The Slippery Slope of Affirming Transgender Ideation
Be Aware of What the Gender Slide Involves
Kids seem to be chasing euphoria because of influencers’ promises that say happiness awaits them at the end of the rainbow of declaring themselves as “trans” and medicalizing their bodies. Outsiders might want to be viewed as nice, so they say, “What’s the big deal? Let them be happy!” When influencers plant the seed that any discomfort, distress, confusion, anxiety, depression, loneliness, or fear is a sign that one was born in the wrong body, these influencers do not cultivate a solid foundation for the child’s life. And when those surrounding the child don’t fully understand the pathway that often follows affirmation of an opposite-sex identity, they may be inadvertently participating in ramifications that last a lifetime.
It can be acceptable to support kids’ leaning into enjoying a more masculine or feminine side of themselves, but is it wise to push kids to irreversibly medicalize their inclinations, preferences, or explorations?
Chasing the euphoria that trans influencers say awaits kids who modify their bodies is an irresponsible use of influence. Claiming cross-sex hormones, binding, tucking, and sex-trait surgical modifications will fix emotional or internal issues is misleading and potentially damaging to the normal and healthy development of children. Why are some activists and professionals abandoning the hard work of addressing the true root cause of what distresses a kid? It does not build resilience or a mature base of critical thinking and adaptive behaviors when we ignore underlying comorbidities. Instead, the extreme measures, including irreversible surgeries, harm the endocrine system and skeletal/muscular structure of the body.
When kids abandon natural puberty, dismiss the reality of their sex, and ignore the root cause of what troubles them in their quest for the promised utopia, they will not be able to outrun the underlying source of why they wanted a quick fix, and they certainly will not be able to undo irreversible medical procedures. Blaming the body and modifying how it looks with drugs, binding, tucking, and surgery do not cultivate an awareness of complex issues or a healthy path of solving them.
The slippery slope of a young person’s movement into gender ideology is difficult for parents to witness. A parent may have watched a child begin to grow into a remarkable young adult. Then the parent’s sense of hope for the future evaporates as the child slides deeper into the rabbit hole of what seems like a cultish and self-destructive behavior. The target of achieving happiness always moves further away. Influencers push harder, suggesting that perhaps a larger dose of cross-sex hormones, removing body parts, or having yet another surgery will help. The strong push for medicalization often misses the mark of the actual cause of an individual’s discontent.
Underlying comorbidities ultimately rise and make themselves known, particularly when a stressful situation occurs. These core issues of distress can only be masked for so long. Reality, ignored or abandoned, will hit eventually. When young people are not helped to develop resiliency and adaptive behaviors, how will they handle life challenges, crises, or future traumas? If they were encouraged to self-harm in the past, will they then seek another way to hurt themselves when life becomes difficult?
It saddens me that those who don’t know much about queer theory and gender ideology inadvertently perpetuate a slide into self-harm because they want to be regarded as kind and loving. Those who value being seen as nice, as well as progressive, have ingested the notion that “trans is the new gay” and that it is all such a happy thing for kids when they believe they can fix being born in the wrong body. The drugs and surgeries to modify the body’s appearance become decisions they embrace because the words activists use to describe these treatments sound so nice, loving, and kind: “gender affirmation care.” So, some people start believing falsehoods or keep quiet instead of speaking up during critical moments before the young person slides down the slope of increasing self-harm.
The following myths and responses offer a glimpse of the slippery slope into the gender ideology and medicalization abyss or, as I call it, The Trans Train. I wish to showcase the powerful words of others, as well as my own.
What’s the big deal? Isn’t affirming kids harmless?
Affirmation is the beginning of the slide and must be understood. Attorney and advocate Carol Dansereau writes:
“Affirmation bolsters the mystical and dangerous idea that some children are ‘born in the wrong body.’ It ignores not only the specific challenges individual children may be facing, but also the fact that they’ve been subjected to aggressive indoctrination which promotes dissociation from the body.”
“When you affirm children’s trans or nonbinary identities, you are lying to them. You are gaslighting them. You are promising them something that can never be. You become a willing cast member in a Truman show focused on deceiving vulnerable children. This doesn’t help them. It hurts them. It makes you complicit in one of the biggest medical scandals of all time.”
“Affirmation entrenches gender-identity-induced harm in the world children will inhabit when they grow up. Agreeing that people are whatever they claim to be, lends support to males who are forcing their way into female rape shelters, locker rooms, prisons, and sports, under the guise of identifying as women.”
What’s the big deal? Isn’t “gender affirmation care” a good thing? It sounds so nice!
The nice language deceptively hides the truth that “gender affirmation care” means championing irreversible, invasive medical interventions. Children and vulnerable adults need protections. Dansereau addresses this issue within the same essay.
“Children as young as 9 are put on puberty blockers which disrupt not only development of their sex organs and sexual feelings, but also development of the rest of their bodies, including their brains and bones. Older children are put on ‘cross-sex hormones’ – male concentrations of testosterone for girls, and female concentrations of estrogens for boys. Girls as young as 12 are having their breasts cut off. And yes, some children are having surgeries on their genitals, despite frequent claims that those are postponed until age 18.”
“Infertility, inability to ever have an orgasm, other sexual dysfunction, compromised bone health, altered brain development, cardio-pulmonary complications, debilitating vaginal atrophy in females, an inability to ever breastfeed, increased risk of cancer, urinary complications, and a wide range of other health problems are all consequences of so-called ‘gender affirmation medical care’ for children.”
Genspect also weighs in:
“In the US, the ‘affirmation model’ is so robust that nearly 100% of children referred to youth gender clinics are placed on a medical pathway regardless of what comorbidities they may have. Validating a person’s experience is vastly different from affirming it. Caregivers should validate a child’s experience by providing support and reassurance as they work through these turbulent years. It is appropriate, loving, and kind to encourage children to explore the entirely of their distress and to help them question their internal experiences and understandings. Evidence is overwhelming that most individuals who experience gender dysphoria in childhood end up being well adjusted gay adults.”
“Children do know themselves, but parents also know their children. It is possible to validate both a child’s individual claims and a parent’s expressed concern. Both childhood and parenthood are an evolving process. Why is the therapy profession so fixated on a child’s fixation and so eager to invalidate or dismiss parental observations?”
What’s the big deal? People change their names all the time! Who cares?
Most parents care. Kids seem to think it is cool to throw out their given names and forbid their use. Young people declare their given names—that were lovingly bestowed upon them—as deadnames. The callous dismissal of all that a given name represents is another layer of grief a parent experiences.
What’s in a Name? A Letter to My Daughters describes another example of the activists’ and influencers’ encouragement of a callous disregard for given names.
What’s the big deal? Breast binding and genital tucking aren’t that bad, right?
Maia Poet says it best in her essay, Breast Binding, Genital Tucking, & the Lie of ‘Safe Gender Affirmation’: Invisible Scars, Lifelong Pain. No Needles, No Surgery—But Still Permanently Damaged by My Gender Transition. She writes:
“Routinely compressing breast and genital tissue which is not supposed to be compressed does damage to an individual, both psychologically and physically.” She also explains from her personal experience, “Both activists and doctors are quick to say that binding is safe when done properly. From my experience, this is yet another ‘gender affirming’ lie. No one who encouraged me to bind my breasts at age 12, informed me that even ‘safe’ binding methods would leave me with this level of pain and deformity. No one told me that this damage would be permanent.”
What’s the big deal if a young boy medicalizes?
I don’t talk much about boys’ gender issues since I don’t have experience with sons. So, I direct my readers to visit the ROGDBoys site (ROGD stands for rapid onset gender dysphoria).
It is essential to understand the effects of medicalization on boys. We have an abundance of reasons to rethink transition!
What’s the big deal if a young girl medicalizes?
Clementine Breen, now twenty and detransitioned, underwent rapid medicalization as a child. She shares her story of being placed on puberty blockers at age 12, then being prescribed testosterone and undergoing a double mastectomy, all by the age of 14. Now she is suing her doctor, Dr. Johanna Olson-Kennedy, a prominent advocate for pediatric gender medicine. Why do some people find “transitioning” a young girl acceptable before she has had the opportunity to grow up?
I have written about cautioning girls to rethink giving up on being a girl.
I have also written a message to girls about their bodies.
Our Duty presents a case for a moratorium on sex-trait modification medicine.
Let’s be cautious and careful about promoting a “do whatever makes the child happy in the moment” philosophy while dismissing the underlying comorbidities and reasons the child wants to alter one’s bodily appearance with drugs, binding, tucking, and surgeries. Let’s also be inclusive of parents and families regarding the impact. Are the parents happy with the decisions too? Have the mom and dad’s concerns been carefully considered and included? How is the whole family doing? How does medicalizing a child affect all those around the child?
Please be aware of the slippery slope you may be inadvertently promoting in the name of being nice. It is time for courageous questioning. It is time to assess if you are participating in enabling maladaptive behaviors or even a medical scandal. Pause, rethink, and redirect. Our children’s futures deserve thoughtful consideration instead of concessions due to activists’ agendas and extreme ideologies. Let’s return to the common sense of protecting children’s bodies and natural health. Instead of encouraging and sometimes pushing kids down the slippery slope of gender medicine, let’s give them a hand up and help out of what can sometimes be a deep abyss of never-ending drugs and procedures.
Lisa Shultz advocates for parents’ and women’s rights. She is deeply concerned about the influence of gender identity ideology and the lack of comprehensive, ethical care for children and vulnerable adults.
Great post, Lisa.
It should be posted in pediatrician offices, schools, counseling centers, gender clinics...
Thank you for continuing to inform people of the real dangers of supposedly "nice" sounding ideologies. In many cases, great and irreversible harm is being done to children and vulnerable adults.