I woke up in a cold sweat from a nightmare. Then I remembered it wasn’t a nightmare, but my new reality these days. The anger washed over me like a cold wave. I got up and splashed some water on my face, drank some coffee, straightened my back, and prepared for another day of dueling with my thoughts.

Memories flood me in the morning when I walk by the corner of the living room where you assembled the train you got for Christmas. It was your ideal train, a real ride-on train you could build from scratch. Even though it was an adult project, with your science-y brain and logical reasoning, even at that young age, you built it in half the expected time. Then you and your younger brothers hopped on board. It moved ahead for a few minutes then broke down.

Working and working and working on that engine – you just couldn’t get it to start again. It was such a cheap train. I should have gotten the more expensive one.

Finally throwing up your hands you walked into the kitchen proclaiming ‘it just won’t work.’ I hugged you and we went outside to play in the snow. But you never got over the fact that that train just wouldn’t work. You wondered if it was something you did or didn’t do correctly when you were constructing it. You couldn’t understand why it wouldn’t work as was advertised. You couldn’t believe Santa would deliver a malfunctioning train. You just couldn’t believe that train wouldn’t work as all the adults said it would. As. Promised.

And now you live in the same frustrating place.

You believe the promises adults are selling you for their financial and societal gain. You believe when other kids say that their train runs perfectly, even though you can see with your own eyes it is a mess. You are too smart not to observe the pieces of their train falling. Yet you continue to believe the promises of teachers who say, ‘if you just can learn the instructions well enough, it will work.’ You believe the promises of doctors who say, ‘if you just put enough magic medicine in the engine, it will run just how you want it to.’ You believe if you work on it long enough, it will become a reality. You believe you can fix your own train.

Because mentally you are the exact age of your trauma, you stay working on that train.

What you can’t believe is the hard truth that dad says, “it just won’t work, son.” He sees you working and working on this train trying to make it something it is not and he hopes you will stop and redirect your efforts to something more productive. You can’t be swayed by mom making you your favorite dinner, pointing out to you there are other things in life to appreciate and look forward to. You can’t believe your siblings when they tell you that the train is really just a figment of your imagination and, even though they support you in your train endeavors, they really are hoping you will just give up on it and come outside to play.

But no, you stay stuck on that train.

You go back online to the groups that told you that train would work perfectly. Proudly, they push their trains around the track, seeming to work fine, as they brag about how beautiful their train looks now that it is painted red and has new bells. You go back online to reread the instruction manuals, written by very official people with titles like the World Participants of Associated Train Hacks - also known as WPATH. Intently, you follow their words – memorizing directions that apparently worked for everyone else. You go online to hear from ‘influencers’ who toot out train success stories every day not just on Instagram but also on Dread and The Hub, and all these platforms that have ‘secret’ knowledge of the operations of trains. They seem so smart and you start to feel so stupid because your train stays stuck.

So, you decide to change the outside of your train.

You decorate it and paint it and take the wheels entirely off and replace them with something constructed from paper that folds each time you try to put on the magic medicine that the train doctors gave you. You keep adding bells and whistles, rods and lights, and even a new smoke system. But, no, the train won’t work and now that you’ve done all this to it you feel committed to saying it looks great even though you know in your heart it does not. Desperate, you take the train to an official train clinic. You know it is official as a lot of your online friends told you so. It also has the important title of Train Refurbishing for Aficionados wanting New Success Clinic – also known as a Trans Clinic.

Finally, you feel like you’ve got people who will help you fix your train!

The words of your parents and your siblings, granny and uncles, old high school friends all seem so stupid as you think: ‘they just want to stop me from fixing my train!’ They don’t understand your obsession like these people at the Train Refurbishing Clinic do. You keep visiting the clinic at the encouragement of your many online friends, as well as the instructions online. They told you to sneak out in the middle of the night with your train so your stupid family won’t stop you. They even told you about the kind people at the Choo Choo Protection Service (or, CPS) – who will help you get out away from the folks at home who are stopping you from going to the great train clinic! You ponder about calling them and then realize it is just a few months away from your 18th birthday, so you can play with trains all day, every day uninterrupted if you just wait a few months. So, you sneak out and go to the train clinic.

Years later you are still going there.

Now you’ve reached the age of reason and you can finally be free to make your life all about trains. But as you look side-eyed at your train or when you flick the overhead light on in the morning and you see it in the bright light of day, you can tell your train looks much, much worse. The engineer is completely destroyed and the box cars dangle behind. The paint is peeling showing the green color underneath. Nothing looks right and the gears just make noise; they don’t actually work anymore. The magic oil isn’t soaking in – it just runs off the train like tears on cheeks.

You ask: How can you go on if everything you were told and everything you had imagined – just won’t work? You know you are smart – much smarter than your parents – but you can’t figure this out. You went to all the experts; you listened to all the other kids online with their working trains; you even got help from the train engineers; and still, no matter what you do, that train won’t work. You start to think that, therefore, the problem must be you, the owner of this train.

Since the train itself is fine you brutally conclude you must be the problem.

Today we see you sitting with a dress draped about your manly shoulders, hiding your body bloated by hormones. Your long hair hides your frustrated face as you lean over to push your train along the tracks very slowly. It only goes by the force of your own will. Your train friends have started to get married, find jobs, buy a home and find new friends who don’t play with trains. We see you but we don’t speak any more about your trains as we know it upsets you to hear we don’t think they will ever work. You have even stopped trying to really fix the train but rather you shout when anyone comes near: “Look how great my train works!’ and de-friend anyone who says otherwise.

We see you now, surrounded by your broken trains, pushing them along the tracks sullenly, with nothing but bitterness on your tongue. We hold you in our hearts because you rarely let us wade through all those tracks to actually hold you in an embrace. We shout over the sound of the grinding gears and engine sounds that we love you, dear son. We love you so much our hearts are breaking with yours as you come to see that the train will never, ever really work. We are sad that we were right all along about those trains.

What we want to say is that there is a life after trains. We pray with hopeful hearts that someday very soon you will put those trains away and come outside in the sunshine where we play, waiting and waiting and waiting for you.

Love

Mom, Dad and your two brothers

Welcome to the PITT weekly roundup where you’ll find a list of the week’s postings along with links to some of our favorite books, videos, social media, and podcasts. Please continue the fight against the harms of gender ideology by sharing.

Access to all PITT content is free. Our objective is to inform the public of the devastating impact of gender ideology on families through our personal experiences.

Quote of the Week from On Your Birthday: “But you can’t go back. We are here now. And all I can say is, please just love yourself the way you are.”

PITT POSTS THIS WEEK:

Friday, April 24: Candles

Thursday, April 23: GENDER DYSPHORIA Truth and Love

Wednesday, April 22: A World Built on Lies

Tuesday, April 21: On Your Birthday

Monday, April 20: Born as you Are

IN THE NEWS

Olympic Committee Bars Transgender Athletes From Women’s Events New York Times, March 26, 2026

Olympic Committee Bars Men from From Women’s Events. Fixed it for you.

IMAGES THAT CAPTURE IT

ORDER PITT’S BOOK

Parents with Inconvenient Truths about Trans: Tales from the Home Front in the Fight to Save Our Kids, a compendium of some of the most compelling essays yet from PITT.

SHARE YOUR STORY

Have a story to share about gender ideology? Submit to Pitt@genspect.org

The darkest time was November and December 2024 when our visitation rights with our daughter were canceled. This was the holiday season. While most people were looking forward to the season, we dreaded decorating our Christmas tree without her.

To keep her room at least a little ‘alive’, I would go to TJ Maxx and Ross and buy scented candles. I would put them on her window sill and they would burn all night, filling her room with wonderful scents of vanilla, strawberry, rose and mint. I would replace them with new ones until the spring of 2025.

Below is a copy of the report Child Protection Services produced after our visit with out daughter that December.

Visit Details
Start Date: 12/12/2024
Start Time: [Not specified]
End Date: 12/13/2024
End Time: [Not specified]
On Behalf Of: our daughter’s legal name
Visit Supervision: CWS Staff
Visit Party Type: Child/Parent-Guardian
Participant(s): Mom, our daughter
Method: In-Person
Status: Attempted

Summary
Dad did not attend the visit. Mom stated she would respond in writing regarding visits. PM reminded mom of the next visit scheduled for Thursday 12/19, 4:00-5:00 at 1313 Yuba St. Mom inquired about Saturday visits. PM explained that due to *****’s behavior at the previous Saturday visit, visits would now occur at 1313 Yuba St. during business hours. Mom disputed the behaviors, stating ***** was only trying to give the child cake. PM referenced emailed notes. Mom acknowledged receiving them but claimed no behaviors were noted. Mom attributed tire squealing to wet roads. PM stated Dad’’s behaviors were not safe for the child, staff, or other families. Mom maintained Dad had no behaviors and accused the agency of depriving the child of the father based on one person’s incorrect opinion. PM restated the next visit details and proposed a morning visit on 12/26. Mom stated she would respond in writing. Mom inquired about items the child declined previously; PM confirmed they remained in the office. Mom requested PM bring the items to the next visit. PM agreed. PM and SSW escorted mom to the lobby. Mom signed out and exited the building.

Throughout the conversation (without the child present), mom referred to the child exclusively as by her legal name and used she/her pronouns.

After Child Left the Room
Mom cried and expressed that the situation hurts her heart. She stated she is doing her best but finds it very difficult. Mom said she takes good care of her son at home and wants her daughter to come back home. She struggles to see the child as a boy, referring to the child as by her legal name and not the fake male name. Mom expressed fear that the child will take supplements to transition and hopes she does not, as the child is not fully developed physically or emotionally. Mom hopes that when her daughter grows older, she accepts herself without pursuing transition.

SSW Lazurenko Addendum
Mom kept the conversation appropriate but referred to the child as a girl and used she/her pronouns. Mom complimented the child’s appearance, mentioned the father receiving an award, and noted the little brother doing well and missing the child. Mom stated she lights a candle in the child’s room because it makes her feel like the child’s spirit is with her at home. Mom attempted to ask about school and wellbeing. The child was non-responsive. Mom spoke about a gift for the child.

Strengths

• The child and mom both attended the visit.

• Mom attempted to engage in conversation with the child and maintain a positive tone.

• The child is able to articulate why he does not feel safe visiting his parents and requested staff assistance for safety by asking mom not to sit close.

Concerns

• Dad did not attend the visit.

• The child requested to end the visit after 11 minutes.

• The child did not respond to mom’s attempts at conversation, looked away, and turned his back toward mom.

• Mom lacks insight into how her behavior and past events are impacting the current relationship with the child.

• Mom refused to speak in English despite encouragement and explanation that it would benefit the case.

End of Report

I replaced all times they referring to her by the male name and her legal name because we are threatened with contempt of court all the time by the judge.

It hurts…

It hurts to look at her childhood pictures

It hurts to see moms and teenage girls happily walking next to each other

It hurts to hear her name when other people use it with their kids

It hurts to hear her little brother ask when he can go back to his home he loves so dearly

It hurts to sleep on the mattresses again

It hurts to wake up from nightmares

It hurts to realize no food brings joy and nothing brings consolation

It hurts to think the lawyer who you trusted so much, betrayed you so ruthlessl

It hurts to know you have a daughter but other financially interested people have access to her while I don’t

It hurts to hear her call Maggie ‘mom’

It hurts to see her face on a computer in strangers’ home sitting on the bunkbed to which she arrived in CPS ‘clutches’ as an innocent girl

It hurts not to smell her hair anymore

It hurts to hear songs, smell perfume or food that reminds me of the times we were one family in sickness and in health

It hurts to have to redact her name and pixelate her pretty face on photos…

It hurts to try not to think how disfigured her beautiful, once healthy, body is

It hurts to hear wind chime - that was on the video recorded of her removal day

It hurts to answer about the number of children I have

It hurts to see my son jumping and running to hide every time the door bell rings

It hurts to see his tantrums because I know where they stem from

It hurts to see people stopping communicating with me when they find out I deal with CPS

It hurts to stop trusting people.

It hurts to legally come to the ‘country where, they say, laws work and dreams come true’ and be treated as subhumans by the entire Shasta county , the judge and the CPS.

It hurts to remember the great plans I had had for her summer of 2024: getting her a drivers’ license, finding her a job, me volunteering with autistic kids drawing my art, her college classes

When the spring of 2025 came and it became too hot to burn candles, I started planting charming and graceful orchids. I eventually had to gift them to another family because we were forced out to flee from our home we love and the state.

“Loving a person means telling them the truth when their lifestyle and thinking are detrimental to their health.” — Brandon Sutton

“Mom, I’m trans.” Our daughter upended our world with those words in 2021. After transitioning from Christian school to public school, she faced bullying for her faith and weight. As a coping mechanism, she began to identify as a trans male, choosing a new name and pronouns. Hers was a clear case of Rapid Onset Gender Dysphoria (ROGD) since she had never shown any even remotely masculine traits before.

Balancing Truth and Love

The good news is that parents don’t have to choose between affirming an illogical and harmful worldview and hating the LGBTQ community. We can interact with others in ways that are both truthful and loving. Neither loveless truth (hitting others over the head with facts and arguments) nor truth-less love (endorsing evil out of misplaced compassion) will build a better society.

Don’t Drink the Kool-Aid

Transgender ideology operates like a cult. It urges dysphoric youth to cut ties with “non-affirming” and brands dissenters as “transphobic.” It redefines “love” to mean unconditional agreement and “support” as compliance with demands. These could include puberty blockers, cross-sex hormones, or irreversible surgeries. According to these definitions, we don’t love or support our daughter since we’re not ready to throw our faith and logic out the window. Cults harass members who have doubts or wish to leave. They isolate members from the ones who love them the most. They place members in “new” families that will support their views. Sound familiar?

Here are five lessons my husband and I learned the hard way.

Choose Your Battles

Although it may seem loving, never affirm gender dysphoria. Choose your battles carefully. Let cosmetic issues, like hair length, slide but draw the line at pronouns. Using male pronouns for our daughter felt like agreeing with an anorexic that they’re overweight. Truth must anchor our parenting and all our relationships. Pretending that switching genders (not that you can switch) solves kids’ problems is intellectually dishonest. For gray areas, like nicknames and clothing, seek wise advice and be discerning.

Maintain Strong Relationships

Kids listen to those they feel love them most. Not necessarily those that do love them most. This has to be you, not the trans community. Children aren’t the enemy. They’re victims of this harmful lie. Discover each child’s love language and speak it daily. Resist the temptation to resent them for the crisis they caused. As Barbara Johnson wisely said, “Never let a problem to be solved become more important than a person to be loved.”

Garner Support

In our progressive neighborhood, we constantly swim upstream. Our modern culture has traded long-accepted moral values for a lucrative lie. Gender clinics, Big Pharma, and hypocritical, non-Hippocratic physicians are the winners in this scenario. Not families. Refusing to “affirm” our child is the hardest thing we’ve ever done.

But we don’t have to walk this road alone. Early on, we consulted a counselor who refused to drink the gender cult Kool-Aid. We also reached out to caring family members and our pastor as we navigated these uncharted waters. To keep transgender propaganda from infiltrating impressionable minds, ensure your child’s doctors, teachers, and counselors share your values.

Pull the Plug

Shelter kids from harmful influences such as internet chat rooms like Discord, trans influencers promoting medicalization, “woke” TV shows, and peers celebrating dysphoria. Giving a dysphoric child unrestricted access to the Internet is like dropping an alcoholic off at a bar. Boost cybersecurity and consider “dumb” phones without web access. Be prepared for push-back since many teens are addicted to screens.

If possible, enroll your child in a private school that refuses to brainwash kids with gender ideology or consider homeschooling. I know it sounds overwhelming, but removing kids from the daily onslaught of harmful rhetoric is key to their care. My husband and I even had what we dubbed “the nuclear option” in our back pocket in case we couldn’t afford private school. It involved moving to a more conservative state. In the end, we sent our daughter to a conservative inpatient program for eighth grade (to address her long list of co-morbidities). Then she attended Christian high school for three years. When she got expelled for a low GPA, we worked together to homeschool her. The lives of our children are worth such sacrifices. I cannot emphasize enough that everyone influencing struggling children must be grounded in the truth. If not, false teaching could lure them away.

Get Off the Roller Coaster

When you’ve done all you can, acknowledge that the results are out of your hands. For years, my mood went up and down like a roller coaster based on our daughter’s ups and downs. I’d rejoice when she dug up artwork signed with her real name. Then I’d be too depressed to function if she mentioned wanting to take testosterone when she turned 18.

We can love our children fiercely, set firm boundaries for them, and surround them with caring, sane individuals. We can do our best to protect them from themselves and others. However, we cannot control the course of their lives. Being aware of crises and being unable to change them is a terrible place to be.

For those who believe in God, prayer can be a calming tool in our sanity arsenal. Many parents believe that God can change people’s hearts and redeem their lives. And faith anchored many grieving families. Even non-religious parents can benefit from releasing the need for total control. We’ve been battling this for five years. Early on, we resolved not to let our society’s madness drag our child down. We show our child love in every possible way except affirming what we believe harms her. Thankfully, she has made significant strides toward accepting who she was made to be and not hating her body. We’ve invested 17 years of sacrificing, loving, guiding, and supporting our child. And we cling to the hope that our beloved girl’s story will end well. This poem sums up some of our heartache and frustration.

THE WOES OF SOWING

Spring arrived; I planted seeds,
among my old ancestral fields.
I labored under wind and rain,
my eyes ablur, my spirit strained.
One year, a sunflower sprouted forth,
the golden sunshine of my youth.
Although it aimed to reach the sun,
it could not end what was begun.
Surprised, one spring, some wildflowers grew,
dainty bells of pink and blue.
I fertilized their barren clay
and sheltered them from winter’s rage.
I sprinkled on them tears of love,
but weeds attacked their nascent buds.
The pink blooms were the first to fall.
I feared the fate that would befall
my gentle sprouts, so wracked with needs.
A border made to block the weeds
was quickly set in place to save
my precious petals from their grave.
Each dawn and dusk, I linger still,
and I compassionately till
the clods of earth that stunt their growth.
I battle thorns with nail and tooth.
But many days, intent to die,
I fear my flowers cease to try.
With failing hope, I’m going mad.
All I want now is what I had.

As I write this, detransitioner Johnny Skinner is giving interviews where he describes the side effects he experienced from being put on puberty blockers and estrogen at 13. “Nipple leakage, brain fog, chest pain, depression. I was urinating blood and had ulcers in my bladder and was too weak to attend school. When I told my doctor how sick I was, he looked at me and said, welcome to womanhood.” There are many critical comments towards him on X/Twitter, many accusing him of lying.

However, it is easy to see the hypocrisy here. Many say he looks too masculine for it to have been possible for him to have been on blockers and estrogen from such a young age.

Others accuse him of being a biological woman based on their “analysis” of his bone structure. Some claim these aren’t the side effects of these hormones. Others say he knew these were the side effects of hormones and consented to them anyway so his criticism doesn’t matter now.

If his “lies” are so “obvious” than which story is the “obvious” truth and which is the lie? They are all lies because the goal of those criticizing him isn’t to fact check him, it is to discredit him. Many people say he must be lying because “nobody is put on puberty blockers and estrogen at the same time”.

Anyone with even a basic knowledge of medical transitioning knows that using these drugs together is very typical. Those who have been following this topic for any amount of time know this isn’t the only widely told lie. For years people insisted no minors ever got transition surgeries. When that became impossible to deny, the story changed to it only happening to 17-year-olds who were getting double mastectomies. But they we heard stories of girls as young as 13 getting double mastectomies so the story changed to claim that that was the only surgery being performed. But we all know of Jazz Jennings and the vaginoplasty he had at 17 from the show on TLC. Doctors admitted to performing vaginoplasties on patients as young as 15. Yet, we still hear people say that no transition surgeries happened to any minors.

Why are we surprised by these lies when this entire ideology is built upon them? That a man can be a woman because of “gender identity” and vice versa. I have not seen a definition of gender identity that is indistinguishable from gender stereotypes along with an “innate sense”. Funny how gender identity is innate and known since childhood yet gender is also fluid. If you question any of these narratives you are a hateful person. You must simultaneously accept them all.

To justify medicalizing gender identity, we got a narrative to back it up. “Girl brain in a boy body”, they said, citing a study to back it up. But in this study, the participants did not have female brains, just an average more similar to females than that of other males, still a male brain. So, others offered another narrative that’s less easy to disprove. “Born in the wrong body”. But this has no scientific basis either. It is more like a religious belief. But if you reject this belief, you are hateful, you are transphobic, bigoted, ignorant, and/or dangerous. On the same topic of medicalization, you are expected to believe that transition procedures are lifesaving but you also must believe that being trans is not a mental illness, or you are a bigot.

If a “transphobe” is someone who notices hypocrisy, why care if you are called that? Because when you label something as “lifesaving care” the only reason you would be against it is out of ignorance or hatred.

“Educate yourself on trans” they say. But many who do find themselves to be more “transphobic” the more they learn, because they see these lies, cult tactics, and abuse. There are also detransitioners who speak against this. How much more “educated” can they get? Those people must be hateful. The alleged reason they must be against trans ideology is the same reason why Nazis hate Jews, why the KKK hates black people - pure violent hatred. People speak of a “trans genocide” and say that they are the “most marginalized group on earth”.

Maybe some people are aware of their lies but, perhaps even more alarmingly, many people are not. As a teenager, I was trans-identified for about four years. These lies were presented to me as fact, starting from childhood. I read about transgender and gender identity in sex-ed books that were intended to teach about puberty. I saw videos on YouTube, medical documentaries about trans kids, which presented transitioning as healthcare enabling them to live their true self. I also saw videos which had scenarios featuring trans-identified characters and the “kind” bystanders who affirmed them and who told off people who didn’t buy it. I saw films and stories that portrayed coming out as trans as similar to coming out as gay, something that’s just a part of you. After growing up on lies, I thought it was the truth. I thought that my discomfort with my body and self meant I was a boy, and that transitioning was the only possible way to feel better. When my mom did not affirm me, I became genuinely afraid of her abusing me despite her never hurting me. I lived a double life and lied to uphold my world built on lies. I must be affirmed wherever I could but without my mom’s knowledge. I told all my teachers at school and specifically asked them not to tell my mother.

In middle school they all affirmed me. In high school teachers either affirmed or didn’t, but didn’t tell a soul. The teachers didn’t particularly encourage me, the internet however was a different story. I worked overtime to avoid getting caught. After my mom said she wasn’t affirming me I said I would stop identifying as trans, but I did not. I wanted to medically transition and I planned on doing so the moment I could. I hid what was going on at school. I remember once I was worried about my mom seeing my changed name in my school notebooks, so I ripped out every page with my changed name on it and threw them away. I wasn’t allowed to use social media, so I accessed trans forums (TrevorSpace, TransPulse) on a different browser connected to an alternative email. I got my phone taken once because I was in trouble for a different reason, and if I logged in to TrevorSpace on a computer the site would email me about the login attempt and my mom would see. So I logged into a website I knew my friend used because that website wouldn’t email me, and I told him I was in trouble and to post on my profile that I can’t log in right now. I couldn’t even go a day without using that site, despite it functioning similar to a cult. They said it was a safe and accepting space, but that was another lie. There were many ever changing rules about what was acceptable to say, and users were shunned for stepping out of line. You learn you are only liked when you fit a narrative, and you believe this is the only place you will be accepted, so you learn to watch your mouth. I have seen Tumblr be described the same way.

Its lie after lie, on both an ideological and personal level. But that is because trans ideology itself is built on a lie, and lies create more lies, until your life has more lies than truth and you don’t know what reality is anymore.

Last night I woke in the middle of the night, like I do so often now. I looked out the window and saw the waning moon. And all I could think of was you. I keep trying to figure out the perfect theoretical thing to say to pull you back. Or convince you somehow that you are perfect just as you are: if I could only figure out that perfect phrase- there must be one! There must be a perfect thing to say or do that I haven’t done or said to somehow pull you back from this disastrous precipice.

I wake in the morning and the reels of your childhood and adolescence begin again across the front of my mind. The normal-ness - the trains, the stuffed animals, the Legos, the plethora of matchbox cars, and the endless hours of your handmade games. And then the streams of tears cover my cheeks, they run down past my chin, down my neck. Your birthday is tomorrow. Away at college. Our first without you. If only I could pull you back. My mother’s heart wishes I could pull you back, sometimes even back into my womb and maybe start over so that we could do the right things, fix what we must have failed at before.

But you can’t go back. We are here now. And all I can say is, please just love yourself the way you are. The way God made you. If you could only see how unique and interesting and exciting you are. That would be my birthday gift to you: to show you how exceptional you already are. That there’s nothing about you that I or anyone else would change. I’d wrap it in the most special box- even wrap it in pink and luminescent colors if that’s what you’d like. Maybe I’d put a kitten in there and you wouldn’t be allergic at all anymore.

You’d open the box and you could unwrap every little perfect layer of yourself the way others already see you. You’d see all the love and light and all the adventure and insight that you are!

And you’d see you wouldn’t have to change a thing. I love you. Happy Birthday.

Welcome to the PITT weekly roundup where you’ll find a list of the week’s postings along with links to some of our favorite books, videos, social media, and podcasts. Please continue the fight against the harms of gender ideology by sharing.

Access to all PITT content is free. Our objective is to inform the public of the devastating impact of gender ideology on families through our personal experiences.

Quote of the Week from We Live in Strange Times: “Maybe the question that needs to be asked is not: “Why don’t my parents agree with me?” Maybe the more mature question is: “What do they see that I still cannot see?”

PITT POSTS THIS WEEK:

Friday, April 17: Repost: Dear WPATH Doctors: I don’t forgive you.

Thursday, April 16: Deadname

Wednesday, April 15: What is the view from the top?

Tuesday, April 14: We are living in strange times

Monday, April 13: Kintsugi Bowl

IN THE NEWS

Suicide Mortality Among Gender-Dysphoric Adolescents and Young Adults in Finland

A new Finnish study reports that youth gender transitions (under age 23) did not improve mental health symptoms. For some youth, medical gender reassignment may have had a negative impact.

IMAGES THAT CAPTURE IT

ORDER PITT’S BOOK

Parents with Inconvenient Truths about Trans: Tales from the Home Front in the Fight to Save Our Kids, a compendium of some of the most compelling essays yet from PITT.

SHARE YOUR STORY

Have a story to share about gender ideology? Submit to Pitt@genspect.org

This week I listened to podcasts and read articles that surprised me, along with a lot of parents I know. For years now we have all been told things that are deeply disturbing to us as parents. We've been told that puberty blockers are completely reversible and have no long term harmful side effects. We've been told that we have to affirm our kids and get them medical interventions, because they will kill themselves otherwise. We've been told that our kids have a gender identity that is part of their soul and will never change, that they were born with it, and that it's not a social contagion. Now just this week three of you have come forward to say that you aren't so sure about that after all.

Dr Laura Edwards-Leeper, you say that kids should always get a thorough assessment, that there could be other things going on with my child that ought to have been addressed before medical transition was started. You now say that you know that there are kids who deeply regret their transition, and that we really need to be more careful. You said that there's no actual proven cause and effect relationship between trans medical care and suicide, that it's not proven that I have to put my child on hormones because if I don't, she will kill herself. I appreciate that.

Dr Bowers, you now say that a child can't possibly consent to a lifetime of being inorgasmic and infertile. You said that children can't be informed of things they can't understand. You admitted that it's possible, likely even, that there's an element of social contagion going on. You said, “There's a little bit of 'yeah that's so cool. Yeah, I kind of want to do that, too'”. That doesn't sound like a fixed unchangeable identity to me. It sounds like you don't think it is, either.

Dr Anderson, I really appreciate that you admitted that you're not sure whether puberty blockers really are reversible.

I feel like I should be happier about this. After all, this is what we have all been saying for years now, and we keep being told we are crazy hateful bigots for saying it. No one wants to listen to us. They won't print our stories, or even leave our comments up on newspaper and online articles. It's like we never said it. But we did, and time and again we have been ignored. Now, finally, someone else dared to say it, someone with authority that people will listen to.

But as I listened, I noticed something.

It sounds like you are saying that you didn't do these things. You wanted my kid to be assessed. You thought she needed thorough assessment (which didn't happen). You knew my choices were not a live son or a dead daughter. You would not have said that, would you? You were setting the standards higher, and it's not your fault that not everyone followed them. So I shouldn't be upset with you.

The problem is, you did do these things. Every single doctor that rushed to prescribe life altering drugs to my child, every teacher, that told my child that her classroom was a safe space and my home was not, every therapist that told me, in front of my child, that she would commit suicide unless I affirmed, every one of those individuals used your standards in order to justify doing these things. I was told to trust the experts, and the experts all looked to you for guidance.

And then, when it turned out you were wrong all along, that's when I learned that there aren't any actual standards. Your “standards” don't hold any authority, and there's no reason why anyone even has to abide by them. That means that if it turns out you were wrong about my child, no one is actually responsible. You will be off treating the next trusting, vulnerable, frightened family, with an air of professional authority.

The World Professional Association of Transgender Health sounds like a pretty legitimate professional organization. After all, if you are the world experts, surely you ought to be able to set some boundaries and actual standards. I'm sure if I go in for heart surgery, there are standards about what should and should not be done. I'm sure that if it turned out that a significant number of heart patients experienced lifelong traumatizing irreversible harm as a result of heart surgery, someone would be doing something about it.

If you knew that it's quite possible that social contagion is real, that puberty blockers might not be reversible, and that children can't really give informed consent, why have you remained silent? If your “standards” are the best, and your recommended interventions are truly life-giving, then surely you can stand behind them. If gender practitioners aren't doing anything wrong, surely they should be willing to take responsibility if it turns out that the things they have done have actually created harm. Surely, if they have been doing the right thing all along, they shouldn't be afraid of litigation.

If you are the world experts, as you set yourselves up to be, why are you not actively promoting and sponsoring rigorous, unbiased research into the safety and efficacy of serious medical interventions for children and young adults? Research should be scientific, that means that we should be using time honored standards of research, things like controls and randomization and long term follow up. When I look at the “studies” that are being quoted as science in this field, it's truly scandalous. The methodology isn't just sloppy, it's not even deserving of being called methodology at all. You pretty much admitted that. And yet these flimsy reports that are in reality nothing less than propaganda are repeatedly called studies. Let's do some real studies, fund them properly, and believe and publish the results. Kids lives are hanging in the balance of your words, along with the families who love them. We deserved a lot more from you.

If you are the world experts, please start telling the truth about your failures. Please start listening to, believing, and actively helping those who are coming forward to say that the interventions you have promoted were damaging. Please stop blaming them for the problems you helped to create. They need counseling, compassion, and insurance coverage to undo the damage that you have participated in. Instead they are shamed, ignored, and told that they are so rare they aren't worth considering. Are you interested in doing some serious research into how many detransitioners are out there, unable to find help for the wounds you so casually helped to create?

I'm really quite puzzled by the seeming lack of concern here. Actually, puzzled is not the right word. I'm intensely furious, and I think I have a right to be. From where I sit, you don't seem to take the lifelong health and well being of my child very seriously at all.

So no, I don't forgive you. It's far too little, and way too late. Step up and fix it. You have the power and ability to do so.

According to ChatGPT in January 2026 the most well-known transgender child and adolescent doctor in the world is Dr Johanna Olson-Kennedy (JOK). She is board certified as a pediatrician since 2001 and adolescent medicine physician since 2003. She was the Medical Director of the Center for Trans youth Health and Development at Children’s Hospital Los Angeles which was the largest such centre in the USA. She is also a principal investigator on major NIH (American Ministry of Health) funded studies of puberty blockers and gender-affirming care in youth, she is one of the most frequently referenced clinicians in debates over pediatric gender medicine and regularly appears in medical, legal, and policy discussions worldwide. She also on multiple occasions has provided expert opinion in court cases within the USA.

Over her nearly twenty-year career she has treated a significant number of trans youth. She estimates prescribing ‘gender-affirming hormones’ to over 1,000 children and youths. She is a long-standing member of the World Professional Association for Transgender Health (WPATH), joining in 2010, and has held leadership roles in its regional affiliate, the U.S. Professional Association for Transgender Health (USPATH). She was appointed to the Executive Board of (USPATH) in 2022 and is currently the president-elect of the USPATH.^[13] She has authored 20 plus peer-reviewed research articles and about 30 others works such as chapters in books or editorials. On the surface of things, she seems to be a credible expert in her chosen field. What if we look a little deeper however?

In about 2016 JOK received from the NIH a multi-million-dollar grant to create and run a research study. The study started soon after and concluded in about 2018/2019 and by the end of the study the cost was nearly 10 Million Dollars. The study was described as “by far the largest such project in America”. She became lead author in the study looking at the benefits of gender affirming care (initiated with Puberty Blockers) on the mental and emotional health of trans youth. She was not pleased with the results of the study however and delayed publishing it for nine years until she was forced to (20, 21). How do we know this? The hiding of the research was discovered by the New York Post. When asked why she had hidden this study by the New York Post, she replied she ‘delayed publication of some of her results because of fears that they would be weaponized in a heated political climate’.

An example of what she was hoping to avoid was authored soon after the New York Post article by author J.K. Rowling. She wrote this in response to the NY Posts article on JOK’s hidden research, that “…We must not publish a study that says we’re harming children because people who say we’re harming children will use the study as evidence that we’re harming children, which might make it difficult for us to continue harming children!” 22. Now politicians are asking to see the results the NIH paid to have her research and are asking why she has hidden the results for so long. Republican senators published an open letter addressed to the director of the NIH which requested further information about this project and reiterated the importance of transparency in medical research that the NIH supports with public funds.^[18]

This was not a good look for JOK! So how does the academic world view the credibility of research created by JOK? On the surface she is still generally seen as an expert in her field with good standing with her peers. Bearing this in mind however this question, how usable and accurate is the research she has authored or co-authored? For the answer to this question, we will look to the GRADE research rating tool. The GRADE or (Grading of Recommendations Assessment, Development and Evaluation) approach is the most widely accepted, internationally recognized framework for evaluating the quality of evidence and strengthening recommendations in healthcare. They rate research study results in four levels of certainty and generalizability. The higher the rating, the more certain the evidence is and more able to be used in clinical settings. The highest rated research would use Randomised Controlled trials, with outcomes proven to be repeatable in different settings. The lowest rated studies such as observational studies create research questions or theories that need more robust research in order to be safely and effectively used in clinical practice.

The GRADE levels of research certainty/validity are...

1.    High: With these studies you can be very confident that the true effect is close to the estimate. These studies typically start with randomized controlled trials.

2.     Moderate: With these studies you can be moderately confident; the true effect is likely close but may differ substantially. These difference(s) may result from some limitations in study quality or consistency. Examples of these limitations might be for concerns regarding bias risk or small sample size.

3.     Low: With these studies you can have limited confidence in the reliability of his evidence and the true effect may be substantially different from the estimate. Examples of these studies are observational studies. These studies are inherently more vulnerable to bias and confounding than randomized controlled trials (RCTs) therefore we should be cautious about how confidently we interpret and generalise their findings.

4.     Very Low: With these studies you can have very little confidence; the true effect is likely substantially different.  Evidence may be downgraded due to bias, imprecision, inconsistency, or indirectness.

So, let’s have a look at JOK’s Grades! I googled research articles she has been lead author or co-author in from 2011 onward. With JOK’s articles 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 the evidence quality was deemed “Very Low”. Her best research outcomes I found were these articles 7 and 8 and the outcomes were rated Low to Very Low. Lastly there is the above mentioned 2019-2025 hidden study (9) on Mental and emotional health of youth after 24 months of gender-affirming medical care initiated with pubertal suppression. The certainty of evidence was also assessed as Low to Very Low. Dr Hilary Cass author of the 2024 Cass Review stated that there is a dearth of robust research regarding gender-affirming care, that the research is of disappointingly poor quality, built on shaky ground and ideologically rather than scientifically based. It looks like this claim is true for these studies we have examined from JOK.

Here is her 2019 study in more detail. The GRADE assessment found that the…

1.    Risk of Bias. Was of Serious Concern

2.    Inconsistency. Concerns not applicable

3.    Indirectness. Was of Serious Concern

4.    Imprecision. Was of Serious Concern

5.    Publication Bias. Unclear if any Concern

6.    The overall Grade assessment. Certainty rating for this research was Low-Very Low/

What about the WPATH association which JOK is a member of, and the USPATH which she is president of? I found the three most referenced WPATH studies and looked at how they stack up with the GRADE assessment tool? One of these studies was the 2011 ground-breaking research now known as the Dutch Protocol. It investigated puberty suppression in adolescents with gender identity disorder. The certainty of this evidence was rated as Very Low. In 2017 again, the creators of the Dutch Protocol published a guideline on Endocrine treatment of gender-dysphoric/gender-incongruent persons based on its 2011 study. This was widely referenced by WPATH. The evidence underlying the guidelines were rated as Low to Very Low. And lastly WPATHS own Standards of Care 8th Edition (SOC8) frequently references this Turban et al 2020 study on pubertal suppression for transgender youth and risk of suicidal ideation. The GRADE assessment tool states the certainty in the evidence here is Very Low. 

The score card of transgender research does seem to ring true to Dr Cass’ assessment of it. The main reason research in this field has such poor reliability in its evidence is the researchers exclusively fail to use a control group. Therefore, they cannot compare the outcome of treatments between groups. Until this is done the evidence from this research will continue to scientifically be of low value and reliability. And also, as seen from JOK’s 2019 study, evidence that does not fit within the authors pro-trans view of the world is simply not published.

What about the publicly available views and quotes of Johanna Olson-Kennedy?

Is all of this evidence a ‘hatchet job’ just made up by others to discredit JOK? What does she say herself? JOK has been quoted in press (also on youtube) as saying that if a young person who has had a double mastectomy (removal of breasts) later decided they wanted breasts again, they could just “go and get them” (i.e., get breast implants or reconstructive surgery).

In the Gender GP webpage JOK states regarding a professionals role in caring for transgendered people that “I think that living with uncertainty is okay. I think we need to drop our pursuit of certainty and work on our pursuit of compassion”. She also told ABC News that “We often ask parents, would you rather have a dead son than a live daughter? This narrative is used to pressure parents into allowing gender ‘treatments’ for their children. She also states that, “this idea that we’re gonna support people at a young age is very, very new.“ JOK believes that the earlier in life kids make the social transition, which means living in the world as the gender they feel they are, the better these at-risk children function. Gender identity isn’t a choice; it’s set at birth. Kids know whether they’re a boy or a girl on the inside by the age of three or four she told ABC News.

What about the once trans always trans view? JOK stated, “If it’s okay at 13 but their understanding of gender changes when they get older it's not going to be the right thing for them anymore and they’ll navigate that.” … “… you should talk about it when you're three, when you’re 15, when you’re 21, it's absurd, we really have to understand that people know their gender – they're not making a decision about their gender, they’re making a decision about what to do with it if it doesn’t match their assigned sex at birth.” She makes the unevidenced claim that underlying mental health diagnoses are not the cause of gender dysphoria, although it’s not clear how to prove or disprove this if we don’t explore these issues in connection with the gender dysphoria.

Also, she explains her view of gender to children this way. At the 2017 USPATH conference she tells her peers that she asks kids, “do you ever eat Pop Tarts?” And the kid was like, oh, of course. And I said, “well, you know how they come in that foil packet?” Yes. “Well, what if there was a strawberry PopTart in a foil packet, in a box that said ‘Cinnamon Pop Tarts.’? Is it a strawberry Pop Tart, or a cinnamon Pop Tart?” This is the rationale, a totally unproven rationale that the most prominent child and adolescent transgender doctor in the world uses to convince children that they are agender that is in the wrong body. Lastly she does recognize that hormone therapy produces some bodily changes that are permanent (e.g., voice and chest changes) and others that are reversible, but states that hormone use is safe and effective. However, there is significant evidence which states the use of hormones can be very harmful. (25, 50, 51, 52, 53, 58, 59, 60). In fairness as these studies were also not randomised controlled trials the evidence was ‘GRADED’ as low to very low certainty for generalisability.

How can this be legal, you might ask? There is no simple answer to this question. What is clear that after the hiding of the 2019 study for nine years, the release of the Cass Review in 2024 and the American NIH version in 2025, the Center for Trans youth Health and Development at Children’s Hospital Los Angeles has been closed and JOK’s role there has ended. In 2024 JOK was sued by a detransitioner—for medical negligence after overseeing the mentally ill girl’s gender-transition starting at 12 and double mastectomy at 14. The plaintiff reports having suffered from severe, worsening mental illness while JOK oversaw her gender-transition treatment, including her mastectomy. The case was dismissed as the ‘statute of limitations’ for medical malpractice (three years) had passed. The plaintiff Clementine Breen has appealed this decision to a higher court.

So, this is an overview of Dr Johanna Olson Kennedy in respect of her views and practice in the field of children and adolescents with gender dysphoria. I’m sure that this overview misses parts, but the overview creates a general picture of arguably the most prominent pediatric gender clinician in the world. I think this is pretty scary, what about you?

For more on this author.

…. a time when many children are being taught that, if their parents disagree with them, their parents are “toxic.” That if parents try to guide them, they are “controlling.” That if parents set limits, they are being “oppressive.”

But almost nobody talks about the other side.

Nobody talks about the sleepless nights. The silent sacrifices. The weight a father and a mother carry when they are trying to prepare a child for a world they know will show no mercy.

Because the world is not a Discord group.

The world is not a classroom where everyone validates your feelings.

The world demands. The world tests. The world does not protect.

And that is exactly why parents try to prepare their children.

There is a huge difference between abuse and guidance. Between rejection and concern. Between control and responsibility.

Parents are not trying to destroy their child. They are trying to protect something the child may not yet fully understand: their own future.

The greatest irony of all this is that the same society that teaches young people to distrust their parents is the same society that will not be there when they fall.

But parents… they remain.

Even after the slammed doors.

Even after the harsh words.

Even after being called ignorant, outdated, or toxic.

Because the true love of a father and a mother does not operate on approval. It operates on commitment.

Maybe the question that needs to be asked is not: “Why don’t my parents agree with me?”

Maybe the more mature question is: “What do they see that I still cannot see?”

Disagreement is part of life. Every generation disagrees with the one before it. That is normal.

What should never become normal is teaching a child to despise the people who loved them the most.

Parents are not perfect. They make mistakes. They are learning too. But most of the time, behind firmness there is fear. Fear of seeing their child suffer. Fear of seeing their child take paths that lead to pain.

And maybe the greatest tragedy of this generation is not the difference of ideas…

But how easily they are cutting ties with the ones who would give their lives for them.

Because at the end of life, after the trends pass, after the ideologies change, after the online groups disappear…

Family should still be the place you can return to.

And every child should at least consider this possibility:

Maybe my parents are not my enemies.

Maybe they are just trying, in their own way, to love me.

Two years have passed since I wrote for PITT about my son’s tragic spiral into a transgender identity. Nearly seven years have slipped by since that first declaration he sent me over Discord in 2019.

Now, we are finally looking at that nightmare period through the rear‑view mirror. He has turned a corner and stopped running from himself. Last week, we even attended the Detrans Awareness Day conference together in DC.

Watching him return - broken in places, yet somehow more whole than he has ever been - has been like witnessing the restoration of a kintsugi bowl: the cracks still visible, but gilded, strengthened, and transformed.

I have been overcome with joy, relief, and a gratitude so immense that it feels almost impossible to hold. This marvel of circumstance has brought with it other unexpected emotions too.

It has been destabilizing, again. While my son pursued a legal and medical “transition,” I coped by holding fast to the belief that he had the sovereign right to make his own mistakes. Extending that grace to him felt not optional but necessary. Everyone has the right to falter, even when it wounds us, even when it breaks us to witness. This is something I just fundamentally believe at the deepest level.

So, I let go of trying to force any outcome. During the months we lived apart, I walked endlessly. I attended online parent support groups and listened to stories of children heading into surgeries or cutting their parents off entirely. I felt I needed to prepare for that possibility. I practiced imagining a life without either of my children, a life without a partner, a life that I would have to make worth living on my own.

I pictured a small house in the woods, with trees, a bird feeder, and a garden. I imagined hosting friends, traveling, reading, sleeping outside sometimes, creating a sanctuary for myself primarily, but also for my son, should he ever need a place to return and recover. I imagined doing meaningful work on my own terms. I planned to learn everything I could about detransition care, both medical and psychological. I didn’t truly expect he would come back, but I wanted to be ready if he did. I was several chess moves ahead, trying to manage the unmanageable.

So, when he told me last summer, in the middle of an emotional collapse, that he had stopped taking hormones, I was not prepared. It was emotional whiplash, and nine months later it still is. For a while I waited for the other shoe to drop, but it hasn’t. Since then, he has thrown out the hormones, cut his hair, and grown a beard. Watching him slowly re‑inhabit himself has been a profound joy and a privilege. He recently told me he now understands why I once said he reminded me of some of my mentally ill patients and also why I couldn’t bring him to the hospital, because there is no help for this particular suffering there. He described how during his teenage years, he felt that his bedroom and his online social worlds were the real worlds, while the outside world became unreal. This has since rightfully reversed for him.

Alongside the joy, I feel overwhelming guilt. It is easing with time, but I doubt it will ever disappear entirely, not while other families are still in the thick of it. At dinner during Detrans Awareness Day, I sat with my son and several mothers. One spoke of her son who went abroad, she hasn’t seen him in over six years. She tried to sound cheerful, but a mother cannot be cheerful amid such a thing. Others didn’t know where their sons were at all. We speak of this as if it’s normal, but nothing is less natural than a mother separated from her children in this way. There is an ambiguous loss shared by parents whose children claimed a transgender identity, one that outsiders cannot fully grasp. I am now an outsider to this group because my son returned, this makes me a traitor of sorts, yet I still understand their grief. I feel some may resent me, even while knowing that they shouldn’t.

People sometimes ask what catalyzed this shift in my son. I could share a few specifics, but I don’t think they would offer what anyone is truly seeking. They are not replicable. Anyone claiming to have the cure for trans ideation is lying. I believe that only the miracle of a psychological awakening can break someone out of the trance.

And so, from the deepest hush of my heart, I hold to this truth: we must never, ever stop expecting a miracle.

Welcome to the PITT weekly roundup where you’ll find a list of the week’s postings along with links to some of our favorite books, videos, social media, and podcasts. Please continue the fight against the harms of gender ideology by sharing.

Access to all PITT content is free. Our objective is to inform the public of the devastating impact of gender ideology on families through our personal experiences.

Quote of the Week from The Transgender Crimes of the New York Times: “The New York Times claims to be nation’s newspaper of record and its liberal moral compass but, in reality, it has promoted ghastly harm to tens of thousands of young people with their arrogant proselytizing of gender ideology.”

PITT POSTS THIS WEEK:

Friday, April 10: Your hand-it slipped away

Thursday, April 9: Parents Can Guide the Path, but Free Will Chooses the Direction

Wednesday, April 8: Innocence

Tuesday, April 7: The Transgender Crimes of the New York Times

Monday, April 6: The Cycle of Tears

IN THE NEWS

The Transgender Tide Has Turned at the Supreme Court City Journal, April 7, 2026 by Josh Blackman

While positing that “restrictions on transgender rights may go too far”, the writer does a nice job of reviewing the six recent Supreme Court rulings that have done much to restore women’s rights, to preserve free speech and to protect children from the harms of gender ideology.

IMAGES THAT CAPTURE IT

ORDER PITT’S BOOK

Parents with Inconvenient Truths about Trans: Tales from the Home Front in the Fight to Save Our Kids, a compendium of some of the most compelling essays yet from PITT.

SHARE YOUR STORY

Have a story to share about gender ideology? Submit to Pitt@genspect.org

On your phone, I didn’t know
Their lie it would grow.

Then in real life
The lie would cut like a knife.

They took your behind closed doors
And soon began the wars.

What they said, who knows-
I was told not to impose.

Your hand I could not hold,
Your heart now felt cold.

They said it was for you,
And I should believe it too.

I didn’t get a reason,
Only threats - and that I was a demon.

Questions they didn’t ask,
All while wearing masks.

I’m sorry I didn’t have the answers,
And I lost most of my manners.

I didn’t know the lies they told
I wish I never let go of my hold.

Your hand-it slipped away,
It felt like in just a day.

But I’m still here;
I’ll always be near.

I know more now.
Please forgive me somehow

For the things I should have never done,
And what I failed to do for you, my hun.

Love,
Mom

I was reflecting on something that weighs heavily on the heart of many parents. No parent is ever truly at peace watching their child suffer. That simply doesn’t exist. When a child suffers, the parent suffers with them. But at the same time, I have been thinking that parents are still human beings, and sometimes they can end up being hurt twice: first by the suffering of their child, and then by a feeling of guilt that slowly starts consuming them from the inside and deteriorating their own peace.

Thinking about this, I have come to a reflection that helped me a lot. Parents have three responsibilities in the life of a child: to teach the right path, to warn about the consequences of wrong choices, and to lead by example through their own lives. When these three things are done sincerely, parents can know that they fulfilled their role. After that comes something no parent controls: the free will of each person.

The guidance from parents to a child is very similar to the way God guided His first children in creation. In the Book of Genesis, God gave a clear instruction to Adam and Eve not to eat from the fruit. The instruction was given and the warning was also made, but the final decision came from their free will. They chose to ignore the instruction and do the opposite, and by doing so they not only stopped following the guidance they had received, but also began to experience the consequences of their own choices.

In our lives it is not very different. Many times, people are influenced by environments, by external pressures, by ideas, by agendas, or even by “friends.” And sometimes it makes you wonder what kind of friend leads someone down the wrong path. I suppose that is a question most parents understand very well.

Because of that, I have been thinking that if parents have taught, warned, and led by example, they can still suffer with their child and continue loving and wishing the best for them, but they do not need to carry alone a guilt that does not belong to them. Many times life itself ends up teaching what parents had already tried to teach through those three responsibilities.

Perhaps that is why, in many moments in life, when we realize we have already done everything within our reach as parents, there is something we sometimes forget in the middle of the pain: to trust that God can reach places in the hearts of our children that we simply cannot reach ourselves.

Dear parents,

I am not a parent of a trans-identified child/adult. However, I am a mother of three small children.

Please accept an offering of a poem. I don’t have first-hand familiarity with today’s ”trans world” or what many of you have gone through.

This poem is about innocence. I am sure that this-joy giving force is still there in you and your children/adults….. even if it is being covered, buried or even tortured by all sorts of nonsense and horrendous things. I hope you can still feel it. The killers of joy can never succeed.

INNOCENCE

There is such a power as innocence
Though potential
Bubbling with joy

Protecting aura
Like the white of an egg
Forgiving

Cushioning growth
Bright light
Devouring devils
who crumple
in their mocking shadows

The child standing
in his own light
unaware of his
Powerful emanation

To a thief everyone is a thief
The thief would not believe anyone
Is innocent
Not even a child

In compulsive jealousy
He will deny and destroy
Stamp out, silence
That power within

He desecrated and sold
How can others contain
that source of joy he destroys
In himself

But children are abundant
Open
Brimming full
Of a power
foundational to the whole universe

Without which
All values that would be called good
Collapse
like a house of cards

Into an abyss
Destroying
The very foundation
On which they stand

But innocence cannot be destroyed
It is the potential power
that rises from the ashes

And shows us what was right
And what was wrong

Innocence
You are wisdom
You are discrimination
Universal

You are the child that grows within
The only bridge
To the self

Free as the wind
Unbound by the body
Or compartments of the mind

Authentic and true
At the purest source of joy
I surrender only to you

Oh innocence

********************

The inconvenient truth about trans that I feel compelled to express is that I would probably have been considered a ’trans kid’ myself from the ages of about three to eleven, based on “modern standards”. See my picture below with my persistent presentation and desire to be a boy for a more than seven years, even wearing a boy’s swimming costume! But I never heard the word “trans” and I grew out of it. Going through puberty did not kill me. I won’t write more about myself here. I am unexceptional. But I see that the bubble of innocence was protected enough for me to grow and NO adult ever ”affirmed” my childhood fantasy even when I would push boundaries. I can’t imagine the confusion of reality if they had or the state of my ego!

So, I am probably one of thousands of tomboys, (pre-internet/activism) whose desire to be a boy was particularly strong and who’s presentation was convincing. To others who are in this world today, I would have been considered a real ‘trans kid’ worthy of ‘life saving gender affirming care’.

I am eternally grateful to have been able to just be a tomboy.

Given the level of confusion today, I feel a certain level of responsibility to come forward and say that I seem to be one of the ones from a fairly recent time who grew out of it!

Thank you for accepting this very simple expression!

Wishing you all love, courage, resilience and a certain kind of peace, that no war on truth can ever fully relinquish.

Claire Light (me aged around 5)

The New York Times claims to be the nation’s newspaper of record and its liberal moral compass but, in reality, it has promoted ghastly harm to tens of thousands of young people with their arrogant proselytizing of gender ideology.

The New York Times is often considered to be the most respected newspaper in the United States. With more subscribers than any other U.S. newspaper, and more Pulitzer Prizes than any other news organization, the Times sets the agenda for news coverage. Indeed, the Times Handbook of Ethics states its mission is to seek the truth and help people understand the world. We do that work, in the words of Adolph S. Ochs, “without fear or favor.” The Times pursues its mission with a liberal bent - the last Republican candidate it endorsed for president was Dwight D. Eisenhower. That was in 1956. The Times was a strong supporter of civil rights during the 1960s and, since the 1990s, has been a strong supporter of gay rights. The Times does more than just report the news; it often tries to influence the direction of society itself.

But the Times is more than that. Among liberals, it has special power. Along with The New Yorker and various liberal-leaning news shows (NPR, The Daily Show, The Late Show with Stephen Colbert), The New York Times is the go-to source among liberals for what news is real and how it should be interpreted. As Paul Krugman likes to say, people are busy - they are working and raising families. Liberals don’t have time to research the validity of everything that passes for news these days. So, liberals, historically, have relied on these left-leaning news organizations.

As gender ideology exploded into society in the last 10 to 15 years, the Times put on their civil rights glasses and made a deliberate decision: gender ideology would be treated as a moral cause to be defended and advanced. Full stop. There would be no questioning of why, suddenly, thousands of kids and young adults seemingly out of nowhere identified as “trans”. Financial incentives for doctors and pharmaceutical companies to provide “gender affirming care” would not be investigated. The shrill screaming from gender extremists that such care was “lifesaving” would be treated as gospel. The Times was and is all in, indeed, captured by the belief that “trans rights” are the latest in the long evolution of civil rights. They have drafted a narrative of gender ideology as the next phase of civil rights, like Gay Rights 2.0, although no one asked the gay community about that.

On their editorial page, although there is the occasional guest essay with a gender critical point of view, the views of the Times Editorial Board are clear: “transgender citizens” are just another minority group, similar to, “Black people, Indigenous people and gay people, to name just a few.” In an editorial by the Times Editorial Board last year, the Times railed against President Trump for waging “as direct a campaign against a single, vulnerable minority [“transgender citizens”] as we’ve seen in generations.”

The Times’ news coverage of gender ideology reflects their bias. Most of it reads like a Church of Scientology press release.

Woman Wins Malpractice Suit Over Gender Surgery as a Minor (2/3/2026) - About the plaintiff, the Times notes, “Ms. Varian, who was 16 at the time of the surgery, was assigned female at birth but as a teenager identified as a man. She later came to regret the decision to transition and now identifies as a woman, an example of a process known as detransitioning.” No one is “assigned” a sex at birth. That is made-up gender ideology nonsense. And the phrase “now identifies as a woman, an example of a process known as detransitioning” makes the defendant sound like she was returning a pair of shoes that didn’t fit.

Doctors’ Group Endorses Restrictions on Gender-Related Surgery for Minors (2/4/2026) - This article is filled with gender ideology mythology. It starts with, “For the first time, two major medical groups have backed limitations on gender-related surgical treatments for minors in the United States.” This seemingly innocent lead understates the reality. “gender-related surgical treatments” would be more accurately written, “unproven, experimental amputations of healthy body parts”.

Justices Seem Inclined to Allow States to Bar Transgender Athletes - (1/13/2026) - Two paragraphs in we read, “Becky Pepper-Jackson, a high school sophomore from West Virginia, and Lindsay Hecox, a college senior in Idaho, challenged the laws, which require that participation on sports teams for girls be based on “biological sex,” defined as a person’s sex assigned at birth.” Wow. You would think that “biological sex” is a new, controversial concept, and yet the Times is compelled to define it with the “sex assigned at birth” nonsense.

Canada Updates: Police Identify Suspect in Mass Shooting (2/11/2026) - In this tragedy, the Times leads with, “The 18-year-old fatally shot her mother and stepbrother as well as six people at a school, before killing herself. Her motive was unclear, but police had visited her home several times for mental health issues.” Later in the article we learn that the suspect “was biologically born male…” If the suspect was “biologically born male”, then the suspect is a man and should be referred to as such. Overwhelmingly, violence of this sort is carried out by men. The Times is lying and insulting all women when they write such fiction.

There are many more articles, but you get the idea. In all of its reporting, the Times uses all the gender ideology made-up lingo, and adopts the gender ideology world view, that changing “gender” is as natural and easy as changing hairstyles.

So, what are the editors at the Times thinking? Why would they believe the nonsense that there are women trapped in men’s bodies and men trapped in women’s bodies without asking a few questions? The Times has bought into the notion that what a person “just knows” takes precedence over observable facts. If a man feels that he is a woman (whatever that means), it must be true. The Times has been seduced by the “postmodernist dreck about sex being an unknowable, mystical spectrum rather than a material, biological binary”, without bothering to check the science behind this philosophical fever dream. The Times has abandoned reality and their journalistic integrity and adopted “trans rights” as the civil rights issue of this generation and is not interested in considering even the most obvious evidence that trans is something else entirely - a 21st century cultish social contagion, or the biggest medical scandal in decades, or both.

The harsh reality is that the New York Times has made a terrible mistake, by using their power to sell gender ideology to liberals as simply another natural variation in humankind. The result is that a generation of young people have been maimed. The Times has fanned the flames of what should have been a small brush fire affecting only a few individuals, into a raging wildfire that has attacked this generation of kids and young adults with the perverted idea that it’s possible to be “born in the wrong body”, an idea with no basis in science or reality. Lives have been wrecked as kids, convinced that they “know who they are”, sign up for sterilization and body modifications that should be in a Frankenstein sequel. The wreckage includes splintered families, loss of civil rights for women and gays, and all the rest of it, yet the New York Times doesn’t see it or doesn’t care. Even though the Times is obsessed with civil rights, who is speaking up for the civil rights of women and the LGB community? Not the New York Times.

The numbers tell the story. Accurate statistics are difficult since a person can be trans one day, not the next, and trans again on the third day. In any case, currently, between 1.5% and 5% of American and Canadians under 30 “identify as transgender”. By comparison, in the UK in the late 1950’s and early 1960’s, approximately 2000 babies were affected by the drug thalidomide, which caused catastrophic birth defects and death. That’s a mere fraction of the number of people harmed by gender ideology.

What’s been the result of all this subtle framing of gender ideology as the next important civil rights issue? Although many kids and young adults have enthusiastically taken up the cause, most voters know better. Despite all their skewed reporting and moralizing and allegiance to the trans narrative, the majority of Democrats aren’t buying it, and virtually no Republicans are buying it. In January, 2025, the Times conducted a poll, and these results were notable.

Did the editors at the Times bother to read their own poll results? It is gender ideology dogma that “trans women” (men) should be allowed to compete in women’s sports, and that “hormone therapy” should be available to minors. And yet the public, including a majority of democrats, are overwhelmingly against these unfair and barbaric, unproven practices.

Until now, The New York Times has acted like any good cult member accused of being in a cult: The Times is digging in and refusing to acknowledge that it has made this terrible mistake. But the charade has gone on long enough. It’s past time for the New York Times to stop lying, and start telling the truth.

• The Times must get rid of their “trans desk”. No more running articles through journalists who have been transed, or through journalists who are affirming parents of kids who have been transed. No more citing of statistics from “experts” who have been transed.

• The Times must eliminate all the gender ideology cult lingo in their news articles. No more “cis” this, or “deadname” that, and no more “assigned male at birth” nonsense. Use real English words, not the made-up gibberish of gender ideology. The Times is usually pretty good with words - I know they can do this.

• There is a story here if the Times would like to pursue some real journalism. How is it that the American Society of Plastic Surgeons (followed by the AMA) only recently decided to recommend against “gender affirming surgeries” for patients under the age of 19? Did they do this following the release of the Cass Review? No, they issued their statement just days after a jury awarded a detransitioner $2 million in damages for a double mastectomy she underwent at age 16. Why does virtually every democratic politician support gender ideology down to every last detail even though a majority of democrats don’t? Are there any left-leaning transgender billionaires out there? FOLLOW THE MONEY.

• Finally, the Times must publish a mea culpa - an upfront admission by the Editorial Board that they got it wrong, and that they will return to journalistic integrity and ethics when it comes to reporting on gender ideology. In the past the New York Times has admitted their mistakes on important issues. All they have to do now is acknowledge reality and report the truth.

The New York Times, against all evidence, has preached that gender ideology was a civil rights issue, not the horrific medical scandal that it is, causing permanent harm to thousands of young people, along with the disintegration of their families. Does the New York Times have the courage to do what is right, admit their mistakes, and start reporting the truth? We, the parents of these victims, deserve an answer.

The tears come without warning.

They’re never far but they pour out unpredictably.

That’s when I must give into them. Locked in a bathroom where I can cry without anyone knowing. Keeping them silent so that they remain undetected.

They come with great, heaving unending sobs that physically hurt as I try to keep them whisper quiet.

They are accompanied by the jumble of emotions I carry in a tight knot in my stomach, or the ones that come with migraine intensity pounding mercilessly at the back of my skull.

They come with no discernible sentences, only random words and feelings that tumble through my mind:

Guilt: how could I have done better? I’m his mother. Where did I go wrong?

Helplessness: will I ever not cry daily? I crave, but cannot envision, not experiencing these tears that have become part of my everyday life for the past eight years.

Despair: how can I fix my fractured family, torn apart by the tsunami of gender ideology that slammed into our happy home?

Anxiety: what will happen when he makes the ultimate, catastrophic decision to have his body mutilated, and the imagined magical, yet unattainable cure to the mental health problems he suffers doesn’t manifest itself?

Pain: through addiction to wrong-sex hormones, and his planned surgeries, my child is hurting himself and I am experiencing it in some esoterically generated osmosis.

Turmoil about an unknown future: what do I do when he has the surgery? How can I visit him in the hospital? How can I not? What do I do?

Anger: at every person who has ever affirmed, validated, groomed my son and insisted I am somehow wrong for not doing the same.

Conflict: how can I be true to my conviction not to affirm a delusion while not hurting my son in the process?

Envy: of normal parents who don’t know what estradiol and spironolactone are, or how dangerous those are in a male body… and never will.

Fatigue: the deep mental fatigue that manifests in days of cocooning alone with only mindless Netflix fare and iPhone games to fill the passing hours.

Fear: of the future, of my son’s path leading him into darkness, of how I will keep myself together as the inevitable unfolds.

And the questions with no answers, without even words to form them.

Until finally, I take a deep breath, cork the flow that is exhausting itself - for now - and get into bed, where - hopefully - my dreams will not be tainted by the waking nightmare of my life.

But the tears will return. And the cycle will loop again.