Evidence for ROGD
From the U.S. Transgender Survey of 2015
Dear PITT community,
Leor Sapir, Lisa Littman and Michael Biggs have recently published a letter to the editor of the Archives of Sexual Behavior that will be of interest to PITT parents, TERFs, gender critics and anyone interested in evidence based scientific inquiry.
The letter is in response to the “Age of Realization and Disclosure of Gender Identity Among Transgender Adults” written by Jack Turban, Brett Dolotina, Thomas M Freitag, Dana King and Alex Keuroghlian and published in the Journal of Adolescent Health in June of 2023. In this paper, Turban and his co-authors argue that the U.S. Transgender Survey of 2015 - the largest of its kind to date - contains results that do not support the ROGD hypothesis.
In brief, Turban et al argue that what appears to be a late (adolescent) onset of transgender identity is often just the long-delayed disclosure of a transgender identity formed earlier in life. After noticing problems with this argument, Sapir, Littman and Biggs decided to examine the assumptions and analysis of the USTS data which Turban et al conducted. Sapir’s, Littman’s and Biggs’ suspicions were confirmed. In their analysis of the survey, they found it actually supports the ROGD hypothesis.
Their findings promoted their subsequent Letter to the Editor which has been peer-reviewed. This letter represents a significant development in the ongoing debate over adolescent gender dysphoria. It advances the cause of evidence-based treatment for those suffering from gender dysphoria. And it holds accountable those who purport to use data to advance science when they are, in fact, promoting an ideology.
It's important to note that the 2015 Trans Survey's data is inherently low-quality, because it was an anonymous online survey. Participants were self-selected, not chosen by scientists. They were classified based on self-definitions, not those of scientists. It relied on self-assessments by the participants, rather than objective evaluation by clinicians. Information was unverifiable, there were no safeguards against false responses or repeat participation by the same individuals. There was no control group of non-trans people to compare the data with.
The more you learn about transgenderism from a scientific viewpoint, the more you realize it is entirely self-generated. Trans people are considered trans because they say so, not because there's any objective evidence for it (there isn't). They are given drugs and surgery because they want them, not because they've been shown to be more helpful than harmful (they haven't). The treatment "works" because trans people say it does, not because the objectively-evaluated results are positive (they aren't).
In this case, the power of the Scientific Method has been utterly overwhelmed by the power of narcissistic gaslighting.
I came to hate my body when I hit puberty. I felt so awkward, and I certainly wasn't some pretty teenage movie heroine. My hair and skin were greasy no matter how often I washed them. I had acne. I had periods from hell. I hated my breasts. I was ridiculed because they were "too small," yet stupid guys noticed them enough to grope me and to snap my bra. I hated having gross grown men catcall me. Who wouldn't want to opt out of being female when this is what we have to look forward to?
These days, I certainly would have been put on the path to transition. I assure you, I am not "really a guy." I have never "felt" like I was male. I never actually wanted to be male. What I wanted was to be taken seriously and not objectified.