A key trans-activist political tactic is to accuse pediatric transition skeptics of “hating” trans kids. Nothing could be further from the truth. Far from hating gender-defiant young people who have been labeled transgender by the important adults in their lives, our interest is in protecting them from drastic medical interventions. Many who contribute to 4thWaveNow are parents of such children and teens. If anyone is doing the “hating” it is the trans activists, who vilify parents like us and our supporters.
Why do I bring up the hate angle? Because the rationale given by the new political action committee Trans United Fund (TUF) for their slick new video featuring trans kids and their parents is to counter the “hate” being aimed at these kids. In announcing TUF’s professionally produced 2:20 minute infomercial, the trans-activist lobby GLAAD (whose Board Chair is Jennifer Boylan, an MtoF activist) had this to say:
In light of the recent rise of anti-LGBT bills nationwide, Trans United has released a new ad entitled “Meet My Child” that humanizes transgender people.
Implicit in this wording, of course, is that opponents of sterilizing and drugging children are engaged in a dehumanization campaign.
The video, above all, glorifies parents who simply go along with their child’s proclamations that they are, or want to be, the opposite sex. [Calling all child development experts of yesteryear: Teach us about concrete thinking as a developmental stage.]
We see children who look to be about 7 or 8, and others who appear to be middle school age—all of them “presenting” as the opposite sex by way of dress, hairstyle, and toy-and-play-activity stereotypes.
Quiz: Can you tell the “trans boy” from the “trans girls”?
Long multicolored tresses = ?
Basketball..hint, hint
Do they even make blue dollhouses?
So much for transgenderism being about “challenging the binary” and “breaking gender molds.”
The images of happy trans kids and their parents are juxtaposed against a TV-clip cameo of a bloviating Ted Cruz, US Senator and former GOP presidential candidate, a far-right conservative. The message to liberals is clear: You’re just like the Tea Partiers if you don’t buy what Trans United is selling.
At 1:43, we are reminded (as we are in daily media stories):
This is a lie—or more charitably, a distortion. Like most such cynical distortions, it is derived from something true. The 41% figure comes from the oft-cited Williams Institute survey, whose authors themselves note that this (yes, unacceptably high) suicidality rate includes not just trans-identified but also gender nonconforming adults who have ever had thoughts of self harm. It is not an actual suicide “attempt” rate. Moreover, and most importantly, the survey found that people who have sought and/or received medical transition services have a HIGHER RATE of self harm and suicidality.
My bringing up the Williams Institute survey does not indicate a callous attitude towards high self-harm rates in trans-identified people. In fact, all gender nonconforming people (which includes many gay, lesbian, and bisexual people who have never identified as transgender) have a higher rate of suicidal thoughts and self harm. My purpose in bringing up the 41% statistic is to shed light on the cynical use of self harming rates to bludgeon parents and others into thinking that pediatric transition is the cure for despair.
Directly after the 41% appears on screen, we see the tearful mother of a trans girl saying, between sobs, “She’s my heart. I don’t want to lose her.”
The media experts at Trans United know exactly what they are doing. The death of a child is the most devastating possibility imaginable to any loving parent, with suicide almost beyond contemplation. No parent would face the suicide of their child without blaming themselves.
So, this is checkmate. Game, set, match:
- Gender defiant kids–no matter how old they are–are the opposite sex if they say they are. Period.
- Trans kids are cute and innocent—like all children.
- If you don’t accept that these kids are actually the opposite sex, you will cause them to kill themselves.
- If you don’t accept that these kids are actually the opposite sex, you are a hateful bigot—just like Ted Cruz.
- Having any doubts or questions about the actions of adult transgender people is tantamount to hating children and their loving parents.
- Don’t be a transphobe! [Note to liberals: You might even be a racist transphobe, because the video includes non-white parents and kids. More on that in a minute.]
In this recent MetroWeekly story showcasing TUF and its propaganda video, the mother of a 5-year old trans girl tells us this:
My daughter Ariel is only five years old. She is beautiful and perfect, just the way god made her. She is also trans,” Fajardo said. “Like many little girls, she loves Elsa and Barbie and dresses.
Apparently the child was trans while still an in-arms baby
As is always the case, when talking about their children, parents of young trans kids always refer to gender stereotyped play, clothing, and behaviors, and Fajardo is no exception. (How many adult gay and lesbians today could testify to their love of the activities and lifestyle of the opposite sex?). And lest we forget: Parents who have allowed their young kids to decide “who they are” will mean, in many cases, a lifetime of hormones, surgeries, and almost certainly, if they follow the path of other children who have been socially transitioned and moved on to puberty blockers—permanent sterilization via cross-sex hormones.
The TUF professionals who created the inaugural ad seem to have made a point of using ethnically diverse people in their infomercial. It is the African American mother who delivers the nightmare implicit warning that any parent who doesn’t transition their young child will be directly responsible for their suicide:
“She’s my heart. I don’t want to lose her.”
Making sure liberal skeptics (like me) know it’s not just white people who have trans kids appeals to our commitment to support people of color. But while it’s politically incorrect to bring it up, there is evidence that people from some communities tend to have more traditional, rigid ideas about homosexuality. If a parent is averse to the idea of (for example) an “effeminate” son who might grow up to be homosexual, it’s not much of a stretch to think that parent might find some modicum of relief in thinking their child has a condition which can be cured by modern medicine; maybe even turn the child straight.
But regardless of whether ethnicity or culture is a factor in homophobia or parental support for transitioning children, Trans United Fund is using children to promote an agenda. Even with the sound turned off, the imagery in the TUF ad peddles the message that people are transgender from birth (for which there is no evidence—if anything, the peer-reviewed evidence runs counter to this), playing neatly into the trans activist assertion that children who claim the opposite sex in childhood are definitely going to grow up to believe they are trans as adults.
Trans United Fund launched with a splash in April, and even though this first expensive piece of propaganda takes aim at a Republican (Ted Cruz), they say they will accept money from whoever wants to pony up the funds.
Hayden Mora, a founding member of the Trans United Fund (TUF), says that the newly launched PAC will take support wherever it can be found.
“Our vision and our goal is to have a conversation with anyone who is serious about supporting the trans community and supporting trans people,” he told The Daily Beast. “That includes Democrats, Republicans, Independents, and everyone else on the political spectrum.”
TUF is not alone. There is plenty of money and power behind the trans lobby, and many of these organizations work in coalition, with interlocking board members and staff. Hayden Mora , a transgender man and TUF spokesperson, is also the Director of Strategic Relations at the Human Rights Campaign (HRC), another deep-pocketed trans activist organization.
Other national advocacy groups focused on transgender issues include the National Center for Transgender Equality (NCTE), which has long coordinated with federal, state, and local governments on various policy issues. The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and Lambda Legal have both been influential in the fight over North Carolina’s recent anti-transgender legislation.
TUF’s lead story today focuses on the pressure the group is bringing to bear on Hilary Clinton; they want her to take a firm position on the “bathroom wars” currently being waged between the US Government and balking states via a flurry of competing lawsuits.
As always and everywhere, money talks. We will likely be seeing and hearing a lot more from Trans United Fund in the months and years to come.
I watched the propaganda video. Holy crap!
There could be nothing more cynical than weaponizing the terror any parent feels at the prospect their child might someday be suicidal.
So well-said!
That is exactly what trans activists are shamelessly doing and it is despicable.
They also weaponize the fear that the child will cut off contact with family. I have seen this among people I know, who were questioning as I was, whether a certain individual might be responding to social contagion, but are now telling me that my continuing to question is too harsh.
It’s amazing how they use the mantle of weak and vulnerable to victimization but use the tactics of bullies to get people to go along with their agenda.
The imagery in that ad is just…wow. The girl who’s really a boy is playing basketball while the boy who’s really a girl is cooking. (I guess preparing the meals is still our job, ladies.) The white mom has a nice house in the suburbs and has some sort of lesbian vibe going on. She is, after all, the only one who isn’t shown in a family photo that includes a dad.
The black mom lives in either an apartment or a condo, probably the former, and her kitchen is, well, kind of cluttered. I don’t know what’s up with that empty fish tank (see 0:37). No surprise that the Hispanic woman has a thick accent. I could see Cruz doing the exact same thing to suggest that she doesn’t really belong here.
That ad has all the hallmarks of some privileged folks sitting around a mahogany table banging out ideas for the ad while dining on their catered lunch. And we’re supposed to trust that they have the best interests of children at heart?
Aside from the agenda of this propaganda video, as a society we are too accepting of parents parading their children in public disclosures. Happens in news items on a range of topics. I expect about twenty years from now to see them grow up and sue their parents. A few centuries ago all children were dressed and treated as one gender. It didn’t prevent them growing into men and women.
The fact that they are parading them as definitely transgender means it will be that much harder for the kids to change their minds, even if they want to. The Dutch clinician-researchers who pioneered the use of puberty blockers cautioned against social transition, but the current activist-clinicians pay this no heed. And being used in a propaganda video is social transition on steroids–literally.
Trans activists will protest that social transition and puberty blockers are “fully reversible.” But the data we have shows that the kids who are set on this track stay on it. Activists like to say it’s because they’re “truly trans.” As if becoming media darlings–with the blessings of doting parents, doctors, and teachers–counts for nothing.
What does social transition mean? Do you believe it’s bad for transgender teens to live as they gender they’d like without taking hormones and getting surgery?
I’m just wanting to get a better picture of your stance. I’m against hormones, surgery, and encouraging the transition of transgender children. I’m for respecting their identities and using the bathroom of their preference, however.
In picture, I will call a male who identifies as woman a woman even if I may see them as men. Though, I will not award them for their lifestyle and encourage them to “flaunt what they got” which I believe the media is doing.
Ashton, I don’t believe younger, prepubescent children ought to be “socially transitioned” because they are so impressionable. For older teens, they will do what they like in any case. If medical intervention were not such a huge part of “transition” for young people, it wouldn’t matter; I’d say kids should explore themselves and who they are in any way they wish. It’s what young people have always done–try on and often discard different ways of being to figure out who they are. But now that major surgery, lifelong hormone treatment, and potential sterilization are being actively marketed, I can’t get behind “social transition.” Particularly when data shows that one thing leads to another in most cases. I do understand why some parents take a middle road, though, and older teens will make their own choices in any case.
Ashton, I do not believe that social transition is even possible. Not for a female child, in any case.
Teachers will still award boys more talking time than “trans”boys, because they know the real sex of the child. They will still give boys preferential treatment over her.
Later on, she’ll be sexually harrassed by men anyway. Men, as a class, do not respect women’s gender identity; if they did, they’d respect that we identify as human beings, as their equals.
The only way out of being treated like a female (=badly) is to take testosterone and, if she is very lucky, look male enough to pass. And that comes at a price.
People shouldn’t treat children of either sex different, anyway, so social transition shouldn’t be possible – but people do treat children differently, and “social transition” wouldn’t help a girl with that.
Whew, I’m glad. I thought you were saying something different. I completely agree!
It frustrates me that the 41% is never put into it’s proper context. People with body dysmorphia disorder have a suicidal ideation rate of 78% ( http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/15960564 ), yet surgery and drugs to adapt their bodies aren’t part of the therapy. I know that dysmorphia and dysphoria are different things, but underneath that remains the fact that one group of people who are miserable with their bodies are given emotional acceptance therapy while the second group are given confirmation therapies.
Thanks for this. I will be borrowing this for a YTCP blog post coming soon.
I’m afraid we’re going to become bigots in the future. We’re on the losing side and this is gonna hurt…
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It’s so insulting, regressive, and ridiculous how these people always cite 1950s-style stereotypes as “evidence” of their kids being trans. A woman in several of my pro-science, skeptical groups on Facebook was recently outed by a self-proclaimed “agender” (who presents as a man for “convenience” and uses xe/xer pronouns) as having transed her son, and not really being the mother of two daughters like I innocently believed. Her son “identifies as a girl,” which I’m sure means he wanted long hair, likes dresses and pink, plays with “girl” toys, and wasn’t into sports and toy cars. The “agender” ranted against this woman for saying her “older daughter” was born a boy who “identifies as a girl”: “No, your daughter was born a girl who happens to have a penis and testicles.” So in other words, a boy! I really feel angry and tricked to discover this.
It really blows my mind that even people who pride themselves on being guided by the principles of skeptical inquiry and advocate for sound science have fallen for this nonsense too. Everything else needs to be approached with a skeptical brain (even things which are neither science nor pseudoscience, but merely popular among many people who embrace true woo), but when it comes to trans issues, they throw all critical thinking and skeptical values out the window.
Thank you for an insightful read. My husband and I are at odds with or daughters (ages 27 and 23) over all of this. Our youngest daughter is transitioning and it truly breaks our heart. Her older sister is supportive if this, so it feels as though we have lost both of our children. It’s been difficult to find anyone who is willing to publicly reject the trans rhetoric. We feel betrayed by the medical community, but more importantly, they have betrayed our daughter. The transgender community has tried to make us feel as though we are wrong in wanting to protect our daughter from needless testosterone injections and life altering surgeries. I don’t know where our future leads with all of this. We just hope our daughter will change her mind one day, and be comfortable with who she really is….not a butchered version being touted by the trans community.
I am so terribly sorry you are going through this. We, too, have a daughter, age 21, who is “somewhere” on the transition spectrum (although I hope and pray it has not yet extended to surgeries; the “social transition” is in full force, though). Her younger sister, who honestly doesn’t know any better, supports her in this (her two older brothers think it’s bunk, which kind of helps although the sibling rivalry dynamic is strong there). Just like you, we are horror struck at the idea that our daughter’s future fertility and ability to nurture and nurse her children may be permanently impaired by this passing phase. I think these doctors and “therapists” deserve a special place in Hell!
Thank you for your kind words of support and for sharing your story. I’m so sorry you and your family are experiencing the pain that we feel. Sadly, there are so many more families out there that are in the middle of all of this also. I hope we can all speak out, if even amongst ourselves and share our thoughts. This has been so isolating.
Fantastic post! This is exactly the kind of stuff we need to know. Oh my God the slick bastards.
Body dysmorphia people having a 78% suicide ideation rate is very good to know. One of the weird things about the high suicide rate in trans and the whole touchy rhetorical situation when trying to talk to people about this is it’s a huge dollop of evidence that trans is something that people with emotional problems are attracted to. That was recognized prior to the current ‘no gatekeepers’ era. That’s why you had to see a psychiatrist in order to get approval for the sex change stuff. So they could weed out all the Unabomber types.
I hope somebody transcritical is talking to Hillary’s people. I don’t want her to turn into another Obama on this.
My life these days with my kid being part of a group of other trans kids is that even those who are allowed to transition are still suicidal. Two of her friends have been hospitalized in the last month, one who has been on T for more than a year and one who has also had top surgery. I find that the kids who have transitioned both socially and medically are not doing much better than when I knew them before transition. While this may be a solution for some, it is not the solution for all.
Excellent take down of a manipulative ad. Shame on TUF! 4th Wave Now knows the name of the game. Yes, they are painting all opposition as tea party, racist, etc. They are no longer dog-whistling to the virtue-signalers out there. They are now on their bullhorns. Yet, these TUF folks are modern-day McCarthyists themselves, and they do not display any virtue of their own, just an agenda that uses and abuses children.