The report wrote "It has been suggested that hormone treatment reduces the elevated risk of death by suicide in this population, but the evidence found did not support this conclusion."
I hope that parents with reservations about this treatment will no longer be pressured to give their consent for their troubled kids.
For me, this is one of the more damaging and distressing hallmarks of American practice that spread globally: telling parents it's lifesaving treatment when, in fact, the treatment is doing nothing to reduce the risk of suicide. What a dangerous, dangerous lie.
Prof L Appleby who is in charge of suicide prevention in the UK came out in March and asked that people stop using that slogan as there was no evidence for the claim. However so many people are wedded to that claim and did what they did because they thought it true that it will be hard for them to walk it back.
The subject of addressing suicide has come up twice in my education:
1- When I was in junior high, a speaker talked about teen suicide. An example story was told about a boy who died from suicide after his girlfriend broke up with him (I got the impression it was a true story). His family and community mourned him, but the girl did move on with her life and dated someone else afterward.
2- When I took a journalism class, we discussed the ethics of withholding suicide notes from publication. Publishing suicide notes would create an incentive for copy-cats.
The rhetoric of "give these pre-teen/teenager what they want or they'll kill themselves" is a harmful message. It encourages emotional blackmail. It puts the onus on the people around the troubled person to accommodate their wishes rather than have the person obtain professional mental health support.
I'm glad that professionals who deal with suicide risk are pushing back against the "live transgender son or dead daughter" slogans. It should never have become prevalent in the first place.
I'm happy the Cass Review has laid bare what it has. How will the US respond? Will parents be able to support their questioning kids more easily now? I certainly hope so. I am in 2 different support groups of parents with hundreds of other parents trying to navigate this. We are anonymous bcs activists will literally come for our kids if we use our real names. Our kids think they are in charge. You know why they think they are in charge- bcs teachers, school counselors and doctors have told them they are in charge. We can't trust teachers or doctors. And now the Cass review shows us that we were right all along. I've been listening to a song from the musical "Spring Awakening" today and there is a song called "Totally Fucked". That's what we are.
I am so so sorry. The schools here in CA have so brainwashed kids. My 9th grader thinks it's no big deal if someone transitions because "they can always go back." We have tried explaining to him (and my husband is a scientist by training) that isn't the case. I know several people in your same boat-what a nightmare. You must feel so isolated.
In the era of "Signal 30" and health classes that were essentially a horror gallery of "social diseases," our elders didn't feel the need to be euphemistic or oblique about the dangers we faced. Are we now trying to have conversations that are less graphic than the subject matter itself? When the ideologues offer euphemisms like "top surgery," which sounds like hemming a blouse, realists should counter with great specificity.
I am also in CA and have a 9th grade girl who believes she is a boy and who is affirmed by the entire school community. We are literally the only people in her life not going along with the nonsense and naturally she despises us for it.
Only you know what the best move is for your daughter - but the Vatican has just come out strongly against GI so a parochial school now should not affirm, one hopes. Maybe that would be a good move for 10th grade? It would probably be best to finish out 9th grade quietly or people at your current school will try to "save him". I am not religious myself but you could ask her to be respectful, tell her you admire the structure and academics at the new school, and say "isn't it good to understand world religions?" Just a thought.
My daughter goes to an all girls Catholic school in Seattle and there are multiple male-identifying students at the school. So, parochial schools aren’t necessarily the answer
I don't know whether you want to talk to your daughter's school about it? The school could just call the girl by her real name and not play the pronoun game. She's free to do what she likes at home - but if her parents are into gender they might withdraw her. If they are not gender fairy believers, they will be grateful that the school no longer caters to the cult which is harming their kid.
There should be some parochial schools willing to follow Catholic teachings now.
But, then the next problem is that the Biden Administration is changing Title IV to be about "gender" rather than sex. That will bring the Federal Government in opposition to Catholic schools.
I will add that I am not catholic - or even religious. But, separation of church and state was supposed to be a thing and the Ideology surrounding "gender" is pretty much cult religion material and it has that effect on many.
I'm so sorry. I've been there. "No one else has a problem with it."
I recommend PITT.substack.com, 4thwavenow.com, and TransgenderTrend (UK one that existed before the first two). Fortunately for your family, things are finally showing some signs of crumbling after SOOO many years. My impression is though, that there is no shade between the Biden Administration and the CA State, WA State, and OR State governments.
I am so sorry. I feel terrible for parents who had the misfortune of having had adolescent children during the height of this communal delusion. It is so unfortunate that those with the good fortune to have been born before or after this period will be spared, solely because of an accident of time. The medical establishment has damaged one cohort of parents and children irrevocably, in the name of politics and out of fear of difference.
While I believe you're earnest, you may be a bit naive as well.
Non-government, unelected teachers, doctors, counselors - the list is endless - are feverishly trying to make this a new normal before the rest of us can stop them. Hence the vilification of PTAs, squashing of debate and complete lack of medical ethics across this righteous cohort of leftist fanatics.
The tide seems to be turning, or perhaps I am naive. Perhaps it’s not turning as fast here as in England. But I hope it turns at the very least regarding the medical treatment of children. The pronoun stuff we may be stuck with.
"People who promote “using pronouns” claim “for a cisgender person, it costs you nothing.” They claim it normalizes the process of “transitioning” for someone else and somehow makes the environment “safer”.
It is true that this normalizes a process, but it’s not a process that should be normalized or taken lightly, especially for minor children. It makes the environment more dangerous. When people “use their pronouns” they have been duped into thinking that they are merely “supporting” people who are different from them. In fact, they are promoting an aggressive and triumphalist cult ideology, normalizing the abnormal, and gaslighting the easily influenced young, leading them down a path of irreparable harm.
At the height of the anorexia epidemic, adults did not announce our “allyship” by including our weight in our email signatures. Encouraging a social contagion makes it worse and it is worse still when trusted adult authorities endorse it. It hurts vulnerable young people like my daughter, who became trans-identified at school, where teachers kept us in the dark then disregarded our concerns. In the epidemic of Trans Ideology, misguided allyship puts kids on a path that leads to unnecessary medical procedures resulting in sterility and regret.
New religions never say they are a religion—what they say is that they have discovered The Truth. And, once the mind and heart are won over, adherents will do anything to their bodies in the name of the True Faith. This must stop.
These are the words of a new cult religion’s catechism, not of science:
One doesn't have to be a lawn-sign-preaching, virtue-signaling, excuse-making parent who lets her child have a smart phone 24/7 and is allergic to the word "no" . . . but it doesn't hurt!
I have a co-worker who allowed her daughter to have her breasts removed at age 15. The daughter is now 26, has un-transed (my term) and is now just a gay woman but with no breasts and the same mental health issues she had at age 15. The harm of this movement is mind boggling and I truly hope medical licenses are revoked and lawsuits are plentiful.
There are gays, lesbians and trans adults who are horrified about this scandal of kids. The trans adults who fit the original, classic cohort ( boys who knew from a very young age that something was not right, , no other psych issues, loving parents) are being hurt by what’s been going on. They transitioned as adults and really have little to nothing in common with the trans cult activists.This has put them in a terrible position..
Many people of all ages and families are being hurt by this “ movement”.
The so-called “original group of patients” whose parents sought treatment for them was just one of a series of very different groups of people who got run through the medical sex change system. Kids are capable of knowing that “something feels very wrong” from birth. That is why babies scream. There is no evidence that any group of sex change seekers qualifies as the “real trans cases.” If we can continue to conduct valid research on all sex change seekers, the records of the mythical cohort of boys you reference will come under scrutiny. I predict that the widespread belief that “they were the real trans cases” will fall apart soon after a scientific spotlight is focused in that direction.
I’m not sure I understand your statement. The tiny cohort of the “ real trans cases”( why do you call them mythical) that I’m aware of made the decision as adults. From what I can tell most are not activists, but just want to live their lives.Do you think those adults should not be allowed to have those procedures ?
As long as they finance it without tax dollars I don’t have an issue with that. Much of this epidemic started after Obama snuck trans care into ACA as a mandatory covered service.
It’s been reported that the adult clinics in UK are now found to be scrutinized by the NHS too. The US is lagging far behind in shutting down pediatric gender clinics.
There are multiple references in the literature to an early cohort of gender patients who were “boys,” who expressed a cross sex desire or identity throughout their boyhood. I am not clear where or when these patients were seen, but plan to try to get that information. That is part of why I think of them as mythical.
During the Nineties I worked in my psychology practice with men of various ages who had gender dysphoria. They had all gone through a period of transvestic fetishism in adolescence or when they were older. A minority of them also reported a childhood history of cross sex identification. Most had additional psych issues, which for any individual might include depression, substance abuse, and narcissistic personality traits. Based on consults with other gender therapists, this was a common profile for adult male patients in their practices as well as mine. The female patients had entirely different histories, mostly as gender nonconforming girls who adopted a butch lesbian lifestyle, then subsequently wanted to live as men.
I think that medicalized transitioning for people under 25 should be ended. There are problems, however, with any age limit beyond which people become free to medically transition. Right now, it is very common for adolescents to schedule surgeries immediately after the birthday that qualifies them for surgery. This means the decision was made well before that date. A second major problem is that both the adolescents and the adults are not generally motivated to engage seriously in getting over their gender dysphoria through therapies other than surgery as long as the latter option is dangling before them. This is similar for people who want cosmetic surgeries for beautification: they don’t want to engage in psychotherapy with the intention of getting over their dissatisfaction with their bodies, they focus on the promise of surgery transforming their appearance.
"During the Nineties I worked in my psychology practice with men of various ages who had gender dysphoria. They had all gone through a period of transvestic fetishism in adolescence or when they were older. A minority of them also reported a childhood history of cross sex identification."
You're talking about autogynephilia (AGP), which was described by Dr. Ray Blanchard in the 20th century. Blanchard categorized male transsexuals as either homosexual or heterosexual. The AGPs are heterosexual, i.e., attracted to women, and to themselves as women. Many have been married and fathered children. Google Blanchard's name and you'll find a lot of information.
AGPs are a large cohort that is denied to exist by many trans activists who experience it. I've heard, although I don't have the stats to back it up, that AGPs represent the larger category of men who medically transition. (Bruce Jenner is in this category; so is the British autogynephile, Debbie Hayton. Hayton is unusually forthright. He acknowledges his condition.)
Here's an interesting fact sheet on AGP that provides some history and a range of opinions.
I have one such friend (M to F), and he is not an activist. But I think that he was simply gay, and didn't want to accept it. The doctors who allowed him to transition did him a great disservice because he doesn't have any romantic relationships. Gay men are not attracted to someone without male genitals, and straight men are not attracted to someone who doesn't come close to passing as a woman. His work requires frequent travel, so he rationalizes his loneliness.
That is a sad story. I know adults who underwent trans surgeries as adults( all MTo F) who report a good life , one is married and has kids. Both were accepted in their communities until the last few years. They find themselves being held to account for the transing of minors and that is wrong.
There is no perfect justice in this world. But protecting these troubled kids many like your friend who are gay has to take precedence. The activists have helped no one, but have harmed many
Regarding the clinical history of prepubescent boys being treated at gender clinics, Dr. Cass mentions them in the Cass Review. She said they were coming to gender clinics in the UK around 1989, and that the majority of them got over their gender dysphoria without transition but some didn't. She also mentions that the Dutch clinics were seeing young boys, and that based on these cases the Dutch developed the standard that to qualify for medical transition the patients needed to have a cross sex identification throughout childhood.(At least this is how I understand the history so far. I haven't yet read all the references about the Dutch work).
I don't know why these patients are referred to so often as the "classic" type of gender patients, though. Grown men were seeking transition approval letters from psychiatrists as early as the 1970's, when I was a grad student. They started seeking transition letters in considerable numbers during the Nineties, probably motivated by improvements in the surgery outcomes.
Sorry, but a bi-partisan commission of political busy-bodies is not the answer. Only the ban-hammer will do. US professional associations are deeply corrupted by Critical Gender Theory. And the pipeline of new doctors is just as corrupt. I never thought I'd be a ban-hammer advocate, but the time is now.
The AMA and American Academy of Pediatrics follow guidelines issued by WPATH, the pseudo-scientific gender-activist-based group that was recently discredited by the release of the "WPATH files" by Michael Shellenberger on Public. Also Joe Biden and his administration actively promote "gender-affirming care" which is now transparently anything but "care". This needs to be called out immediately.
Ban, yes. However the removal or extending of statutes of limitations on malpractice for medical gender interventions might be a more effective and faster approach. If g.a.c.has such reliable efficacy, as activists claim, then surely no one would be sued at any time, no matter the statutes of limitations.
Similarly, if this was all well and good, why were Transactivists trying to prevent Amazon from selling her book, Irreversible Damage and from speaking at universities? What were they afraid of, if they had truth on their side.
I agree totally. As it’s been said repeatedly, we have extensive laws protecting children. As just one more example, we don’t “ban” children from sexual activity. We protect children on the grounds that they are too young to give consent. What on earth is the difference??
The fallout from the report continues in the UK -- both the Government and Labour (most likely to win the next election) have pledged to follow its recommendations.
The doors have been blown off but this scandal has a long way to go. Hopefully now a proper service can developed for highly vulnerable children who have complex mental health needs.
I am also British and married to a British wife who, by her own definition, was a 'tomboy' around 9 to 13 years old. As we were both born in the 1950s, we are fortunate to have been brought up by people who understood that some girls were tomboys and some boys were interested in more traditionally 'girly' things but that it DIDN'T matter and things would usually sort themselves out if the child was allowed to pursue whatever interests they had. We turned out as heterosexual people both of who became aerospace engineers which is where we met. We had two daughters born either side of 1990 and I stayed home to be the main care giver and I absolutely loved doing that despite the doomsayers who said I'd hate it!
45 years after meeting we're still together.
How terribly sadly different that history could have been if we had been born 50 years later with the 'gender dyphoria'/medical transition doctrines of the 21 century ....
And I know that it is that feeling that history could have been different that drives me to write about these things and to try to highlight the dangers of the ideology.
It really and sincerely doesn't matter and people have always liked different thing for a wide variety of reasons. Sometimes it feels like we are going back to the Victorian era with set roles and yet even then women did things they weren't supposed to without having to think they were men.
I feel the whole modern ideology is based on all those pre-conceptions over 'gender roles' that were rightly rejected in the 1950s-70s in the name of feminism. We have always thought that there are responsibilities attached to having a family but, as long as they are actually done, it doesn't matter which of us does them. As you say, in Victorian days many women ended up doing lots of things they 'weren't supposed to' because someone had to!
I dated a girl who described herself as a 'tomboy'. She later had several kids. Times change and (in this case) not for the better. No less than JKR has suggested that she might of 'transitioned' had she been born decades later. Camille Paglia has stated that our contemporary obsession with 'trans' (and other identities) might mark the end of our civilization. She might be correct.
Regrettably, I agree with you and Camille.That's why we need to keep up the pressure on society to behave rationally. Not easy, I admit, but it has to be done to save the children - and thus the future adults running our countries - caught up in this mess.
When I was 4 years old in 1965, I insisted on being called “Jess” because he was my favorite character on some popular Western TV show. My mother bought me a really cute cowboy outfit (and boots!) which I also apparently wore all the time. I even wore it in my family’ annual Christmas picture that year. Thank goodness my parents had common sense and let me play the obsession out - by the next Christmas I was 100% into Barbies and all other “girlie” things. I shudder to think the pressure my parents would be under I’d been born 55 years later!
Finally The Free Press reporting on this huge medical fraud scandal that TFP helped air last year.
It would have been better to be in the morning post for maximal exposure
Shellenberger and the WPATH files should have been in this article as there is plent of evidence of the fraud and lying of WPATH( more accurate would be USPATH.)
The lie about the “ high suicide risk” was necessary for the trans ideologue doctors because they knew a risk of imminent death is an accepted reason to use poor quality data to avoid doing randomized controlled trials ( Ie if there is a new drug not yet adequately tested but a patient has an aggressive disease and is expected to die in a few months, that drug mat be used with proper consent.In this example it is understood the drug is experimental or poorly tested to date. In the Gender affirming care model the parents are told the risk of suicide is very high but they are not told this is unproven , untested intervention. That’s a big difference. These doctors knew and know exactly what they were doing. The lies were justified to push their ideology .
The USA does not need an “ investigation or bipartisan commission. The evidence of fraud and danger to minors is overwhelming. The prudent thing is to stop this now on an emergency basis. How these troubled kids should be studies is a separate question now. It’s doubtful that an ethical an RCT design can be done as the drs of WPATH are frauds and can’t be trusted, and unbiased drs will probably not agree to do these interventions in children and young teens when there is such controversy , and observational data that they cause perm harm more than good, and there really is no way to obtain informed consent from the patients.
Dear heavens, I didn't put together why they pushed the suicide risk so heavily until you laid it out. I sadly think you're right and my level of disgust at the medical profession just grows and grows. I cannot believe in this day and age, I have to look at our medical profession as little more than witch doctors since they seem to grab onto whatever is the theme of the week and push it without considering any other options or even using common sense.
The medical profession bears no resemblance to the one I once knew( as imperfect as it was )
The corporate takeover by corporations and now by DEI WOKE has destroyed it completely. The public is two groups. Older people who expect it to be the way it was, and young people who only this broken system
This transing of minor movement is not arbitrary , whimsical or capricious. It was well planned and very well funded. They did not expect that anyone would be brave enough to call them out for the frauds they are. The sane public must keep this front and center.
The medical profession of today has been hijacked by ideology of DEI, Trans and Climate Catastrophe. For supposedly scientifically minded critical thinkers, the profession has been fucked up royally.
That’s one of the most distressing aspects of this mess. We were inclined to trust physicians due to their scientific training and experience. To see them cave like this, slicing up minors based on weak or non-existent evidence, is very disillusioning. We expect the Left and some politicians to be whacky, but hoped for better from science and physicians.
Yes it’s beyond distressing. It’s tragic. The WPATH doctors are trans activists themselves( the president has been a trans person) . Medicine has been taken over by the WOKEsters and are no longer even to be considered at all “ ethical”. Medicine has gone WOKE like all other institutions in this country.
As a young pharma rep I had a Doctor tell me it’s the “Practice of Medicine” Which spoke volumes to me! Admittedly medicine isn’t black and white. Shameful for the Academy of Pediatrics to support medical transition of children without very long term studies on the subject. I don’t blindly trust any Doctors ever!!!
Even if there were a high incidence of suicide among gender dysphoric children, which I doubt, there is no evidence that so-called gender affirming care lessens this, as the rate of suicide is high for those who medically transition. Further, doctors fixate on the gender aspect of these children's distress when many if not most of them have other psychological problems that can be addressed without life-changing drugs and surgery.
The risk of suicide is also greater in people who get conventional plastic surgery - because changing one's appearance doesn't solve underlying problems. And because some procedures have horrible results - just like sex change surgeries.
The findings are that the suicide rate is significantly higher in the cohort that transitions. Hormone manipulations cause mood swings and the surgeries are fraught with both short and long term post op problems. The trans person with these problems is discouraged from talking about these complications , so as not to discourage those in the trans pipeline from having the next procedure. ( I have no doubt that some are satisfied but that does not justify using these aggressive interventions for a psychological problem)
The doctor trans activists who make money in this arena have real $$ reasons for pushing this agenda.
This is medical fraud scandal of gargantuan proportions.
If I as a young impressionable person consented to a surgery and medications that would sterilize me, ruin my chances for future sexual performance and gratification as well as procreation, I would likely be suicidal as well.
Most of the transitioners also fully expect to find romantic partners. For the males that rarely works out, but that reality is not discussed with them in advance of medical interventions.
Gender dysphoria is frequently associated with mental illness. The link between mental illness and suicide is well established. What this means in practice, is some association between gender dysphoria and suicide risk.
But the question is whether "gender affirming care" reduces or increases suicidal tendencies. I understand that surgical intervention make suicide more likely not less.
We don't have any valid research at present that clarifies this issue. There is a Swedish study that found high rates of suicide in adult patients who had completed medical transitions, but we don't know if the rate of suicide would have been even higher had the patients not transitioned. The recently posted study from Finland cited by Teucer's wife (comment below) found low rates of suicide in an adolescent population of gender patients, comparable to same age cohort in general population. These researchers found no significant effect of gender treatment on the rate of suicide. They did find that comorbid psychiatric conditions accounted for the rate of suicide.
The problem is that care of gender dysphoric patients is based on ideology not evidence. It's inexcusable to use life-altering treatment without clear evidence it will likely relieve the patient's distress.
The idea of prescribing hormones and surgeries for people with psych issues is totally bizarre! We know a lot about how to treat psych issues, and whether or not we are always successful (we aren't), surgery is never prescribed for treatment of depression, anxiety or personality disorders.
Researchers are supposed to try to tease apart the contribution of comorbid mental illnesses to suicide from the contribution of gender dysphoria. One methodology is to follow a group of gender dysphoria patients with comorbid conditions and compare them with a group of similar people who only have the comorbid conditions without gender issues. Or use the statistics we already have for risk of suicide for those specific comorbid conditions, such as Major Depression. Recent research results say that suicide risk from comorbid conditions is sufficient to account for suicides seen in the gender dysphoria group, meaning the gender dysphoria doesn’t add much to suicide risk. But very little research has been done on this subject, in contrast to all the claims made about gender dysphoria leading to suicide.
There was a recent study from Finland that did the comparison you described. It found that the suicide risk was not tied to gender dysphoria; the suicide risk was linked to whatever other mental health conditions were also present.
"Conclusions: Clinical gender dysphoria does not appear to be predictive of all-cause nor suicide mortality when psychiatric treatment history is accounted for."
Yes, that study is the primary one I know of that looks at the link between suicide and gender dysphoria in young people. This study is very valuable, since we have no other reliable data regarding adolescents. It does have a major flaw, which is that the variable used to measure comorbid psychiatric conditions provides only a very rough estimate. I expect that future investigations will use gold standard psychological evaluations of each patient in the research to assess psych conditions and their severity. The other psych conditions that could account for suicides vary in their mortality rates. There are many other reasons why it is important to know the exact diagnoses to the extent possible. For example, Cluster B personality disorders, especially Borderline, Histrionic and Narcissistic Personality Disorders, are associated with general identity confusion and instability as well as interpersonal manipulation, especially including threats and acts of self harm. These disorders could account for the confusion and instability of sexual identity in adolescents without additional diagnosis of gender distress.
Pediatrics and psychiatry in the United States have been bulldozed into accepting and promoting the irreversible hormonal and surgical modification of children. Among children, "gender dysphoria" results primarily from social contagion, anxiety, depression and the normal confusion of adolescence.
Decades from now this will be rightly seen for what it is, a non-scientific, experimental practice upon children that was promoted by unhinged advocates and accepted by fearful gullible physicians. Yes, I am speaking to the pediatricians, psychiatrists and plastic surgeons involved.
"Shame" doesn't do this crime justice. "Gender Affirmation Care" of children will join the annals of other unethical scientific experiments, committed without informed consent of the participants: The Tuskegee Syphilis Study, the Stanford Prison Experiment, the Milgram Experiment and the Cold-WEra Human Radiation Experiments.
The way pediatricians, psychiatrists and plastic surgeons went for this makes one understand how Nazi Germany happened. I find the plastic surgeons who are happy to remove a young woman's healthy breasts especially alarming.
My understanding is that in Germany the doctors were actually out ahead of the politicians who had to rein them in at times. There is a PITT about that:
"Echoes of Eugenics: What the Doctors Trial at Nuremberg Means for Us in the US
On the 75th anniversary of the trial of Nazi doctors at Nuremberg we examine Nazi medicine and gender-affirming care AUG 30, 2022"
Indeed. He was an MD PhD. His boss wound up at a Eugenics society on Park Avenue, NYC.
From the article I reference above:
"Billionaire’s fortunes such as Rockefeller, Harriman, and Carnegie bankrolled private efforts both at home and abroad. All three funded the Eugenics Record Office at Cold Spring Harbor. That ended only in 1939 when the Carnegie Institution “became increasingly embarrassed” to find “mounting evidence of serious flaws in eugenics research ... [and the director’s] misuse of ‘data’ and almost religious belief in his version of eugenics... Knowledge of the horrors of the Nazi application of eugenics sealed the fate of the American movement, and the ERO was closed in 1939.” (PITTs take note: sloppy science and big missteps that embarrass funders can lead to reform.) Speaking of embarrassments, it was Rockefeller money that paid 25 year old Josef Mengele as assistant to the director at the Kaiser Wilhelm Eugenics Institute. [Messall 2004, p.34] As of 1956, eleven years after the war, Mengele’s old boss, Dr. Otmar Freiherr von Verschuer, was a member in good standing of the American Eugenics Society of 230 Park Avenue, NYC."
People in the US take compulsory DIE/CRT/GI training and are pressured to declare "their pronouns" or list them in email signatures. Or, they feel compelled to go along with "WE BELIEVE..." statements in their organizations regardless of what they really think. They do it because they want to keep their jobs. I think that is why the majority signed up with the National Socialist German Workers' Party in 1930s Germany. Some people were rabidly into it (just like some here and now with the destructive DIE/CRT/GI) but most just did not want to make waves, wanted to keep their jobs, and didn't think it was a big deal/it might affect "some other people". Then, things get worse. We are there, IMO. Instead of Nazi youth training we have DIE/CRT/GI in schools from K - University and then at work. Of course, the young become believers.
(I just pushed this comment down farther where it may fit better.)
And yet here we are. Things which could not be put through with laws have been pushed through via more sly ways with ESG/CEI (Corporate Equality Index), DIE... Now that "ESG" is losing its luster the name is being removed from funds. However, Larry Fink of Blackrock has a new name for it: Conscientious Capitalism. So the thing: Marxism/Cultural Marxism does not go away. The words for things just keep getting changed on us. And, it is hard for people to recognize a bad thing when it is named "goodness" or "care" or some such...
I agree with you that this stuff rises to the level of religion. Especially the one about how we are "born into" either the right or the wrong body. This was always a psychological issue for a small number of men (fetish for more than half of them) and is now a tremendous social contagiion problem among teenage girls for whom it really does rise to the level of cult religion - with everyone around them endorsing it. For the fetished men the "woman" they have been dressing up as for years (normally their wives things in private) has become very real to them and they want the attention of that "woman" being recogized. One can feel sorry for the much smaller number of gay men who hate their male bodies - although I question that surgery is the answer. So did Dr. Paul McHugh.
"Compelling employees to adhere to a religion is unconstitutional." Absolutely!
And, the employees may be rolling their eyes for the most part. But, we have an even bigger problem with the young being raised on it K-12 and in Colleges. They become true believers. And, the adult community does not send them a different message. Try being the lone parent nay-sayers in this environment.
This stuff needs to go to the Supreme Court. I do not see how we get out of it otherwise. Even after the Cass Review in the UK no one is firing Admiral Levine - who spreads Gender Woo in the US . No one in the Federal or Blue state governments is backing down, saying "Whoops", or even talking about these matters other than in ideological terms which is politically powerful for them.
Thank you, Doctor James. I strongly agree. It seems like everyone in education and medicine has become so "open minded" that their brains have fallen out. We had some tough high school years and the teachers and pediatrician were morons. It is so good to hear from a physician who is not a nutter. - LM
A big step in the right direction, but one that needs to be replicated in in America and Canada.
Ordinary people are appalled by the social demands made by trans rights activists, and most medical professionals are perfectly well aware that there is no evidence for, and much against, the use of dangerous drugs for this bizarre purpose. But so few dare speak out. We live in a climate of fear of cancellation, and it is hard enough to get by without losing your job over someone else's problems. Who dares to say these things:
Sex is observed, not assigned, at birth.
Biological sex is real, and there are two sexes only.
A woman is an adult human female.
Troubled children need proper assessment and advice, not automatic transition.
Single-sex spaces should not be invaded by men.
Men do not belong in women's sports.
Transitioning children who would grow up to be gay is conversion therapy.
And once we have that straightened out, those old enough and certain enough may transition with my blessing. I wish them well and hope they can make the best of their condition.
A good start would be to stop labeling those that oppose gender transition of minors or state the facts you list are transphobic. Name calling is no substitute for debate.
People in the US take compulsory DIE/CRT/GI training and are pressured to declare "their pronouns" or list them in email signatures. Or, they feel compelled to go along with "WE BELIEVE..." statements in their organizations regardless of what they really think. They do it because they want to keep their jobs. I think that is why the majority signed up with the National Socialist German Workers' Party in 1930s Germany. Some people were rabidly into it (just like some here and now with the destructive DIE/CRT/GI) but most just did not want to make waves, wanted to keep their jobs, and didn't think it was a big deal/it might affect "some other people". Then, things get worse. We are there, IMO. Instead of Nazi youth training we have DIE/CRT/GI in schools from K - University and then at work. Of course, the young become believers.
Google now slaps "Context" warnings on YouTubes that question GI orthodoxy.
"And once we have that straightened out, those old enough and certain enough may transition with my blessing. I wish them well and hope they can make the best of their condition."
I think there is a great deal of confusion about this but others have addressed it well in the comments.
Transgenderism is the ultimate denial of objective truth. The left has been destroying objective truths for decades. Why not go after fundamental biology?
Excellent comments by Tuecer’s Wife and Muffin Mama.
I think it is reasonable at this point for people to be aware of their own vulnerabilities to ideology. This one may not have gotten you, but would the next? Have you ever changed your worldview in light of new evidence?
It seems like a good time for reflection rather than a victory lap. It makes me cringe to think I could get convinced that something absurd is true.
As my husband so aptly put it, eventually the “professionals” will see the error of this, but we’re going to pay a terrible human cost in thousands upon thousands of young men and women who have bought into this secular gnosticism.
If people ever trust the mental health professionals again, we’re going to need a quite a few of them to set aside their beliefs to help both the detransitioners and their families with the anger, grief, and betrayal of the medical malpractice going on. Unfortunately it’s going to still take some time to build to a crescendo of lawsuits until it can no longer be ignored, until a new crisis used to distract us comes along.
My mom went through electric shock treatments when they couldn’t figure out she had Parkinson’s. Nasty business. And nothing says such bad medicine can’t be found today.
A movement that was founded on hatred of democracy, then all-in on eugenics, and has embraced a thousand other absurdities along the way. It is forever revising its history, memory-holing every failed "progress" and claiming responsibility for every change that stuck, so that its present-day evangelists claim that everything "progressive" is definitionally good, which is of course what the name was intended to declare.
The movement has never had a methodology for deciding whether an idea is "progress"; it simply relies on the hubris of its loudest voices. It is a vile, backward, superstitious coven of question-beggers, and it should be banished to the deepest recesses of civilization.
There is no way a physician or surgeon can obtain truly informed consent for "gender affirming care" from a minor, as some doctors admitted in the WPATH files.
This is a great 40 minute show released today. It's the first time I've seen a Dr. Phil show. Really worth watching at no cost.
His guests include Jamie Reed (who last year wrote the groundbreaking whistleblower report on gender clinic at Washington University for Free Press) and Leor Sapir who is one of the two or three most articulate and knowledgeable persons on this issue, and a surgeon who blew the whistle, to his great personal cost, on a big Houston hospital, Dr. Eithan Haim.
Doctor's and nurses who have advocated for these treatments should be chemically sterilized, castrated and forced to undergo mastectomies...
We don't need any more "reports", "investigations" or other bureaucratic bullshit. We need ruthless energy to be pushed against ALL of these people on both sides of "the pond"...
Ruining the lives of children is a despicable offense. It would be better that they have a millstone tied around their necks and be tossed into the sea! (So said a famous Jewish pacifist...)
The report wrote "It has been suggested that hormone treatment reduces the elevated risk of death by suicide in this population, but the evidence found did not support this conclusion."
I hope that parents with reservations about this treatment will no longer be pressured to give their consent for their troubled kids.
For me, this is one of the more damaging and distressing hallmarks of American practice that spread globally: telling parents it's lifesaving treatment when, in fact, the treatment is doing nothing to reduce the risk of suicide. What a dangerous, dangerous lie.
We must name, shame, and punish all doctors who have violated their oaths by harming children: https://yuribezmenov.substack.com/p/how-to-do-no-harm-part-2
And sue them for malpractice.
The lawsuits are coming (if they haven't already started). Mark my words.
Prof L Appleby who is in charge of suicide prevention in the UK came out in March and asked that people stop using that slogan as there was no evidence for the claim. However so many people are wedded to that claim and did what they did because they thought it true that it will be hard for them to walk it back.
The subject of addressing suicide has come up twice in my education:
1- When I was in junior high, a speaker talked about teen suicide. An example story was told about a boy who died from suicide after his girlfriend broke up with him (I got the impression it was a true story). His family and community mourned him, but the girl did move on with her life and dated someone else afterward.
2- When I took a journalism class, we discussed the ethics of withholding suicide notes from publication. Publishing suicide notes would create an incentive for copy-cats.
The rhetoric of "give these pre-teen/teenager what they want or they'll kill themselves" is a harmful message. It encourages emotional blackmail. It puts the onus on the people around the troubled person to accommodate their wishes rather than have the person obtain professional mental health support.
I'm glad that professionals who deal with suicide risk are pushing back against the "live transgender son or dead daughter" slogans. It should never have become prevalent in the first place.
Parents are not just being pressured to give their consent, they are being blackmailed!
"Either consent, or your kid will die."
Nuremberg. Trials.
I'm happy the Cass Review has laid bare what it has. How will the US respond? Will parents be able to support their questioning kids more easily now? I certainly hope so. I am in 2 different support groups of parents with hundreds of other parents trying to navigate this. We are anonymous bcs activists will literally come for our kids if we use our real names. Our kids think they are in charge. You know why they think they are in charge- bcs teachers, school counselors and doctors have told them they are in charge. We can't trust teachers or doctors. And now the Cass review shows us that we were right all along. I've been listening to a song from the musical "Spring Awakening" today and there is a song called "Totally Fucked". That's what we are.
I am so so sorry. The schools here in CA have so brainwashed kids. My 9th grader thinks it's no big deal if someone transitions because "they can always go back." We have tried explaining to him (and my husband is a scientist by training) that isn't the case. I know several people in your same boat-what a nightmare. You must feel so isolated.
In the era of "Signal 30" and health classes that were essentially a horror gallery of "social diseases," our elders didn't feel the need to be euphemistic or oblique about the dangers we faced. Are we now trying to have conversations that are less graphic than the subject matter itself? When the ideologues offer euphemisms like "top surgery," which sounds like hemming a blouse, realists should counter with great specificity.
I am also in CA and have a 9th grade girl who believes she is a boy and who is affirmed by the entire school community. We are literally the only people in her life not going along with the nonsense and naturally she despises us for it.
Only you know what the best move is for your daughter - but the Vatican has just come out strongly against GI so a parochial school now should not affirm, one hopes. Maybe that would be a good move for 10th grade? It would probably be best to finish out 9th grade quietly or people at your current school will try to "save him". I am not religious myself but you could ask her to be respectful, tell her you admire the structure and academics at the new school, and say "isn't it good to understand world religions?" Just a thought.
https://www.dailywire.com/news/vatican-clarifies-opposition-to-radical-gender-theory-says-it-threatens-a-persons-unique-dignity
My daughter goes to an all girls Catholic school in Seattle and there are multiple male-identifying students at the school. So, parochial schools aren’t necessarily the answer
I hear you. That is how it has been. There has been nowhere in America to escape GI and GI indoctrination of the young.
But, going forward, the school will be in defiance of the Vatican if they go along with it.
https://www.dailywire.com/news/vatican-clarifies-opposition-to-radical-gender-theory-says-it-threatens-a-persons-unique-dignity
https://www.ncronline.org/vatican/vatican-news/vatican-human-dignity-document-condemns-sex-change-gender-theory-and-surrogacy
I don't know whether you want to talk to your daughter's school about it? The school could just call the girl by her real name and not play the pronoun game. She's free to do what she likes at home - but if her parents are into gender they might withdraw her. If they are not gender fairy believers, they will be grateful that the school no longer caters to the cult which is harming their kid.
There should be some parochial schools willing to follow Catholic teachings now.
But, then the next problem is that the Biden Administration is changing Title IV to be about "gender" rather than sex. That will bring the Federal Government in opposition to Catholic schools.
I will add that I am not catholic - or even religious. But, separation of church and state was supposed to be a thing and the Ideology surrounding "gender" is pretty much cult religion material and it has that effect on many.
I'm so sorry. I've been there. "No one else has a problem with it."
I recommend PITT.substack.com, 4thwavenow.com, and TransgenderTrend (UK one that existed before the first two). Fortunately for your family, things are finally showing some signs of crumbling after SOOO many years. My impression is though, that there is no shade between the Biden Administration and the CA State, WA State, and OR State governments.
I’m so sorry, that must be terribly frustrating for the two of you.
I am so sorry. I feel terrible for parents who had the misfortune of having had adolescent children during the height of this communal delusion. It is so unfortunate that those with the good fortune to have been born before or after this period will be spared, solely because of an accident of time. The medical establishment has damaged one cohort of parents and children irrevocably, in the name of politics and out of fear of difference.
While I believe you're earnest, you may be a bit naive as well.
Non-government, unelected teachers, doctors, counselors - the list is endless - are feverishly trying to make this a new normal before the rest of us can stop them. Hence the vilification of PTAs, squashing of debate and complete lack of medical ethics across this righteous cohort of leftist fanatics.
IMHO
The tide seems to be turning, or perhaps I am naive. Perhaps it’s not turning as fast here as in England. But I hope it turns at the very least regarding the medical treatment of children. The pronoun stuff we may be stuck with.
No way will I accept being stuck with the pronoun stuff :)
It is part of the harmful ideology.
https://www.pittparents.com/p/its-wrong-to-play-the-pronoun-game
"People who promote “using pronouns” claim “for a cisgender person, it costs you nothing.” They claim it normalizes the process of “transitioning” for someone else and somehow makes the environment “safer”.
It is true that this normalizes a process, but it’s not a process that should be normalized or taken lightly, especially for minor children. It makes the environment more dangerous. When people “use their pronouns” they have been duped into thinking that they are merely “supporting” people who are different from them. In fact, they are promoting an aggressive and triumphalist cult ideology, normalizing the abnormal, and gaslighting the easily influenced young, leading them down a path of irreparable harm.
At the height of the anorexia epidemic, adults did not announce our “allyship” by including our weight in our email signatures. Encouraging a social contagion makes it worse and it is worse still when trusted adult authorities endorse it. It hurts vulnerable young people like my daughter, who became trans-identified at school, where teachers kept us in the dark then disregarded our concerns. In the epidemic of Trans Ideology, misguided allyship puts kids on a path that leads to unnecessary medical procedures resulting in sterility and regret.
New religions never say they are a religion—what they say is that they have discovered The Truth. And, once the mind and heart are won over, adherents will do anything to their bodies in the name of the True Faith. This must stop.
These are the words of a new cult religion’s catechism, not of science:
“They”: when applied to one person" etc.
"They"= "non-binary"-absolutely absurd premise.
The more absurd the better if you are creating a cult religion or if you are a cultural Marxist out "to queer" (to destroy) society?
Loving Mother, I am in complete agreement with you. I won’t use them under any circumstances
If we ever do let's do something like:
Loving Mother
Pronouns: Cass Review/Michael Shellenberger
One doesn't have to be a lawn-sign-preaching, virtue-signaling, excuse-making parent who lets her child have a smart phone 24/7 and is allergic to the word "no" . . . but it doesn't hurt!
Prayers of clarity and truth and sanity with you and your family and everyone caught in this senseless system.
I have a co-worker who allowed her daughter to have her breasts removed at age 15. The daughter is now 26, has un-transed (my term) and is now just a gay woman but with no breasts and the same mental health issues she had at age 15. The harm of this movement is mind boggling and I truly hope medical licenses are revoked and lawsuits are plentiful.
We need prison sentences.
That is a horrifying story.
"Gender Affirming Care" is in fact the gay/lesbian conversion therapy from hell.
I am 67 and gay and knew that from the first time I saw that "GAC" euphemism and what it was about.
There are gays, lesbians and trans adults who are horrified about this scandal of kids. The trans adults who fit the original, classic cohort ( boys who knew from a very young age that something was not right, , no other psych issues, loving parents) are being hurt by what’s been going on. They transitioned as adults and really have little to nothing in common with the trans cult activists.This has put them in a terrible position..
Many people of all ages and families are being hurt by this “ movement”.
Agree 💯 As if a true Trans individual would want to play women’s sports or parade around a women’s locker room with their penis on full display!
As if there were something like a “true trans” to begin with.
The so-called “original group of patients” whose parents sought treatment for them was just one of a series of very different groups of people who got run through the medical sex change system. Kids are capable of knowing that “something feels very wrong” from birth. That is why babies scream. There is no evidence that any group of sex change seekers qualifies as the “real trans cases.” If we can continue to conduct valid research on all sex change seekers, the records of the mythical cohort of boys you reference will come under scrutiny. I predict that the widespread belief that “they were the real trans cases” will fall apart soon after a scientific spotlight is focused in that direction.
I’m not sure I understand your statement. The tiny cohort of the “ real trans cases”( why do you call them mythical) that I’m aware of made the decision as adults. From what I can tell most are not activists, but just want to live their lives.Do you think those adults should not be allowed to have those procedures ?
As long as they finance it without tax dollars I don’t have an issue with that. Much of this epidemic started after Obama snuck trans care into ACA as a mandatory covered service.
It’s been reported that the adult clinics in UK are now found to be scrutinized by the NHS too. The US is lagging far behind in shutting down pediatric gender clinics.
What is the next practical step ?
There are multiple references in the literature to an early cohort of gender patients who were “boys,” who expressed a cross sex desire or identity throughout their boyhood. I am not clear where or when these patients were seen, but plan to try to get that information. That is part of why I think of them as mythical.
During the Nineties I worked in my psychology practice with men of various ages who had gender dysphoria. They had all gone through a period of transvestic fetishism in adolescence or when they were older. A minority of them also reported a childhood history of cross sex identification. Most had additional psych issues, which for any individual might include depression, substance abuse, and narcissistic personality traits. Based on consults with other gender therapists, this was a common profile for adult male patients in their practices as well as mine. The female patients had entirely different histories, mostly as gender nonconforming girls who adopted a butch lesbian lifestyle, then subsequently wanted to live as men.
I think that medicalized transitioning for people under 25 should be ended. There are problems, however, with any age limit beyond which people become free to medically transition. Right now, it is very common for adolescents to schedule surgeries immediately after the birthday that qualifies them for surgery. This means the decision was made well before that date. A second major problem is that both the adolescents and the adults are not generally motivated to engage seriously in getting over their gender dysphoria through therapies other than surgery as long as the latter option is dangling before them. This is similar for people who want cosmetic surgeries for beautification: they don’t want to engage in psychotherapy with the intention of getting over their dissatisfaction with their bodies, they focus on the promise of surgery transforming their appearance.
"During the Nineties I worked in my psychology practice with men of various ages who had gender dysphoria. They had all gone through a period of transvestic fetishism in adolescence or when they were older. A minority of them also reported a childhood history of cross sex identification."
You're talking about autogynephilia (AGP), which was described by Dr. Ray Blanchard in the 20th century. Blanchard categorized male transsexuals as either homosexual or heterosexual. The AGPs are heterosexual, i.e., attracted to women, and to themselves as women. Many have been married and fathered children. Google Blanchard's name and you'll find a lot of information.
AGPs are a large cohort that is denied to exist by many trans activists who experience it. I've heard, although I don't have the stats to back it up, that AGPs represent the larger category of men who medically transition. (Bruce Jenner is in this category; so is the British autogynephile, Debbie Hayton. Hayton is unusually forthright. He acknowledges his condition.)
Here's an interesting fact sheet on AGP that provides some history and a range of opinions.
http://genderpsychology.org/autogynephilia/
I have one such friend (M to F), and he is not an activist. But I think that he was simply gay, and didn't want to accept it. The doctors who allowed him to transition did him a great disservice because he doesn't have any romantic relationships. Gay men are not attracted to someone without male genitals, and straight men are not attracted to someone who doesn't come close to passing as a woman. His work requires frequent travel, so he rationalizes his loneliness.
That is a sad story. I know adults who underwent trans surgeries as adults( all MTo F) who report a good life , one is married and has kids. Both were accepted in their communities until the last few years. They find themselves being held to account for the transing of minors and that is wrong.
There is no perfect justice in this world. But protecting these troubled kids many like your friend who are gay has to take precedence. The activists have helped no one, but have harmed many
Regarding the clinical history of prepubescent boys being treated at gender clinics, Dr. Cass mentions them in the Cass Review. She said they were coming to gender clinics in the UK around 1989, and that the majority of them got over their gender dysphoria without transition but some didn't. She also mentions that the Dutch clinics were seeing young boys, and that based on these cases the Dutch developed the standard that to qualify for medical transition the patients needed to have a cross sex identification throughout childhood.(At least this is how I understand the history so far. I haven't yet read all the references about the Dutch work).
I don't know why these patients are referred to so often as the "classic" type of gender patients, though. Grown men were seeking transition approval letters from psychiatrists as early as the 1970's, when I was a grad student. They started seeking transition letters in considerable numbers during the Nineties, probably motivated by improvements in the surgery outcomes.
Just so, which makes the surrender and complicity of longtime gay and lesbian cultural organizations and leaders especially blameworthy.
Thank you
Sorry, but a bi-partisan commission of political busy-bodies is not the answer. Only the ban-hammer will do. US professional associations are deeply corrupted by Critical Gender Theory. And the pipeline of new doctors is just as corrupt. I never thought I'd be a ban-hammer advocate, but the time is now.
The AMA and American Academy of Pediatrics follow guidelines issued by WPATH, the pseudo-scientific gender-activist-based group that was recently discredited by the release of the "WPATH files" by Michael Shellenberger on Public. Also Joe Biden and his administration actively promote "gender-affirming care" which is now transparently anything but "care". This needs to be called out immediately.
Including our male dressed as female secretary of HHS.
100%. He's a big part of the problem.
Ban, yes. However the removal or extending of statutes of limitations on malpractice for medical gender interventions might be a more effective and faster approach. If g.a.c.has such reliable efficacy, as activists claim, then surely no one would be sued at any time, no matter the statutes of limitations.
Similarly, if this was all well and good, why were Transactivists trying to prevent Amazon from selling her book, Irreversible Damage and from speaking at universities? What were they afraid of, if they had truth on their side.
I agree totally. As it’s been said repeatedly, we have extensive laws protecting children. As just one more example, we don’t “ban” children from sexual activity. We protect children on the grounds that they are too young to give consent. What on earth is the difference??
The fallout from the report continues in the UK -- both the Government and Labour (most likely to win the next election) have pledged to follow its recommendations.
A review into the practices of Adult clinics has now been ordered. https://www.theguardian.com/society/2024/apr/10/adult-transgender-clinics-in-england-face-inquiry-into-patient-care
And the Health minister will compel the Adult clinics to release the data they withheld from the University of York review. https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2024/04/10/nhs-bosses-ordered-reveal-fate-of-young-trans-patients/ or https://archive.is/Sk03a
Basically the Adult clinics fooled around and now they are going to find out.
These are names and faces of the doctors who presided over this. One decided that a girl should be put on a medical pathway because she liked Thomas the Tank! So furious about that one as if liking model train set somehow makes you a boy rather than a girl who happens to like a specific toy. https://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-13291703/Meet-doctors-doled-puberty-blockers-generation-vulnerable-children.html
These are the charities who spun the web which resulted in the medical scandal. https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/cass-report-gender-transition-mermaids-charities-web-kxp7fjcfj or https://archive.is/t4KYu
The doors have been blown off but this scandal has a long way to go. Hopefully now a proper service can developed for highly vulnerable children who have complex mental health needs.
Excellent contribution, thank you.
I am also British and married to a British wife who, by her own definition, was a 'tomboy' around 9 to 13 years old. As we were both born in the 1950s, we are fortunate to have been brought up by people who understood that some girls were tomboys and some boys were interested in more traditionally 'girly' things but that it DIDN'T matter and things would usually sort themselves out if the child was allowed to pursue whatever interests they had. We turned out as heterosexual people both of who became aerospace engineers which is where we met. We had two daughters born either side of 1990 and I stayed home to be the main care giver and I absolutely loved doing that despite the doomsayers who said I'd hate it!
45 years after meeting we're still together.
How terribly sadly different that history could have been if we had been born 50 years later with the 'gender dyphoria'/medical transition doctrines of the 21 century ....
Fabulous!
And I know that it is that feeling that history could have been different that drives me to write about these things and to try to highlight the dangers of the ideology.
It really and sincerely doesn't matter and people have always liked different thing for a wide variety of reasons. Sometimes it feels like we are going back to the Victorian era with set roles and yet even then women did things they weren't supposed to without having to think they were men.
Very true, Michelle.
I feel the whole modern ideology is based on all those pre-conceptions over 'gender roles' that were rightly rejected in the 1950s-70s in the name of feminism. We have always thought that there are responsibilities attached to having a family but, as long as they are actually done, it doesn't matter which of us does them. As you say, in Victorian days many women ended up doing lots of things they 'weren't supposed to' because someone had to!
I dated a girl who described herself as a 'tomboy'. She later had several kids. Times change and (in this case) not for the better. No less than JKR has suggested that she might of 'transitioned' had she been born decades later. Camille Paglia has stated that our contemporary obsession with 'trans' (and other identities) might mark the end of our civilization. She might be correct.
Regrettably, I agree with you and Camille.That's why we need to keep up the pressure on society to behave rationally. Not easy, I admit, but it has to be done to save the children - and thus the future adults running our countries - caught up in this mess.
When I was 4 years old in 1965, I insisted on being called “Jess” because he was my favorite character on some popular Western TV show. My mother bought me a really cute cowboy outfit (and boots!) which I also apparently wore all the time. I even wore it in my family’ annual Christmas picture that year. Thank goodness my parents had common sense and let me play the obsession out - by the next Christmas I was 100% into Barbies and all other “girlie” things. I shudder to think the pressure my parents would be under I’d been born 55 years later!
Exactly so, Jackie. We need to let the child live out their fantasies and then most will get over it as you did.
Well said - thanks
Finally The Free Press reporting on this huge medical fraud scandal that TFP helped air last year.
It would have been better to be in the morning post for maximal exposure
Shellenberger and the WPATH files should have been in this article as there is plent of evidence of the fraud and lying of WPATH( more accurate would be USPATH.)
The lie about the “ high suicide risk” was necessary for the trans ideologue doctors because they knew a risk of imminent death is an accepted reason to use poor quality data to avoid doing randomized controlled trials ( Ie if there is a new drug not yet adequately tested but a patient has an aggressive disease and is expected to die in a few months, that drug mat be used with proper consent.In this example it is understood the drug is experimental or poorly tested to date. In the Gender affirming care model the parents are told the risk of suicide is very high but they are not told this is unproven , untested intervention. That’s a big difference. These doctors knew and know exactly what they were doing. The lies were justified to push their ideology .
The USA does not need an “ investigation or bipartisan commission. The evidence of fraud and danger to minors is overwhelming. The prudent thing is to stop this now on an emergency basis. How these troubled kids should be studies is a separate question now. It’s doubtful that an ethical an RCT design can be done as the drs of WPATH are frauds and can’t be trusted, and unbiased drs will probably not agree to do these interventions in children and young teens when there is such controversy , and observational data that they cause perm harm more than good, and there really is no way to obtain informed consent from the patients.
Dear heavens, I didn't put together why they pushed the suicide risk so heavily until you laid it out. I sadly think you're right and my level of disgust at the medical profession just grows and grows. I cannot believe in this day and age, I have to look at our medical profession as little more than witch doctors since they seem to grab onto whatever is the theme of the week and push it without considering any other options or even using common sense.
The medical profession bears no resemblance to the one I once knew( as imperfect as it was )
The corporate takeover by corporations and now by DEI WOKE has destroyed it completely. The public is two groups. Older people who expect it to be the way it was, and young people who only this broken system
This transing of minor movement is not arbitrary , whimsical or capricious. It was well planned and very well funded. They did not expect that anyone would be brave enough to call them out for the frauds they are. The sane public must keep this front and center.
Thanks for your comment
The medical profession of today has been hijacked by ideology of DEI, Trans and Climate Catastrophe. For supposedly scientifically minded critical thinkers, the profession has been fucked up royally.
Also by the almighty $$$
That’s one of the most distressing aspects of this mess. We were inclined to trust physicians due to their scientific training and experience. To see them cave like this, slicing up minors based on weak or non-existent evidence, is very disillusioning. We expect the Left and some politicians to be whacky, but hoped for better from science and physicians.
Yes it’s beyond distressing. It’s tragic. The WPATH doctors are trans activists themselves( the president has been a trans person) . Medicine has been taken over by the WOKEsters and are no longer even to be considered at all “ ethical”. Medicine has gone WOKE like all other institutions in this country.
As a young pharma rep I had a Doctor tell me it’s the “Practice of Medicine” Which spoke volumes to me! Admittedly medicine isn’t black and white. Shameful for the Academy of Pediatrics to support medical transition of children without very long term studies on the subject. I don’t blindly trust any Doctors ever!!!
Even if there were a high incidence of suicide among gender dysphoric children, which I doubt, there is no evidence that so-called gender affirming care lessens this, as the rate of suicide is high for those who medically transition. Further, doctors fixate on the gender aspect of these children's distress when many if not most of them have other psychological problems that can be addressed without life-changing drugs and surgery.
The risk of suicide is also greater in people who get conventional plastic surgery - because changing one's appearance doesn't solve underlying problems. And because some procedures have horrible results - just like sex change surgeries.
The findings are that the suicide rate is significantly higher in the cohort that transitions. Hormone manipulations cause mood swings and the surgeries are fraught with both short and long term post op problems. The trans person with these problems is discouraged from talking about these complications , so as not to discourage those in the trans pipeline from having the next procedure. ( I have no doubt that some are satisfied but that does not justify using these aggressive interventions for a psychological problem)
The doctor trans activists who make money in this arena have real $$ reasons for pushing this agenda.
This is medical fraud scandal of gargantuan proportions.
If I as a young impressionable person consented to a surgery and medications that would sterilize me, ruin my chances for future sexual performance and gratification as well as procreation, I would likely be suicidal as well.
Most of the transitioners also fully expect to find romantic partners. For the males that rarely works out, but that reality is not discussed with them in advance of medical interventions.
Gender dysphoria is frequently associated with mental illness. The link between mental illness and suicide is well established. What this means in practice, is some association between gender dysphoria and suicide risk.
But the question is whether "gender affirming care" reduces or increases suicidal tendencies. I understand that surgical intervention make suicide more likely not less.
We don't have any valid research at present that clarifies this issue. There is a Swedish study that found high rates of suicide in adult patients who had completed medical transitions, but we don't know if the rate of suicide would have been even higher had the patients not transitioned. The recently posted study from Finland cited by Teucer's wife (comment below) found low rates of suicide in an adolescent population of gender patients, comparable to same age cohort in general population. These researchers found no significant effect of gender treatment on the rate of suicide. They did find that comorbid psychiatric conditions accounted for the rate of suicide.
The problem is that care of gender dysphoric patients is based on ideology not evidence. It's inexcusable to use life-altering treatment without clear evidence it will likely relieve the patient's distress.
The idea of prescribing hormones and surgeries for people with psych issues is totally bizarre! We know a lot about how to treat psych issues, and whether or not we are always successful (we aren't), surgery is never prescribed for treatment of depression, anxiety or personality disorders.
Researchers are supposed to try to tease apart the contribution of comorbid mental illnesses to suicide from the contribution of gender dysphoria. One methodology is to follow a group of gender dysphoria patients with comorbid conditions and compare them with a group of similar people who only have the comorbid conditions without gender issues. Or use the statistics we already have for risk of suicide for those specific comorbid conditions, such as Major Depression. Recent research results say that suicide risk from comorbid conditions is sufficient to account for suicides seen in the gender dysphoria group, meaning the gender dysphoria doesn’t add much to suicide risk. But very little research has been done on this subject, in contrast to all the claims made about gender dysphoria leading to suicide.
There was a recent study from Finland that did the comparison you described. It found that the suicide risk was not tied to gender dysphoria; the suicide risk was linked to whatever other mental health conditions were also present.
https://mentalhealth.bmj.com/content/27/1/e300940
"Conclusions: Clinical gender dysphoria does not appear to be predictive of all-cause nor suicide mortality when psychiatric treatment history is accounted for."
Yes, that study is the primary one I know of that looks at the link between suicide and gender dysphoria in young people. This study is very valuable, since we have no other reliable data regarding adolescents. It does have a major flaw, which is that the variable used to measure comorbid psychiatric conditions provides only a very rough estimate. I expect that future investigations will use gold standard psychological evaluations of each patient in the research to assess psych conditions and their severity. The other psych conditions that could account for suicides vary in their mortality rates. There are many other reasons why it is important to know the exact diagnoses to the extent possible. For example, Cluster B personality disorders, especially Borderline, Histrionic and Narcissistic Personality Disorders, are associated with general identity confusion and instability as well as interpersonal manipulation, especially including threats and acts of self harm. These disorders could account for the confusion and instability of sexual identity in adolescents without additional diagnosis of gender distress.
Pediatrics and psychiatry in the United States have been bulldozed into accepting and promoting the irreversible hormonal and surgical modification of children. Among children, "gender dysphoria" results primarily from social contagion, anxiety, depression and the normal confusion of adolescence.
Decades from now this will be rightly seen for what it is, a non-scientific, experimental practice upon children that was promoted by unhinged advocates and accepted by fearful gullible physicians. Yes, I am speaking to the pediatricians, psychiatrists and plastic surgeons involved.
"Shame" doesn't do this crime justice. "Gender Affirmation Care" of children will join the annals of other unethical scientific experiments, committed without informed consent of the participants: The Tuskegee Syphilis Study, the Stanford Prison Experiment, the Milgram Experiment and the Cold-WEra Human Radiation Experiments.
James N. Romanelli, MD, FACS
Plastic Surgeon
The way pediatricians, psychiatrists and plastic surgeons went for this makes one understand how Nazi Germany happened. I find the plastic surgeons who are happy to remove a young woman's healthy breasts especially alarming.
My understanding is that in Germany the doctors were actually out ahead of the politicians who had to rein them in at times. There is a PITT about that:
"Echoes of Eugenics: What the Doctors Trial at Nuremberg Means for Us in the US
On the 75th anniversary of the trial of Nazi doctors at Nuremberg we examine Nazi medicine and gender-affirming care AUG 30, 2022"
https://www.pittparents.com/p/echoes-of-eugenics-what-the-doctors
Perhaps "advanced" civilizations are subject to such things?
Don’t forget the gynaecologists
Mengele would be proud.
Indeed. He was an MD PhD. His boss wound up at a Eugenics society on Park Avenue, NYC.
From the article I reference above:
"Billionaire’s fortunes such as Rockefeller, Harriman, and Carnegie bankrolled private efforts both at home and abroad. All three funded the Eugenics Record Office at Cold Spring Harbor. That ended only in 1939 when the Carnegie Institution “became increasingly embarrassed” to find “mounting evidence of serious flaws in eugenics research ... [and the director’s] misuse of ‘data’ and almost religious belief in his version of eugenics... Knowledge of the horrors of the Nazi application of eugenics sealed the fate of the American movement, and the ERO was closed in 1939.” (PITTs take note: sloppy science and big missteps that embarrass funders can lead to reform.) Speaking of embarrassments, it was Rockefeller money that paid 25 year old Josef Mengele as assistant to the director at the Kaiser Wilhelm Eugenics Institute. [Messall 2004, p.34] As of 1956, eleven years after the war, Mengele’s old boss, Dr. Otmar Freiherr von Verschuer, was a member in good standing of the American Eugenics Society of 230 Park Avenue, NYC."
We appear to have learned nothing...
People in the US take compulsory DIE/CRT/GI training and are pressured to declare "their pronouns" or list them in email signatures. Or, they feel compelled to go along with "WE BELIEVE..." statements in their organizations regardless of what they really think. They do it because they want to keep their jobs. I think that is why the majority signed up with the National Socialist German Workers' Party in 1930s Germany. Some people were rabidly into it (just like some here and now with the destructive DIE/CRT/GI) but most just did not want to make waves, wanted to keep their jobs, and didn't think it was a big deal/it might affect "some other people". Then, things get worse. We are there, IMO. Instead of Nazi youth training we have DIE/CRT/GI in schools from K - University and then at work. Of course, the young become believers.
(I just pushed this comment down farther where it may fit better.)
DEI and the like are religions. Compelling employees to adhere to a religion is unconstitutional.
And yet here we are. Things which could not be put through with laws have been pushed through via more sly ways with ESG/CEI (Corporate Equality Index), DIE... Now that "ESG" is losing its luster the name is being removed from funds. However, Larry Fink of Blackrock has a new name for it: Conscientious Capitalism. So the thing: Marxism/Cultural Marxism does not go away. The words for things just keep getting changed on us. And, it is hard for people to recognize a bad thing when it is named "goodness" or "care" or some such...
I agree with you that this stuff rises to the level of religion. Especially the one about how we are "born into" either the right or the wrong body. This was always a psychological issue for a small number of men (fetish for more than half of them) and is now a tremendous social contagiion problem among teenage girls for whom it really does rise to the level of cult religion - with everyone around them endorsing it. For the fetished men the "woman" they have been dressing up as for years (normally their wives things in private) has become very real to them and they want the attention of that "woman" being recogized. One can feel sorry for the much smaller number of gay men who hate their male bodies - although I question that surgery is the answer. So did Dr. Paul McHugh.
"Compelling employees to adhere to a religion is unconstitutional." Absolutely!
And, the employees may be rolling their eyes for the most part. But, we have an even bigger problem with the young being raised on it K-12 and in Colleges. They become true believers. And, the adult community does not send them a different message. Try being the lone parent nay-sayers in this environment.
This stuff needs to go to the Supreme Court. I do not see how we get out of it otherwise. Even after the Cass Review in the UK no one is firing Admiral Levine - who spreads Gender Woo in the US . No one in the Federal or Blue state governments is backing down, saying "Whoops", or even talking about these matters other than in ideological terms which is politically powerful for them.
If enough people like Riley Gaines got together and told them to f***
off, I think the problem would go away.
Let's not forget lobotomies, even if consented to
So true and so chilling. Watching it on the sidelines has been horrific. Thank you for adding your name to those who see if for what it is.
Thank you, Doctor James. I strongly agree. It seems like everyone in education and medicine has become so "open minded" that their brains have fallen out. We had some tough high school years and the teachers and pediatrician were morons. It is so good to hear from a physician who is not a nutter. - LM
A big step in the right direction, but one that needs to be replicated in in America and Canada.
Ordinary people are appalled by the social demands made by trans rights activists, and most medical professionals are perfectly well aware that there is no evidence for, and much against, the use of dangerous drugs for this bizarre purpose. But so few dare speak out. We live in a climate of fear of cancellation, and it is hard enough to get by without losing your job over someone else's problems. Who dares to say these things:
Sex is observed, not assigned, at birth.
Biological sex is real, and there are two sexes only.
A woman is an adult human female.
Troubled children need proper assessment and advice, not automatic transition.
Single-sex spaces should not be invaded by men.
Men do not belong in women's sports.
Transitioning children who would grow up to be gay is conversion therapy.
And once we have that straightened out, those old enough and certain enough may transition with my blessing. I wish them well and hope they can make the best of their condition.
A good start would be to stop labeling those that oppose gender transition of minors or state the facts you list are transphobic. Name calling is no substitute for debate.
People in the US take compulsory DIE/CRT/GI training and are pressured to declare "their pronouns" or list them in email signatures. Or, they feel compelled to go along with "WE BELIEVE..." statements in their organizations regardless of what they really think. They do it because they want to keep their jobs. I think that is why the majority signed up with the National Socialist German Workers' Party in 1930s Germany. Some people were rabidly into it (just like some here and now with the destructive DIE/CRT/GI) but most just did not want to make waves, wanted to keep their jobs, and didn't think it was a big deal/it might affect "some other people". Then, things get worse. We are there, IMO. Instead of Nazi youth training we have DIE/CRT/GI in schools from K - University and then at work. Of course, the young become believers.
Google now slaps "Context" warnings on YouTubes that question GI orthodoxy.
"And once we have that straightened out, those old enough and certain enough may transition with my blessing. I wish them well and hope they can make the best of their condition."
I think there is a great deal of confusion about this but others have addressed it well in the comments.
Well said
Transgenderism is the ultimate denial of objective truth. The left has been destroying objective truths for decades. Why not go after fundamental biology?
Excellent comments by Tuecer’s Wife and Muffin Mama.
I think it is reasonable at this point for people to be aware of their own vulnerabilities to ideology. This one may not have gotten you, but would the next? Have you ever changed your worldview in light of new evidence?
It seems like a good time for reflection rather than a victory lap. It makes me cringe to think I could get convinced that something absurd is true.
Please, PLEASE, read “Mao’s America,” by Xi Van Fleet.
No part of this ideology is isolated. There is method to the madness.
No one can effectively fight what they don’t understand or see coming.
As my husband so aptly put it, eventually the “professionals” will see the error of this, but we’re going to pay a terrible human cost in thousands upon thousands of young men and women who have bought into this secular gnosticism.
If people ever trust the mental health professionals again, we’re going to need a quite a few of them to set aside their beliefs to help both the detransitioners and their families with the anger, grief, and betrayal of the medical malpractice going on. Unfortunately it’s going to still take some time to build to a crescendo of lawsuits until it can no longer be ignored, until a new crisis used to distract us comes along.
Psychiatry and the mental health professions are at the root of many of these experiment- scandals
Lobotomies
ECT( ongoing and expanding its use to children with no data only anecdotes)
Chemical imbalance theory ( thoroughly discredited yet more and more ppl of all ages are on SSRIs , with devastating sequelae)
Transing of minors.
The bad actors are arrogant bullies and denigrate anyone who dares question them
The public must keep this very public and demand the transing of minors industry be shut down.
My mom went through electric shock treatments when they couldn’t figure out she had Parkinson’s. Nasty business. And nothing says such bad medicine can’t be found today.
This is "Progressivism".
A movement that was founded on hatred of democracy, then all-in on eugenics, and has embraced a thousand other absurdities along the way. It is forever revising its history, memory-holing every failed "progress" and claiming responsibility for every change that stuck, so that its present-day evangelists claim that everything "progressive" is definitionally good, which is of course what the name was intended to declare.
The movement has never had a methodology for deciding whether an idea is "progress"; it simply relies on the hubris of its loudest voices. It is a vile, backward, superstitious coven of question-beggers, and it should be banished to the deepest recesses of civilization.
Hopefully these "physicians" are found criminally responsible. Wpath file crew as well.
There is no way a physician or surgeon can obtain truly informed consent for "gender affirming care" from a minor, as some doctors admitted in the WPATH files.
1984. Chilling. Activists have no place in medicine. Or the Arts (museums). Or anywhere. It is like giving a microphone to a baby.
This is a great 40 minute show released today. It's the first time I've seen a Dr. Phil show. Really worth watching at no cost.
His guests include Jamie Reed (who last year wrote the groundbreaking whistleblower report on gender clinic at Washington University for Free Press) and Leor Sapir who is one of the two or three most articulate and knowledgeable persons on this issue, and a surgeon who blew the whistle, to his great personal cost, on a big Houston hospital, Dr. Eithan Haim.
https://www.meritplus.com/c/s/VQ2aB6Sp?episodeId=8W7a8Fr
Its up on YouTube too. Great stuff.
Doctor's and nurses who have advocated for these treatments should be chemically sterilized, castrated and forced to undergo mastectomies...
We don't need any more "reports", "investigations" or other bureaucratic bullshit. We need ruthless energy to be pushed against ALL of these people on both sides of "the pond"...
Ruining the lives of children is a despicable offense. It would be better that they have a millstone tied around their necks and be tossed into the sea! (So said a famous Jewish pacifist...)