The ship has lost its rudder and the only way back is to reverse the course of "for profit" medicine. Until we do that, profit will dictate patient care. Additionally, when the courts (and school boards) start going after parents who advocate for the health and safety of their children, we have entered a very dark age.
Great piece. I suspect Benjamin actually did give hormones to underage prostitutes, though, as I wrote in a post today. If you have evidence he was strictly 18+ I'll edit my post.
Thank you for this great description of the history of this mess...
(If you diagnose it, they will come??)
I wanted to mention--
"There has never been a double-blind clinical trial, medicine’s gold standard, for determining the short-term safety and long-term consequences of puberty blockers or cross-sex hormones for minors. There are no large-scale studies tracking patients who were given puberty blockers, or cross-sex hormones, or surgical interventions as children to determine if they were satisfied or unhappy with their gender decision."
As far as I know, this is the case for adults, also, aside from a few record search studies with serious limitations. There is one "regret" study, a record search checking if last names were changed (and dropping the sizeable fraction who committed suicide), in Sweden, for adults who had a 3 year or so run-up to surgery. Assuming everyone who regretted also changed their name back, which doesn't seem to happen for at least some regretters (or those who would not do it again if they knew what they knew now, probably an important group to identify and count)....
Mostly, problem? We see no problem... (of course, our eyes are closed!)
Great article tracing how putting the kids in charge via the medical and psychiatric professions came to be. Now, how about an article on progressive parents' role in all this, about which I am still fuzzy: Did they go along with all this because they've groomed themselves to be 'inclusive' at all costs? Were they groomed by outside sources to do this? (Must be easier than grooming conservative parents, who are used to telling their kids No). What made progressive parents so inclined to agree with and do whatever their children wanted? This problem goes beyond Gen Z...Millennial kids were the 'self-esteem' generation and now *they're* raising Gen Z, those of which aren't already being raised by late Gen X'ers. I'm getting more interested in the role that progressive liberal politics plays in all this, in the family and outside.
Thank you, good article. I had never heard this data before - “As little as .001 percent of the population had gender dysphoria that was accompanied with a desire for hormonal and surgical treatments. ”. Do you have a source and time period for that?
Incredible research & writing! ‘When will United States medical associations responsible for treating children follow the lead of progressive European nations and stop embracing the cult of transgender ideology? How many more thousands of children will suffer from getting hooked on the trans contagion will depend on that answer.” I agree with your analysis it’s an ideology - so not anytime soon if ever. There’s clearly rot in the medical industrial complex from the fake analyses to the alleged supportive structures. Clearly a lie & pure evil. Please more exploration of this from a for profit motive & sociological viewpoint. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
“This is another in my occasional series on the trans industry.”
“Abandon hope all ye who enter here” ... 😉🙂
Gerald: “It requires that professionals ... must confirm the self-diagnosis of children and young teenagers who believe they are a different gender than their birth sex.”
Not quite sure whether you’re looking at it from this point of view or not, but the problem there is that “gender” is generally seen as an entirely different kettle of fish from “sex”. A fairly succinct summary of that point from a recent City Journal article:
City Journal: “As the philosopher Tomas Bogardus pointed out in Quillette, our language used to maintain a sex-gender distinction that acknowledged sexual dimorphism. ‘Sex’ referred to being biologically male or female, while ‘gender’ stood in for qualities that we associate with the sexes – like wearing makeup for girls or playing sports for boys – that are not intrinsic, definitionally, to being male or female.”
Of course EVERYONE has a “different gender than their birth sex” – to say otherwise is to say that apples are the same as oranges. Or, closer, apples and aardvarks. ICYMI, you might consider this rather cogent and illuminating analogy from the late great US Justice Anton Scalia:
"Scalia: “The word 'gender' has acquired the new and useful connotation of cultural or attitudinal characteristics (as opposed to physical characteristics) distinctive to the sexes. That is to say, gender is to sex as feminine is to female and masculine is to male.”
Why I have frequently suggested that using “male” and “female” as genders – as too many transactivists and their useful/useless idiots insist on doing – should be deprecated, if not anathematized, in favour of “feminine” and “masculine” as two halves of a multidimensional gender “spectrum”. For some details, see my “A Multi-Dimensional Gender Spectrum”:
But such “confusions” and “cognitive distortions” are ubiquitous in your descriptions and quotes, either originally or in your interpretations, to wit:
Gerald: “Patients had to exhibit the desire to be the opposite sex for two years before psychiatrists could make a conclusive diagnosis. .... The Dutch clinicians had also tried reducing the number of false positives, those children whose desire to change their birth sex was a ‘transient phase’ .... any full transition to the opposite sex will supposedly be easier ...”
Whether “patients” “desire to be the opposite sex” or not, or whether it’s a “transient phase” or not, the fact of the matter is that changing sex – any “full transition to the opposite sex” – is simply and flatly impossible, at least by standard biological definitions promulgated in reputable biological journals, encyclopedias, and dictionaries all across the land. Rank insanity that a bunch of so-called psychiatrists are engaged in pandering to the delusional, are saddling them with “vicious lies” as an old Michelle Goldberg article put it:
Gerald: “... in a future article, I will write about the four endocrinologists and psychiatrists I call the Gods of Gender; Benjamin, John Money, Robert Stoller and Richard Green”
The thing is that – as Scalia and the City Journal article suggest, and as my Multi-Dimensional post argues – there IS some merit and scientific justifications in DEFINING “gender” as a range, as a spectrum of sexually dimorphic personality traits – typically styled or described as feminine or masculine ones. Entirely separate from criteria that qualify individuals – of literally millions of anisogamous species – as male or female, i.e., functional gonads of either of two types.
The problem is that too many conflate sex with gender – as your “different gender than their birth sex” suggests – or have turned “gender” into a “merging of science, magic, and religion”:
A noteworthy comment therefrom: “... the concepts of ‘masculine’ and ‘feminine,’ whose meaning seem unambiguous to ordinary people, are among the most confused that occur in science. (Freud, 1905/1962, p. 85)”
But even Stoller once endorsed the same dichotomy, the same use of “masculinity” and “femininity” as genders separate from sexes:
“Ten years ago, one percent might have talked about gender, now, in some schools upwards of 20 percent of teen girls identify as being the opposite gender.”
I’m curious where this school is? It seems like with the current right wing media obsession over trans issues that this would have been exposed if there was a school where 1 in 5 girls identified as boys. Even in a liberal city, I think that would raise some concerns about what is going on.
The ship has lost its rudder and the only way back is to reverse the course of "for profit" medicine. Until we do that, profit will dictate patient care. Additionally, when the courts (and school boards) start going after parents who advocate for the health and safety of their children, we have entered a very dark age.
Great piece. I suspect Benjamin actually did give hormones to underage prostitutes, though, as I wrote in a post today. If you have evidence he was strictly 18+ I'll edit my post.
Thank you for this great description of the history of this mess...
(If you diagnose it, they will come??)
I wanted to mention--
"There has never been a double-blind clinical trial, medicine’s gold standard, for determining the short-term safety and long-term consequences of puberty blockers or cross-sex hormones for minors. There are no large-scale studies tracking patients who were given puberty blockers, or cross-sex hormones, or surgical interventions as children to determine if they were satisfied or unhappy with their gender decision."
As far as I know, this is the case for adults, also, aside from a few record search studies with serious limitations. There is one "regret" study, a record search checking if last names were changed (and dropping the sizeable fraction who committed suicide), in Sweden, for adults who had a 3 year or so run-up to surgery. Assuming everyone who regretted also changed their name back, which doesn't seem to happen for at least some regretters (or those who would not do it again if they knew what they knew now, probably an important group to identify and count)....
Mostly, problem? We see no problem... (of course, our eyes are closed!)
Great article tracing how putting the kids in charge via the medical and psychiatric professions came to be. Now, how about an article on progressive parents' role in all this, about which I am still fuzzy: Did they go along with all this because they've groomed themselves to be 'inclusive' at all costs? Were they groomed by outside sources to do this? (Must be easier than grooming conservative parents, who are used to telling their kids No). What made progressive parents so inclined to agree with and do whatever their children wanted? This problem goes beyond Gen Z...Millennial kids were the 'self-esteem' generation and now *they're* raising Gen Z, those of which aren't already being raised by late Gen X'ers. I'm getting more interested in the role that progressive liberal politics plays in all this, in the family and outside.
I might do something later about the parental role. Be patient, there's a lot of research still ahead
All teens have dysphoria. It was just a matter of time before it was médicalised perhaps.
Thank you, good article. I had never heard this data before - “As little as .001 percent of the population had gender dysphoria that was accompanied with a desire for hormonal and surgical treatments. ”. Do you have a source and time period for that?
Incredible research & writing! ‘When will United States medical associations responsible for treating children follow the lead of progressive European nations and stop embracing the cult of transgender ideology? How many more thousands of children will suffer from getting hooked on the trans contagion will depend on that answer.” I agree with your analysis it’s an ideology - so not anytime soon if ever. There’s clearly rot in the medical industrial complex from the fake analyses to the alleged supportive structures. Clearly a lie & pure evil. Please more exploration of this from a for profit motive & sociological viewpoint. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
“This is another in my occasional series on the trans industry.”
“Abandon hope all ye who enter here” ... 😉🙂
Gerald: “It requires that professionals ... must confirm the self-diagnosis of children and young teenagers who believe they are a different gender than their birth sex.”
Not quite sure whether you’re looking at it from this point of view or not, but the problem there is that “gender” is generally seen as an entirely different kettle of fish from “sex”. A fairly succinct summary of that point from a recent City Journal article:
City Journal: “As the philosopher Tomas Bogardus pointed out in Quillette, our language used to maintain a sex-gender distinction that acknowledged sexual dimorphism. ‘Sex’ referred to being biologically male or female, while ‘gender’ stood in for qualities that we associate with the sexes – like wearing makeup for girls or playing sports for boys – that are not intrinsic, definitionally, to being male or female.”
https://www.city-journal.org/article/a-rainbow-colored-cage
Of course EVERYONE has a “different gender than their birth sex” – to say otherwise is to say that apples are the same as oranges. Or, closer, apples and aardvarks. ICYMI, you might consider this rather cogent and illuminating analogy from the late great US Justice Anton Scalia:
"Scalia: “The word 'gender' has acquired the new and useful connotation of cultural or attitudinal characteristics (as opposed to physical characteristics) distinctive to the sexes. That is to say, gender is to sex as feminine is to female and masculine is to male.”
https://tile.loc.gov/storage-services/service/ll/usrep/usrep511/usrep511127/usrep511127.pdf
Why I have frequently suggested that using “male” and “female” as genders – as too many transactivists and their useful/useless idiots insist on doing – should be deprecated, if not anathematized, in favour of “feminine” and “masculine” as two halves of a multidimensional gender “spectrum”. For some details, see my “A Multi-Dimensional Gender Spectrum”:
https://humanuseofhumanbeings.substack.com/p/a-multi-dimensional-gender-spectrum
But such “confusions” and “cognitive distortions” are ubiquitous in your descriptions and quotes, either originally or in your interpretations, to wit:
Gerald: “Patients had to exhibit the desire to be the opposite sex for two years before psychiatrists could make a conclusive diagnosis. .... The Dutch clinicians had also tried reducing the number of false positives, those children whose desire to change their birth sex was a ‘transient phase’ .... any full transition to the opposite sex will supposedly be easier ...”
Whether “patients” “desire to be the opposite sex” or not, or whether it’s a “transient phase” or not, the fact of the matter is that changing sex – any “full transition to the opposite sex” – is simply and flatly impossible, at least by standard biological definitions promulgated in reputable biological journals, encyclopedias, and dictionaries all across the land. Rank insanity that a bunch of so-called psychiatrists are engaged in pandering to the delusional, are saddling them with “vicious lies” as an old Michelle Goldberg article put it:
https://slate.com/human-interest/2015/12/gender-critical-trans-women-the-apostates-of-the-trans-rights-movement.html
But no excuse whatsoever for people not to be aware of those definitions or to misuse or misinterpret them:
https://academic.oup.com/molehr/article/20/12/1161/1062990 (see the Glossary)
https://link.springer.com/referenceworkentry/10.1007/978-3-319-16999-6_3063-1
https://web.archive.org/web/20181020204521/https://en.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/female
https://web.archive.org/web/20190608135422/https://en.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/male
https://twitter.com/pwkilleen/status/1039879009407037441 (Oxford Dictionary of Biology)
Gerald: “... in a future article, I will write about the four endocrinologists and psychiatrists I call the Gods of Gender; Benjamin, John Money, Robert Stoller and Richard Green”
The thing is that – as Scalia and the City Journal article suggest, and as my Multi-Dimensional post argues – there IS some merit and scientific justifications in DEFINING “gender” as a range, as a spectrum of sexually dimorphic personality traits – typically styled or described as feminine or masculine ones. Entirely separate from criteria that qualify individuals – of literally millions of anisogamous species – as male or female, i.e., functional gonads of either of two types.
The problem is that too many conflate sex with gender – as your “different gender than their birth sex” suggests – or have turned “gender” into a “merging of science, magic, and religion”:
https://journal.culanth.org/index.php/ca/article/view/3728/430
You might also have some interest in this article, “On Deconstructing and Reconstructing Masculinity–Femininity”:
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0092656600923079
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1fF1-tXzcP_Yiyr2oXy9QtiPTcqebRd5L/view?usp=sharing
A noteworthy comment therefrom: “... the concepts of ‘masculine’ and ‘feminine,’ whose meaning seem unambiguous to ordinary people, are among the most confused that occur in science. (Freud, 1905/1962, p. 85)”
But even Stoller once endorsed the same dichotomy, the same use of “masculinity” and “femininity” as genders separate from sexes:
“Sex and Gender
The Development of Masculinity and Femininity
Robert J. Stoller”
https://www.perlego.com/book/1505189/sex-and-gender-the-development-of-masculinity-and-femininity-pdf
Gerald: “ ‘It is the greatest medical scandal since lobotomies,’ a British physician told me.”
Understatement of the year. Those “doctors” responsible should lose their licenses if not be strung up by their nuts and left to twist in the wind.
“Ten years ago, one percent might have talked about gender, now, in some schools upwards of 20 percent of teen girls identify as being the opposite gender.”
I’m curious where this school is? It seems like with the current right wing media obsession over trans issues that this would have been exposed if there was a school where 1 in 5 girls identified as boys. Even in a liberal city, I think that would raise some concerns about what is going on.