THIS IS LONG.
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It is time to confront this dangerous, sterilizing, mutilating "trans" experiment.
I began writing this paper as a response to several disturbing and unpleasant conversations I had had with my daughters and a few friends. The subject matter is highly controversial. In my experience, people find any discussion confrontational. As I have been researching this subject over the last 10 months, I have been shocked to know people are not only unwilling to consider any alternative view, but they are also unwilling to read material, listen to interviews, consider studies, or contemplate even marginally there might be anything concerning about this social phenomenon called trans activism. Terms like “TERF,” and accusations themed “You hate trans people,” serve as the proverbial Berlin Wall against any exploration. The conversation is fraught and demonstrably dangerous to speak about, and there is a real possibility, perhaps a likelihood, of sanctions for publicly broaching the subject at all. The response to any question or presentation of facts is vicious, angry, and marginalising. My experience over these months is that of being an outsider to a cult. It has been oppressive to the point I have become reluctant to engage in any conversation on this subject.
When I initially began writing this paper, I intended to approach the subject matter through the categories of the history and culture of transgenderism, social contagion, the phenomenology of social movements, medicine and psychology, prisons, sports, crime, homosexuality and neo gay conversion, paraphilias and autogynephilia, parody of women and girls, expert discussion, current research and studies, first person observation from the de-transition community and an overview of verified harms.
However, as I began writing referencing the nearly 100 sources I had already amassed, and falling down rabbit hole after rabbit hole, it quickly became apparent there was no way to speak to this topic without the paper becoming very long and very dense. The deep dive is covered in The Cass Report and The WPATH Files.
As there is more information than I had ever anticipated there being, I will limit this discussion to three specific areas with the caveat by doing so I will barely scratch the surface of a movement that has already, and will continue to have negative effects on young people and particularly adolescent girls, and even more specifically, girls who have endured trauma, mental illness, and are often on the autism/ADHD spectrum.
This discussion will consider social contagion and the phenomenology of social movements, medicine and psychology, and cult-mindedness as it relates to trans ideology.
The goal of this paper is not to draw the reader to my “side,” but to open the discussion and move it away from the terms and accusations used to shut down conversation, when conversation is not only necessary, but critically important. It is a documented fact, both through research and anecdotal accounts, people are being hurt psychologically, socially, and medically with permanent consequences.
In 2020, JK Rowling set off a firestorm of anger with a very short tweet on Twitter. What she stated is true, but the activist community rose like a tsunami to crush her out of existence. Over the next year or so, she stated several facts: women – lesbians specifically - do not have penises, and “people” who menstruate are called women. This enraged the trans “community” which subjected Rowling - and still does - to unprecedented viciousness and death threats. I was aware of these tweets, and I agree with her for the most part, whilst acknowledging she can lean to stridency. One still may not challenge the claim “trans women are women” and any attempt to do so, at least in face-to-face conversations, is met with vicious anger, the risk of being cancelled, the risk of losing jobs and/or clients, and for some notable people having to create a bunker or move away from their homes and. Several notable people, both trans-identifying men attempted to have her charged with hate crimes. The government declined to proceed: , ; her comments stated facts, and as unpleasant as those are to some people, they did not meet the requirements for hate crimes. She responded on Twitter in April 2024: “I hope every woman in Scotland who wishes to speak up for the reality and importance of biological sex will be reassured by this announcement, and I trust that all women - irrespective of profile or financial means - will be treated equally under the law.” People with far, far more to lose than Rowling are subjected to death threats, are being abandoned by friends and too often losing contact with their families.
In 2022 JK Rowling participated the podcast The Witch Trials of JK Rowling, developed by Megan Phelps, a family member in a cult called the Westboro Baptist Church . In this podcast Megan recognizes that she grew up in a cult and draws direct links to coercive cult-like behavior in the trans activism community. This podcast sent me down a cavernous labyrinth of other podcasts, interviews with experts, with desisters (someone who previously identified as transgender but who re-identified with their biological sex prior to any medical intervention), de-transitioners, parents, psychologists, psychiatrists, and therapists who recognize the dangers inherent in the trans phenomenon and specifically how those to adolescent girls and people on the autism/ADHD spectrum.
Human rights, compassion and understanding, and the right to live a safe life free from the threat of harm are certainly part of the discussion but these have been co-opted and manipulated in a way that makes any discussion taboo. One can postulate those caught up in this phenomenon are at greater risk from the movement, because it refuses to acknowledge they exist other than as a small, marginal population, and minimises, disputes, or denies the harms suffered by desisters, detransitioners, and those suffering regret.
Historically transgenderism concerned men. Statistics from the turn of the 20th century until the late 50s, or mid 60s established the prevalence of transgenderism ranged from between .07% to 0.1%, and that transgenderism was vanishingly rare with women. In the 1950s a proto movement a rose where a very small percentage of crossdressing men began approaching medical professionals for hormone replacement which would feminize them and legitimize their desire to live and dress as women. However, even until 2015 the rates of transgenderism with women and girls remained low. ,
Between 2016 and 2020 the incidents of transgenderism generally, and specifically in adolescent females rose at an astonishing rate. Specific to adolescent females it is a more than 5000% increase. Transgenderism in adolescent males also began to rise but at a noticeably slower pace. Gender clinics began opening across the world, although primarily in what we call western cultures: United States, Canada, Europe. The demographic seeking services from general clinics skewed then and continues to skew heavily to adolescent females according to statistics such providers must maintain.
In his conversation on Heretics , Vancouverite “Billboard” Chris, real name Chris Elston, notes trans ideology is a phenomenon primarily affecting girls (30:29): “Gender dysphoria used to affect boys two to one versus girls…. We’ve seen a several thousand percent increase over time, but we’re talking {at the time} one out of 30,000... Today, the kids showing up to gender clinics, it’s 3 to 1 girls… We’ve seen a several thousand percent increase over the last 10 to 15 years.”
In the last four years, several organizations launched deep research into the subject of transgenderism, and specifically the phenomenon of transgenderism with adolescent females. The results of these studies demonstrate something counter to the claims of the movement. Advocates for transgender people claim the explosion of out trans-identifying people – children and adolescents included - is due to an environment now where it is safe to come out. It is safer, but this does not account for the stunning, unprecedented increase in adolescents claiming to be transgender, nor does this claim reference the pervasive, oppressive requirements for the general public. Stating one’s pronouns has become a forced act of allegiance with liberal values and transgender rights , as has establishing not just trans-aware, but pro-trans policies in schools, including preschools, and K-6. “In elementary and secondary school settings, the pronoun has taken on new meaning for the purpose of creating political consensus and a ‘shared public philosophy’.”
In any other area of science or medicine, an increase of 5000 percent in a span of four years would provoke intense scrutiny of such a phenomenon; however where it concerns transgenderism, not only is has the word itself become a slag and is largely banned in the trans community, groups, researchers, scientists, therapists, psychologists/psychiatrists questioning the phenomenon are vilified and subjected to negative terminology (TERF, hater), marginalization, an outright hate on the grounds of trampling human rights. There is, however, little conversation about the rights of children to be children, and adolescents to be free from the known harms of puberty blockers, cross-gender hormones, and irreversible, unnecessary, disfiguring, and usually sterilizing surgeries.
Genspect is an evidence based, nonpartisan, anti authoritarian organisation created by Stella O'Malley, an Irish psychotherapist and author, and author of three books on parenting and mental health. Genspect “seeks a healthy approach to gender. The organisation is critical of the pervasive and unconstrained {emphasis, mine) gender-affirmative approach. Importantly, Genspect urges viewpoint diversity and free expression, and maintains safeguarding and informed consent as central to their mission.”
The organization recognizes “the high occurrence of co-morbidities such as autism and ADHD among children and young people who are questioning their gender.” This organization acknowledges, “much needed empirical research into the causes of gender distress has been made immeasurably harder by censorship and authoritarian efforts to restrict critical discourse on these issues.” Genspect’s work focuses on young people who cannot legally give informed consent to life changing decisions .
This is a critical perspective: in Canada and the United States children and adolescents cannot provide informed consent prior to the age of 16 or 18 depending on the country and state . In neither country, where it concerns sexual assault and incest, children cannot legally give consent to sex with an adult generally, and specifically to sexual assault or incest, and cannot be said to have given consent.
We must wonder then why constraints on children and adolescents accessing blockers, hormones and surgeries that will alter their bodies and their lives should be so controversial and why, in thousands of cases, parents who oppose puberty blockers and hormone treatments are literally losing custody of their children. An internet search for such cases returns 375,000 hits .
Trans activists, however, are opposed to any move to prevent a child or adolescent, regardless of their age, who declares themselves transgender to have access to puberty blockers and feminizing or masculinizing hormones. Such drugs stunt growth and the development of sex characteristics and organs and usually result in partial, if not complete sterility.
Advocates for Trans Equality makes these statements:
”Being trans is beautiful. Trans kids know who they are. Transition related care is safe. Transition related care is life saving. Regret about transition is extremely rare. Gender identity personal.” Yet none of these statements nor the site itself reference substantiated science. This organisation says claims regarding regret are unsubstantiated and rare despite many hundreds of published accounts. The search, “trans regret,” renders more than 20 million Google pages.
The Society for Evidence Based Gender Medicine (SEGM) , an organisation formed “in response to proliferation of treatment guidelines that promote medicalized youth gender transition without the benefit of systematic reviews of evidence,” states regret and detransition are examples of negative outcomes. Proponents of youth gender transition insist rates of regret following transition are extremely low;” however, the rates of regret, desisting, and detransition are unstudied and largely speculative.
SEGM notes several reasons for the lack of substantiated and corroborated rates of regret: inadequate follow-up coupled with high rates of loss to follow up (meaning low participation rates in follow up), imprecision of the measurement of desistence and detransition, and reliance on biased samples or samples with poor generalizability. There is a small number of longitudinal studies indicating long term satisfaction after surgical gender intervention, one following post-surgical transitioners from 1973 - 2003; however, these reference small cohorts of adults and do not include adolescents. That said, The Amsterdam Cohort of Gender Dysphoria Study (1972 – 2015) suggests regret may be as high as 33 percent.
Proponents of youth transition assert detransition should not be thought of as a manifestation of failed transition, yet neglect to reference known negative physical health outcomes including bone loss, impacts to cardiovascular health, sexual dysfunction, micro-penis syndrome, permanently enlarged clitoral tissue, infertility and sterility. SCGM also states inadequate attention has been paid to adverse psychological outcomes.
The elephant in the room in this discussion is the explosive increase in adolescents, and adolescent females particularly, declaring themselves to be transgender in the last four to six years. Alex Capo is the Executive Director at The Charlton School , a therapeutic environment for girls, located in Saratoga County, NY. This school accepts fewer than thirty students at a time. In his presentation at Genspect 2024 in Lisbon , Capo also cites this massive increase. He notes the school welcomed one student identifying as transgender with a strong conviction to medically transition in 2016, six in 2018 and nine in 2020.
Andrew Doyle, author and broadcaster, describes gender identity as the current social contagion, and likens it to an earlier contagion, anorexia/bulimia . The view gender identity activism is a dangerous, contagious phenomenon, not a factual disability or affliction, is held by an increasing number of experts in the fields of gender and sexuality; Helen Joyce, Journalist, author of Trans: When Ideology Meets Reality, , Mia Hughes writer and social environmentalist, Kelly-Jay Keen, women's rights advocate, Peter Boghossian, Philosopher and professor at Portland State University to name a tiny group of a growing cohort.
So critical is the concern about trans ideology that the British government forced the closure of the Tavistock Clinic leading to an independent review of gender-related services in the UK, led by Dr. Hilary Cass. Her research, The Cass Review was released in 2024. Following the Tavistock closing, medical and government authorities, and at least five countries that once led the way on gender affirming treatments for children and adolescents, are reversing course, arguing that the science undergirding these treatments is unproven and their benefits unclear.”
This change is related to the 1995 Dutch protocol , which championed the use of “Gonadotropin-Releasing Hormone agonist (GnRHa) drugs to suppress puberty in “juvenile transsexuals.” Scientists and public health officials in Finland, Sweden, France, Norway, and the UK now believe puberty blocking hormones may do more harm than good.
Adolescent girls are highly over-represented in the transgender population. One parent reports the sudden increase of trans-identifying girls in their daughter’s classroom as jumping from none to 25% of the girls in the class in one month. This is arguably the result of the current social climate and the factual existence of social contagion. , , Adolescent girls are uniquely prone to such contagion.
Social contagion was first documented in 1384. “Historical accounts indicate that sometime in the 13th century, a large number of the town’s children disappeared or perished….” Carl Jung used the term “psychic epidemics” in his The Collected Works, which he described as, “the spontaneous manifestation of an archetype within collective life as indicative of a critical time during which there is a serious risk of a destructive psychic epidemic.”
According to Mia Hughes, researcher and author of The WPATH Files, a 241-page research paper on pseudoscientific surgical and hormonal experiments on children, adolescents and vulnerable children, “Gender non-conformity only became a psychiatric disorder because, in the 1950s, men seeking the impossibility of a sex change began showing up in clinics recounting stories of childhood femininity. This prompted researchers to study feminine boys.”
In her extensively researched document, The WPATH Files: Pseudoscientific Surgical and Hormonal Experiments On Children, Adolescents, And Vulnerable Adults, Mia Hughes details the failings of transgender activism related to psychology and psychiatry, and specifically medicine (hormone treatment), and unnecessary, disfiguring surgeries, bookended by the almost complete lack of appropriate mental health care for youth and adolescents caught up in this social phenomenon.
Hughes demonstrates through comparison, the criminality of unnecessary, deforming, sterilizing surgeries performed on youth well before they have had any real-life relationships (sexual specifically), and well prior to their having the ability to understand the long-term effects of such surgeries and resulting sterilizations.
“It would be criminal for a surgeon to sever the spinal cord of a person who identified (emphasis, mine) as a quadriplegic or to blind a sighted patient who identified as blind. It is as unethical to destroy healthy reproductive systems and amputate the healthy breasts and genitals of mentally unwell people. To do so without first even attempting to help the person overcome their mental illness, without realistically preparing the individual for the grueling post-op period or warning of the life-long negative effect that the procedures will have on their long-term health and ability to form intimate relationships amounts to medical negligence of the highest order.” Although surgery in children and adolescents is disputed, as noted in his interview, “Billboard” Chris notes 179 US girls aged 12 had opted for double mastectomies .
Lisa Marchiano is a Jungian analyst, author, and podcaster. Her research indicates we – being mostly what we term “the West” – are experiencing a contagion, or epidemic, which she says, “is manifesting as children and young people coming to believe that they are the opposite sex, and in some cases taking drastic measures to change their bodies.” Further, Marchiano notes, “Current psychotherapeutic practice involves immediate affirmation of a young person's self-diagnosis, which often leads to support for social and even medical transition.” She adds, “It isn’t wise to act on strong impulses without understanding them psychologically first.”
Scottish journalist, Charles MacKay’s book, Extraordinary Popular Delusions and The Madness of Crowds,” details what he describes as “moral epidemics.” To wit, “Nations,… like individuals, …have their whims and their peculiarities; their seasons of excitement and recklessness… whole communities suddenly fix their minds upon one object and go mad in its pursuit; …millions of people become simultaneously impressed with one delusion, and run after it, till their attention is caught by some new folly more captivating than the first.”
The social phenomenon of “trans” has had this effect, and adolescent girls are arguably victims, as they were during the 1990s anorexia and bulimia epidemic. Eating disorders, like gender disorders, are real and documented. However, the explosion of sufferers indicated a social contagion. That phenomenon was characterized by secrecy, on-line and informal in-person “Ana” groups, where girls were introduced to, and incited to participate, or to carry on participating even whilst in care with eating disorder clinics.
Kari Paul, reporter for the Guardian US, wrote about the explosion of anorexic teen girls and the implication of Instagram and TikTok in that phenomenon. The spread of trans identity among adolescent girls follows a near-identical trajectory and affects an identical demographic.
The National Academy of Medicine in France has explicitly acknowledged the role of social contagion in trans identities. In their press release of February 25, 2022, NAM states “Transgender identity is a feeling (emphasis, mine),…for which no genetic predisposition has been found. Further, “While this condition has been long recognized, a sharp increase in demand for medical interventions has been observed first in North America, then in Northern Europe, and, more recently, in France, particularly among children and adolescents.
A recent study of a number of trans identification in high schools in Pittsburgh revealed a prevalence that is clearly higher than previously estimated in the United States: 10% of students declared themselves to be transgender or non-binary or were unsure of their gender. In 2003, the Royal Children's Hospital in Melbourne diagnosed only one child with gender dysphoria, whereas today it treats nearly two hundred.” The press release cited here is critical reading: it highlights a raft of concerning social shifts; the sharp increase in demand for medical interventions, excessive engagement with social media, social acceptability, peer influence, and this social phenomenon as an epidemic, that, “manifests itself in the emergence of cases or even clusters of cases in the adolescents’ immediate surroundings.”
NAM’s release advises “great medical caution” with children and adolescents, given the exposure of this population and the many undesirable effects and even serious complications that can be caused by some of the therapies available.” They note the May 2021 decision by the Karolinska University Hospital in Stockholm to prohibit the use of puberty blockers and stressing, “great medical caution must be taken in children and adolescents given the vulnerability, particularly psychological, of this population and the many undesirable effects and even serious complications that can be caused by some of the therapies available....”
Taking into account the side effects such as the impact on growth bone weakening risk of sterility emotional and intellectual consequences and for girls menopause-like symptoms. The stance of the pro-trans, and trans activist communities, that there should be no impediments whatsoever, regardless of the age of a trans-identifying child or adolescent, ignores the documented, concerning effects of hormones generally and specifically for girls. This is, at best, an irresponsible stance.
There is an equally unacknowledged reality in the general, trans-supportive and staunchly pro-trans populations being the incidences of trauma, mental illness, and autism among adolescents in this trans-identifying group. Estimates vary for several reasons, one being a trend towards self-declaration, which precludes a thorough psychological/psychiatric review.
A journal article, Elevated rates of autism, other neurodevelopmental and psychiatric diagnoses, and autistic traits in transgender and gender-diverse individuals , published in Nature Communications indicates, “Compared to cisgender individuals, transgender and gender-diverse individuals have, on average, higher rates of autism, other neurodevelopmental and psychiatric diagnoses,” and that “studies have identified that between 4.8% and 26% of individuals who present at GD clinics have an autism diagnosis based on several different criteria. This compares to 1 – 2 percent of the general population estimated to be autistic. This investigation was based on “five independently recruited cross-sectional datasets consisting of 641,860 individuals.”
This relates to the explosion of anorexia and bulimia in the 1990s and 2000s, and concerns an identical cohort; adolescent girls between the ages of 11 and 15. Eating disorders are an additional complication in the adolescent trans population. This adds to the evidence this demographic has higher than average mental health issues, trauma (family, sexual assault, incest, abuse), and neurodivergent characteristics.
The Autism Research Institute (San Diego) makes some concrete statements regarding gender discomfort related to autism. Specifically, “literature on the intersection of autism and GDC has increased substantially in the last seven years. Early studies report higher rates of gender diversity than in the nonautistic population (Glidden et al., 2016; Van der Miesen et al., 2016; George & Stokes, 2017). Autism appears at a rate of approximately 1.8 percent in the general population. In the trans-identifying population estimates range from 6 to 26 percent.
According to Doctor Lawrence Fung, a physician-scientist specializing in autism and neurodiversity and psychiatrist at Stanford University, says, “females on the spectrum seem to have more testosterone and masculine features... males on the autism spectrum have more feminine features.” Doctor Fung's research also shows that the brains of artistic men and autistic women are different ... Neuroscience could help explain why people with autism are more likely to question their sex.”
An article in the Main Wire from March 2023 highlights research which indicates a “huge proportion of children pursuing gender transitions are autistic, often undiagnosed,
yet parents seem predominately unaware of the links between autism and trans identification in adolescents .
Doctor Susan Bradley, a Canadian psychiatrist who has been working with gender dysphoric children since the 1970s believes most children who seek gender transitions have high functioning autism and are being exploited by the medical industry. “Children with autism make up an outsized portion but in the transgender identified population, autism spectrum traits make them particularly vulnerable to thought patterns that can lead youth to pursue gender transitions.... Transgender individuals are about three to six times more likely to be autistic than non transgender people.”
The now-closed Tavistock gender clinic in the UK alleged that as many as 97.5% of its gender patients had autism. doctor Bradley notes adolescents with autism have difficulties socially and struggle to understand how they're different. She knows they often feel left out of groups and are much more vulnerable often more suicidal, anxious, and depressed.
Also from Nature Communications, “Two recent reviews identify higher rates of mental health conditions and mental distress (notably depression, anxiety, and substance use disorders) in transgender and gender-diverse individuals compared to cisgender individuals,” citing Reisner, S. L. et al.
Global health burden and needs of transgender populations: a review. Lancet 388, 412–436 (2016). and Dhejne, C., Van Vlerken, R., Heylens, G. & Arcelus, J. Mental health and gender dysphoria: a review of the literature. Int. Rev. Psychiatry28, 44–57 (2016).
Doctor Bradley suggests this demographic of autistic youth may be predisposed towards trans when they see trans identifying kids are automatically accepted. This can influence them to going down the road to transition because, “all of a sudden they feel as though that explains all the trouble all the way along.”
Chloe Cole is a young woman who underwent cross sex hormones and a double mastectomy between the ages of 13 and 17. She regrets medically transitioning and states doctors failed to address her autism spectrum traits and the ways those impacted her gender identity. Cole is one of many medically transitioned adults who are suing hospitals and medical professionals. Her attorneys “argue that doctors should have offered her psychotherapy to address her autism spectrum symptoms and mental health issues but instead made her gender dysphoria the top priority.” , Cole is not alone amongst post medical transitioned people pursuing legal restitution. A search for “detransitioner lawsuits” results in more than 26 million Google hits.
Josh Payne is the co-founder of Campbell Miller Payne, “a law firm dedicated to representing individuals who were misled and abused – many as children – into psychological and physical harm through a false promise of “gender-affirming care.” His firm was approached by almost 80 post-transition people seeking legal recourse, and took 12 of those complaints. The millions of Google hits referencing legal action for harm, and the fact so may post-gender-surgery people are pursuing damages on the basis of having not screened and treated for existing mental health needs, including autism, should have us wanting to slam on the brakes. “Gender-affirming care is becoming big business. Revenue from sex reassignment surgery is currently about $2.5 billion and is estimated to grow to $5 billion by 2030. And that’s just for surgery.”
As a bookend to this conversation, I will briefly touch on Dr Steve Hassan and his work in and around cults, and his book Combating Cult Mind Control , and to reference Dr. Janja Lalich’s work in the same area . Dr. Hassan is a licensed mental health professional, a recognized expert on cults and undue influence. Dr. Lalich is a professor emerita of sociology, and international authority on cults, extremism, and coercion specializing in, among many subjects, ideological extremism, with a particular focus on recruitment, indoctrination, and methods of influence and control.
Regardless of the “flavour” of a given cult, or even whether an organisation or social movement is considered a cult, such as the trans activist community (this is a loose term), they possess significant characteristics in common:
• Excessively zealous, unquestioning; regarding the belief system ideology and practices as truth
• Questioning, doubt and dissent are discouraged/punished
• Mind-altering practices (denunciation specifically as it relates to trans ideology) used to suppress doubt
• The leadership/community dictates how one should think, act, feel
• Elitist thinking, claims of special, exalted status
• Polarisation – us-versus them mentality, which may cause conflict in wider society
• Lack of accountability; in this case, lack of corroborated, substantiated scientific or medical information, or long-term studies
• Ends always justify the means
• Influence and control through shame or guilt, peer pressure and other forms of persuasion
• Group members encouraged to live with, socialise with other group members
• Members believe there is no other way to be and may fear reprisals to themselves or others they leave or consider leaving; in the case of trans ideology, this would mean fear of repercussions, sanctions, alienation, and cancelling, for straying from the party line.
Dr. Hassan’s BITE Model (Behaviour, Information, Thought, Emotion) echoes and expands on these concepts and speaks to a cult’s effects on physical realities, sex, clothing and hairstyles, group and self indoctrination via the internet, group think, separation of families, deception and withheld information, restrictions on non-cult (in this case, non-trans) information, compartmentalization – insider/outsider doctrines, change to a person’s identity, loaded language, cliches, buzz words, rejection of rational analysis and critical thinking, and constructive criticism, labelling other beliefs or knowledge as illegitimate or evil, or not useful, manipulation of feelings, suppression of anger, doubt, instill fear, and phobia indoctrination.
The characteristics of cults apply in many ways to transgender activism. As an example, and one of thousands, Kathleen Lowrey, associate professor of anthropology, was dismissed from her administrative role when she said, “Transgender identity doesn’t trump biological sex for policy decisions.”
In email from the dean of the U of A faculty of arts, Lesly Cormack, Lowrey was advised she was “no longer effective” in her role and that it was “not in the best interests of the students or the university for her to carry on.” The email from the dean also says, “I am willing to allow you to continue with your teaching... on the condition that you complete the majority of your time in the position effectively and in accordance with instructions.” In short, Lowrey either had to accept the cult-like, unquestioning ideology espoused by the university or leave her job. She chose the latter.
In another instance, French teacher, Peter Vlaming, was dismissed on the spot from his job for alleged hate speech during a virtual reality experience with his class . Each student had been assigned a partner to keep them safe from falls and collisions. When he saw the student in question was heading towards a hard surface, he said, “Don’t let her hit the wall,” The “her” in question was an adolescent girl who had recently stated she was trans. Vlaming ultimately won $575,000 in damages from the Virginia school board that fired him. He has since moved to France . There are thousands of these stories.
One need only broach the subjects of trans, trans activism, surgeries, hormones, puberty blockers, regret, to be instantly confronted with cult-like prohibitions. However, as one will see in the comments stream of Peter Vlaming’s interview on the Daily Signal, while people may not be able to express their concerns to their families or friends, with the benefit of a “handle” and the conferred anonymity, most people do not support of the current runaway train. Such “pro “stop this madness” comments dominate comment streams. It should go without saying – but it doesn’t - that this consensus is no indication of mass hate towards transgendered people, or those who think they are, but concern for the demonstrated lacks in science and evidence and the potentially negative, permanent effects of hormones and surgeries to those people.
As a resource of first-person accounts, Parents With Inconvenient Truths about Trans , is a site supported by Genspect. There are countless heartbreaking stories posted by parents about their children, how those kids were coerced or enticed into trans ideology and social transition. These parents’ recounting are a window on the hows and whys of desisters. Genspect also hosts Stats for Gender a compendium of statistics related to gender and based on both peer-reviewed papers and government-commissioned studies, submissions to governmental commissions, published books, or doctoral theses.
My intention by writing this is not necessarily to change minds but to encourage a much more open, honest, and science-based conversation about the current trans phenomenon. There is no question transgender people exist, and have always existed, and there is also no question people in this community or attached to this community should be safe from fear, abuse, social pain, or violence.
The issues I have covered here represent the tiniest corner of a vast issue affecting everyone—parents, children as young as four in preschool, adolescents - and particularly adolescent girls – doctors, lawyers, psychologists, psychiatrists, therapists, and educational institutions in a profound way. This discussion can no longer be curtailed in the general consciousness. The health, bodily integrity, and long-term wellbeing of a generation of young people depends on it.
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