This letter was long and many other points could have been stated. It may be good to link a few articles here as to why regret rates are not as low as claimed and are likely to increase.
"More recent studies that have included the current case mix of predominantly adolescent-onset gender dysphoria suggest that up to 30% of those who undergo medical transition may discontinue it within only a few years (Roberts et al., 2022). It is likely that a number of them will experience significant regret over lost opportunities and permanent physical changes."
"The final of the two famous Dutch studies, published in 2014, relied on only 1.5 years of follow-up after subjects had completed their transition. This is hardly enough time to reveal whether the procedures ultimately benefit the patients. Two studies found that the average time to regret is around 10 years.[11] But, remember, almost all the data in these studies comes from those who transitioned as adults and were gathered before the “affirming” model and its hostility to safeguards became widespread. Increasingly, we hear from detransitioners who describe a period of euphoria immediately after completing some or all of the transition. As even Peggy Cohen-Kettenis, one of the Dutch researchers who co-authored the 2011 study, would later observe, “a truly proper follow-up needs to span a minimum period of 20 years.”[12]"
People should be skeptical of Laura Edwards-Leeper's claim that her earlier cohorts all had the mental health issues resolved. Better hospital data from healthcare systems don't show improved mental heath among medicalized dysphoric adults-see Swedish data). But she is correct that there are often even bigger issues with the new cohorts:
"Laura Edwards-Leeper, the founding psychologist of the first pediatric gender clinic in the United States, said that when she started her practice in 2007, most of her patients had longstanding and deep-seated gender dysphoria. Transitioning clearly made sense for almost all of them, and any mental health issues they had were generally resolved through gender transition.
'But that is just not the case anymore,' she told me recently. While she doesn’t regret transitioning the earlier cohort of patients and opposes government bans on transgender medical care, she said, 'As far as I can tell, there are no professional organizations who are stepping in to regulate what’s going on.'"
At last - a shot across the bow to show trans activists and the rest of the gender ideology industrial complex that we sex realists are mad as hell and aren't going to stand for their pernicious beliefs, policies and programs a moment longer.
This is the latest and most comprehensive and withering contribution to the genre of the gender critical manifesto. I hope sex realist activists will capitalize on the momentum this piece generates to grow the movement and bring about setbacks in the hegemonic trans project.
Two other unconscionable socio-political consequences of genderism deserve attention.
The history of the trans capture of our institutions has yet to be written. Until there is an authoritative account of events, the best observers can do is draw reasonable inferences based on the information available to them. With that caveat, the first problem is that gender identity ideology seems to have been forced on society on a top-down manner in utter disregard of democratic values and norms. It appears to have been the doing of trans activists and their highly placed allies in the public and private sector. They used the levers of decision making within the administrative state, nonprofits and for profit organizations to gain admittance through the back door. Radical ideas spawned equally radical policies and programs without effective prior notice to those affected by them. There was never an opportunity for free and open debate between members of the pubic and proponents of initiatives as teaching gender identity in K-12 or male participation in female sports, for example. Trans activists never had to defend their plans against public criticism before they could be considered. Moreover, the people who would have to live with policies and programs that implemented gender ideology never had a chance to vote on them.
The second is that gender ideology arrived on the scene with a ready-made cast of heroes and villains. Their moral standing was not open to debate; the judgments had already been made. The trans movement's heroes are fictional beings known everywhere as "trans kids." They're notable for their propensity to become suicidal the moment anyone anywhere questions any element of the gender identity canon. Trans allies and activists invoke trans kids as a conversation-ending device whenever sex realists appear to be approaching any of the trans movement's weak spots. From the sex realist's point of view, the villains are more consequential than the heroes. That's because we are and have always been the villains, and trans activists have gone to great lengths to convince their cisgendered allies of that unassailable truth. We go by various names, the most common being "transphobe" and "TERF."
That is why gender critical activists find it almost impossible to get a full and fair hearing anywhere in the gender affirming world. Trans activists have seen to it that our reputation as terrible people and haters precedes us. It is impossible to challenge a point of gender ideology if the other side considers it anathema to do so. For those reasons, a progressive state legislator will be deaf to a constituent's objection to a bill that would allow minors age 15 or older to obtain gender affirming care without parental consent. If he responds at all, he'll parrot trans talking points about trans suicide and the infallibility of the "gold standard" of care observed by all providers of gender medicine. That's why this manifesto could never be published in the nation's newspapers of record. It is even why a judge will not allow the plaintiffs' lawyers in a trans athlete case to refer to the trans girls as the boys they are.
This totalitarian state of affairs in which sex realists cannot seek redress for their grievances from most liberals and nearly all progressives cannot stand.
Trans has to be separated from LGB. And LGB activists have to force this. In my city we didn’t have a Pride Parade this year. We had a Trans Parade. It was gross too.
However, it is time to stop Pride. After Stonewall it made sense. There was a shame attached to being gay, which isn’t fair. But in Canada we have Pride Month! And this is being extended to Pride Season. It is over the top. Vets get a day, Moms get a day, Dads get a couple of hours, and Gays get a month/season. People are becoming dismissive of any issues about being gay. Legitimately.
Also, people initially marched, in essence saying ‘I am Gay. I am proud of who I am. Get over it.’ Now it appears to be a celebration of fetish. There is nothing to be proud of in that. You don’t have to be ashamed. But you don’t need a month to celebrate it, and to force others into indulging your fetishistic display. We heteros don’t have ‘Middle Class Moms into BDSM’ floats at July 4th parades. Even though there are middle class Moms into that. A very open minded buddy said ‘this is absurd - Pride parades. Oh I am so proud of the fact I like to have men ejaculate in my butt.’ We discussed Stonewall and attitudes towards gays in the 60s and 70s. He correctly said ‘it isn’t like that now. No one cares. But I don’t want to celebrate it.’
Pride should be an adult event held at night. In Seattle, they have a "Pride in the Park" event a week earlier. I (Justine D.K.) walked around and it actually was very innocent, wholesome in a way- music, non sexual vender booths, food trucks. But the parade has both boy scouts and furry fetishists. It's creepy. Pride should be treated like a frat party or Mardi Gras (a very sexualized event heteros engage in, as we all know) in designated spaces for adults if they want to hold sex-positive events. Any event billed family friendly should have rules and vetting and never promote spreading "I'm born in the wrong body" messaging to vulnerable kids. This is a very easy problem to solve. But LGB people are currently experiencing some of the worst, and often stupidest (regardless of their IQ or credentials), self-proclaimed leaders right now. They are thinned skinned, can't be moderators in a complex, multicultural society, and simply can't anger their trans friends by admitting the gender craze has become something dangerous. And they care more about ego-guarding than vigilant guarding against pedo infiltration.
Thank you for this comprehensive enumeration of issues. I am so grateful. I have thought all of these things and tried to talk to my child about them but he is captured by empathy for the letters beyond LGB. You stated them far better than I could.
This letter was long and many other points could have been stated. It may be good to link a few articles here as to why regret rates are not as low as claimed and are likely to increase.
https://segm.org/transition-regret-and-detransition:
"More recent studies that have included the current case mix of predominantly adolescent-onset gender dysphoria suggest that up to 30% of those who undergo medical transition may discontinue it within only a few years (Roberts et al., 2022). It is likely that a number of them will experience significant regret over lost opportunities and permanent physical changes."
https://manhattan.institute/article/trust-the-experts-is-not-enough:
"The final of the two famous Dutch studies, published in 2014, relied on only 1.5 years of follow-up after subjects had completed their transition. This is hardly enough time to reveal whether the procedures ultimately benefit the patients. Two studies found that the average time to regret is around 10 years.[11] But, remember, almost all the data in these studies comes from those who transitioned as adults and were gathered before the “affirming” model and its hostility to safeguards became widespread. Increasingly, we hear from detransitioners who describe a period of euphoria immediately after completing some or all of the transition. As even Peggy Cohen-Kettenis, one of the Dutch researchers who co-authored the 2011 study, would later observe, “a truly proper follow-up needs to span a minimum period of 20 years.”[12]"
People should be skeptical of Laura Edwards-Leeper's claim that her earlier cohorts all had the mental health issues resolved. Better hospital data from healthcare systems don't show improved mental heath among medicalized dysphoric adults-see Swedish data). But she is correct that there are often even bigger issues with the new cohorts:
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/02/02/opinion/transgender-children-gender-dysphoria.html:
"Laura Edwards-Leeper, the founding psychologist of the first pediatric gender clinic in the United States, said that when she started her practice in 2007, most of her patients had longstanding and deep-seated gender dysphoria. Transitioning clearly made sense for almost all of them, and any mental health issues they had were generally resolved through gender transition.
'But that is just not the case anymore,' she told me recently. While she doesn’t regret transitioning the earlier cohort of patients and opposes government bans on transgender medical care, she said, 'As far as I can tell, there are no professional organizations who are stepping in to regulate what’s going on.'"
At last - a shot across the bow to show trans activists and the rest of the gender ideology industrial complex that we sex realists are mad as hell and aren't going to stand for their pernicious beliefs, policies and programs a moment longer.
This is the latest and most comprehensive and withering contribution to the genre of the gender critical manifesto. I hope sex realist activists will capitalize on the momentum this piece generates to grow the movement and bring about setbacks in the hegemonic trans project.
Two other unconscionable socio-political consequences of genderism deserve attention.
The history of the trans capture of our institutions has yet to be written. Until there is an authoritative account of events, the best observers can do is draw reasonable inferences based on the information available to them. With that caveat, the first problem is that gender identity ideology seems to have been forced on society on a top-down manner in utter disregard of democratic values and norms. It appears to have been the doing of trans activists and their highly placed allies in the public and private sector. They used the levers of decision making within the administrative state, nonprofits and for profit organizations to gain admittance through the back door. Radical ideas spawned equally radical policies and programs without effective prior notice to those affected by them. There was never an opportunity for free and open debate between members of the pubic and proponents of initiatives as teaching gender identity in K-12 or male participation in female sports, for example. Trans activists never had to defend their plans against public criticism before they could be considered. Moreover, the people who would have to live with policies and programs that implemented gender ideology never had a chance to vote on them.
The second is that gender ideology arrived on the scene with a ready-made cast of heroes and villains. Their moral standing was not open to debate; the judgments had already been made. The trans movement's heroes are fictional beings known everywhere as "trans kids." They're notable for their propensity to become suicidal the moment anyone anywhere questions any element of the gender identity canon. Trans allies and activists invoke trans kids as a conversation-ending device whenever sex realists appear to be approaching any of the trans movement's weak spots. From the sex realist's point of view, the villains are more consequential than the heroes. That's because we are and have always been the villains, and trans activists have gone to great lengths to convince their cisgendered allies of that unassailable truth. We go by various names, the most common being "transphobe" and "TERF."
That is why gender critical activists find it almost impossible to get a full and fair hearing anywhere in the gender affirming world. Trans activists have seen to it that our reputation as terrible people and haters precedes us. It is impossible to challenge a point of gender ideology if the other side considers it anathema to do so. For those reasons, a progressive state legislator will be deaf to a constituent's objection to a bill that would allow minors age 15 or older to obtain gender affirming care without parental consent. If he responds at all, he'll parrot trans talking points about trans suicide and the infallibility of the "gold standard" of care observed by all providers of gender medicine. That's why this manifesto could never be published in the nation's newspapers of record. It is even why a judge will not allow the plaintiffs' lawyers in a trans athlete case to refer to the trans girls as the boys they are.
This totalitarian state of affairs in which sex realists cannot seek redress for their grievances from most liberals and nearly all progressives cannot stand.
Thank you. True reform comes from within. If there is insufficient response to these facts, separation becomes the only option.
Trans has to be separated from LGB. And LGB activists have to force this. In my city we didn’t have a Pride Parade this year. We had a Trans Parade. It was gross too.
However, it is time to stop Pride. After Stonewall it made sense. There was a shame attached to being gay, which isn’t fair. But in Canada we have Pride Month! And this is being extended to Pride Season. It is over the top. Vets get a day, Moms get a day, Dads get a couple of hours, and Gays get a month/season. People are becoming dismissive of any issues about being gay. Legitimately.
Also, people initially marched, in essence saying ‘I am Gay. I am proud of who I am. Get over it.’ Now it appears to be a celebration of fetish. There is nothing to be proud of in that. You don’t have to be ashamed. But you don’t need a month to celebrate it, and to force others into indulging your fetishistic display. We heteros don’t have ‘Middle Class Moms into BDSM’ floats at July 4th parades. Even though there are middle class Moms into that. A very open minded buddy said ‘this is absurd - Pride parades. Oh I am so proud of the fact I like to have men ejaculate in my butt.’ We discussed Stonewall and attitudes towards gays in the 60s and 70s. He correctly said ‘it isn’t like that now. No one cares. But I don’t want to celebrate it.’
Pride should end.
Pride should be an adult event held at night. In Seattle, they have a "Pride in the Park" event a week earlier. I (Justine D.K.) walked around and it actually was very innocent, wholesome in a way- music, non sexual vender booths, food trucks. But the parade has both boy scouts and furry fetishists. It's creepy. Pride should be treated like a frat party or Mardi Gras (a very sexualized event heteros engage in, as we all know) in designated spaces for adults if they want to hold sex-positive events. Any event billed family friendly should have rules and vetting and never promote spreading "I'm born in the wrong body" messaging to vulnerable kids. This is a very easy problem to solve. But LGB people are currently experiencing some of the worst, and often stupidest (regardless of their IQ or credentials), self-proclaimed leaders right now. They are thinned skinned, can't be moderators in a complex, multicultural society, and simply can't anger their trans friends by admitting the gender craze has become something dangerous. And they care more about ego-guarding than vigilant guarding against pedo infiltration.
Thank you for this comprehensive enumeration of issues. I am so grateful. I have thought all of these things and tried to talk to my child about them but he is captured by empathy for the letters beyond LGB. You stated them far better than I could.