TOPICS

For those new to this issue, it’s best to know these terms before reading.

9) New World Order: How will the environment that trans activists Created affect desistance rates & gender nonconforming young people in general?

Presentation by Diane Ehrensaft 2016, gender moving boulders (1:04:12-1:04:46)

The above graphic from a transgender youth conference presentation demonstrates that affirmative model advocates not only want to change the way gender nonconforming children are raised giving them access to medical treatments including surgery, but also to erase the concept of biological sex altogether, replacing it with gender self-perception. 

In this section, we cover some of the reasons to question the hard-wired biological determinism narrative said to cause trans identification, body dissatisfaction and the decision to medically alter one’s body. However, there have always been trans people regardless of how oppressive the culture is. For some individuals there are likely other mental health, cultural, parental and environmental influences. 

It is also unknown if more visibility and cultural support and inclusivity for trans individuals who don’t fit into a binary classification would help trans individuals feel less compelled to seek drastic medical interventions. There are also real-world examples that the need to medically transition may be circumstantial (abuse, trauma, homophobia) and that there are borderline dysphoric individuals who have had regrets about transitioning and others who have found ways to cope with GD without transitioning. 

If transition is also related to other factors such as culture, mental health comorbidities and homophobia, it is reasonable to ask how the culture trans activists and affirmative model doctors and therapists are creating will affect gender nonconforming children and teens, dysphoric or not, who in the past, if left alone, would grow up to be gay, lesbian, or bisexual, not transgender. Answering this question is one of the most important motivations for creating this site. Below is how gender nonconforming children are being raised under the affirmation model. This is the model these advocates want implemented everywhere in the world for all children. As Diane Ehrensaft states “My way is ascendant.”

A. Nonbinary birth certificates

Presentation by Dr. Ehrensaft 2016 raising “theybies” (59:17-59:23)

Presentation by Dr. Ehrensaft 2016 raising “theybies” (59:17-59:23)

Advocates of the new gender revolution feel that children should be allowed to choose their gender. As a result, some states are offering parents an X option on their child’s birth certificate. The psychological impact on children who are raised without acknowledgement of biological sex is unknown. This practice will likely organize people into male and female based on how masculine or feminine they are, not biological sex. 

Often gender identity is conflated with intersex conditions as seen in this article discussing intersex rights:

With this massive victory for intersex advocates like Marquez, the hope is that this will encourage parents to wait on forced gender identities or assignment surgeries in order to “normalize” or alter their children. Marquez founded the ANUNNAKI Foundation which promotes the self-determination of gender and seeks protection of intersex and gender variant children.

With societal perception slowly shifting away from the binary into a broader concept of identity, sexuality, and genders, Colorado is yet again on the forefront of progress.

You do not need a law to stop the horrific non-consenting surgeries on intersex children and intersex children should be given the time to develop their own sense of self and a gender identity. There is a critical difference between the rights of of intersex people and the rights that trans activists are fighting for. Intersex people want the right not to be operated on and medicalized as children. Trans activists are pushing for the opposite - for children to have the right to medical treatment, even if irreversible and the child is unable to give informed consent. While moving away from a sex binary, at least in terms of gender stereotypes, may be positive in many aspects, a wider discussion of the lens that is used to frame the gender non-binary, and how this impacts society and individuals, particularly gender non-conforming and same sex attracted individuals needs careful consideration. Our position is that many negative consequences.

Below are several articles on jurisdictions that offer parents an X option for their babies.

“NYC to add nonbinary ‘X’ designation to birth certificates”

The option could be used by parents of intersex children or by parents who want their child to be able to choose a gender at a later date.

“Gender-neutral birth certificate approved in California”

“Gender 'X': Ontario issues its first 'nonbinary' birth certificate”

B. Parents are raising their children as “theybies”

More and more parents are raising “theybies” as transness and non-binary identity is painted as the new progressive, socially liberating cultural movement.

If people don’t know Zoomer’s sex, they can’t treat them like a boy or a girl, but rather, Z gets to be treated like the awesome little kid they are and experience a stereotype-free early childhood.

“Parent fights to omit gender on a child's birth certificate in British Columbia” are part of a whole coalition (Gender-Free ID Coalition) to end gender designation requirements on birth certificates.

The amendment would mean a third, non-binary gender designation could appear on provincial ID like birth certificates, health cards and driver's licences. “Couple Raises Child as a Gender-Neutral 'They-by'”

This article contains a quote that shows how gender studies, which are taught from more of a postmodern perspective rather than from hard empirical scientific data is influencing people. 

Sure, there are biological differences among the sexes, I get that. But once I was exposed to it, I couldn’t unsee or unlearn that gender is a social construction,” Myers recalled.

“Raising theyby: Why some parents are raising gender-neutral babies”

Mother reveals why she’s raising her child ‘gender neutral’

And when Myers did give birth, two years ago, to 'theyby' Zoomer, she and her partner were adamant that Zoomer grows up in an environment free of gender stereotypes - where their child could come to an understanding of their own gender in their own time…

According to the Toronto Star, Storm's parents wrote in an e-mail to family and friends, explaining that their decision was "a tribute to freedom and choice in place of limitation, a standup to what the world could become in Storm's lifetime (a more progressive place?).

“Should You Raise a Gender-neutral Baby?: Here is what you should know about the gender-neutral parenting trend and if it's right for you.”

Reinforcing LGB people’s fears that the trans-child narrative is anti-gay, this article seeks to ensure raising a gender-neutral child won’t make them gay, which is of course, a major concern of the parents the magazine is addressing. 

Does gender-neutral parenting affect sexuality?

Most research supports the idea that homosexuality is the result of genetics and biology, not environment. And according to a study in the journal Pediatrics, 85 percent of gender nonconforming youth identify as heterosexual in adulthood.

While they do at least quote one psychologist opposed to raising theybies, nowhere in this article is it mentioned that pre LGB children experience gender dysphoria and how this could possibly confuse them or leave them at risk to over medicalization. Little consideration is given to what we know about child and adolescent development or the consequences of puberty blockers treatment in most of these articles promoting raising children as theybies. 

More parents are raising theybies.

Parents in the U.S. are increasingly raising children outside traditional gender norms — allowing boys and girls to play with the same toys and wear the same clothes — though experts say this is happening mostly in progressive, well-to-do enclaves. But what makes this “gender-open” style of parenting stand out, and even controversial in some circles, is that the parents do not reveal the sex of their children to anyone. Even the children, who are aware of their own body parts and how they may differ from others, are not taught to associate those body parts with being a boy or girl. If no one knows a child’s sex, these parents theorize, the child can’t be pigeonholed into gender stereotypes.

Progressive parents, who see their child’s gender as fluid rather than binary, took notice. A Brooklyn couple runs a blog featuring their 2-year-old, Zoomer, and offering advice on how to navigate the world while raising a “theyby.” Others have taken to Instagram to share photos and support.

There is, however, some reaction to this poststructural/ postmodern movement in academia. Hungary recently banned gender studies in their education system. “Hungary Bans Gender Studies Since It’s ‘an Ideology, Not a Science.’

C. Early assessment

Children are being assessed at very young ages and the push is to make early assessment and affirmation universal to facilitate gender transition. Social transition is currently being recommended by affirmative model advocates over a “watchful waiting approach.” Many advocates of the affirmation approach frame any attempts to help the child adjust to their natal sex as conversion therapy. Children as young as 3-years-old are being assessed for gender dysphoria by parents and there are cases of children as young as four fully socially transitioning. New youth gender clinics are opening up to provide these services to minors with the goal of having this available everywhere. Affirmative model advocates are teaching parents “to read gender messages” from their children. Diane Ehrensaft suggests that a toddler girl pulling out barrettes from her hair is messaging that she is in fact a boy. A one-year-old boy unsnapping a onesie is a message that he is a girl because it makes the onesie more dress-like.

Diane Ehrensaft:

I have a colleague who is transgender. There is a video of him as a toddler–he was assigned female at birth–tearing barrettes out of then-her hair. And throwing them on the ground. And sobbing. That’s a gender message.

And:

So, I’m just wondering if there are recommendations for preverbal children? So, between the ages of one and two, suggestions of how to approach the topics that we are talking about:

They can show you about what they want to play with…and if they feel uncomfortable about how you are responding to them and their gender… if you’re misgendering them. So you look for those kinds of actions….like tearing a skirt off. …There was one on that Barbara Walters special, this child wore the little onesie with the snap-ups between the legs. And at age one would unsnap them to make a dress, so the dress would flow. This is a child who was assigned male. That’s a communication, a pre-verbal communication about gender.

Here is a quote by therapists who want to institute protocol for early diagnosis of “non-binary children.” 

Mental health student:

I’m actually a doctorate student in social work right now, and I’m non-binary. And thinking back about how I was at that age I think that the measures earlier helped. I don’t think I would have been captured as a non-binary person or a trans person otherwise. And thinking about the teenagers I’ve worked with, I wonder what their experience would be. It’s really difficult to capture that nuance between gender identity and gender expression.

Kristina Olson:

Yes exactly, that’s what we are running into.

D. Children will participate in extremely politicized pro-transition environments

Some of these children will attend support groups where suggestions of alternative ways to cope with gender or discussions of desistance are considered highly transphobic and are essentially forbidden speech as the only acceptable behavior is to reinforce the child’s stated gender identity (see toxic climate). Camps for transgender youth operate on the same model. Some examples of how politicized these support groups are see below:

Case #1

Susie Green leads a trans support group in the UK Mermaids. She continually misquotes suicide statistics and attacks parents of desisted children as transphobic on social media. She and others in her organization have attacked the decision of a Judge to remove a boy from a mother who possibly was inflicting Munchausen by proxy behavior by encouraging her son to be a trans girl. Mermaid supported a petition against the Judge so the boy would be returned to his mother and encouraged to transition to a girl.

Following the proceedings, the mother informed Mermaids that the Judge had ordered the child to have no further contact with the charity. 

'While we have not received any legal notice to support this statement, we have respected this request.'

The charity has also been accused of offering 'same-day' hormone therapy, contrary to NHS guidelines.

According to the paper, the youth section of the charity's website featured a message from Dr. Birgit Möller offering the fast-track treatment…

Social services received repeated warnings over the welfare of the child throughout 2013 and 2014, including a report that the mother was insisting her son was transgender.

But social workers failed to act despite concerns being raised by the school.

Case #2

In this trans support group, parents became hysterical when a mother tried to discuss the disturbingly high and unprecedented numbers of female young people coming out as trans. The facilitator actually called the police on the mother.

Case #3

A doctor, suggesting a support group to a parent, doesn’t see any problem with a 5% trans identifying population at her youth’s schools. There is no reflection of cultural and psychological influence on young people in the affirmative model trans movement, even among doctors and mental health professionals. 

When I told Dr. Jones that over 5% of the students at Joe’s school thought they were trans, he denied the role of social contagion. He said the increasing numbers were a result of society and schools becoming more tolerant.

Case #4

Parent trans support groups socially punish and shame parents who question the rush to transition their children without giving them time to mature or explore their mental health. The disturbing thing about this example is that after some time the youth outgrows dysphoria and thankfully doesn’t have a permanently altered body.

But there’s one exception to that accepted definition: a transgender child or teen. As the predominant narrative goes, we’re supposed to confirm, affirm and transition a transgender child or teen. But, the irreversible harm I want to avoid for my transgender child is medical and surgical harm. I made the error in a trans support group of admitting that.

“Jenny, so your support is conditional based upon what you chose to believe. So what makes you qualified to make that decision for your child aside from being the parent?”

E. Validate the child’s body dysphoria & disassociation rather than attempt to mediate & reduce it

With the affirmative model approach children are supported and reinforced in the dysphoric relationship they have to their body by parents, support groups and therapists. Toddlers are being provided with genitalia tuckers for natal boys and penis prostheses for natal girls, reinforcing the child’s dissociation with their own body from a very early age. There are multiple programs run by trans and “LGBT” organizations to provide free binders (a practice know to be damaging) to the growing number of female teenagers who hate their breasts to the point of feeling compelled to bind. 

During our first year vending at the Philadelphia Trans Health Conference MANY parents asked us to find a prosthetic that was much smaller than the typical adult packing device. We were really lucky to have friends that came up with these small, sturdy prosthetics. While they are still too big for the youngest boys out there, they are some of the smallest on the market and work well for many pre-teen and teenage folk. 

The below products are from transkidbiz, a now defunct business. Similar products are now being sold on tranzwear.net.

A youth who identified as trans for several years as a tween confirms seeing these products sold to children and teens at gender conferences.

(Q) So did that event push you more or less in the direction of thinking you were trans?

(A) It pushed me toward wanting to medically transition, but I saw what those kids were doing as trendy. Like, there was a whole line of penis packers there, in different colors and sizes. There was a neon pink one hanging up on the wall. It was horrifying. There were some for six-year-olds. Six-year-olds shouldn’t be worrying about what’s in their pants unless there’s a problem going on. I think it would make little kids sad to think about having to fake it.

Gender dysphoric children are also being provided with toys and books to reinforce their identities as trans children and to reinforce their feelings that they were born in the wrong body. If the children are expressing gender dysphoria they are encouraged to “explore their gender.” 

There is also an array of books written to validate a child’s trans identity.

“Are You a Boy or a Girl”

Gender dysphoric children also are being given transgender dolls…

And transgender nesting dolls to encourage parents and children to talk about gender.

F. School trainings to reinforce concepts of gender transition & gender spectrum identities in preschool, elementary school, junior high & high school

School systems are implanting gender trainings in both private and public schools in which children are actively encouraged to explore and question their gender identity. The goal is to expand these programs and make them a universal part of children’s education. Gender trainings are in fact becoming the norm in elementary, junior high and high school in Western countries. In these programs. children are taught that gender is a spectrum, that gender feelings determine what is a literal biological male or female, and that children can change genders. While this is meant to make dysphoric children’s lives better, the effects of this on children, particularly gender nonconforming children and autistic children (who tend to latch onto concepts/simple explanations and are prone to GD) are unknown. There is more discussion on some conflicts that this is causing in this section.

Here are some examples of programs that are being taught to school children:

Gender transition related material is being recommended to the British government.

Children as young as three-years-old should be taught about transgender issues using story books about penguins, MPs have been told. A charity which works with transgender children say the number of youngsters wanting to change gender is ‘increasingly rapidly’. The organisation wants nursery and infant school children to read the Penguin Land stories, which introduce young children to gender identity issues.

In evidence to the Common’s Women and Equalities Committee, it said: ‘The numbers of very young children transitioning in primary school are increasing rapidly, so information and reassurance needs to be given at the earliest stage… A report earlier this year stated that the Tavistock and Portman NHS Trust, the UK’s only center specializing in gender issues in kids under 18, has seen a four-fold increase in referrals in the last six years. In 2014-15, 47 children referred to the unit were aged five or younger and two of the children were three years old.

This material often relies on heavily gender stereotyped imagery, GI Joe references, graphics that look like Barbie or Disney princesses.

The Gender Unicorn teaches children about multiple genders outside of man and women and other aspects of what would be called “queer theory,” which can be considered a postmodern rather than scientific theory.

Elementary school children are encouraged to ask themselves “Am I a boy or a girl?” as the sign being held up demonstrates.

The HRC is the largest “LGBT rights” organization in the United States and was originally built mostly by gay men and lesbians to support gays rights. Trans issues are now it’s major focus. 

Universities have rapidly adopted pronoun use guideline. Some universities are enforcing them as hard rules that must be followed by faculty, staff and students. This is likely to trickle down more and more into high schools, junior schools and to elementary school. For more discussion on enforced third gender pronoun use see:

Here GLAAD, one of the largest “LGBT” organizations, as well as The Huffington Post, is endorsing young children being encouraged to explore their gender identity through an organization called “Queerkids.”

Organizations that advise schools are trying to normalize the concept that some children aren’t a boy or girl and that everyone should use 3rd gender pronouns for them.

The following is a story of students being asked to use third gender pronouns for a teacher.

Some people think introducing children to transgender/queer ideology in schools is increasing gender dysphoria in children rather than just supporting children with an innate cross sex identification. And that school officials are encouraging trans identification.

According to The Daily Telegraph, there has been a “236% surge in the number of kids wanting to change sex in the past three years”. And this is all because teachers are “being taught to spot potential transgender students”. How is this to be professionally assessed? Well, apparently:

It involves teachers learning to identify key phrases such as “I feel different”, “I’m androgynous” and “I’m born with two spirits”, indicating transgender leanings in students as young as five.

G. Early use of puberty blockers & cross-sex hormones:

Facebook parent group indicating females are being given testosterone at 8yrs

Early intervention with puberty blockers is becoming the norm for all children expressing gender distress. Stopping the child’s puberty to alleviate the youth’s discomfort (which can in some cases be extreme) so they will transition more smoothly, is valued above letting the child experience some of their puberty to be more certain they will feel the need to transition. What is concerning, is that gender experts from the Netherlands and at the Tavistock clinic in Britain have stated letting a child experience some puberty is what helps them resolve their gender dysphoria. There are many children being put on hormone blockers at the onset of puberty, as young as nine for females and eleven for males. These youths aren’t going to experience the natural hormones of their natal sex at all. This is often promoted as safe and settled science by affirmative model advocates but, it is not. Unsubstantiated claims state that hormone blockers are fully reversible and that they are beneficial to the child's decision-making process about their gender.

For more on the risks of giving children hormone blockers see here. 

H. Lower or remove age of consent laws for hormones and surgery & define explorative therapy as reparative therapy to make it illegal:

Affirmative model advocates often do not view outcomes for minors involving hormones and surgeries as any less desirable than an equal level of functioning where risks and financial costs associated with medical transition are avoided, believing this is considered transphobic. In this worldview children, should be encouraged to explore their gender and medical transition should be provided to increasingly younger minors. Below are some examples:

This chart from Olson-Kennedy’s 2018 study is evidence that minors are being given double mastectomies as young as 13-years-old.

In Oregon, a minor can receive mastectomies at age 15 without parental consent.

More examples of medical treatments being performed on minors can be found in the sections below:

To understand why this is being advocated despite the risks, one must understand affirmation model advocates hold the view that risks are worth the benefits of trans positive healthcare. For a discussion of the seeming lack of concern around over-medicalizing GNC youth (whether trans or a desister), or the view that over-medicalizing some youth is an acceptable outcome see:

I. Affirmation of all gender dysphoria including later onset cases in teens & young adults

Johanna Olson-Kennedy (USPATH 2017):

We have to stop that narrative that someone isn’t trans enough:

Previously gender clinics have been transitioning children who have presented with GD from a young age under a mental health screening process. That is the model applied under Steensma et al 2013, that showed psychological benefits to early gender clinic support for dysphoric teens. Much has shifted since this study. There are large increases of parents bringing their children to gender clinics. There are so many more female teenagers and young adults declaring themselves trans or non-binary and the average age of transition is now becoming drastically lower than in the past. It is unknown how this will affect regret rates, which already appear to be increasing. While some affirmative model advocates such as Margaret Nicholsdo talk about the need to screen individuals for mental health issues others such as Johanna Olson-Kennedy simply believe gender dysphoria (GD) is a medical problem and others, like Dr. IIana Sherer, think some minors are fine to transition with no real psychological exploration. This new affirmative approach generally can be summarized below.

1) Affirm children as trans despite the possibility of desistance.
2) Affirm tweens and teens as trans despite comorbid conditions and lack of any history of childhood GD.
3) Affirm medical treatment with an array of medical options to achieve an androgynous appearance for unstudied non-binary identified minors.
4) Affirm medical treatment for minors and young adults who say they are trans, want to change their bodies, but aren’t meeting actual criteria for a gender dysphoria diagnosis.
5) Affirm young adults as trans by offering medical treatment on an informed consent model with no mental health screening. 

Some examples indicating these viewpoints can be found in the following sections:

J. Legal battles to remove children from the home & force hospitals to operate on minors

Given there are teens who are adamant that they want to medically transition, affirmation model advocates, including mental health professionals and medical doctors, are involved in activism concerning when to call CPS on parents (in the US) and how to advocate for the rights of children to medically transitioning in court. This is a situation where the minors’ rights to bodily autonomy comes into conflict with and the parents rights to protect their minor from possibly making a horrible decision with permanent consequences. The cases below provide some examples.

“Ruling-from-Judge-Sylvia-Sieve-Hendon”

Interestingly in this case the Judge was alarmed at the affirmation of this teen’s gender identity despite serious mental health problems where “100% of patients presenting to the Children’s Hospital are apparently considered appropriate candidates for gender treatment.” The Judge also expressed skepticism about the lack of any evidence of a clear screening process or demonstration of effective treatment for rapid onset cases such as this one. 

4thwavenow has an article about discussions that happen at gender conferences among affirmation model advocates. There is a push to “educate” judges to terminate right’s of parents who don’t allow medical transition of their minor using the threat of suicide. 

Towards the end of a USPATH session, ADDRESSING SUICIDALITY IN TRANSGENDER YOUTH: A MULTI-DIMENSIONAL APPROACH, presenters Elizabeth Burke, Matthew Oransky and Sarah McGrew touched on what to do about parents who weren’t on board with “gender care.”

And the final piece on suicidality is family non-acceptance. This is where you have a family who is saying, no, no, no…and then you realize that actually the family is contributing to some of that negativity at home. So the family is creating a toxic environment. And that’s where we have to let the young person know the potential ramifications of calling DHS and saying that this is an unsafe environment.  And that we’ve given the family every chance to learn and grow. And they’re continuing to be part of the problem. So thankfully this was an important time when I realized it was worthwhile in starting the clinic at children’s hospital to have lots of meetings with the lawyers in risk management. To be able to say, “alright. I have the ethics, I have the lawyer, I have the guru from risk management, I’m gonna sit down and say, I need to describe a case to you and make sure this is actually parents being negligent in the healthcare needs of their child.

Thankfully we’ve had a lot of support in that realm.  Because of the training’s we’ve done with DHS workers in Delaware, Pennsylvania, and New Jersey, DHS workers will go and say you’re creating an unsafe environment for your child.  And we need to have that stopped.…unfortunately staying in that home environment is going to result in a child’s suicide.

In another example affirmation clinicians discuss if there are legal means to make parents commit to medical gender affiramtion:

At the February USPATH conference, Drs. Johanna Olson-Kennedy and Michelle Forcier, during the Q&A portion of their aforementioned talk on puberty suppression, tell their audience that they’re not afraid to involve the courts when they must to “bring along” the “recalcitrant” parents.  One questioner, a psychologist who runs a gender clinic, wants to know whether there is a way to legally “force parents” to go along with the recommendations of a gender therapist to administer puberty blockers.

OLSON-KENNEDY: I can say that the stickiest situations I’ve had is where one parent is supportive and one isn’t and they share medical custody. And so we work really hard to bring both parents in and bring them both on board. Because even if you get a court order, the most protective factor for a good outcome is parental support.  So it’s not my first line to go to court to get somebody what they need.  But it is my second line and I will do it.  We’ve been pretty successful in five or six situations where…we really had a recalcitrant parent that we just could not bring along.

For her part, Forcier says her team has been busy training family court judges in her region:

FORCIER: Yeah, there’s no precedent but you can again work with the child protection team for medical neglect. Work with one parent…at least to get things started. And again, you can do some education. We did education with Judges in Rhode Island. We spent a half day with family court Judges, telling them this is what gender and transgender is…

This case, “Transgender Teens Win Major Court Victory in Australia, ”involved a teen who sought the right to transition before age of consent without court approval.

There will likely be more cases of conflict involving parental rights, trans identified teens, and the mental health and medical professionals who facilitate transition of minors. A mother sued her own child and others involved in medical treatment according to this article, “Minnesota mother's lawsuit against child's gender transition is dismissed.”

There will also be more lawsuits in the future to force hospitals to perform mastectomies on minors.

A 17-year-old transgender boy named Pax Enstad was denied medical care by his mother’s employer, a Catholic health organization called PeaceHealth St. Joseph Medical Center in Bellingham, WA.

The civil rights lawsuit was filed Thursday on behalf of the family by ACLU of Washington. Pax, his mother Cheryl and father Mark, spoke at the ACLU press conference in Seattle about the lawsuit.

A father lost a court battle to stop his mentally unstable teen from being put on a path to medical transition in British Columbia. The father described the daughter as having gone through multiple stages of identities and having had inappropriate behavior around crushes on teachers.

K. Conclusion to New World Order

With the affirmative model, dysphoric children will be spending the entire period of their formative childhood years having their gender identity fully validated whether it is male, female, bigender, agender, genderqueer, or genderfluid and/or living as the opposite sex. Once a trans identification is declared the youth will receive reinforcement from therapists, teachers, and trans support groups and camps. Tuckers, packers and binders will be provided to the child to support the youth’s body disassociation. All forms of trans identity regardless of comorbid conditions, date of onset, or non-binary identities will be supported and validated in children and teens, as not doing so is considered transphobic.

Since control groups are considered unethical, no one will actually know what the full psychological impact will be on the children, under previous watchful waiting model would have desisted. Since GD versus GNS, pre-LGB (and heterosexual in some cases) is more of a continuum than an either/or situation, it may not be possible to truly tell where each child would truly wind up if left alone to let nature take its course. Diane Ehrensaft has expressed the viewpoint that an increase in children medically transitioning isn’t a bad thing as long as they seem happy and that to view unnecessary medicalization is bad and “cis sexist.” This viewpoint is shared by many affirmative model advocates. unfortunately, this attitude and lack of consideration of potential natural desisters is already having an impact on disproportionate numbers of lesbian, bisexual, and autistic teens who are meeting diagnostic criteria, even for years but desisting. Understanding impacts on prepubertal youth will be more difficult in the cohort of children who are are socially transitioned at a young age and medicalized. There is no research to compare these children to those who are loved and supported, but in a body acceptance model to compare it to. 

Many therapists are working wholly on an affirmation model, particularly in the United States and Canada. The goal is to implement this everywhere. No attempt will be made to explore other options beyond drugs and surgeries because this is deemed transphobic and now increasingly supported by anti-conversion therapy laws. These laws have been passed to make it illegal for any therapists to attempt to help the child become comfortable with their natal sex. Even therapists report they don’t understand what they can and cannot say under these laws.

Ken Zucker has stated on more than one occasion that the affirmation model will produce inappropriate transitions. He is not the only person working in the field who holds this belief.

The therapists supporting a child's transition early, I have characterized them in a half serious way as liberal essentialists. On the surface, the approach comes across as very humanistic, liberal, accepting and tolerant of diversity. But I think the hidden assumption is that they believe the child's cross-gender identity is entirely caused by biological factors. That's why I call them essentialists. Liberals have always been critical of biological reductionism, but here they embrace it. I think that the conceptual approach is astonishingly naive and simplistic, and I think it's wrong. 

I would predict if we followed kids, longitudinally, who are being told "do what you want" — or encouraging early gender role change — they would be much more likely in adolescence or adulthood to go through hormonal and surgical sex changes than kids being seen in a psychotherapeutic way, and even probably than kids where people don't do anything active.

What you're saying is that this approach essentially tracks them into a transgender identity?

That would be my prediction, yes.

The next section, documents examples of environmental and mental health influences related to GD that demonstrates the innate gender identity model promoted by Kristina Olson is not true in all cases. But all cases of GD are being affirmed under an affirmative model. As long as the child says they are trans, they are trans and it is for the child to “tell” and “lead.” While there are some individuals who will be cross-sex identified no matter how hard the cultural pressure is not to be, it can’t be said cultural factors and mental health factors don’t ever influence trans identification in young people. The reality is that there are already desisters and detransitioners who say that this was their reality. Unfortunately those advocating for the affirmation model censure their stories and feel they should not be centered so they don’t “hurt the community.” 

Is the mental health and medical community morally and even legally obligated to demonstrate that these changes are not going to essentially groom desisters for medical gender reassignment before their brains are fully mature? If this is happening, it disproportionately effects other relatively small minority communities such as the LGB and neurodivergent communities. If this is considered a morally acceptable outcome, the mental health profession, medical community and the “LGBT” organizations promoting this agenda should have to justify through a clearer cost benefit analysis based on data, not “apples, oranges and fruit salad” diagnostic criteria and telling people they are being “alarmist” or transphobic for wanting proof false positives are not happening.  

© Gender Health Query, 6/1/2019

REFERENCES FOR TOPIC 9

Updates Topic 9

CONTINUE TO TOPIC 10:

Transgender identity may be innate but other mental health & environmental factors affect it

There is evidence that gender identity is innate & biologically driven. But environmental factors have an effect & there is a blurry line between trans & LGB identities.