The Myth of the Trans-Child

This epiphany for me, that “trans-children” is something completely made up by people who are simply trying to justify their own choices in life sickened me.

I became interested in trans ideology one night when my roommate's daughter cornered me in the kitchen and stated accusingly “You probably think that I'm a girl, don't you?!” In an intense conversation a few weeks earlier, she had instructed me that both she and her female friend were no longer to be referred to as “she” or “her” and were no longer “girls” but were now “theys” or “thems”, I don't recall which. The precise terminology wasn't very well defined but the idea that now referring to this person that I'd known for all 14 years of her existence as a “girl” was patently and outrageously offensive, came across very clearly. 

After a long conversation with them about my apparently bigoted and hateful views, they (or is it Them?) ended up bawling on the couch, I resolved to get to the heart of the matter. I wasn't trying to be mean, but I didn’t I appreciate someone who had been on Earth exactly one quarter of the time that I had, telling me that the words I use to describe reality were all wrong and that I needed to get with the program because, as she said several times of she and her fellow teenyboppers, “we're here to teach you”. 

This kicked off a now years long deep dive into everything involving gender ideology. Mind you, I wasn't necessarily opposed to what was happening to begin with. Living in San Francisco for 33 years I'd known more gay people than I could count and numerous trans-identified people as well. It's impossible to live in San Francisco for so long and be an anti-alternative sexuality, or anti-trans bigot. It would simply be too exhausting. So I considered myself very open minded when it came to sexual or gender identity.

This new form of whatever-it-is was seemingly spreading everywhere and quickly, but was it something to be all that worried about? I didn't know. I was open to the possibility that even after spending so many years in San Francisco, having gay friends and co-workers and roommates, knowing trans-people, going to numerous, and I mean numerous drag shows (I went to TrannyShack back when it was still called that, and it was maybe the best night of entertainment I've ever experienced), that I was still behind the fast moving culture wars and I wasn't being as good of an LBGTQIAlly as I maybe could be. 

At first, I generally accepted what was going on for a few reasons: it seemed like the good Liberal thing to do, and I was nothing if not a good Liberal, and they didn't appear to be harming anyone (or so I thought, then). And if all these medical professionals and credentialed mental health people were saying it was alright, then who was I to say that they were wrong?

I initially started digging into the sports aspect of what was happening. The narrative that was being put forth was that males have a 10-12% “advantage” over females in most sporting events. With testosterone blocking and cross-sex hormones, after a year or two, that advantage is reduced by 10-12% so problem solved! But was it really? That explanation of what was happening seemed too neat and tidy. 

Exploring the sports issue quickly led me into the world of “trans-youth”. The pro-trans and gender people were howling in anguish about trans-kids - how they're trying to ban trans-kids from playing sports (that in itself is a lie), how these “anti-trans bills” are going to affect trans-kids and lead to more suicides, how “gender affirming healthcare” (there's an Orwellian phrase if I've ever heard one) is being denied to trans-children and how this is all going to lead to massive numbers of trans-kids wanting to kill themselves. Everywhere one turned it seemed there was some pink or blue haired activists yelling that if society didn't give them everything that they wanted that you essentially wanted trans-children to die. 

It was difficult to make sense of what was actually happening and separate truth from ideologically driven hysteria. I surely didn't want any children to die but neither did I want boys running on the girls track team, or teenage girls getting mastectomies and taking sterilizing drugs at an age when the reality of making the decision whether or not to have children is an abstract idea. 

Even President Biden was getting in on the act saying in a State of the Union address to these legions of transgender kids “I will always have your back!” I mean, what is my nagging discomfort at the notion of trans-kids compared to the AMA, legions of doctors and psychologists, and the POTUS seeming to be celebrating them at every turn? 

I went on to forums that discussed these issues and read posts by trans-people “If there are trans adults, then there have to be trans kids” was one post that seemed to make sense when I read it, but still the nagging feeling remained. It just felt wrong that large numbers of (mostly female) children and teens seemed to be flocking to gender identity clinics to have their “gender affirmed” and these clinics were passing out puberty blockers like Halloween candy. From what I was reading “top surgery” and cross-sex hormones followed on the heels of puberty blockers for many, if not most, of these “gender distressed” kids. Was it Right-wing scare mongering? Unless the Right was making up statistics about the number of referrals to these clinics in both the U.S. and the U.K., something bizarre was definitely happening. After a friend told me to “stop it with the trans stuff, you’re obsessed!” I shot back, “this stuff is spreading! If you have a child, I hope we can put an end to it before they get into school!” I felt like a character actor in a 1950's sci-fi horror film at that moment, but the fear was about something real, not a human eating blob or giant ants.

I found myself having to turn to right winger news sources, and Christian aligned organizations, to get anything that felt like real journalism. As an atheist who detested Fox News, this was a troubling turn of events, but my usual liberal news sources all seemed to apparently just be parroting what was fed to them by the gender ideology/trans agenda side...”Trans women are women and since they are women, they belong in women's sports”, “Puberty blockers are simply a pause button that gives a 'gender distressed' child more time to think”, “There are unlimited number of genders and if you are questioning your gender, you're probably trans!”, “Your family doesn't understand you, your glitter family is your real family now!” It was all very cultish sounding and seemingly irrational and incoherent by design. You could never pin anyone down on anything and if someone did make a serious counter-point that made sense, they would be called a transphobe and bigot who wanted trans-children to kill themselves.

And, unless a lot of people were just making things up, the number of parents who were being told some version of “Would you rather have a dead son/daughter or a live trans daughter/son?” by professional medical people seemed to be skyrocketing. This seemed like the ultimate form of emotional blackmail, “do what we say with your child or they will kill themselves”. It was difficult to believe that it was happening with regularity, but the stories seemed to be real, the parental anguish genuine. 

An opinion piece in the New York Times by Marci Bowers (a trans identified doctor who performed the surgery on Jazz Jennings) declared “When considering the growing body of overwhelmingly positive data about adult transgender treatment, it makes sense that earlier intervention, which can lessen the permanent effects of puberty, would make gender transition easier for teenagers...” That statement floored me, I couldn't believe I was reading this in the world's most important newspaper, and the date of the article (April 1, 2023) didn't lead me to believe that it was a joke. Now, people were seriously discussing how it's a great idea to halt the natural development of children so that they don't suffer the “permanent effects of puberty”!? What person has had an anxiety and trouble-free puberty?! No one, no one ever in history. If we were offering children a way to ostensibly skip over this turbulent time and emerge on the other side a more beautiful glittery butterfly, who wouldn't want to take that path? 

What kind of insane world had I woken up in and how could I get out of this nightmare?! I found it necessary for my mental health to understand the whole “trans kids” phenomena. Again, it was more research and reading. I even found myself reading and watching things by people from the other side of the debate such as Veronica Ivy, Judith Butler, Marci Bowers, Martine Rothblatt, Lydia Polgreen, and Nathan Robinson. Mostly, it made my head hurt. The inconsistencies, incoherence, and forehead slapping flight from basic physical reality and common sense made for an entertaining, but also frightening, peek under the hood of gender ideology. “That's really what they believe?!” I found myself exclaiming several times. And that's when I could wrap my head around what they were trying to convey through the twisted logic, double-speak, and thick brambles of jargon most of these people indulge in. 

After all of this reading and researching I came to a very simple and startling conclusion... it's all made up. The whole “trans-kids” thing is a concoction. The fever dream of a bunch of trans-activists and maybe well-meaning but misguided liberal allies. There are no “trans-children”, it's all a lie. 

No child is born trans, just like no child is “born in the wrong body”. Being transgender is something you do, not something you are. There are gender non-conforming children, sure. Perhaps those children will be more gender fluid as they get older, perhaps they will be gay as adults, but there are no children that are trans. Children may not conform to the stereotypical gender interests and behaviors that our society has held in the past (I didn't and I'm as straight as they come) but that doesn't mean they should be put on a path to attempt to change sexes (which is an impossible task to undertake anyway). 

This epiphany for me, that “trans-children” is something completely made up by people who are simply trying to justify their own choices in life sickened me. These people are willing to sacrifice children on the altar of their imagined trans-gods in order to justify what they've done to themselves and their bodies?! It's the only coherent conclusion I could come to. 

If you're an adult, and otherwise mentally competent, what do I care if you want to live as and try to become the opposite sex? Sure, I think it's a bit bizarre, but if it helps you get through life, go be the best transgender person you can be, just leave the kids out of it.