, and a red herring that does nothing to prove that giving 11 year olds hormone blockers is safe. It may not be. There are also increasing numbers of parents who could make statements that their children have been harmed by the culture’s current focus on gender and medical transition.

This is the current and likely future reality:

• A culture that is very supportive of extreme medical body modification on cognitively immature youth will dominate due to fears of suicide risk. This risk is often exaggerated but is real, and transition may help these youths.

• The fact that these treatments are profitable to those offering them is also likely a factor in why they are promoted.

• A desire to protect trans youth will create a situation where any youth who may be harmed or already have been will be treated as inconvenient collateral damage that should essentially shut up and be pushed under the rug.

• Any individuals who do express concerns for youth who may be harmed or already have been will be painted as cartoon villains by large swaths of society (mostly on the left).

• The collateral damage will fall disproportionately on LGB youth, autism spectrum youth, and youth with trauma and other mental health problems. This collateral damage will be considered worth trans-positive health care.
  

Stating The Australian biased skepticism and not the positive data in its reporting is a fair criticism. The Australian has not been centering affirmative model arguments in their recent stories but have been focusing on some concerns, rare in current western media. But this almost clownish ABC segment pretended there is nothing to worry about here rather than present the honest viewpoint that they believe the youth who may be hurt aren’t worth worrying about enough to due even the most rudimentary level of research and reporting.

New Research Doesn't Find A Specific "Gay Gene"

News

This BBC news story about a search for a “gay gene” is being tagged to our section on nature versus nurture research on trans and homo/bisexual identity.

A genetic analysis of almost half a million people has concluded there is no single "gay gene".

The study, published in Science, used data from the UK Biobank and 23andMe, and found some genetic variants associated with same-sex relationships.

But genetic factors accounted for, at most, 25% of same-sex behaviour.

Update 08/31/19: Related article, “Genetics may explain up to 25% of same-sex behavior, giant analysis reveals”

References:

BBC. (2019, August 29). No single gene associated with being gay. Retrieved from https://www.bbc.com/news/health-49484490

Kaiser, J. (2019, August, 29). Genetics may explain up to 25% of same-sex behavior, giant analysis reveals. Science. Retrieved from https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2019/08/genetics-may-explain-25-same-sex-behavior-giant-analysis-reveals