I also admire your search for the truth! As a parent of a trans daughter the stats show I am not alone in my experience & there are very common threads with our child's journeys. You are a star in my eyes and I know you will inspire other teens to seek the truth & take their own personal journey without being indoctrinated by the evil death cult that is trans ideology. Bless you & carry on the great work of saving our young kids.
I am so sorry to hear that. It really sucks. This ideology snuck out on us, leaving us, parents, blindsided to pick up the pieces of what’s left of our healthy daughters and sons. Let’s continue to elevate our voices so other parents don’t share our outcomes. Please let me know if there is anything I can do…
Very well done!! I wish I had been on here before this survey was done. Oh my gosh!! This is almost 100% accurate to my child's experience. The medical professionals need to wake up to the reality of what's going on with our youth and not rush to push them through gender affirming cares. This is all going to backfire on our kids, and the medical professionals who gave them the go ahead will hold no responsibility for their part in this.
They kept telling me that my parents are against me and that I will be better off without them once I become an adult. When I desisted they asked me numerous times if this is my decision to go back to my biological gender or if my parents are pushing me to do so
Well done. Your results - despite a small survey group - track with my experience of my daughter's transgenderism. She was a very feminine girl, didn't like rough play, getting dirty, sweaty, always chose to wear pretty dresses, pastels, loved having her hair done, became very talented at doing her own make up as a teen - now looks like a metal head, tattooed, androgynous but quite obviously still feminine person. She's tall and slim, people often said she could model.
COVID lockdown in our country (which I supported, by the way - as a percentage of our population, Australia had relatively low mortality as a result of the pandemic) combined with the chat groups I now know she was being cheered on by online, low self-esteem and depression led her to where she is. I cannot emphasise the power of online indoctrination. And as the cheering only goes one way, both in the real world and online, detransistioning often means losing your entire social group at her age (21 years).
I wish she'd been born 10 years earlier or 10 years later. I think her life would have been very different. That, and I should have worked harder to get her away from her damn computer - but she was an adult, only so much a parent can control when you're dealing with an 18 year old, which is when she first said she was trans.
I hope there is an end to this. Young people like you are the beginning. Congratulations on your work, and please don't stop. The medical profession, including mental health professionals, won't listen to parents. Perhaps they'll listen to you.
This is so much like what we're going through with our son. I supported the lockdown as well, but right now, if not locking everything down and risking getting Covid was an option, I think I would choose that over this. As a hospital worker, that time was horrible and I pray we never see anything like it again, but the harm done to an entire generation of kids is going to be hard to reverse. Had I known what all my son was doing online, his internet access would have been blocked for everything but school work. He didn't have a phone at the time, so all of his access was through our home internet. I know that a lot of people have basically the same experience there. Prayers for you as you go through this with your daughter.
Thank you for carrying out this survey. It's of a higher quality than the surveys conducted here by the big orgs and universities that develop flawed data to then base their policies on!! And thank you to the parents who completed the survey... we need to see these stats.
First off, this is very impressive work for a 13yo. I would echo the other comments that have encouraged you to continue exploring research-there are programs out there for high school students to link up with college professor mentors and work on studies for publication. You would have to find the right mentor, but it could be done. And there is certainly a desperate need for objective literature exploring rogd, desistance and detransition.
With that being said, please know that the rest of this is in no way meant to diminish your hard work, initiative, and impressive presentation. But, the main issue I see here is the problem with most articles and many studies on rogd adolescents: it relies on parental estimation of the adol's thoughts and feelings. Some of the vulnerability to criticism could be reduced by changing the wording a bit: for example, instead of asking if the child was suicidal before identifying as trans, you could discuss when the child expressed or demonstrated suicidality in relation to when they expressed trans identification. It may seem petty, but it's a more objective and truthful way of presenting these results. Because, of course, when you're dealing with a pool of respondants, all of whom have unique and different family dynamics, there is no way to know whether parents actually know for sure when a kid started feeling suicidal or questioning their gender.
A similar issue comes up with discussion of "suspected" mental health concerns. This is a perfectly valid question to ask parents and provides important insight, but the fact that a parent suspects the child might have a mental health condition is a very different endpoint than whether the child actually is diagnosed once evaluated for that condition. I'll get back to this point in a bit, because I think what you have here is the first half, or the first third, of a really important set of data.
The trauma question and analysis could be much stronger if you compare the responses to the rate of exposure to trauma in the applicable age group in general. You would probably need to make your question more precise in order to be able to compare the same variable, so for example instead of asking about trauma in general, you could provide a definition of adverse childhood experiences and ask if the child has had at least 4. Find some studies on trauma exposure in adolescents (there are many) and look at the specific definition they are using for trauma, and incorporate that into your question.
I would also encourage you to think about how you might get straight to the source. Meaning, if you want to evaluate someone's thinking, it's best to talk to that person. Parent opinion is an important piece of the whole picture (we call this "collateral" in the psych world) but it is only a piece. And, we already know that there is a large group of parents out there who believe the things your survey showed. What we don't have, yet, is correlation between parental opinion, the childs thoughts and feelings as well as scores on objective, validated symptom/diagnostic scales, and (in an ideal world) the results of psychiatric or neuropsych testing. I know this is a really tall order, but just to get you thinking...a really, really great paper would: a) compare parent perceptions to child's report of their thoughts and feelings and timing; and b) compare both parent and child reports of trans identification and mental health issues to professional evaluation for gender dysphoria and mental health and neuro issues.
From my perspective, the research in this area is lacking in a number of ways and you've highlighted a few of the big ones: many ROGD studies rely completely on parent report, and there is a general lack of comprehensive psychiatric and neuropsychological testing among this population even when parent and/or child reports they believe they have a mental health disorder. Your survey could potentially form the start of a study that fills one or both of those gaps. Ideally, you would need to find parent-child pairs in which both were willing to complete the survey. You would need to separate out desisters from those who continue to identify as trans. You would need to find a way to both compare the parent and child opinions with each other, as well as with the rest of the group. Meaning, you would need to ask whether, for example, parent and child agree on when the child began identifying as trans, whether they were "happy"wearing clothes of their gender (as opposed to the more objective question of whether they wore them at all), whether and when they began feeling suicidal, if they are experiencing symptoms of mental health or neuro problems and if so, which ones. Then, separately, you would need to compare the opinions of the parents with the other parents (as you did here) and the child with the other children.
Again, one of the most consistent, biggest, and (imo) most credible criticisms of the current body of research on ROGD is that it relies on parent reports of both the child's thoughts and feelings, and the child's mental health (as opposed to relying on a professional diagnostic evaluation). Your survey is like many of the published studies on the topic (Lisa Littman's work comes to mind) in that it is missing a big piece of the puzzle. That doesn't mean it's not useful. But, again, there is such a need for additional data in this area. And we need young researchers to pursue it. So, please keep asking questions and thinking about how you might be able to shed more light on these issues. We need you!
Although this is a detailed and well explained critique of the research presented, I do feel you might be being a bit *over* critical. Bearing in mind the survey was aimed at the users of this website, that is, parents of "trans" kids, there wasn't much else the researcher could ask than for the parents' opinions and perceptions. So while true that their is additional data that would/could expand the field of knowledge, I don't think here is the place to find that data.
Asking a child who does (or even perhaps did) ID as trans about their mental health/suicidality is always going to be a problem, because of the way these children are introduced and (for want of a better expression) indoctrinated into the belief. Given that they hear, over and over, that it's "trans or die", "trans health care is life saving health care" and so on, I suspect that there will be a lot of kids who, deliberately or subconsciously, over-estimate their own feelings of suicidality and/or depression prior to coming out as trans. That is not to say it isn't worth trying to investigate these things, but the perception of any "trans" child is unlikely to be objective. It is astonishing how human beings can come to believe as fact something that they are told happened - Jazz Jennings being a relevant example here - the whole family has adopted the narrative presented that Jazz "always knew", along with the various tales to support that, as a factual part of the family history. Despite a lot of it being impossible given the age Jazz would have been when these things supposedly happened.
Sorry, I appear to have started waffling a bit.
Top marks to the OP for this research, and as many have said, well worth developing. I also reiterate Jen's comment; "please keep asking questions.... we need you!"
Super impressed with your survey & the write up. Thank you as well to your parents/other loving adults who may have assisted you with this project. I encourage you & your team to also send this to the APA (American Psychological Association), AMA (American Medical Association) etc (There are many associations & foundations to which to send your work. Ask for your team input.)
Additionally, going local can be a useful path. Wherever you live, send to superindendant of schools, board of education, congresspeople/legislators, any local organizations (such as Girl & Boy Scouts).
You are the youngest desistor of whom I'm aware. Your cohort needs to know, hear, see you. Blessings of safety, fortitude, resilience, & resolve.
I also admire your search for the truth! As a parent of a trans daughter the stats show I am not alone in my experience & there are very common threads with our child's journeys. You are a star in my eyes and I know you will inspire other teens to seek the truth & take their own personal journey without being indoctrinated by the evil death cult that is trans ideology. Bless you & carry on the great work of saving our young kids.
You are crazy amazing for 13! Present at science fair!
Thank you for doing this ❤️ I remember doing this survey!! And not shocked at the results. Thanks you for your voice and hard work to wake others up.
First of all, congratulations! I am so impressed with your work.
Second, I wish I would have participated.
And third, I wanted to share this link from an NPR report about athletes taking drastic measures. It addresses maturity and regret.
Link: Athletes make difficult choices. Hear what they'll do in pursuit of Olympic glory
https://www.npr.org/2024/08/01/nx-s1-5053015/athletes-make-difficult-choices-hear-what-theyll-do-in-pursuit-of-olympic-glory
Wow! Very Interesting- I'm wondering how my 21 year old daughter will feel in the future about having her healthy breasts removed.
I am so sorry to hear that. It really sucks. This ideology snuck out on us, leaving us, parents, blindsided to pick up the pieces of what’s left of our healthy daughters and sons. Let’s continue to elevate our voices so other parents don’t share our outcomes. Please let me know if there is anything I can do…
thanks for doing this. So needed. Bravo!
Very well done!! I wish I had been on here before this survey was done. Oh my gosh!! This is almost 100% accurate to my child's experience. The medical professionals need to wake up to the reality of what's going on with our youth and not rush to push them through gender affirming cares. This is all going to backfire on our kids, and the medical professionals who gave them the go ahead will hold no responsibility for their part in this.
how did the hospitals care personally effect you when you desisted? you didn't undergo any medicalization per the term, can you explain?
They kept telling me that my parents are against me and that I will be better off without them once I become an adult. When I desisted they asked me numerous times if this is my decision to go back to my biological gender or if my parents are pushing me to do so
Well done. Your results - despite a small survey group - track with my experience of my daughter's transgenderism. She was a very feminine girl, didn't like rough play, getting dirty, sweaty, always chose to wear pretty dresses, pastels, loved having her hair done, became very talented at doing her own make up as a teen - now looks like a metal head, tattooed, androgynous but quite obviously still feminine person. She's tall and slim, people often said she could model.
COVID lockdown in our country (which I supported, by the way - as a percentage of our population, Australia had relatively low mortality as a result of the pandemic) combined with the chat groups I now know she was being cheered on by online, low self-esteem and depression led her to where she is. I cannot emphasise the power of online indoctrination. And as the cheering only goes one way, both in the real world and online, detransistioning often means losing your entire social group at her age (21 years).
I wish she'd been born 10 years earlier or 10 years later. I think her life would have been very different. That, and I should have worked harder to get her away from her damn computer - but she was an adult, only so much a parent can control when you're dealing with an 18 year old, which is when she first said she was trans.
I hope there is an end to this. Young people like you are the beginning. Congratulations on your work, and please don't stop. The medical profession, including mental health professionals, won't listen to parents. Perhaps they'll listen to you.
This is so much like what we're going through with our son. I supported the lockdown as well, but right now, if not locking everything down and risking getting Covid was an option, I think I would choose that over this. As a hospital worker, that time was horrible and I pray we never see anything like it again, but the harm done to an entire generation of kids is going to be hard to reverse. Had I known what all my son was doing online, his internet access would have been blocked for everything but school work. He didn't have a phone at the time, so all of his access was through our home internet. I know that a lot of people have basically the same experience there. Prayers for you as you go through this with your daughter.
Thank you for carrying out this survey. It's of a higher quality than the surveys conducted here by the big orgs and universities that develop flawed data to then base their policies on!! And thank you to the parents who completed the survey... we need to see these stats.
Great work, I can't believe that you are only 13, watch out world here comes a fighter!
I still can't get over the boxing stuff. If they're going to let men box women, give the women brass knuckles.
Great job! Thank you for all your hard work.
you are an incredibly mature and sensible 13 year old and I applaud you for the work you have done.
Thank you
First off, this is very impressive work for a 13yo. I would echo the other comments that have encouraged you to continue exploring research-there are programs out there for high school students to link up with college professor mentors and work on studies for publication. You would have to find the right mentor, but it could be done. And there is certainly a desperate need for objective literature exploring rogd, desistance and detransition.
With that being said, please know that the rest of this is in no way meant to diminish your hard work, initiative, and impressive presentation. But, the main issue I see here is the problem with most articles and many studies on rogd adolescents: it relies on parental estimation of the adol's thoughts and feelings. Some of the vulnerability to criticism could be reduced by changing the wording a bit: for example, instead of asking if the child was suicidal before identifying as trans, you could discuss when the child expressed or demonstrated suicidality in relation to when they expressed trans identification. It may seem petty, but it's a more objective and truthful way of presenting these results. Because, of course, when you're dealing with a pool of respondants, all of whom have unique and different family dynamics, there is no way to know whether parents actually know for sure when a kid started feeling suicidal or questioning their gender.
A similar issue comes up with discussion of "suspected" mental health concerns. This is a perfectly valid question to ask parents and provides important insight, but the fact that a parent suspects the child might have a mental health condition is a very different endpoint than whether the child actually is diagnosed once evaluated for that condition. I'll get back to this point in a bit, because I think what you have here is the first half, or the first third, of a really important set of data.
The trauma question and analysis could be much stronger if you compare the responses to the rate of exposure to trauma in the applicable age group in general. You would probably need to make your question more precise in order to be able to compare the same variable, so for example instead of asking about trauma in general, you could provide a definition of adverse childhood experiences and ask if the child has had at least 4. Find some studies on trauma exposure in adolescents (there are many) and look at the specific definition they are using for trauma, and incorporate that into your question.
I would also encourage you to think about how you might get straight to the source. Meaning, if you want to evaluate someone's thinking, it's best to talk to that person. Parent opinion is an important piece of the whole picture (we call this "collateral" in the psych world) but it is only a piece. And, we already know that there is a large group of parents out there who believe the things your survey showed. What we don't have, yet, is correlation between parental opinion, the childs thoughts and feelings as well as scores on objective, validated symptom/diagnostic scales, and (in an ideal world) the results of psychiatric or neuropsych testing. I know this is a really tall order, but just to get you thinking...a really, really great paper would: a) compare parent perceptions to child's report of their thoughts and feelings and timing; and b) compare both parent and child reports of trans identification and mental health issues to professional evaluation for gender dysphoria and mental health and neuro issues.
From my perspective, the research in this area is lacking in a number of ways and you've highlighted a few of the big ones: many ROGD studies rely completely on parent report, and there is a general lack of comprehensive psychiatric and neuropsychological testing among this population even when parent and/or child reports they believe they have a mental health disorder. Your survey could potentially form the start of a study that fills one or both of those gaps. Ideally, you would need to find parent-child pairs in which both were willing to complete the survey. You would need to separate out desisters from those who continue to identify as trans. You would need to find a way to both compare the parent and child opinions with each other, as well as with the rest of the group. Meaning, you would need to ask whether, for example, parent and child agree on when the child began identifying as trans, whether they were "happy"wearing clothes of their gender (as opposed to the more objective question of whether they wore them at all), whether and when they began feeling suicidal, if they are experiencing symptoms of mental health or neuro problems and if so, which ones. Then, separately, you would need to compare the opinions of the parents with the other parents (as you did here) and the child with the other children.
Again, one of the most consistent, biggest, and (imo) most credible criticisms of the current body of research on ROGD is that it relies on parent reports of both the child's thoughts and feelings, and the child's mental health (as opposed to relying on a professional diagnostic evaluation). Your survey is like many of the published studies on the topic (Lisa Littman's work comes to mind) in that it is missing a big piece of the puzzle. That doesn't mean it's not useful. But, again, there is such a need for additional data in this area. And we need young researchers to pursue it. So, please keep asking questions and thinking about how you might be able to shed more light on these issues. We need you!
You know these kids under the grip of trans ideology follow a script, starting with the lie, "I've always felt this way". 🙄
Although this is a detailed and well explained critique of the research presented, I do feel you might be being a bit *over* critical. Bearing in mind the survey was aimed at the users of this website, that is, parents of "trans" kids, there wasn't much else the researcher could ask than for the parents' opinions and perceptions. So while true that their is additional data that would/could expand the field of knowledge, I don't think here is the place to find that data.
Asking a child who does (or even perhaps did) ID as trans about their mental health/suicidality is always going to be a problem, because of the way these children are introduced and (for want of a better expression) indoctrinated into the belief. Given that they hear, over and over, that it's "trans or die", "trans health care is life saving health care" and so on, I suspect that there will be a lot of kids who, deliberately or subconsciously, over-estimate their own feelings of suicidality and/or depression prior to coming out as trans. That is not to say it isn't worth trying to investigate these things, but the perception of any "trans" child is unlikely to be objective. It is astonishing how human beings can come to believe as fact something that they are told happened - Jazz Jennings being a relevant example here - the whole family has adopted the narrative presented that Jazz "always knew", along with the various tales to support that, as a factual part of the family history. Despite a lot of it being impossible given the age Jazz would have been when these things supposedly happened.
Sorry, I appear to have started waffling a bit.
Top marks to the OP for this research, and as many have said, well worth developing. I also reiterate Jen's comment; "please keep asking questions.... we need you!"
There are no professional diagnostic evaluations happening with the affirming model being used.
This is absolutely brilliant and should be seen by everyone, everywhere. Thank you SO much!
Super impressed with your survey & the write up. Thank you as well to your parents/other loving adults who may have assisted you with this project. I encourage you & your team to also send this to the APA (American Psychological Association), AMA (American Medical Association) etc (There are many associations & foundations to which to send your work. Ask for your team input.)
Additionally, going local can be a useful path. Wherever you live, send to superindendant of schools, board of education, congresspeople/legislators, any local organizations (such as Girl & Boy Scouts).
You are the youngest desistor of whom I'm aware. Your cohort needs to know, hear, see you. Blessings of safety, fortitude, resilience, & resolve.
I'm glad you like it :) I did this on my own and I will happily send it to the organizations you stated above.