Here I am again, always with the unpopular opinion, thoughts, and beliefs that might lead me into trouble. OTOH, I created this space quite specifically to explore the kind of cognitive dissonance that happens when I just can’t embrace whatever is the mainstream trend.
I have never been mainstream.
But suddenly the way-off mainstream has become the mainstream, and it’s weird. And I find myself at odds with LGBTQ culture, licensing boards, doctors, and other therapists. I think “they” (LGBTQ activists) would call me a TERF – trans-exclusionary radical feminist.
I am definitely not that.
I call myself rational.
I have long questioned the medicalized treatment of mental health struggles. I have always encouraged personality and identity exploration, with the help of a therapist or without. Through talking or music or art or writing. Discover yourself.
Here’s my unpopular opinion: I do not believe adolescents should be encouraged to medical transition to maleness. I do not believe adolescent females should be allowed to make decisions that will permanently change their bodies or their brains. Puberty blockers – no. Testosterone or Estrogen – no. Removal of healthy body parts – no. Adolescents are incapable of giving informed consent.
Adolescents are known for difficulty with impulse control, for engaging in high-risk behavior, for seeking instant gratification, for being unable to foresee the conswquences of their decisions and actions. These are the things they are learning in this stage of human development.
These are children who cannot legally get tattos, for fuck’s sake, even with parental permission.
In the past few years the numbers of middle to upper class white females seeking gender transition to males has risen 1000% (since 1910), higher if you look at UK numbers. (Irreversible Damage, Lisa Littman, 2020)
It is a statistically significant anomaly that is bizarre.
It makes me wonder if body dyphoria is common to adolescence and may simply be part of that developmental stage. Except now it’s being labeled Trans and diagnosed as gender dysphoria, with medical transition touted as the cure.
And young people can’t even wonder out loud publicly if they’re making the wrong decisions, because they will be labeled TERF or transphobic and lose their social status. And the most terrifying thing to an adolescent is losing their tribe. And they can’t wonder it out loud to their therapist in many states because exploring this might be considered conversion therapy, which is banned, which could cause a therapist to lose their license.
It’s like a train they got on that is moving too fast to safely jump off.
The current trend is “If you think you might be trans, you are trans. The end. Medical transition is the cure. If you think you might be trans, but later change your mind, you are transphobic. Get out of our safe space.”
Gender identification is immutable and unchangeable. But also fluid.
Hmmmm.
I suspect we won’t find out much for several more years, when these children are 25+ and wondering why no one stopped them from making permanent life and body altering decisions. When the lawsuits roll into the legal departments of clinics medically transitioning teens.
Imagining the pain and suffering of young people who regret transition saddens me more than I can express.
Use search term “detransitioning” to learn more. I’m not going to point to any specific source in an effort to avoid bias.