Advice from an FTM and MTF: Don’t take this rocky road


Update December 2016: Mark and Lynna appear to have changed their minds about youth transition, as well as transgenderism in general, multiple times since this video was made. The video is a snapshot in time but should not be viewed as a stable representation of the Cummings’ views.


The linked YouTube video (posted 4/28/15) is a must watch, straight from the horse’s mouth. When even prominent trans media figures like these^^ (Mark/Maritza Angelo Cummings, an FTM transitioned at 38, and Lynna Arielle Lopez, an MTF transitioned at 43) start strongly criticizing the use of puberty blockers for kids and the transgender trend raging with adolescents, maybe we might actually see some changes going forward.

Allies to be found in unexpected places. They sound like smokers who volunteer their time to caution others not to acquire the habit.

They pull no punches: they discuss Lupron dangers, the possibility that hormone treatments could aggravate issues like cutting/self harm, and the folly of dosing kids with hormones when their frontal lobes aren’t developed. They criticize the doctors who are too quick to diagnose gender dysphoria when many other mental health issues are prominent. They take on what they call the “cross dresser” community and trans activists who are pushing the current media narrative. They acknowledge the homophobia (internalized, as well as of professionals and parents) that feeds into transition of kids–a point of view that is pretty much heresy in trans activist circles. They even take on the biggest taboo of all: Suicidal threats by kids if they don’t get hormones and surgery. They contrast the initial glow of transition with the reality of years on hormones when the excitement fades.

I’ve transcribed and condensed just a few excerpts from this 37-minute plea for sanity, below. There is a lot more and I recommend watching the whole thing.

Disclaimer: I don’t agree with everything they say in the video, but I don’t have to. They seem to be sincerely interested in protecting gender nonconforming kids, and that’s my bailiwick.


Partial video transcript/excerpts:

Mark: In normal human development, normal and abnormal child psychology–which I study in my profession–every little boy or girl will explore with their gender roles….This thing is being blown out of proportion. Before there were hormones, before there were surgeries, we all lived. Didn’t commit suicide, didn’t hate life…

Lynna: The thing is, if you hate yourself, that isn’t a gender identity issue.

Mark: That’s a person issue….Look at what Michael Jackson did to himself. There is a psychological component to this “I don’t like myself” thing…

[A young MTF I talked to] didn’t want to be seen as a “gay boy.” And I think that plays a major role… A lot of these parents are like, “oh,  I don’t want my kid to be gay.” …Yeah, there’s this condition called “being transgender,” that fits the bill better.

There’s an agenda behind all this, and people don’t realize. Pharmaceuticals are involved, the politicians are involved, new sets of doctors that are actually working for or are part of the WPATH or that are trying to monopolize–like this Dr. Spack–”Mr. Quack.” He says, oh, if the child [is a cutter] and you give them the blocker and the cutting stops, that’s the tell-tale sign that says they’re trans. Do you know how many mental disorders are related to cutting? Bipolar, schizophrenia… it’s a list a mile long and has absolutely nothing to do with gender dysphoria.

Lynna: Endocrinologists are [one of the lower paid MDs]. So when they get this new crop of clientele that makes them lots of money…These puberty blockers are like $700 a month. And there’s some kind of device they install that is like $1500…

Mark: Notice how they’ve taken away the gatekeeper…There is a political agenda behind this…

Lynna: …All my MTF friends know to use these key terms now before they go to ask for the hormones. Like, “[I’ve felt like this since I] was 5 years old,” or “I used to wear my mom’s clothing” …

Mark: “And I wanna  hurt myself, because if I don’t get what I want, I’ll kill myself.” Suicide. Mention that, and radar goes up…

..For parents of trans kids, please do your research. Do not submit your kids to these dangerous drugs, when 80% of these kids revert back! It’s a stage, it’s a phase…. Being transgender is not about hormones or cutting off your breasts. Being transgender is a spiritual condition, and there’s nothing wrong with expressing both your male and female side.

So what if little boys are “feminine”? Doesn’t mean they need to be girls, or little girls who are “masculine” need to be boys. You know, this is the power of suggestion that has been pushed upon us as a weak community because of our wanting to belong and be accepted, and we need to wake up from this.

Do I regret doing this? [transition] …Would I have done things differently if I’d known another path? Yes. Because you lose a lot as a trans person. You’re taking away years from your life. You’re exposing yourself to all sorts of dangers. You lose jobs, you lose family, you lose friends. You lose it ALL. All for what? A delusion…

Lynna: What happens later, as you age? What will be the end, for us?

Mark: A lot of people don’t think about this, because when they’re in the glitz and the glamour, and they’re getting the boobies, and getting the muscles, if you’re a guy. We’re all tunnel vision, which is an obsessive compulsive behavior that most transgender people face. But when you get to be 70 years old … and you have to go to a nursing home? How many nursing homes are equipped to deal with trans people? Zero. And I’ve worked in nursing homes, I’m an occupational therapist…Even a regular older person.. gets treated like crap [by nursing assistants]. These are “normal” people. Can you imagine [a religious nursing aid seeing a transgender person]? “Oh, God, no, this is an abomination!” We don’t think about these things, we only think about the [good things] we do when we’re young… But what about when these medications really start kicking in and taking a toll? All the hormones that are synthetic and horrific for your health….heart attacks, strokes, more neurological impairment. What are you gonna do then?

Lynna: …and to think they want to give [hormones] to kids. It’s like barbaric.

Mark: It’s child abuse. And people are like, “well my child wants to commit suicide.” Look, children are very malleable. You don’t allow them to be exposed to social media which is constantly pushing, pushing, and probing… I didn’t transition until I was 38 years old. I didn’t even know about being transgender… I was a female body builder and I took steroids. And somebody said, “Are you FTM?” and I was like, what is that? Is that like a new machine or..Again it’s the power of suggestion. ..in 6 months, boom, I had my top surgery and my hysterectomy. I went to the gender specialist, and they’re like, “oh yeah, here you go!” [mimes prescription being written]

Lynna: And if you hadn’t been told anything, you would have been…

Mark: …a lesbian, yep. Still body building, but …

Mark: Crucify us if you want. But reality is reality. And what I’m seeing here is something very dangerous. We’re dealing with kids and these quack doctors, hurting these children. Someone’s gotta speak their mind.

Lynna: We can’t be silent about this issue. When innocent children are affected, and a population group is being sterilized, we have to say something.

Mark: I won’t mention names, but a trans child I know, who is now a little teenager, has been on the blockers. Reports are, more behavioral problems, depression…The limelight, the fame, the fortune. These parents who have Munchausen syndrome…there’s red flags all over the place.

Lynna: Gender is a hot topic right now. Our community is being thrown into the limelight, with the whole Bruce Jenner interview and all that… It’s not just a gender identity issue; we’re dealing with a neurological issue. I found out that I have Asperger’s just recently…Understanding is key… If you can avoid taking this path–

Mark: Please do.

Lynna: Because it’s a very rocky road. And not many people get to travel safely on this road.

Mark: And a lot of people don’t end up very well on this road. They end up dead, or with all sorts of other issues….a lot of trans people end up alone.

Lynna: The majority. It doesn’t even matter how beautiful they are.

Mark: [referring to the anger trans people have expressed to him because of his views] Temper tantrums galore. That’s part of the neurological impairment most of us [trans people] have. I’ve gotten to the point where I’m not gonna care….Truth hurts. What is it somebody said? When you’re making a difference, people get offended.

Mark: …[These kids] take the blockers, they have these side effects, then they’re infertile, they can’t have kids…

Lynna: Now they’re 25 or 30 years old.

Mark: …with mental problems, because that’s what happens: You didn’t develop fully because puberty is a normal thing to go through, people.

Lynna: It’s important to go through puberty without blocking it.

Mark: The body goes, “what’s going on, what’s happening?”

Lynna: What am I being blocked for?

Mark: The side effects are gonna be there. Pharmaceutical companies are gonna lie to you, say, “Oh, it’s ok. Nothing’s gonna happen.” BS!…they’re messing with your reality, they’re feeding into your crap. You know what’s happening? All this “transgender, transgender, transgender…”

Lynna:…you have a 4-year-old who’s transitioning, because Mommy says, “Would you like to be named…this boy name, instead of your girl name?” And then they’re like, “oh, yeah.” …“Do you want to go to school and be a boy?” And then they show them videos of differerent kids who transitioned and they’re like, “Do you wanna be like him?” Oh yes, I do. It’s the power of suggestion.

Mark: And the parents are thinking, wow, we’re gonna get media exposure, we might get a book deal….Look at this with Jazz. The book deal, the mermaid thing, it’s like, whoa…How many parents are like, I want my kid to be that, too…It’s like when the little girls get pushed into modeling… and beauty pageants. It’s no different. Munchausen syndrome. Pretty heavy stuff….If you think your kid is transgender, fine, let them express themselves, but don’t go putting them through dangerous stuff that you can’t take away later.

Lynna: It’s not reversible, as some say… Lupron affects people like 15 years later.

Mark: I’ve been at this since 2003…but what’s happening in this community now is disheartening. The advocates now are using the kids to promote their thing, to justify who they are. And it’s just sad.

47 thoughts on “Advice from an FTM and MTF: Don’t take this rocky road

  1. Please, explain what is a gatekeeper… I always see this term but i never understand its meaning..i am not american! Do an example please!
    However this post is awesome!
    Kids takes blockers for years and someone says that is not dangerous?!

    • Regarding gatekeepers: For many years, people who wanted to “transition” to the opposite sex had to prove they were serious. This involved living as the opposite sex for some period of time, going to extensive therapy sessions (usually for at least a year), and more. Nowadays, at least in the United States, there is a push by transgender activists to move to the model called “informed consent.” This is basically a fast-track, where all a person has to do is state that they are transgender (to a therapist or doctor). They are given a form to sign which says they understand the risks, and they are then given a prescription for cross-sex hormones. Activists have decided that taking the process slowly is somehow oppressive and discriminatory. It’s really scary; it’s one thing for adults with fully developed brains to give their “informed consent” for a treatment which causes (particularly in FTMs) permanent changes. It’s quite another for children and adolescents to be allowed to hurry the process along.

      • I believe in a hybrid approach, that maybe 3-6 months worth of sessions, so you can clarify your feelings and opinions. (Still, it’s one of those things that no matter much you prep for, once on HRT and you plan for surgery, the reality whacks like nothing you’ve experienced before!) It’s a very intense period you will go through, and you’ll be taking some of the potent stuff known to the human body! Whereas, with hormone blockers, you delay puberty. Once you take the kids off it, nature retakes her course.

      • Here’s the problem, Cai. It’s pretty hard to “clarify” feelings and opinions when your brain’s capacity to make informed decisions **for the rest of your life** is not fully developed. Take it from the rest of us who have lived several decades past the point of adolescence and young adulthood. It’s NOT the time of life to be making irreversible decisions. Things change–radically, and in ways you never would have anticipated when you’re young.

        You bring up blockers, as many do, with the usual assertion that blockers are fully reversible. First, NO ONE KNOWS that the effects of these blockers truly ARE reversible. Second, and maybe more importantly, what none of the blocker proponents ever talks about is that a kid on blockers has been conditioned to accept the idea that they really are the opposite sex. “Social transition” and years of “passing” set an immature kid up to say, hey, sure, let’s go on to cross-sex hormones. That locks in permanent infertility and a likely future of permanent hormones and repeated surgeries. A kid whose puberty was blocked ALSO has not matured psychologically and emotionally. Puberty isn’t just about secondary sex characteristics. So there’s a fundamental flaw in the reasoning of people who blithely say you can just “go back” to being one’s natal sex. And the Dutch, who pioneered the use of blockers, say it’s difficult for kids to go back even when they want to. Read their research (there is tons of it, much of it referenced and discussed on my blog). And look–even if the puberty-blocked kids DID have the emotional and psychological maturity of their non-blocked peers? They are STILL too young to understand the monumental choice they are making.

        The choice to medically transition should be an adult one. If a 30-year-old wants to embark on this long and expensive and hazardous journey, they should have the right to. But this trend of allowing adolescents to make adult decisions? No. Completely irrational.

  2. I think these are the same two people Cathy Brennan interviewed awhile back. I don’t agree with everything they say either, and they don’t address the abuses some so-called transgenders engage in, but they do address several very problematic issues: the dangers of medical treatments, the unethical nature of doing this to children, and at least to some extent the difference between people who just say they are transgender and people who feel compelled to have these medical treatments.

    What they don’t do is even come close to presenting a compelling case for *anyone* really needing these treatments. The overall impact of the video is rather sad, but I do appreciate their not being abusive, and working to get outside of their own personal perceived realities.

  3. Thx for this very informative article…And it’s scary and sad. In Denmark you can change your security numer and so..simsalabim you are a woman or male..In Sweden trans activist are very active and the Swedish Feminist party Feministiskt Initiativ working to have them accepted..so I rely distrust the liberal feminists.

  4. Pingback: Transgender Activists campaign against ‘Puberty Blockers’ for transgender children | GenderTrender

  5. Glad that there are other moms out there that aren’t blindly accepting their daughters as transgender. Our daughter is convinced she is male, but I am not. Please keep posting, it brings me a bit of sanity. Thank you!

    • It’s a lonely road, Overwhelmed. I got tired of dealing with it by myself, and when an Internet search turned up nothing and nobody, I took matters into my own hands. Obviously there are many more of us out there. One indicator: all the media stories I’ve found glorifying this trans trend have large numbers of negative comments, usually running at least 9 to 1 AGAINST. The whole thing has been foisted upon a very skeptical general public by activists. The only way–the ONLY way it will change, is for people like you and me to keep speaking up.

      • Those numbers might even be more extreme if so many of the media sites didn’t actively remove so many of the comments that challenge or question the trans orthodoxy. I’ve often seen large numbers of less than enthusiastic comments disappear, leaving the glowing, fatuous comments and the ones accusing the doubters of hate speech.

      • Right here in the same boat with you guys and fighting the good fight for the health of my daughter. God bless these people for speaking out. Enough voices like theirs and maybe the crazy current narrative will start to gain some nuance. Waiting/hoping/praying most especially for people in the medical health community to stop thinking that discussions regarding possible reasons for gender dysphoria are not seen as the equivalent to “conversion therapy” for gay people, and that some actual discussions that don’t immediately suggest transition can start to take place out there. There are too many parents and kids alike who are only getting one side of this story.

      • Yeah, Puzzled, at some point while I was fast asleep as a fuzzy-minded liberal in the last decade or so, the trans activists blurred and co-opted the definition of “conversion therapy” beyond all recognition. It’s really quite Orwellian. In fact, what we want is a stop to the conversion therapy being practiced by certain medical and psychological professionals: the push to convert “gender nonconforming” youth into people who are convinced that they need drugs and surgery! Just leave the kids and teens alone, let them grow up. They don’t need “intervention” by doctors and therapists who are eager to slap a diagnosis on them.

  6. Medical experimentationi on children by these Mengeles-alikes is torture. As a former licensed foster mother and child advocate this has been such a huge concern. Even tdult dangers of cross sex hormones is horrendous considering Hormone Replacement Therapy has been found to put same-sex hormone recipients to be at greater risk of morbidity and mortality.

    These 2 people seem more like the gay people I knew in my youth – truth tellers. These two people who discuss the anti-gay slant of trans parents and activists should be THE wake up call.

    Why the hell did rainbow coalition of gays, women, blacks and other minorities fight for civil rights and now the so-called alphabet soup glamorize sex role conformity BS that back in the day we fought to peel away.

    Great that these people question the gender identity put on like a costume and taken off when they get what they want. That’s the narcissistic mask of many trans.

    Isn’t it great to have plain English spoken in this interview!

    Class action suit!

    • There is NO LONG TERM DATA, esp on the use of T in natal females. It’s all a wild uncontrolled health experiment. How long are we going to let trans activists and supportive media enforce a narrative that’s without nuance? We are all trying so hard to be “tolerant” or accepting or liberal or affirming or nondiscriminatory, trying so hard to be correct, to be kind, to be sympathetic, to be allies. Trying not to be “phobic.” And meanwhile these kids are having risky and irreversible treatments before the age of majority. Maybe there’s some parental Munchausen’s, yeah, but in many cases I think these parents are just getting crappy advice and are being railroaded and scared to death. Because, “suicide,” you know? I do not understand how the hell the clinicians who are driving this runaway train can believe this rush to transition is really the right thing for gender-nonconforming minors.

    • http://www.mbp.state.md.us/bpqapp/orders/d2425004.271.pdf

      Here is an order to shut down Dr. Geer, her lost his medical license in many states, but hid behind a corporation to keep autistic clinics open for children to get lupron treatment that he promoted ‘cures autism’ in children. The class action need to be alerted that another group of children are being experimented on with lupron, same thing. New Parents have to be made aware of this-

      • So I’m glad you brought this up (albeit with a questionable source), but in many ways you prove the point I’ve been trying to make. Menopausal women and HRT have been extensively studied. Young people being dosed with hormones have not been studied.

        The Women’s Health Initiative, a large study that scared many menopausal women off HRT, was flawed. The studied population was women, mostly 60 and older, who had been menopausal for an average of 10 years (and thus no longer had bodies that were accustomed to estrogen/progesterone). Newer studies, which are still being conducted, are indicating that timing is all with HRT for menopausal women: if you start HRT while perimenopausal and YOUNGER (i.e., when your body is still making reasonable amounts of estrogen and progesterone), the benefits likely outweigh the risks.

        But young gender nonconforming people being fed cross-sex hormones are not being systematically studied. As one of my favorite bloggers puts it, young people who are are rushing to medically transition “aren’t even lab rats” because there are no large longitudinal studies tracking them. At the very least, don’t we owe it to our gender-confused youth to study whether what’s being done to them will cause permanent damage?
        The timing hypothesis for HRT in early menopause, one of many articles:
        http://www.medpagetoday.com/Cardiology/Atherosclerosis/48808

  7. This needs to be shared everywhere! For years i thought i was ftm and was on the path to transition until i started to notice all thats wrong with the trans community and when i started questioning it i got so much backlash from other trans people. I was one of those ‘transition or die’ because dysphoria was so bad. People need to know that transition is NOT the only way to get rid of gender dysphoria. If your kid is saying they are trans let them express themselves how they want but get them off YouTube (watching transition videos made me feel like i had to hurry to transition). Get them a GOOD doctor that will properly get to know them and help them to find the root cause or causes of their need to transition and work through it with them instead of transitioning them which will fix nothing. I don’t consider myself trans anymore (and i was textbook trans even as a kid) I’m so glad that my country is so slow with the transition process otherwise i would be transitioned by now and no happier.
    More people in the trans community need to speak out about the reality of transition.

    • Grace, I know you posted this a while back, but I am new-ish to this blog and have just read your comment. I so appreciate you sharing your experience. My daughter has issues with gender identity, and she went down the youtube rabbit hole when she first learned what it means to be transgender. She is seeing a therapist who is trying to get to those root causes for her feelings, and not jump right to transition. My hope is that one day my daughter will be able to love herself as she is.

  8. Thanks for posting this video. Like you, I didn’t agree with everything they had to say, but they were right on in talking about trans kids and seem like reasonable people. Perhaps questioning parents will be more likely to listen to them because they’ve been there. They mentioned a Facebook page – do you happen to know what their page is called or have a link to it? I’d be curious to see what else they have to say.

    I think a key point that needs to be made to parents of non-stereotypical children is to stress that there is a third alternative to what conservatives and trans activists promote.

    Conservatives say that a child must change their personality (what some call “gender identity:) to “match” their sex.

    Trans Activists say that a child must change their sex to “match” their personality (“gender identity:)

    Neither allows children to just be themselves as they were born — They must change and they must “match”.

    But the third alternative, the gender-critical one, as promoted by the non-sexist child raising movement of the late 70s and 80s, said that children are fine just as they are and don’t need to change or “match”. Non-sexist child raising promoted bringing up kids without pushing stereotyped gender role stereotypes on them. It’s ok to be a tomboy! It’s ok to be a sensitive boy! You don’t have to grow up to be a generic representative of your sex.

    Like the old Tareyton cigarette commercial said, “I’d rather fight than switch!”. That is, I’d rather fight the gender system itself, than change myself or my kid to fit within its confined boxes.

  9. I watched the whole thing. I too do not agree with everything they say, but I have a lot of respect for them saying a lot of what they did say. I have to admit I feel awful for intersex people, the way they are flung about as a talking point rather than actual human beings with genetic anomalies that make sorting themselves out harder.

    My biggest take away from this, though, is that young people can brag about how they “Question Authority” yet they daren’t question popular opinion. Perhaps once being “trans” is no longer extreme it will lose its luster. Hopefully that will happen before children start suffering serious health problems from hormones.

  10. Thanks for speaking out. For everyone, it seems like we are shouting against a howling windstorm, but young lives are at stake. The sheer irresponsibility of the medical profession in advocating for puberty blockers and the obvious issues with preventing natural physiological development from happening is staggering. Anyway, thanks for what you do.

    • The sheer irresponsibility of the medical profession in advocating for puberty blockers

      The dodgy doctors might be queing up with their hands held out for the £££ and $$$, but the people driving this are the creepy, and well-resourced trans males. They are the ones grooming succeptible teens and creating the culture where trans is held up as an untouchable wonder.

  11. An occupational therapist has no medical degree. These people have no basis to lay out their clams and have no peer reviewed studies to back it up. Like how they threw Michael Jackson in there who’s only problem was he was a filthy rich entertainer who could do whatever he wanted.

    • Actually, occupational therapists have master’s degrees, and as part of their education, they are exposed to plenty of peer-reviewed research on normal and abnormal psychology and psychopathology. But regardless of that, Mark and Lynna have posted a ton of links to peer-reviewed research on their Facebook pages. I get the impression Mark started applying his professional knowledge to what he was observing in the trans activist community (of which he was a key part) and began to feel quite uneasy.
      My blog contains links in several posts to peer-reviewed research. But guess what? One of the key points Mark and Lynna–and I–are making is that there ISN’T peer-reviewed research to support the safety of puberty blockers and lifelong testosterone given to young girls. Data isn’t being kept, subjects for peer-reviewed studies aren’t being recruited, and that’s part of the problem. It’s a massive, uncontrolled experiment being perpetrated on our youth, and somebody needs to be asking serious questions about why. Oh, there ARE some studies on the use of anabolic steroids in women athletes. Mark may be able to speak to that, having been a female body builder on steroids prior to transition. There have been lawsuits and major health problems, for example, in East German women athletes who were dosed with testosterone decades ago. But is anyone connecting the dots on that? And Mark’s reference to Michael Jackson was to make this point: changing one’s body to “match” one’s mind isn’t the answer to happiness.

  12. Mark and I wanted to personally thank everyone for listening to us and we appreciate your support in getting this critical information out to help change the tidal wave that is heading straight for our kids. I am absolutely convinced that children should not be the targets of the trans community nor the medical community. When doctors are saying that they have now been able to diagnose children as young as 18 months of age with gender dysphoria and that they now are recommending and prescribing life damaging puberty blockers, Mark and I feel like this nonsense needs to stop and stop now.

    • Thank you, Lynna and Mark, for your advocacy on behalf of gender nonconforming kids. I’m sure it can’t be easy to buck the trend in your community. I’ve been reading both your Facebook pages. There is a lot of information, links, and research you’ve posted that will be of interest to followers of my blog. I was particularly interested in your posts on the origins of WPATH and the group of doctors who formed it.

    • Hi Lynnalopez, I appreciate you and Mark trying to create a dialog here, it must be very difficult and scary. Thanks for seeing how this is all getting so out of hand and dangerous.

    • You needn’t be a friend on Facebook. You only have to be logged in to your own Facebook account. All the posts are public. And there’s plenty of well sourced information there…if you take the time to actually look. Did you?

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  14. I didn’t transition until I was 38 years old. I didn’t even know about being transgender… I was a female body builder and I took steroids. And somebody said, “Are you FTM?” and I was like, what is that? Is that like a new machine or..Again it’s the power of suggestion. ..in 6 months, boom, I had my top surgery and my hysterectomy.

    The power of suggestion on a 38 year old adult, and it is horrifying that children and teens are being subjected to this same pressure. How are they supposed to cope ? It is abuse.

  15. I completely disagree that absolutely no transgender kids should be given puberty blockers. I would have benefited from them a lot.

    In the end, I had a painful surgery costing me tens of thousands of dollars to remove the effects of the wrong puberty. I will have deep, long scars for the rest of my life as a reminder. I have a cracked rib from binding my breasts with ten sports bras over the course of seven years; it will never completely heal.

    • While I don’t doubt that your painful experience was very real, have you ever stopped to wonder what made you hate your body so much? There is really no evidence that there is such a thing as having a “wrong puberty.” Again, I am not doubting your experience. But I do wonder about the source of it. Adults are obviously free to make their own medical decisions. But assuming that a child who hates their body will necessarily hate it for the rest of their life is a dangerous assumption. Even many gender specialists acknowledge that they really don’t know which of these children will grow out of their dysphoria. Decades of research indicate that most will. The stakes are extremely high, and no one knows if these kids will be happy with being sterilized and turned into permanent patients by the time they reach adulthood.

    • Binding absolutely can cause cracked ribs. Jonathan obviously felt like it was worth it. I know the current zeitgeist is to explain this level of self loathing (because the body **is** the self, even if the brain denies it) with “born in the wrong body.” And I am willing to concede that for a very small number of adults, maybe some kind of relief will be had in surgeries and hormones. But in the last decade, these same adults have been lobbying for innocent children to start down this road. Despite whatever difficulties there are in adult transition, I strongly believe it is a decision that should be made by an adult with the brain power to fully comprehend the permanent changes they are about to undertake. That said, it seems to me even an adult woman ought to be encouraged to find a way to love her body rather than going through the horrors Jonathan did.

      • I agree completely. It strikes me in all of this though that one of the myriad questions not answered by not just the weird activists but by the so-called Gender Specialists is how do they know this isn’t self injury in any given case? And the answer seems to be they just didn’t bother to think about it. I find that appalling. Just as I find it strange that psychiatrists who treat adolescents, people doing self injury, suicidal people are not being vocal about the need in each individual case to think this through in the normal medical way. It is shockingly negligent. Well, that will be one of the points being made in the books written 10 years from now about what a huge fiasco this all was.

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