I write all this as a 47-year-old transgender man who transitioned five years ago. I’m also a parent to three teenagers. Though I admire the good intentions of parents who seek to support their children, I have serious concerns about reckless acquiescence to a child’s Internet-mediated self-diagnosis. Many older transgender folks share these concerns, too. In many cases, we are people who have been quietly going about our lives in society for years, anonymously sharing shops, offices, elevators, and sidewalks with everyone else, without making a big deal of our identity or proselytizing to others. We like it that way. But given the current climate, we now need to speak out.
That one comment by my daughter’s friend caused me to investigate the organizations that purport to advocate on behalf of the trans community. I found that they typically push an approach based on quickly and enthusiastically affirming any indication of gender dysphoria. As someone who is trans myself, I know that this is the wrong approach. Yes, some children who say they are trans really will need to transition one day, because they have a lifelong condition. But parents who automatically assume that this is the case with their child aren’t necessarily following the child’s best interests.
Transgenderism isn’t a vague feeling, or a distaste for stereotypical roles. It’s a serious internal condition that causes you to want to become the opposite sex. Medical transition, such as the kind I went through, can enhance an illusion that helps some gender dysphoric individuals navigate the world with more comfort. It did for me, and it was the right path for me to choose.
I wasn’t “born in the wrong body.” I was born female. But I didn’t like it. So I changed my appearance, at significant monetary, psychological, and physical cost, with plastic surgery and hormones. My sex never changed, though. Only my appearance changed.
Anyone going through this is in store for a brutal process. Yet we now have thousands of naïve parents walking their children into gender-treatment centers, often based on Internet-peddled narratives that present the transition experience through a gauzy rainbow lens. Many transition therapies are still in an experimental phase—as you will learn if you become sick during or after these treatments.
During my own transition, I had seven surgeries. I also had a massive pulmonary embolism, a helicopter life-flight ride, an emergency ambulance ride, a stress-induced heart attack, sepsis, a 17-month recurring infection due to using the wrong skin during a (failed) phalloplasty, 16 rounds of antibiotics, three weeks of daily IV antibiotics, the loss of all my hair, (only partially successful) arm reconstructive surgery, permanent lung and heart damage, a cut bladder, insomnia-induced hallucinations—oh and frequent loss of consciousness due to pain from the hair on the inside of my urethra. All this led to a form of PTSD that made me a prisoner in my apartment for a year. Between me and my insurance company, medical expenses exceeded $900,000.
During these 17 months of agony, I couldn’t get a urologist to help me. They didn’t feel comfortable taking me on as a patient—since the phalloplasty, like much of the transition process, is experimental. “Could you go back to the original surgeon?” they suggested.
Whenever you question the maximalist activist line on trans affirmation, you are directed to The World Professional Association for Transgender Health (or WPATH) as a reference. But much of what you find there consists of vague phrases such as “up to doctor’s discretion.” Several lawyers suggested I had a slam-dunk medical-malpractice case—until they realized that trans health doesn’t really have a justiciable baseline. As a result, treatment often is subpar, as I have experienced first-hand.
Lupron, the hormone blocker some doctors seem intent on giving to kids like Tylenol, isn’t even FDA-approved to treat children with gender dysphoria. (In 2001, the manufacturer pled guilty to fraudulent sales practices with regard to its marketing as a prostate-cancer drug.) We don’t yet know its long-term effects off-label, despite the fact parents have been assured that its effects are safe and even reversible.
Here is what we do know: The long-term use of synthetic hormone therapy shortens lives. Specifically, these medications are associated with an increased risk of heart attacks, pulmonary embolisms, bone damage, liver and kidney failure, mental-health complications, and more. Almost a quarter of hormone-therapy patients on high-dose anabolic steroids (such as the testosterone taken by female-to-male transitioners) exhibit major mood-syndrome symptoms. Between three and 12 percent go on to develop symptoms of psychosis.
Children who claim to be trans typically are receiving such drugs at a pivotal time in the development of brains and bones. They’ve become a generation of guinea pigs, to answer such questions as: What will happen to a biological boy who takes sex hormones associated with the opposite sex (or vice versa), and grows up without the benefit of natural puberty? What happens to a male body on estrogen over the long term? No one knows.
For parents, I would say this: It is simply not your right or duty to decide to medically transition your child. Remove that burden from your mind. Medical transition is for adults. The negatives associated with medical transition are vast, and you won’t be the one who lives with the consequences. It will be your child. If your child tells you they will kill themselves if you do not allow them to medically transition (perhaps following a script he or she is provided on Reddit or Tumblr), take them to the hospital so they can be treated for suicidal ideation. Suicidal ideation and seeking transition are separate issues, so separate them.
We talk a lot about oppression and marginalization. Well, I’m one of the people who’s been oppressed and marginalized—more so now that I have outed myself so that I can try to help others. The least you can do is pay attention to my message.
I've always wondered how long it will take for the trans version of the Salem Witch Trials to burst.
"Goody Mather made me do it."
Queue the compensation cases that are bound to result from the bandwagon madness.
Syl said
Jun 18 12:07 PM, 2022
It's absolute madness.
Kids and teens go through phases and fads, are easily influenced, their words are not to be taken as gospel.
My grandson thought he WAS Superman for a short time (that was a worrying phase, we kept him away from walls as much as possible)
Had he thought he was a girl, we would have let his fantasy run its course without deep meaningful discussion and using him as a guinea pig for radical nutty scientists and doctors.
That's not to say some youngsters don't genuinely feel they're born into the wrong body, and counselling should obviously be available by sympathetic adults....those without an agenda.
Digger said
Jun 19 12:23 AM, 2022
Syl wrote:
It's absolute madness. Kids and teens go through phases and fads, are easily influenced, their words are not to be taken as gospel. My grandson thought he WAS Superman for a short time (that was a worrying phase, we kept him away from walls as much as possible) Had he thought he was a girl, we would have let his fantasy run its course without deep meaningful discussion and using him as a guinea pig for radical nutty scientists and doctors.
That's not to say some youngsters don't genuinely feel they're born into the wrong body, and counselling should obviously be available by sympathetic adults....those without an agenda.
Once your tits and balls have gone there's no going back!
Maddog said
Jun 19 4:37 AM, 2022
Bill is a liberal, and he gets it. He's got some good points here.
Syl said
Jun 19 12:49 PM, 2022
Digger wrote:
Syl wrote:
It's absolute madness. Kids and teens go through phases and fads, are easily influenced, their words are not to be taken as gospel. My grandson thought he WAS Superman for a short time (that was a worrying phase, we kept him away from walls as much as possible) Had he thought he was a girl, we would have let his fantasy run its course without deep meaningful discussion and using him as a guinea pig for radical nutty scientists and doctors.
That's not to say some youngsters don't genuinely feel they're born into the wrong body, and counselling should obviously be available by sympathetic adults....those without an agenda.
Once your tits and balls have gone there's no going back!
Did anyone see the report about the British man who is suing the NHS because they didn't warn him having his wotsits off, would have a dramatic effect on his life?
Now come on, what the hell did he expect?
Vita said
Jun 24 3:09 PM, 2022
I'll post a link when I get my laptop switched on.
He was in his twenties, so knew his own mind. How many more will change their.minds cos they thought it was a good idea at the time. The NHS owes him nothing!
This is going to snowball in the coming years. I don't think he should have a leg to stand on here because he actively pursued the transition, and you can bet your life if the NHS has refused him, he'd have sued them for that, banging on about his human rights and accusing all and sundry of being transphobic.
Hopefully, he'll fail, learn from this and strive to help others in the same predicament.
Anonymous said
Jun 25 10:32 PM, 2022
Some parts of the world the people are more interested in finding food and shelter. In the decadent west with its superiority in sciences and surgical procedures they spend time thinking about cutting and slicing external genitalia and taking hormones so that they can be something they imagine themselves wanting to be. History tells us superior civilizations end up collapsing one way or another.
This is going to snowball in the coming years. I don't think he should have a leg to stand on here because he actively pursued the transition, and you can bet your life if the NHS has refused him, he'd have sued them for that, banging on about his human rights and accusing all and sundry of being transphobic.
Hopefully, he'll fail, learn from this and strive to help others in the same predicament.
That's what that idiot Jonathan Yaniv has done. Demanded the surgery because he threatened to sue them if they didn't carry it out and now he's suing them because it's a disaster.
The wound has closed up and bits have falling off.
Something like a 1700% rise in the number of trans people in the last ten years.
If this person in England is successful it could bankrupt the NHS because there's going to be hundreds more taking legal action.
Anonymous said
Jul 1 8:17 AM, 2022
Only by sueing and winning will this type of thing be reconsidered. It has been allowed to grow in our culture with activists in the universities teaching it and then it being passed down as knowledge into the schools and into society. Hungary has been sanctioned by the EU, which it is part of the EU, for blocking public funding of gender studies in Hungarian universities. In Britain it is taught in primary schools and teachers go on training courses to remove any "unconscious bias" they may have against transgender children.
If you think Transwomen shouldn't be taking part in women's sports or be allowed in rape and domestic violence shelters, you'll be called a 'TERF' or Trans Exclusionary Radical Feminist '
If like JK Rowling you speak up about this, you'll get vile abuse, someone said she should be tortured, her eyes stabbed out and then raped in her eye sockets.
In fact any criticism of Trans will get you banned from Twitter but that and this won't.
-- Edited by Vita on Monday 11th of July 2022 03:13:57 AM
I write all this as a 47-year-old transgender man who transitioned five years ago. I’m also a parent to three teenagers. Though I admire the good intentions of parents who seek to support their children, I have serious concerns about reckless acquiescence to a child’s Internet-mediated self-diagnosis. Many older transgender folks share these concerns, too. In many cases, we are people who have been quietly going about our lives in society for years, anonymously sharing shops, offices, elevators, and sidewalks with everyone else, without making a big deal of our identity or proselytizing to others. We like it that way. But given the current climate, we now need to speak out.
That one comment by my daughter’s friend caused me to investigate the organizations that purport to advocate on behalf of the trans community. I found that they typically push an approach based on quickly and enthusiastically affirming any indication of gender dysphoria. As someone who is trans myself, I know that this is the wrong approach. Yes, some children who say they are trans really will need to transition one day, because they have a lifelong condition. But parents who automatically assume that this is the case with their child aren’t necessarily following the child’s best interests.
Transgenderism isn’t a vague feeling, or a distaste for stereotypical roles. It’s a serious internal condition that causes you to want to become the opposite sex. Medical transition, such as the kind I went through, can enhance an illusion that helps some gender dysphoric individuals navigate the world with more comfort. It did for me, and it was the right path for me to choose.
I wasn’t “born in the wrong body.” I was born female. But I didn’t like it. So I changed my appearance, at significant monetary, psychological, and physical cost, with plastic surgery and hormones. My sex never changed, though. Only my appearance changed.
Anyone going through this is in store for a brutal process. Yet we now have thousands of naïve parents walking their children into gender-treatment centers, often based on Internet-peddled narratives that present the transition experience through a gauzy rainbow lens. Many transition therapies are still in an experimental phase—as you will learn if you become sick during or after these treatments.
During my own transition, I had seven surgeries. I also had a massive pulmonary embolism, a helicopter life-flight ride, an emergency ambulance ride, a stress-induced heart attack, sepsis, a 17-month recurring infection due to using the wrong skin during a (failed) phalloplasty, 16 rounds of antibiotics, three weeks of daily IV antibiotics, the loss of all my hair, (only partially successful) arm reconstructive surgery, permanent lung and heart damage, a cut bladder, insomnia-induced hallucinations—oh and frequent loss of consciousness due to pain from the hair on the inside of my urethra. All this led to a form of PTSD that made me a prisoner in my apartment for a year. Between me and my insurance company, medical expenses exceeded $900,000.
During these 17 months of agony, I couldn’t get a urologist to help me. They didn’t feel comfortable taking me on as a patient—since the phalloplasty, like much of the transition process, is experimental. “Could you go back to the original surgeon?” they suggested.
Whenever you question the maximalist activist line on trans affirmation, you are directed to The World Professional Association for Transgender Health (or WPATH) as a reference. But much of what you find there consists of vague phrases such as “up to doctor’s discretion.” Several lawyers suggested I had a slam-dunk medical-malpractice case—until they realized that trans health doesn’t really have a justiciable baseline. As a result, treatment often is subpar, as I have experienced first-hand.
Lupron, the hormone blocker some doctors seem intent on giving to kids like Tylenol, isn’t even FDA-approved to treat children with gender dysphoria. (In 2001, the manufacturer pled guilty to fraudulent sales practices with regard to its marketing as a prostate-cancer drug.) We don’t yet know its long-term effects off-label, despite the fact parents have been assured that its effects are safe and even reversible.
Here is what we do know: The long-term use of synthetic hormone therapy shortens lives. Specifically, these medications are associated with an increased risk of heart attacks, pulmonary embolisms, bone damage, liver and kidney failure, mental-health complications, and more. Almost a quarter of hormone-therapy patients on high-dose anabolic steroids (such as the testosterone taken by female-to-male transitioners) exhibit major mood-syndrome symptoms. Between three and 12 percent go on to develop symptoms of psychosis.
Children who claim to be trans typically are receiving such drugs at a pivotal time in the development of brains and bones. They’ve become a generation of guinea pigs, to answer such questions as: What will happen to a biological boy who takes sex hormones associated with the opposite sex (or vice versa), and grows up without the benefit of natural puberty? What happens to a male body on estrogen over the long term? No one knows.
For parents, I would say this: It is simply not your right or duty to decide to medically transition your child. Remove that burden from your mind. Medical transition is for adults. The negatives associated with medical transition are vast, and you won’t be the one who lives with the consequences. It will be your child. If your child tells you they will kill themselves if you do not allow them to medically transition (perhaps following a script he or she is provided on Reddit or Tumblr), take them to the hospital so they can be treated for suicidal ideation. Suicidal ideation and seeking transition are separate issues, so separate them.
We talk a lot about oppression and marginalization. Well, I’m one of the people who’s been oppressed and marginalized—more so now that I have outed myself so that I can try to help others. The least you can do is pay attention to my message.
Read the whole article here
https://quillette.com/2020/10/06/forget-what-gender-activists-tell-you-heres-what-medical-transition-looks-like/
"Goody Mather made me do it."
Queue the compensation cases that are bound to result from the bandwagon madness.
Kids and teens go through phases and fads, are easily influenced, their words are not to be taken as gospel.
My grandson thought he WAS Superman for a short time (that was a worrying phase, we kept him away from walls as much as possible)
Had he thought he was a girl, we would have let his fantasy run its course without deep meaningful discussion and using him as a guinea pig for radical nutty scientists and doctors.
That's not to say some youngsters don't genuinely feel they're born into the wrong body, and counselling should obviously be available by sympathetic adults....those without an agenda.
Once your tits and balls have gone there's no going back!
Bill is a liberal, and he gets it. He's got some good points here.
Succinctly put.
Quite
Now come on, what the hell did he expect?
Anguish of young man who had sex organs removed on NHS then regretted it the same day as he SUES NHS | Daily Mail Online
He was in his twenties, so knew his own mind. How many more will change their.minds cos they thought it was a good idea at the time. The NHS owes him nothing!
This is going to snowball in the coming years. I don't think he should have a leg to stand on here because he actively pursued the transition, and you can bet your life if the NHS has refused him, he'd have sued them for that, banging on about his human rights and accusing all and sundry of being transphobic.
Hopefully, he'll fail, learn from this and strive to help others in the same predicament.
Some parts of the world the people are more interested in finding food and shelter. In the decadent west with its superiority in sciences and surgical procedures they spend time thinking about cutting and slicing external genitalia and taking hormones so that they can be something they imagine themselves wanting to be. History tells us superior civilizations end up collapsing one way or another.
That's what that idiot Jonathan Yaniv has done. Demanded the surgery because he threatened to sue them if they didn't carry it out and now he's suing them because it's a disaster.
The wound has closed up and bits have falling off.
Something like a 1700% rise in the number of trans people in the last ten years.
If this person in England is successful it could bankrupt the NHS because there's going to be hundreds more taking legal action.
Only by sueing and winning will this type of thing be reconsidered. It has been allowed to grow in our culture with activists in the universities teaching it and then it being passed down as knowledge into the schools and into society. Hungary has been sanctioned by the EU, which it is part of the EU, for blocking public funding of gender studies in Hungarian universities. In Britain it is taught in primary schools and teachers go on training courses to remove any "unconscious bias" they may have against transgender children.
If you think Transwomen shouldn't be taking part in women's sports or be allowed in rape and domestic violence shelters, you'll be called a 'TERF' or Trans Exclusionary Radical Feminist '
If like JK Rowling you speak up about this, you'll get vile abuse, someone said she should be tortured, her eyes stabbed out and then raped in her eye sockets.
In fact any criticism of Trans will get you banned from Twitter but that and this won't.
-- Edited by Vita on Monday 11th of July 2022 03:13:57 AM