Who could have imagined that society would get to a place where loving parents are belittled and called names because they question practices that are harmful to their children?
Here is part of a letter I have written to the dean of students and professors of my son's university. We have to start fighting back!
My adult child has experienced a pattern of behavior which demonstrates an underlying mental health condition based on several factors I have identified. First, he stated in January that he was transitioning to a female using hormone therapy to start. J has had no prior gender distress throughout his childhood and early adult life. Since the transition, my adult child has become extremely totalitarian in philosophy. One example of this is a recent document to me which outlined 23 requirements I was expected to agree with 100% if communication between us was ever going to occur. I am including this document as an attachment so you can understand the militant nature of the expectations. Second, there has never been face-to-face communication since the letter to me. All of our discussions since have been through text (I have tried face-to face and phone/faceTime–with refusal). Third, on my recent visit to Seattle this past week, I left gifts at the doorstep, attempted to pick up a guitar that was borrowed, and stopped by the house to request a meeting. J called the cops on me, stating that I was “dangerous” and I “didn’t deserve to have a face to face.meeting”. I was only slightly rude when I realized J was hiding in the house acting much younger than a 24-year-old. Out of frustration, I raised my voice, requested more adult-like behavior, and stated “If you are going to reject me, at least have the decency to deal with it to my face and settle disagreements in person (scary, huh?). Fourth, J has developed an incredibly naive attitude of believing anything gender ideology states, while refusing to follow the science with factual, gold standard research as in the model of the CASS review. J won’t even look at the document, stating that all of my research is a lie. Hoping J doesn’t approach research on protein development in the same fashion! I believe J’s passion for the work in the labs at the university may have diminished because of the cult-like theology, and obsession with this new gender identity. This should be addressed and corrected if J stays in the program.
J’s actions are incredibly bizarre behaviors which have never been present before in our relationship. In fact, up until January, J was very close to family and quite loving. All of these behaviors and beliefs fall in line with trauma bonding to a cult. I have mentioned this to you in the past. Something is happening at the university that needs to be addressed. I believe it is also happening in the counseling section of the university with affirmative care which is guiding the transition process and encouraging J to remove anyone from his life who may disagree even slightly with the decision to transition (imagine a 2-year-old with that kind of authority to be able to boss around everyone in the household to get their way–this is what it feels like). These counselors appear to be pushing away the mental health concerns, and pushing clients toward the pathway to medicalization in the medical school. If nothing else, you need to look into this. The WPATH Standards of Care are NOT a model of care. They are a self-proclaimed activist group setting standards of care for medical professionals. They are a house of cards ready to fall, and need to be separated from gender medicine rather than leading it. Read the WPATH document I have attached to see for yourself how this agency is established and how poor the research is related to it.
As stated in my previous letter, the CASS review, the WPATH files, and the Johns Hopkins file review commissioned by WPATH all state that these medical processes and the medical research regarding gender care are lacking. Evidence for care is minimal at best. As stated previously, other nations are closing their gender clinics due to the overwhelming evidence of poor research and minimal evidence of positive outcomes with no long term follow up studies. Within the US, Dr. Jill Simons, a pediatrician and the executive director of the college of pediatricians came out last week launching “The Doctors Protecting Children declaration” at the National Press Club in Washington DC. It is a declaration from a coalition of doctors concerned about protocols used with children who have distress about gender issues. Vulnerable adults, too, have the need for protection against medical practices that can lead to lifelong medical dependency and lifelong medical conditions. Affirmative care should NEVER be the first line of defense for this population. We should not be doing experimental medical procedures with many unknown outcomes to vulnerable children and adults. This is not proper medical care and goes against the mandate “DO NO HARM”.
I believe hormone therapy is one factor which has created a personality shift in my child. Another is the cult nature surrounding the gender clinic and the gender community in the university. Yet another is the strong influence that the gender ideology is having on the folks with autism. I have been both a teacher and a therapist. My adult child has NEVER DISPLAYED SIGNS OF AUTISM in the past. Whatever has caused the fear, anxiety, and the autistic behaviors J is currently experiencing are new developments in J’s life. Perhaps it is vaccine injury, hormone treatment therapy, or the trauma bond with a cult. Any or all of these pieces are having a significant influence on J’s personality.
J and other transitioners' options in life are being limited with the dependence of lifelong medical care and lifelong mental health care. As J’s mother, I hold you responsible for encouraging an affirming model of care instead of supporting and investigating more deeply J’s mental health needs. Recently, J has self-diagnosed as autistic. This would make J one of the vulnerable populations that are being harmed by these medical interventions, as stated in the CASS review. I will be reaching out to my lawyer contacts and using this self-diagnosis as a claim of harm to a vulnerable population when the house of cards falls and J recognizes the harmful effects of these choices, which were actively encouraged and integrated into J’s time at the university, and at the medical gender clinic at the university, when J recognizes the harm it has caused.
There are currently 12 detransitioners with legal cases in the US, against medical agencies who have affirmed and encouraged medicalization. One case is pending in Oregon, another in California. Washington will be dealing with these issues soon as well. There are 60 cases waiting to be addressed, and 250 or more detransitioners who have reached out with medical malpractice concerns. It is imperative that you consider this massive group of folks in the background who are potential cases for lawsuits. It is also crucial that you understand some of the reasons behind WHY these young people are transitioning AND why they decide to detransition. These issues have been minimized by the medical community, which has jumped on the bandwagon of affirmative care due to their fear of the trans community. A particular law firm, with Josh Payne, co-founder of Campbell Miller Payne, a law firm dedicated to representing individuals who were misled and abused – many as children – into psychological and physical harm through a false promise of “gender-affirming care.” Campbell Miller Payne is committed to its mission to speak up for these victims, assert their rights, and pursue justice with his law firm. There is no excuse for this poor quality care and for the scathing disregard for the scientific process to be used within the gender clinics and the counseling community.
Especially you, Ms. Sakiyama-Elbert, as the dean of students—you should be asking questions and sharing information to ensure that all of your students are receiving appropriate, accurate, scientific-driven content and training, in order to provide the best medical care possible. In the future (very soon, I think) we will all consider the gender affirming care model, led by WPATH, to be the worst possible medical experiment on young, vulnerable children and young adults. It is time to make a difference now, not look back and see you have been partially responsible for encouraging the problem, by not taking a stand against it. I wouldn’t wish that on anyone! The other two of you, in my opinion, should at the least read the attached documents and be willing to use the CASS review as “THE GOLD STANDARD OF RESEARCH” for your students to look at to see what is excellent about it. It is the type of quality work you want from students.
Once again, attached are the 23 requirements from J, the CASS review, the WPATH files, WPATH Standards of Care 8, and a link to the Johns Hopkins review paid for, but not published, by WPATH.
"beliefs fall in line with trauma bonding to a cult." Have you read Alexandra Steins book on cults? She talks about trauma bonding with a cult or totalitarian group.
I had no idea there were that many cases and pending or hopeful cases submitted by detransitioners. I'm sorry for them, but being courageous in inquiring is beneficial not only for them, but the society as a whole.
If nothing else says this is a cult, it's the totalist demands your son has placed on you. Mine was name, which if I didn't understand that on a personal level, I may have gone along with it.
My son also self-id as ASD and ADHD at the time of his coming out. All bizarre because while he is profoundly gifted and sensitive, he does not have ASD. I actually saw the test results from a pseudo-therapist who traffics online after my son was estranged for a year or so. He didn't answer all the questions and didn't answer correctly some questions.
Thank you for your kind response I have read a book on Trauma bonding (It may be the author you are referring to but the name doesn't come to me right now. I am reading multiple books on this topic. I suggest you also look at the the book by Robert Jay Lifton THOUGHT REFORM AND THE PSYCOLOGY OF TOTALISM. In the first 2 chapters it talks about a physician and a priest who both shared their experiences in a communist prison in China. The description of their mind control "re education" programing is similar to my son's, based on conversations we have had and the type of explanations he shared with me about the transition. I am planning to research more, and write these thoughts related to the mind control and WOKE ideology/gender ideology, etc. with references to texts, etc. , and send it to the professors and dean of medical students where he is getting a PhD.
I have been both a teacher and now counselor for 35 years, and worked with many folk with autism. He has NEVER had autism. It is part of the cult mindset, I think to rationalize the anxiety and dissociation they are feeling from the influence of the cult trauma bond. Thanks again, for the positive support. We are all fighting this battle together!
I should have included the book name, "Terror, Love and Brainwashing" by Alexandra Stein. I have read Steve Hassan's, "Combating Cult Mind Control". I think another book you could add to your list is "Sleeping Beauties" by Suzanne O'Sullivan. Really the parts on "looping" by Ian Hacking and expanded by Laurence Kirmayer is interesting and relevant to this phenomenon. I have Robert's book in my pile right now.
Ah, your explanation of ASD in the context of the cult makes sense to me. I had a few other theories.
I agree with you name-calling and bullying behavior are not an acceptable way to engage. I spent decades in a Catholic community that promoted an us/them narrative, name calling and did not allow questioning. Now on the outside of it, the political idolatry to a man who normalizes name calling and bullying behavior are not a surprise. I'm working toward a consistent ethos and learning how to engage in a way that does not dehumanize people. It is hard to undo that religious conditioning.
This makes me sad. When my son told me that he thinks he is trans, I expressed my concerns for him, that I think he was indoctrinated into gender ideology, and he came at me with a lot of these insults. This brings back painful memories. I feel for everyone here who has been hurt by these words, I know how you feel.
When a social worker describes a parent as “unsupportive” for being gender critical, we know that society is captured. Judging parents as unfit and name calling them is simply evil. There is no other word to describe the depths of wrongness.
My big frustration is that I feel like I am the only one who sees that "mental health" - the term and the industry - was the first major step in the process of bringing about the current dystopia. The power of the industry and the sinister nature of the phrase "mental health" is not recognized by anyone. As a teenager, al though I couldn't have articulated it at the time, I noticed that suddenly this term I had never heard before was now everywhere. I knew it was sinister. Now I describe it as a term that serves to separate mind from body so that the state can be inserted in the space between. As Jennifer Bilek writes, "trans" is part of the transhumanism agenda, and we're all being groomed into dissociation / dissociating from our bodies. This corresponds with my observation. We're being broken down into parts, the first break being mind / body, and then body is further broken down (and with a focus on the sex-related parts of our bodies).
You are not the only one! It is clear to me that the mental health industry is promoting antidepressants and other drugs for financial reasons. My daughter was suicidal. I was persuaded by two psychologists to give my permission for my 14 year old to trial sertraline which was not approved for children. A few month later she was 15 and no longer needed my approval, she insisted the dose be steadily increased. I observed a personality change, She became reckless. Next she was on a waiting list for testosterone. Now, years later identifying as male she wants to work in the pharmaceutical industry. Another victim of state interference. Sertraline has since been shown to increase suicide risk. Parents beware
I'm so sorry about your daughter. I don't have children but I was gaslit and tormented by what was billed as "help" when I was a teenager and young adult, and it makes me livid that it's only gotten worse in the 30 years since. I think the industry should be dismantled.
Giving psychiatric drugs to people under 30 is evil. Yes, the SSRIs do, in a small but still statistically significant percentage of people, cause suicide and other extreme behaviors. The suicide is believed to be linked to the akathisia which a high proportion of people experience on the drugs. Severe akathisia is thought to be what causes suicide. Maybe you know this. I spent a couple years looking into these drugs' effects back in 2000-2001.
The state transing of kids, and parents losing custody or being threatened with loss of custody, over transing, was occurring with psych drugs too, so it's not exactly new. "Trans" was a new twist for sure but severe abuses were occurring for decades, forever really, in the name of "help" or "treatment" for "mental health".
I always think it's interesting they use the word "treatment." I think that's for liability purposes. No one can accuse them of failing to help or doing harm. They can say "We didn't promise to help, we just said we would "treat".
It's interesting you say it was psychologists not psychiatrists who were the drug pushers. This supports my observation that there's no longer a line between psychiatry and psychology. Maybe there never was but as a teenager it was explained to me that their beliefs were completely incompatible and thus they were separate fields.
Are you familiar with Robert Whitaker and his book "Anatomy of an Epidemic"? He uses data and statistics to show that rates of permanent disability due to "mental illness", qualifying people for federal benefits, skyrocketed along with prescriptions of the new psychiatric drugs (starting with prozac in the 80s).
Personally, just as I don't have a "gender identity," I also don't have some amount of "mental" health. I don't conceive of my well-being in that way, as my mind isn't separate from my body. The way I feel ("mentally") is very dependent on how strong and well I am physically, too.
This is changing. I've noticed an increase in psychologists and psychiatrists on X talking about the harm we have done to generations of people by pathologizing personality, puberty, and even just the periods of difficulty and sadness we all experience, fast-tracking people to go on SSRIs regardless of age, accepting self-diagnoses people pick up on the internet, etc. I have also seen an increase in attention around PSSD, the sexual dysfunction caused by going off of SSRIs. Whether these providers who are beginning to speak out have a different agenda or grift remains to be seen, but I am happy that the conversation is starting. Medications and "treatment" should go back to being the exception and not the norm!
Would you support legal changes that allow your victims to hold you accountable for the effects of your interventions on them and their lives? Would you support a 15- or 20-year statute of limitations? Because gaslighting by definition, can take decades to be recognized.
What do you mean by "your victims?" I'm not a mental health professional. I'm a mom with a daughter on SSRIs who is planning to medically transition. She is a double victim, in my opinion.
Statute of limitations should absolutely be lengthened not only for these cases but for suits against providers of so-called "gender affirming care." I'm not sure I understand what I'm reading as hostility towards me. When I say the harm "we have done," I mean we as a society for allowing this pathologization to happen.
This happened ten years ago. Sorry my memory fails sometimes. The mental health professionals worked as a team so it was difficult to accuse any one person of anything. I do remember being in a room with my daughter, a female psychiatrist and another visiting female psychiatrist. It was on that occasion I gave verbal permission for the drug trial. Next my daughter was being seen by a different psychiatrist, a male. It seemed wrong that there was no continuity of care. Someone I knew started taking sertraline and ended his life. My daughter’s attempts “failed”
Clinical psychologists and psychiatrists did not appear to work well together
The industry and the individual "professionals" within it are totally unaccountable. There's zero recourse for those of us they've used and abused.
Again I'm so sorry for what you've been through. I can't imagine. The grift targets teenage girls so aggressively. I think they started ramping it up in the 80s with eating disorders. That's one reason I fell into their net. We girls whose parents had "mental health" coverage on their insurance, were cash cows for them.
Perhaps of related interest on how kids and teachers are being brainwashed:
There's a new YouTube by conservative James Lindsay, titled, "To Pass As Normal, Kids Must Be Queer."
It's all about how entrenched queer theory has become in school curricula and the teacher colleges. Including how to avoid telling parents what's being taught in their child's classroom.
I'm a progressive, but I thought his in-depth research was eye-opening.
This is heartbreaking and important to report out to society. Thank you to the author.
I'm not a parent, let alone of a child captured by this vicious, no-holds-barred cult.
But I think if I had a child come home one day and announce this, especially if they started to verbally abuse me; or if another friend or acquaintance announced a cross-sex identity to me, based on what I have learned from parents and therapists on this and my own life experience with psychological health, I would be tempted to drop everything and say I was going for a hike in a beautiful natural area, right then, and invite them to join me, saying, "let's talk about this," without cell phones, throw some bread, cheese and fruit in a backpack, and head out the door for two hours, to listen to that person out in nature. Goal: to get them and myself out in the natural world, as nature therapy, as an antidote to screens, being indoors, and the stress of both of those. That afternoon. Because it's a psychological health crisis. And just walk and listen. And without telling them, necessarily, but to let that person heal a bit and become more logical and connected by being in nature. Nature therapy, it's now being called.
And I would do this every day for 2 hours until that person is healed of their psychosis, their disembodiment.
It would also make me a cool parent: offering something fun, relaxing, healing, and giving them my undivided attention. For 2 hours every day.
A nurse advised this to me when I was feeling suicidal 10 years ago. She prescribed 2 hours, every day in my favorite, stunning county park.
This forced me to recognize my priorities (staying alive, psychological health), and to *find* the time.
It began working to heal me the first day. It brought instant relief, to get out there. Joy. An indulgent vacation. By day 3, people around me where I lived were remarking I was a calmer, happier, nicer person. I also felt more rational and logical, from being out in the logical world of nature. Everything in nature is logical. It makes sense why a tree is twisted or leaning, subject to natural forces. And why the leaves on the trees in my summer-drought California location are small, grey-green, coated with reflective silver hairs, and have a leathery texture: all to help them conserve water. Everything in nature has sound reasons for the way it is, due to evolution, weather, physics, etc. Observing nature helps us see what is logical and rational, or irrational when we're outdoors, even if we aren't thinking about these details. Everything just makes sense out there.
This daily 2 hours of nature therapy, walking with the person, would be a way for a parent or friend to lean in, give their child or friend the attention they're so desperately seeking (that's part of it: a cry for help, and for a lot more undivided attention), out in the logic of nature, and away from the influence, stress and idiocy of screens.
In fact, I'm going to go do this, this afternoon. At least go outside for the afternoon.
Take my own medicine :) (I did, and it helped.)
Thanks for your great, eye-opening, thought-provoking article.
I adore nature and its benefits. I love your ideas. What you must understand is that I took my daughter on a hike, and she started yelling, took her shirt off, and there was a "scene". When a kid ingests the poison of this ideology, nature doesn't even work for them. Things are bad when nature can't reach them. Outsiders must understand that parents have tried many things without success, and it doesn't work if the kid has been fully captured. That is why we need back up and awareness of the profound harm of losing our children to this ideology.
I still benefit from nature. Yet parents like me are demonized. Doesn't this story cause concern about this ideology being a good thing for kids and families?
Omg, that's awful! I'm so sorry. I never read anyone discussing taking their kids out into nature, trying that.
Was that the last time you did that with her? Is there any chance that being out there in nature, a major contrast from trans' unnatural beliefs, and from being online, what brought on that episode?
Your comment is reminding me that it's not uncommon for it to be a big shock for people to get out in nature, especially if it's been awhile, that can bring up intense feelings.
I know for myself, when I spend time out in nature, if its been awhile, it brings up uncomfortable feelings, and some distress that makes me want to leave soon and quickly return home. It can take a number of times for me of getting out there to want to stay out there for long, for that reason.
I wonder if that was why your daughter had such an intense episode out there. In part because being online a lot, and being disconnected from one's body is the exact opposite of being connected with nature. It would make sense if for those reasons it triggered an explosion like that.
I wonder if shorter doses, such as starting with a 5-minute walk around the block, would be a more useful strategy. I'm sure you've tried that. What was that like, please?
I don't want to push this, though. You know your situation and your daughter best. I don't know her whatsoever, or what it is like to parent a child that's been captured by this nightmare.
Rest assured, I have never thought that this trans nonsense was ever anything good for families or anyone. I've been an outspoken critic of it since the 1970s, and never fell for any part of it. Not pronouns, not any of it.
Thank you for telling me this. Good to know. It sounds like possibly a reaction to nature being the complete opposite of trans ideology and the un-reality of being online in any capacity. I need to severely cut back my own phone hours. Her response to being outdoors sounds like me trying to go for just half a day with my phone off. ;) Never taken my shirt off outdoors from it, tho :/
Thank you again. I needed to hear that. I appreciate learning from you.
I keep reading the statements of libs who are clueless (more than even i am) about how dangerous it is for kids to be exposed to this cult's beliefs.
And I read that there are lots of parent groups.
I keep wanting to forward the articles posted here, because they are shocking and eye-opening as to how truly captured the kids are, and how hostile and hurtful they can be.
I haven't heard yet of any parent groups that are political-action oriented, such as meeting together as a group with their legislators, holding public forums of parent speak-outs, visiting their capitol to give parent testimonials as a group, etc. Other than Erin Friday organizing everyone she can. But that seems to be not so much about parent testimonials. I don't hear parent testimonials that much outside of this substack. Are there such parent groups whose sites I can visit, please?
Because legislators need to hear these stories here of how captured the kids are and how it manifests.
Also, may I ask what kind of law you practice, please? Are there any particular legal fronts on this topic you are following in particular and care to share your thoughts on, Alex?
DIAG is a politically oriented group that tries to influence Democratic policy. The GOP is already (over)active on the topic, criminalizing and demonizing rather than seeking healing.
Also, that YouTube I wanted to refer you to a couple of days ago is called, "To Pass as Normal, Kids Must Be Queer." It's all about how queer theory has moved into the teacher colleges over the last 50 or so years, and into K-12 classrooms, and what it is being used to tell kids. Watching it, it seemed to me, how can I kid *not* think they're the opposite sex, given what they're being taught in public school classrooms now. It's that bad. I thought you might like seeing it. I was shocked by what is being put in the K-12 curriculum, just in the last 2-3 years, apparently.
The first half of the video is on YouTube. The creators of it unfortunately moved the second half to the Epoch Times channel, I think because they realized they had a hit of a video. Whether you can watch all of it, or just the first half, I hope you like it.
Thank you. I was wondering about parent's groups that are specifically bringing the parent's side of the story forward to elected officials and the public, about how crazy and obsessive they are once they're captured, such as we read about from parents on this substack
(I tell people I won't use them because I don't want to gaslight myself or others. Also, because it is a common mind control (brainwashing) technique to compel people to say something they don't believe, until they accept and believe it.)
Hey what type of social movement sets out to split children from their parents with false beliefs and lead them into harmful choices? The answer of course is a harmful, dangerous cult.
Yep. We need to start going on the offensive against the bullies. Name-calling is abuse; if the roles were reversed we'd be fired/cancelled/shunned in an instant.
In the workplace, time to start filing internal HR complaints, escalate to external complaints, then lawsuits!
I so agree with everything you said. On a good note, the American College of Pediatricians came out with a fiery statement challenging the rest of the medical community to stop the surgeries and unproven medications on trans identifying people. Of course, they are being vilified in the press.
It's a step in the right direction.
As a parent of a trans identifying adult son, now absent from our lives, the name calling and accusations are horrifying. We love our children deeply and that is why we fight. To believe anything to the contrary is delusional and propaganda.
Regarding AA of P, they have not gone unscathed for standing up for reason: The Southern Poverty Law Center declared the AAP a "hate organization" as a result.
Yes, I'm sure that is the one I read. It was very informative!
Here is part of a letter I have written to the dean of students and professors of my son's university. We have to start fighting back!
My adult child has experienced a pattern of behavior which demonstrates an underlying mental health condition based on several factors I have identified. First, he stated in January that he was transitioning to a female using hormone therapy to start. J has had no prior gender distress throughout his childhood and early adult life. Since the transition, my adult child has become extremely totalitarian in philosophy. One example of this is a recent document to me which outlined 23 requirements I was expected to agree with 100% if communication between us was ever going to occur. I am including this document as an attachment so you can understand the militant nature of the expectations. Second, there has never been face-to-face communication since the letter to me. All of our discussions since have been through text (I have tried face-to face and phone/faceTime–with refusal). Third, on my recent visit to Seattle this past week, I left gifts at the doorstep, attempted to pick up a guitar that was borrowed, and stopped by the house to request a meeting. J called the cops on me, stating that I was “dangerous” and I “didn’t deserve to have a face to face.meeting”. I was only slightly rude when I realized J was hiding in the house acting much younger than a 24-year-old. Out of frustration, I raised my voice, requested more adult-like behavior, and stated “If you are going to reject me, at least have the decency to deal with it to my face and settle disagreements in person (scary, huh?). Fourth, J has developed an incredibly naive attitude of believing anything gender ideology states, while refusing to follow the science with factual, gold standard research as in the model of the CASS review. J won’t even look at the document, stating that all of my research is a lie. Hoping J doesn’t approach research on protein development in the same fashion! I believe J’s passion for the work in the labs at the university may have diminished because of the cult-like theology, and obsession with this new gender identity. This should be addressed and corrected if J stays in the program.
J’s actions are incredibly bizarre behaviors which have never been present before in our relationship. In fact, up until January, J was very close to family and quite loving. All of these behaviors and beliefs fall in line with trauma bonding to a cult. I have mentioned this to you in the past. Something is happening at the university that needs to be addressed. I believe it is also happening in the counseling section of the university with affirmative care which is guiding the transition process and encouraging J to remove anyone from his life who may disagree even slightly with the decision to transition (imagine a 2-year-old with that kind of authority to be able to boss around everyone in the household to get their way–this is what it feels like). These counselors appear to be pushing away the mental health concerns, and pushing clients toward the pathway to medicalization in the medical school. If nothing else, you need to look into this. The WPATH Standards of Care are NOT a model of care. They are a self-proclaimed activist group setting standards of care for medical professionals. They are a house of cards ready to fall, and need to be separated from gender medicine rather than leading it. Read the WPATH document I have attached to see for yourself how this agency is established and how poor the research is related to it.
As stated in my previous letter, the CASS review, the WPATH files, and the Johns Hopkins file review commissioned by WPATH all state that these medical processes and the medical research regarding gender care are lacking. Evidence for care is minimal at best. As stated previously, other nations are closing their gender clinics due to the overwhelming evidence of poor research and minimal evidence of positive outcomes with no long term follow up studies. Within the US, Dr. Jill Simons, a pediatrician and the executive director of the college of pediatricians came out last week launching “The Doctors Protecting Children declaration” at the National Press Club in Washington DC. It is a declaration from a coalition of doctors concerned about protocols used with children who have distress about gender issues. Vulnerable adults, too, have the need for protection against medical practices that can lead to lifelong medical dependency and lifelong medical conditions. Affirmative care should NEVER be the first line of defense for this population. We should not be doing experimental medical procedures with many unknown outcomes to vulnerable children and adults. This is not proper medical care and goes against the mandate “DO NO HARM”.
I believe hormone therapy is one factor which has created a personality shift in my child. Another is the cult nature surrounding the gender clinic and the gender community in the university. Yet another is the strong influence that the gender ideology is having on the folks with autism. I have been both a teacher and a therapist. My adult child has NEVER DISPLAYED SIGNS OF AUTISM in the past. Whatever has caused the fear, anxiety, and the autistic behaviors J is currently experiencing are new developments in J’s life. Perhaps it is vaccine injury, hormone treatment therapy, or the trauma bond with a cult. Any or all of these pieces are having a significant influence on J’s personality.
J and other transitioners' options in life are being limited with the dependence of lifelong medical care and lifelong mental health care. As J’s mother, I hold you responsible for encouraging an affirming model of care instead of supporting and investigating more deeply J’s mental health needs. Recently, J has self-diagnosed as autistic. This would make J one of the vulnerable populations that are being harmed by these medical interventions, as stated in the CASS review. I will be reaching out to my lawyer contacts and using this self-diagnosis as a claim of harm to a vulnerable population when the house of cards falls and J recognizes the harmful effects of these choices, which were actively encouraged and integrated into J’s time at the university, and at the medical gender clinic at the university, when J recognizes the harm it has caused.
There are currently 12 detransitioners with legal cases in the US, against medical agencies who have affirmed and encouraged medicalization. One case is pending in Oregon, another in California. Washington will be dealing with these issues soon as well. There are 60 cases waiting to be addressed, and 250 or more detransitioners who have reached out with medical malpractice concerns. It is imperative that you consider this massive group of folks in the background who are potential cases for lawsuits. It is also crucial that you understand some of the reasons behind WHY these young people are transitioning AND why they decide to detransition. These issues have been minimized by the medical community, which has jumped on the bandwagon of affirmative care due to their fear of the trans community. A particular law firm, with Josh Payne, co-founder of Campbell Miller Payne, a law firm dedicated to representing individuals who were misled and abused – many as children – into psychological and physical harm through a false promise of “gender-affirming care.” Campbell Miller Payne is committed to its mission to speak up for these victims, assert their rights, and pursue justice with his law firm. There is no excuse for this poor quality care and for the scathing disregard for the scientific process to be used within the gender clinics and the counseling community.
Especially you, Ms. Sakiyama-Elbert, as the dean of students—you should be asking questions and sharing information to ensure that all of your students are receiving appropriate, accurate, scientific-driven content and training, in order to provide the best medical care possible. In the future (very soon, I think) we will all consider the gender affirming care model, led by WPATH, to be the worst possible medical experiment on young, vulnerable children and young adults. It is time to make a difference now, not look back and see you have been partially responsible for encouraging the problem, by not taking a stand against it. I wouldn’t wish that on anyone! The other two of you, in my opinion, should at the least read the attached documents and be willing to use the CASS review as “THE GOLD STANDARD OF RESEARCH” for your students to look at to see what is excellent about it. It is the type of quality work you want from students.
Once again, attached are the 23 requirements from J, the CASS review, the WPATH files, WPATH Standards of Care 8, and a link to the Johns Hopkins review paid for, but not published, by WPATH.
Johns Hopkins file review link: https://academic.oup.com/jes/article/5/4/bvab011/6126016?login=false
I would love to know more about those 23 demands! That is wild.
Having trouble copying it to this site!
file:///var/mobile/Library/SMS/Attachments/67/07/32BAD38A-D15B-44E4-8A4B-10B1B822D500/letter.trusted.pdf
"beliefs fall in line with trauma bonding to a cult." Have you read Alexandra Steins book on cults? She talks about trauma bonding with a cult or totalitarian group.
I had no idea there were that many cases and pending or hopeful cases submitted by detransitioners. I'm sorry for them, but being courageous in inquiring is beneficial not only for them, but the society as a whole.
If nothing else says this is a cult, it's the totalist demands your son has placed on you. Mine was name, which if I didn't understand that on a personal level, I may have gone along with it.
My son also self-id as ASD and ADHD at the time of his coming out. All bizarre because while he is profoundly gifted and sensitive, he does not have ASD. I actually saw the test results from a pseudo-therapist who traffics online after my son was estranged for a year or so. He didn't answer all the questions and didn't answer correctly some questions.
GO JOY NORTH!
Hi Mama Bear Proud,
Thank you for your kind response I have read a book on Trauma bonding (It may be the author you are referring to but the name doesn't come to me right now. I am reading multiple books on this topic. I suggest you also look at the the book by Robert Jay Lifton THOUGHT REFORM AND THE PSYCOLOGY OF TOTALISM. In the first 2 chapters it talks about a physician and a priest who both shared their experiences in a communist prison in China. The description of their mind control "re education" programing is similar to my son's, based on conversations we have had and the type of explanations he shared with me about the transition. I am planning to research more, and write these thoughts related to the mind control and WOKE ideology/gender ideology, etc. with references to texts, etc. , and send it to the professors and dean of medical students where he is getting a PhD.
I have been both a teacher and now counselor for 35 years, and worked with many folk with autism. He has NEVER had autism. It is part of the cult mindset, I think to rationalize the anxiety and dissociation they are feeling from the influence of the cult trauma bond. Thanks again, for the positive support. We are all fighting this battle together!
I should have included the book name, "Terror, Love and Brainwashing" by Alexandra Stein. I have read Steve Hassan's, "Combating Cult Mind Control". I think another book you could add to your list is "Sleeping Beauties" by Suzanne O'Sullivan. Really the parts on "looping" by Ian Hacking and expanded by Laurence Kirmayer is interesting and relevant to this phenomenon. I have Robert's book in my pile right now.
Ah, your explanation of ASD in the context of the cult makes sense to me. I had a few other theories.
All the best to your family!
How about f’er? That is not on the list. 🤦🏻♀️
Gender ideology is political. The hole is so deep that only slivers of light can penetrate the darkness of its depths.
Excellent. Thank you! I will be sharing widely.
I agree with you name-calling and bullying behavior are not an acceptable way to engage. I spent decades in a Catholic community that promoted an us/them narrative, name calling and did not allow questioning. Now on the outside of it, the political idolatry to a man who normalizes name calling and bullying behavior are not a surprise. I'm working toward a consistent ethos and learning how to engage in a way that does not dehumanize people. It is hard to undo that religious conditioning.
This makes me sad. When my son told me that he thinks he is trans, I expressed my concerns for him, that I think he was indoctrinated into gender ideology, and he came at me with a lot of these insults. This brings back painful memories. I feel for everyone here who has been hurt by these words, I know how you feel.
When a social worker describes a parent as “unsupportive” for being gender critical, we know that society is captured. Judging parents as unfit and name calling them is simply evil. There is no other word to describe the depths of wrongness.
Agree.
My big frustration is that I feel like I am the only one who sees that "mental health" - the term and the industry - was the first major step in the process of bringing about the current dystopia. The power of the industry and the sinister nature of the phrase "mental health" is not recognized by anyone. As a teenager, al though I couldn't have articulated it at the time, I noticed that suddenly this term I had never heard before was now everywhere. I knew it was sinister. Now I describe it as a term that serves to separate mind from body so that the state can be inserted in the space between. As Jennifer Bilek writes, "trans" is part of the transhumanism agenda, and we're all being groomed into dissociation / dissociating from our bodies. This corresponds with my observation. We're being broken down into parts, the first break being mind / body, and then body is further broken down (and with a focus on the sex-related parts of our bodies).
You are not the only one! It is clear to me that the mental health industry is promoting antidepressants and other drugs for financial reasons. My daughter was suicidal. I was persuaded by two psychologists to give my permission for my 14 year old to trial sertraline which was not approved for children. A few month later she was 15 and no longer needed my approval, she insisted the dose be steadily increased. I observed a personality change, She became reckless. Next she was on a waiting list for testosterone. Now, years later identifying as male she wants to work in the pharmaceutical industry. Another victim of state interference. Sertraline has since been shown to increase suicide risk. Parents beware
I'm so sorry about your daughter. I don't have children but I was gaslit and tormented by what was billed as "help" when I was a teenager and young adult, and it makes me livid that it's only gotten worse in the 30 years since. I think the industry should be dismantled.
Giving psychiatric drugs to people under 30 is evil. Yes, the SSRIs do, in a small but still statistically significant percentage of people, cause suicide and other extreme behaviors. The suicide is believed to be linked to the akathisia which a high proportion of people experience on the drugs. Severe akathisia is thought to be what causes suicide. Maybe you know this. I spent a couple years looking into these drugs' effects back in 2000-2001.
The state transing of kids, and parents losing custody or being threatened with loss of custody, over transing, was occurring with psych drugs too, so it's not exactly new. "Trans" was a new twist for sure but severe abuses were occurring for decades, forever really, in the name of "help" or "treatment" for "mental health".
I always think it's interesting they use the word "treatment." I think that's for liability purposes. No one can accuse them of failing to help or doing harm. They can say "We didn't promise to help, we just said we would "treat".
It's interesting you say it was psychologists not psychiatrists who were the drug pushers. This supports my observation that there's no longer a line between psychiatry and psychology. Maybe there never was but as a teenager it was explained to me that their beliefs were completely incompatible and thus they were separate fields.
Are you familiar with Robert Whitaker and his book "Anatomy of an Epidemic"? He uses data and statistics to show that rates of permanent disability due to "mental illness", qualifying people for federal benefits, skyrocketed along with prescriptions of the new psychiatric drugs (starting with prozac in the 80s).
Personally, just as I don't have a "gender identity," I also don't have some amount of "mental" health. I don't conceive of my well-being in that way, as my mind isn't separate from my body. The way I feel ("mentally") is very dependent on how strong and well I am physically, too.
This is changing. I've noticed an increase in psychologists and psychiatrists on X talking about the harm we have done to generations of people by pathologizing personality, puberty, and even just the periods of difficulty and sadness we all experience, fast-tracking people to go on SSRIs regardless of age, accepting self-diagnoses people pick up on the internet, etc. I have also seen an increase in attention around PSSD, the sexual dysfunction caused by going off of SSRIs. Whether these providers who are beginning to speak out have a different agenda or grift remains to be seen, but I am happy that the conversation is starting. Medications and "treatment" should go back to being the exception and not the norm!
Would you support legal changes that allow your victims to hold you accountable for the effects of your interventions on them and their lives? Would you support a 15- or 20-year statute of limitations? Because gaslighting by definition, can take decades to be recognized.
What do you mean by "your victims?" I'm not a mental health professional. I'm a mom with a daughter on SSRIs who is planning to medically transition. She is a double victim, in my opinion.
Statute of limitations should absolutely be lengthened not only for these cases but for suits against providers of so-called "gender affirming care." I'm not sure I understand what I'm reading as hostility towards me. When I say the harm "we have done," I mean we as a society for allowing this pathologization to happen.
This happened ten years ago. Sorry my memory fails sometimes. The mental health professionals worked as a team so it was difficult to accuse any one person of anything. I do remember being in a room with my daughter, a female psychiatrist and another visiting female psychiatrist. It was on that occasion I gave verbal permission for the drug trial. Next my daughter was being seen by a different psychiatrist, a male. It seemed wrong that there was no continuity of care. Someone I knew started taking sertraline and ended his life. My daughter’s attempts “failed”
Clinical psychologists and psychiatrists did not appear to work well together
The industry and the individual "professionals" within it are totally unaccountable. There's zero recourse for those of us they've used and abused.
Again I'm so sorry for what you've been through. I can't imagine. The grift targets teenage girls so aggressively. I think they started ramping it up in the 80s with eating disorders. That's one reason I fell into their net. We girls whose parents had "mental health" coverage on their insurance, were cash cows for them.
Perhaps of related interest on how kids and teachers are being brainwashed:
There's a new YouTube by conservative James Lindsay, titled, "To Pass As Normal, Kids Must Be Queer."
It's all about how entrenched queer theory has become in school curricula and the teacher colleges. Including how to avoid telling parents what's being taught in their child's classroom.
I'm a progressive, but I thought his in-depth research was eye-opening.
Gender ideology is political. The hole is so deep that only slivers of light can penetrate the darkness of its depths.
All those words translate to the same thing. Heretic! Blasphemer!
Yes, I'm a heretic. Yes, I speak blasphemy. I am not a member of your Queer faith and I am under no obligation to follow your doctrine.
This is heartbreaking and important to report out to society. Thank you to the author.
I'm not a parent, let alone of a child captured by this vicious, no-holds-barred cult.
But I think if I had a child come home one day and announce this, especially if they started to verbally abuse me; or if another friend or acquaintance announced a cross-sex identity to me, based on what I have learned from parents and therapists on this and my own life experience with psychological health, I would be tempted to drop everything and say I was going for a hike in a beautiful natural area, right then, and invite them to join me, saying, "let's talk about this," without cell phones, throw some bread, cheese and fruit in a backpack, and head out the door for two hours, to listen to that person out in nature. Goal: to get them and myself out in the natural world, as nature therapy, as an antidote to screens, being indoors, and the stress of both of those. That afternoon. Because it's a psychological health crisis. And just walk and listen. And without telling them, necessarily, but to let that person heal a bit and become more logical and connected by being in nature. Nature therapy, it's now being called.
And I would do this every day for 2 hours until that person is healed of their psychosis, their disembodiment.
It would also make me a cool parent: offering something fun, relaxing, healing, and giving them my undivided attention. For 2 hours every day.
A nurse advised this to me when I was feeling suicidal 10 years ago. She prescribed 2 hours, every day in my favorite, stunning county park.
This forced me to recognize my priorities (staying alive, psychological health), and to *find* the time.
It began working to heal me the first day. It brought instant relief, to get out there. Joy. An indulgent vacation. By day 3, people around me where I lived were remarking I was a calmer, happier, nicer person. I also felt more rational and logical, from being out in the logical world of nature. Everything in nature is logical. It makes sense why a tree is twisted or leaning, subject to natural forces. And why the leaves on the trees in my summer-drought California location are small, grey-green, coated with reflective silver hairs, and have a leathery texture: all to help them conserve water. Everything in nature has sound reasons for the way it is, due to evolution, weather, physics, etc. Observing nature helps us see what is logical and rational, or irrational when we're outdoors, even if we aren't thinking about these details. Everything just makes sense out there.
This daily 2 hours of nature therapy, walking with the person, would be a way for a parent or friend to lean in, give their child or friend the attention they're so desperately seeking (that's part of it: a cry for help, and for a lot more undivided attention), out in the logic of nature, and away from the influence, stress and idiocy of screens.
In fact, I'm going to go do this, this afternoon. At least go outside for the afternoon.
Take my own medicine :) (I did, and it helped.)
Thanks for your great, eye-opening, thought-provoking article.
My heart goes out to all the parents here.
I adore nature and its benefits. I love your ideas. What you must understand is that I took my daughter on a hike, and she started yelling, took her shirt off, and there was a "scene". When a kid ingests the poison of this ideology, nature doesn't even work for them. Things are bad when nature can't reach them. Outsiders must understand that parents have tried many things without success, and it doesn't work if the kid has been fully captured. That is why we need back up and awareness of the profound harm of losing our children to this ideology.
I still benefit from nature. Yet parents like me are demonized. Doesn't this story cause concern about this ideology being a good thing for kids and families?
Omg, that's awful! I'm so sorry. I never read anyone discussing taking their kids out into nature, trying that.
Was that the last time you did that with her? Is there any chance that being out there in nature, a major contrast from trans' unnatural beliefs, and from being online, what brought on that episode?
Your comment is reminding me that it's not uncommon for it to be a big shock for people to get out in nature, especially if it's been awhile, that can bring up intense feelings.
I know for myself, when I spend time out in nature, if its been awhile, it brings up uncomfortable feelings, and some distress that makes me want to leave soon and quickly return home. It can take a number of times for me of getting out there to want to stay out there for long, for that reason.
I wonder if that was why your daughter had such an intense episode out there. In part because being online a lot, and being disconnected from one's body is the exact opposite of being connected with nature. It would make sense if for those reasons it triggered an explosion like that.
I wonder if shorter doses, such as starting with a 5-minute walk around the block, would be a more useful strategy. I'm sure you've tried that. What was that like, please?
I don't want to push this, though. You know your situation and your daughter best. I don't know her whatsoever, or what it is like to parent a child that's been captured by this nightmare.
Rest assured, I have never thought that this trans nonsense was ever anything good for families or anyone. I've been an outspoken critic of it since the 1970s, and never fell for any part of it. Not pronouns, not any of it.
Thank you for telling me this. Good to know. It sounds like possibly a reaction to nature being the complete opposite of trans ideology and the un-reality of being online in any capacity. I need to severely cut back my own phone hours. Her response to being outdoors sounds like me trying to go for just half a day with my phone off. ;) Never taken my shirt off outdoors from it, tho :/
Thank you again. I needed to hear that. I appreciate learning from you.
Follow my substack to read more. https://thetranstrain.substack.com
I keep reading the statements of libs who are clueless (more than even i am) about how dangerous it is for kids to be exposed to this cult's beliefs.
And I read that there are lots of parent groups.
I keep wanting to forward the articles posted here, because they are shocking and eye-opening as to how truly captured the kids are, and how hostile and hurtful they can be.
I haven't heard yet of any parent groups that are political-action oriented, such as meeting together as a group with their legislators, holding public forums of parent speak-outs, visiting their capitol to give parent testimonials as a group, etc. Other than Erin Friday organizing everyone she can. But that seems to be not so much about parent testimonials. I don't hear parent testimonials that much outside of this substack. Are there such parent groups whose sites I can visit, please?
Because legislators need to hear these stories here of how captured the kids are and how it manifests.
Would you please fill me in?
Also, may I ask what kind of law you practice, please? Are there any particular legal fronts on this topic you are following in particular and care to share your thoughts on, Alex?
DIAG is a politically oriented group that tries to influence Democratic policy. The GOP is already (over)active on the topic, criminalizing and demonizing rather than seeking healing.
Also, that YouTube I wanted to refer you to a couple of days ago is called, "To Pass as Normal, Kids Must Be Queer." It's all about how queer theory has moved into the teacher colleges over the last 50 or so years, and into K-12 classrooms, and what it is being used to tell kids. Watching it, it seemed to me, how can I kid *not* think they're the opposite sex, given what they're being taught in public school classrooms now. It's that bad. I thought you might like seeing it. I was shocked by what is being put in the K-12 curriculum, just in the last 2-3 years, apparently.
The first half of the video is on YouTube. The creators of it unfortunately moved the second half to the Epoch Times channel, I think because they realized they had a hit of a video. Whether you can watch all of it, or just the first half, I hope you like it.
Thank you. I was wondering about parent's groups that are specifically bringing the parent's side of the story forward to elected officials and the public, about how crazy and obsessive they are once they're captured, such as we read about from parents on this substack
I'm familiar with Di-Ag and think they're great!
Thanks for your reply.
I saw this on X and felt it addressed the pronoun issue succinctly and pointed out the lack of treatment of core underlying mental health issues:
"I won't use someone's pronouns for the same reason I don't speak to a schizophrenic's imaginary friends."
I love that! Thanks, RFM.
(I tell people I won't use them because I don't want to gaslight myself or others. Also, because it is a common mind control (brainwashing) technique to compel people to say something they don't believe, until they accept and believe it.)
Hey what type of social movement sets out to split children from their parents with false beliefs and lead them into harmful choices? The answer of course is a harmful, dangerous cult.
The words are being used .... to silence dissent.
Shrug it off and speak!
Yep. We need to start going on the offensive against the bullies. Name-calling is abuse; if the roles were reversed we'd be fired/cancelled/shunned in an instant.
In the workplace, time to start filing internal HR complaints, escalate to external complaints, then lawsuits!
I so agree with everything you said. On a good note, the American College of Pediatricians came out with a fiery statement challenging the rest of the medical community to stop the surgeries and unproven medications on trans identifying people. Of course, they are being vilified in the press.
It's a step in the right direction.
As a parent of a trans identifying adult son, now absent from our lives, the name calling and accusations are horrifying. We love our children deeply and that is why we fight. To believe anything to the contrary is delusional and propaganda.
That's good, but the ACP is relatively small. It's the behemoth American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) that needs to flip.
Regarding AA of P, they have not gone unscathed for standing up for reason: The Southern Poverty Law Center declared the AAP a "hate organization" as a result.
Do you mean ACP? They're the gender-critical organization.
The AAP promotes "gender-affirming care," as does the SPLC.
Disgusting.
Yes.
And, this article contains the ACP statement:
https://notthebee.com/article/watch-american-college-of-pediatrics-releases-statement-opposing-gender-transition-for-minors-calls-out-other-organizations-pushing-ideology-over-science?utm_source=Not+The+Bee+Newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=06092024
Thank you so much for including this!
You are very welcome. We do have to End This Madness.