邪惡化的美國 變性 不可逆轉的傷害

《不可逆轉的傷害：引誘我們女兒的跨性別熱潮》

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Irreversible_Damage

Abigail Shrier 於 2020 年出版的書，該書認可了有爭議的快速發生性別焦慮症 (ROGD) 的概念。 ROGD 不被任何主要專業機構認可為醫學診斷，並且沒有可靠的科學證據支持。

Shrier 指出，2010 年代“青春期女孩的變性認同突然、嚴重激增”，指的是出生時被指定為女性的青少年。她將其歸因於“高度焦慮、抑鬱（主要是白人）的女孩中的社會傳染，這些女孩在過去幾十年中患有厭食症、貪食症或多重人格障礙”。施裏爾還批評性別肯定精神支持、激素替代療法和變性手術（通常統稱為“性別肯定護理”）作為治療年輕人性別不安的方法。

人們對這本書的反應褒貶不一。 正麵評論大多支持施裏爾的論文，而大部分批評則集中在該書對軼事的使用以及其證據的其他問題上。 有人針對這本書進行了多次抵製，因為這本書被描述為反跨性別者，並且使用“她”來指代那些被認為是跨男性和非二元性別的青少年，這是一種性別歧視。

概述

施裏爾表示，一位沒有明顯童年性別不安史的年輕人的母親聯係了她，她在大學時被認定為跨性別者，因此開始調查青少年性別不安。 她描述了她認為出生時被指定為女性（她將其稱為“女孩”）的青少年所麵臨的困難：孤立、在線社會動態、限製性的性別和性標簽、不受歡迎的身體變化和性關注。 她介紹了幾位在經曆心理健康或個人問題時質疑自己的性別認同或出櫃的青少年。 [8] 她討論了麗莎·利特曼 (Lisa Littman) 2018 年關於快速發生的性別焦慮症的期刊文章以及隨之而來的爭議，並認可利特曼的研究結果。 她表示，Twitter、Tumblr 和 TikTok 等網站上的在線跨性別影響者經常鼓勵質疑的年輕人認定自己是跨性別者，嚐試綁胸和睾丸激素，並對不支持的家庭成員斷絕關係或撒謊。

施裏爾批評學校中與跨性別相關的課程和政策。  她描述了父母對孩子的跨性別認同或變性感到苦惱的情況。她批評了性別肯定的護理模式，並介紹了其批評者：Kenneth Zucker、Ray Blanchard、J. Michael Bailey、Lisa Marchiano 和 Paul R. McHugh。施裏爾討論了跨性別行動主義和相關爭議，包括特定性別的隱私問題； 超車與跨車能見度； 名人在提高跨性別接受度方麵的作用； 跨性別者與女同性戀者或激進女權主義者之間的衝突； 參加女子和女子運動比賽的變性女性/男變女運動員； 使用跨性別語言； 交叉性； 和身份政治。[15] 她認為青春期阻滯劑、跨性別激素和手術等醫療幹預措施存在風險。 作為一個例子，她描述了一位因手術失敗而致殘的變性人。 她還介紹了變性的年輕女性。

背景和出版曆史

Shrier 曾就讀於哥倫比亞大學和牛津大學，並在耶魯大學法學院獲得法學博士學位。

不可逆轉的損害認可的快速發作性別焦慮症 (ROGD) 的爭議概念最初由 Lisa Littman 在 2018 年的一篇論文中提出。 ROGD 不被任何主要專業機構認可為醫學診斷，並且沒有可靠的科學證據支持。

《不可逆轉的損害》於 2020 年 6 月由保守派出版商 Regnery Publishing 首次出版。 [20] Blackstone Audio 發行了一本由 Pamela Almand 旁白的有聲讀物。[21] 在英國，該書由斯威夫特出版社出版，副標題為“少女與跨性別熱潮”。 [22] 在 2020 年 7 月接受《喬·羅根經曆》采訪時，施裏爾將變性的願望稱為“傳染病”，並將其與飲食失調和自殘進行了比較。 [23] 她將跨性別青年與自閉症聯係起來。[24] 她的言論引發了 Spotify 員工要求從平台上刪除 Rogan 播客劇集的呼籲，[24][25] 但該公司拒絕了這一請求。[26]

Chase Ross 是一名跨性別 YouTuber，曾因《不可逆轉的傷害》接受 Shrier 采訪，他於 2021 年為自己參與這本書道歉，聲稱他在這本書的內容和作者的意圖方麵被誤導了。

社會認可

接待
對這本書的反應存在分歧。 《澳大利亞觀察家》的 Nick Cater、《經濟學人》、《愛爾蘭獨立報》的 Emily Hourican、《國家評論》的 Madeleine Kearns、《星期日泰晤士報》的 Christina Patterson、《評論》的 Naomi Schaefer Riley 和 Janice 均給予了積極評價 倫敦泰晤士報的特納。 神學家蒂娜·貝蒂 (Tina Beattie) 在《平板電腦》[22] 中和心理學家克裏斯托弗·弗格森 (Christopher Ferguson) 在《今日心理學》博文中對它的評價褒貶不一。 《洛杉磯書評》的莎拉·馮塞卡 (Sarah Fonseca) 和精神病學研究員兼跨性別心理健康研究員傑克·圖班 (Jack Turban) 在《今日心理學》博客文章中對這篇文章給予了負麵評論。 《科學醫學》撤回了醫生哈裏特·霍爾的正麵評論，並隨後發表了一係列批評該書的文章。

《經濟學人》將《不可逆轉的損害》列入 2020 年度最佳圖書。《經濟學人》稱這本書是“第一批對這一主題進行平易近人的論述，引起了廣泛的關注”，但也表示主流報紙上對此書的評論並不多。 它稱讚施裏爾“非常仔細地講述了她采訪的那些人的故事”，但也暗示她可能誇大了青少年接受醫療幹預的程度。 馬德琳·卡恩斯 (Madeleine Kearns) 與黛布拉·W·蘇 (Debra W. Soh) 的《性別的終結》一起評論了《不可逆轉的損害》。 她表示，施裏爾的書提供了“個人的、好奇的、常常感人的敘述”。 內奧米·謝弗·萊利 (Naomi Schaefer Riley) 寫道，施裏爾詢問似乎突然開始認定自己是跨性別者的青少年“出了什麽問題”是正確的。 她讚同施裏爾對跨性別醫療保健和在線跨性別活動的批評。 珍妮絲·特納稱這本書“無所畏懼”，評論了圍繞它的爭議並認可其結論。 [46]

蒂娜·比蒂稱這本書是“一項令人不安、令人憤怒且引人注目的研究”。 她批評施裏爾使用父母或專業人士的軼事，而這些軼事顯然是受試者自己不知道的。 她寫道，雖然“施裏爾的許多說法可能會受到質疑”，但據報道，青少年發作的煩躁不安病例的增加“應該比目前的情況更加謹慎和不安”。 [22] 克裏斯托弗·弗格森寫道，施裏爾有“一些有效的想法”，他“不願意完全駁回她的論文”，但她也沒有“仔細遵循”科學，並且“高質量、預先注冊、開放科學、科學的”。 該領域需要做出努力”。

莎拉·豐塞卡（Sarah Fonseca）譴責這本書的表述、內容和來源。[48] 精神病學家傑克·圖爾班 (Jack Turban) 指責施裏爾提倡拒絕向跨性別青年提供性別肯定的醫療服務，他稱這是幾個專業協會拒絕接受的邊緣立場。 他還指責施裏爾曲解和遺漏了支持她書中主張的科學證據，並批評她根據對父母的采訪來描繪跨性別青年，並批評她使用“粗魯和冒犯性的語言”。

懷疑論者兼醫生哈裏特·霍爾 (Harriet Hall) 於 2021 年 6 月在《科學醫學》網站上發表了對該書的積極評論，指出施裏爾“提出了一些迫切需要調查的令人震驚的事實”，以性別肯定為中心的護理“是一種 錯誤和失職”，並且當前的政治氣候使得對這些問題進行科學研究幾乎不可能。 該網站的另外兩位編輯 Steven Novella 和 David Gorski 采取了史無前例的舉措，撤回了這篇評論，該評論在 Skeptic 雜誌上重新發表。 [49] 中篇小說和戈爾斯基後來解釋了撤回的原因，得出的結論是霍爾和施裏爾的主張“沒有任何證據支持，並且是對科學證據的嚴重誤讀”，並且基於“軼事、異常值、政治討論、 和精心挑選的科學”。 在接下來的幾周內，該網站發表了客座作者兼醫生 Rose Lovell 和 AJ Eckert 撰寫的一係列關於這本書的文章，其中還批評了這本書的科學錯誤、精心挑選的數據和錯誤信息。
曆史學家本·米勒將封麵設計“白人小女孩的生殖器官被黑洞消滅”與納粹宣傳海報的設計進行了比較。

糟糕的治療為什麽孩子長不大

https://www.abigailshrier.com/

阿比蓋爾·施裏爾 (Abigail Shrier)， 2024 年 2 月 27 日

幾乎從所有可以衡量的方麵來看，Z 世代的心理健康狀況都比前幾代人更差。 青少年自殺率不斷攀升，兒童抗抑鬱處方很常見，心理健康診斷的激增並沒有幫助數量驚人的孤獨、迷失、悲傷和害怕成長的孩子……

Bad Therapy Why The Kids Aren't Growing Up

Abigail Shrier ,  Author  February 27, 2024

In virtually every way that can be measured, Gen Z’s mental health is worse than that of previous generations. Youth suicide rates are climbing, antidepressant prescriptions for children are common, and the proliferation of mental health diagnoses has not helped the staggering number of kids who are lonely, lost, sad and fearful of growing…

不可逆轉的傷害：變性熱潮引誘我們的女兒

Irreversible Damage: The Transgender Craze Seducing Our Daughters 

https://www.amazon.ca/Irreversible-Damage-Transgender-Seducing-Daughters/dp/1684510317

作者：阿比蓋爾·施裏爾（Abigail Shrier）（作者）2020 年 6 月 30 日

“不可逆轉的損害……引發了一場風暴。《華爾街日報》撰稿人阿比蓋爾·施裏爾做了一件簡單卻具有毀滅性的事情：她嚴格地闡述了事實。”

              —賈尼絲·特納，《倫敦泰晤士報》

直到幾年前，性別不安——對一個人的生理性別的嚴重不適——還極其罕見。 這種疾病通常發生在不到 0.01% 的人口中，出現在幼兒時期，幾乎全部是男性。

但如今，全國各地大學、高中、甚至中學的一大群女性朋友都以“跨性別者”身份出櫃。 這些女孩在她們的生理性別上從未經曆過任何不適，直到她們在學校集會上聽到演講者的出櫃故事或發現跨性別“影響者”的互聯網社區。

毫無戒心的父母開始覺醒，發現自己的女兒被 YouTube 上的跨性別明星、“性別肯定”教育工作者和治療師所束縛，他們向年輕女孩推行改變生活的幹預措施，包括醫學上不必要的雙乳切除術和可能導致永久性不孕的青春期阻滯劑。

《華爾街日報》的撰稿人阿比蓋爾·施裏爾 (Abigail Shrier) 深入研究了跨性別流行病，與這些女孩、她們痛苦的父母、促成性別轉變的谘詢師和醫生，以及“變性者”——那些苦苦掙紮的年輕女性——進行了交談。 後悔他們對自己所做的事情。

施裏爾發現，出櫃成為變性人會立即提升這些女孩的社會地位，但一旦她們邁出了變性的第一步，就很難再回頭了。 她就父母如何保護女兒提供了急需的建議。

一代女孩正處於危險之中。 阿比蓋爾·施裏爾（Abigail Shrier）的這本重要著作將幫助您了解跨性別熱潮是什麽，以及如何讓您的孩子免受這種熱潮，或者如何將她從這條危險的道路上救出來。
Irreversible Damage: The Transgender Craze Seducing Our Daughters 

https://www.amazon.ca/Irreversible-Damage-Transgender-Seducing-Daughters/dp/1684510317
by Abigail Shrier (Author) June 30 2020

"Irreversible Damage . . . has caused a storm. Abigail Shrier, a Wall Street Journal writer, does something simple yet devastating: she rigorously lays out the facts." —Janice Turner, The Times of London

Until just a few years ago, gender dysphoria—severe discomfort in one’s biological sex—was vanishingly rare. It was typically found in less than .01 percent of the population, emerged in early childhood, and afflicted males almost exclusively.

But today whole groups of female friends in colleges, high schools, and even middle schools across the country are coming out as “transgender.” These are girls who had never experienced any discomfort in their biological sex until they heard a coming-out story from a speaker at a school assembly or discovered the internet community of trans “influencers.”

Unsuspecting parents are awakening to find their daughters in thrall to hip trans YouTube stars and “gender-affirming” educators and therapists who push life-changing interventions on young girls—including medically unnecessary double mastectomies and puberty blockers that can cause permanent infertility.

Abigail Shrier, a writer for the Wall Street Journal, has dug deep into the trans epidemic, talking to the girls, their agonized parents, and the counselors and doctors who enable gender transitions, as well as to “detransitioners”—young women who bitterly regret what they have done to themselves.

Coming out as transgender immediately boosts these girls’ social status, Shrier finds, but once they take the first steps of transition, it is not easy to walk back. She offers urgently needed advice about how parents can protect their daughters.

A generation of girls is at risk. Abigail Shrier’s essential book will help you understand what the trans craze is and how you can inoculate your child against it—or how to retrieve her from this dangerous path.

2021 年 6 月/7 月 | 第 50 卷，第 6/7 期

性別意識形態橫行

https://imprimis.hillsdale.edu/gender-ideology-run-amok/

阿比蓋爾·施裏爾
作者， Irreversible Damage: The Transgender Craze Seducing Our Daughters《不可逆轉的傷害：引誘我們女兒的跨性別熱潮》

以下內容改編自 2021 年 4 月 27 日在田納西州富蘭克林舉行的希爾斯代爾學院全國領導力研討會上發表的演講。

2007年，美國擁有一所兒科性別診所； 今天有數百個。 來自 Planned Parenthood 和 Kaiser 等機構的青少年很容易獲得睾酮，通常是在第一次就診時，甚至沒有治療師的證明。

我們是如何走到這一步的？ 為什麽我們都要假裝你知道我是女人的唯一方法就是我告訴你我的代詞？ 在美國，華盛頓州的一名 13 歲女孩可以在未經父母同意的情況下開始“性別肯定”治療，這是如何實現的？ 在美國，俄勒岡州的一名 15 歲女孩可以在未經父母許可的情況下接受“頂級手術”——選擇性雙乳切除術，這是如何實現的？ 我們能做些什麽呢？

***

為了理解我們是如何走到這一步的，首先考慮性別不安是有用的，即對一個人的生物性別感到嚴重不適的感覺。 性別不安確實是真實存在的。 這也是極其罕見的。 它影響著大約 0.01% 的人口，其中大多數是男性。

在近 100 年的診斷曆史中，性別不安通常始於兒童早期，即兩歲到四歲之間，並且通常涉及一個堅持認為自己不是男孩而是女孩的男孩。 患有此病的兒童會持續、持續地感覺到自己處於錯誤的身體中。 無論如何，這都是令人痛苦的——我和許多跨性別成年人交談過，其中大多數是生理上的男性，他們描述了感覺完全不對勁的身體帶來的無情的摩擦。

從曆史上看，這一直是性別不安的典型表現。 當這些孩子被單獨留下時——沒有人進行醫療幹預或鼓勵我們今天所說的“社會轉型”——超過 70% 的孩子會自然而然地擺脫性別焦慮。 大多數長大後不再受這種影響的人都成為了同性戀者。 那些沒有長大的人就成為了過去所謂的變性人。 她們不相信自己是女性，但她們覺得以女性的身份出現是最舒服的。

然而今天，我們不會讓這些孩子獨自一人。 相反，當孩子們看起來不完全女性化或完全男性化時，我們就會給他們貼上“跨性別孩子”的標簽。 老師鼓勵他們用新名字和新代詞重新向課堂介紹自己。 我們帶他們去看治療師或醫生，幾乎所有人都實行所謂的平權護理——這意味著他們認為自己的工作是確認性別不安的診斷並幫助孩子們實現醫學上的過渡。

對這些孩子進行治療的典型第一步是青春期阻滯劑，它會關閉腦垂體中負責釋放催化青春期激素的部分。 這些藥物中最常見的是亮丙瑞林，其最初目的是對性犯罪者進行化學閹割。 迄今為止，FDA 從未批準該藥物用於阻止健康青春期。

人們不得不想知道為什麽父母或醫生會采取措施阻止孩子的青春期，因為即使是一個真正患有性別不安的孩子，如果不去管，長大後也很可能會擺脫這種情況。 一些人認為，讓孩子經曆他們不希望屬於的性別的青春期是一種創傷。 但在許多情況下，青春期似乎幫助孩子們克服了性別焦慮。 事實是，鑒於科學家無法預測哪些孩子會自行擺脫煩躁不安，哪些孩子不會，因此沒有令人滿意的答案。

“平權關懷”的支持者還認為，允許青春期發生是危險的，因為跨性別青少年和跨性別成年人的自殺率非常高。 因此，他們說，我們需要盡快開始治療患有性別不安的兒童。

然而，沒有良好的長期研究表明青春期阻滯劑可以治愈自殺傾向，甚至改善心理健康。 也沒有研究表明青春期阻滯劑以這種方式使用是安全的或可逆的。

我們所知道的是，青春期阻滯劑會阻礙第二性征、性成熟和骨密度的發育。 事實上，由於骨密度的抑製和其他風險，醫生不喜歡讓孩子服用青春期阻滯劑超過兩年。

我們還知道，幾乎在所有情況下，當孩子的健康青春期在醫學上被阻止，使孩子與同齡人格格不入時，孩子就會開始使用跨性別激素。 當女孩服用青春期阻滯劑和跨性別激素時，她就會變得不孕。 鑒於她的性器官從未達到成年成熟度，她也可能患有永久性性功能障礙。

鑒於此，今天許多醫生和性別活動人士聲稱這些針對兒童的醫療過渡措施是安全且可逆的——它們是一個“暫停按鈕”，沒有嚴重的缺點——不僅不誠實，而且具有破壞性。 我們不會接受任何其他醫學領域的這種油嘴滑舌的推銷術。

少女中的跨性別認同

正如我所提到的，在性別不安科學研究近 100 年的曆史中，幾乎所有的診斷對象都是幼兒，而且大多數是男孩。 但在過去十年中，大量少女開始聲稱她們患有性別焦慮症。

事實上，在 2012 年之前，還沒有關於少女性別不安的科學文獻。 時任布朗大學公共衛生研究員的麗莎·利特曼博士使用“快速發生的性別不安”一詞來指隨後沒有性別不安童年史的少女中跨性別認同的突然激增。

這種激增並非美國獨有——我們在整個西方世界都看到了這種情況。 僅提供一項統計數據，十年間到英國國家性別診所尋求治療的少女人數增加了 4,400% 以上。 在整個西方，少女現在是聲稱患有性別不安的主要人群。

這背後的原因是社會傳染——思想、情感和行為通過同伴影響傳播，這是少女分享和傳播痛苦的又一個例子。 這一群體的社會傳染由來已久——厭食症和貪食症也是通過這種方式傳播的。 我們知道，今天的少女正處於有記錄以來最嚴重的心理健康危機之中，焦慮、自殘和臨床抑鬱症的發生率最高。

容易受到這種社會傳染的少女同樣是高度焦慮、抑鬱的女孩，她們在青春期在社交方麵掙紮，並且往往討厭自己的身體。 除此之外，還有一個學校環境，您可以通過聲明跨性別身份來獲得地位和受歡迎程度。 再加上青少年想要把它粘在媽媽身上的誘惑。 此外，社交媒體也帶來了令人陶醉的影響，跨性別活動人士在社交媒體上宣揚這樣的觀點：認定自己是跨性別者並開始服用睾丸激素可以治愈女孩的問題。 把這些放在一起，你就會看到一種快速傳播的社會現象。

我曾與頂尖女子學校的家庭交談過，他們證明，他們女兒七年級班級中有 15%、20%，甚至在某個案例中 30% 的女孩認為自己是跨性別者。 當你看到這樣的數字時，你正在見證一場社會蔓延。 沒有其他合理的解釋。

這些十幾歲的女孩承受著巨大的痛苦。 幾乎所有人都曾在某個時候患有飲食失調症、有過割傷行為，或者被診斷出患有其他心理健康合並症。 現在，一家醫療機構允許他們自我診斷性別焦慮症，該機構已決定其工作是肯定並同意跨性別青少年的觀點。

視而不見

你可能不知道凱拉·貝爾這個名字。 她是一位英國的年輕女性，在青春期遇到了很多麻煩，在十幾歲的時候就急於轉型，後來後悔了。 她接受了雙乳切除術，並花了數年時間服用睾酮，卻發現她的問題從來都不是性別不安。 她起訴了英國國家性別診所，去年 12 月，高等法院審查了她的案件以及處境類似的原告的訴訟請求後，她勝訴了。

法院審查了適用於凱拉·貝爾的醫療方案（與我們在美國的方案相同），並對一名年輕女孩被允許同意開始消除其未來生育能力和性功能的過程感到震驚。 15 歲，當時她不可能估量這種損失。

貝爾的勝利被《倫敦泰晤士報》、《經濟學人》甚至《衛報》譽為“裏程碑式的案件”，人們普遍認為貝爾的勝利是對加速少女性別轉變的努力的嚴重譴責。 法院指出的令人震驚的事情之一是，國家性別診所無法在接受過渡激素治療的青少年中顯示出任何心理改善。

正如我懷疑的那樣，如果您還沒有讀過或聽說過凱拉·貝爾案，那是因為美國的傳統媒體決定假裝該案沒有發生。 同樣，他們繼續忽視或忽視數以千計的“變性者”的故事，這些年輕女性經曆了醫學變性，後來後悔了，並試圖扭轉局麵。 這些女孩接受的許多治療都是永久性的，但她們盡其所能試圖扭轉一些影響。

因此，在美國，這場少女危機被視為政治問題——保守派問題——而不是醫學問題。

因此，也許我們這個時代最大的醫療醜聞被視為保守派的關注而被忽視。

對女性運動和安全空間的攻擊

任何關於性別意識形態的討論都不能忽視正在進行的消除女童和婦女體育運動和保護空間的運動。 許多或大多數推動這一趨勢的人本身並不是跨性別者。 但他們是積極分子，他們充滿活力，而且他們似乎正在取得勝利。

這場運動提倡危險的法案，例如《平等法案》，該法案將使區分生理上的男性和女性成為非法，從而將生理上的男性排除在女子運動隊或女性保護空間之外，無論是洗手間、儲物櫃 房間，或者監獄。 我們現在在加利福尼亞州和華盛頓州都製定了這些法律，正如您可能想象的那樣，結果之一是數百名親生男性囚犯（其中許多是暴力重罪犯）申請轉移到女性監獄。

對於推動這一目標的活動人士來說，僅僅為跨性別運動員設立男女通用的浴室、為跨性別運動員設立一個單獨的類別，或者在監獄中為跨性別生物學男性設立單獨的安全區是不夠的。 不，他們正在努力廢除所有女性專用空間，而且他們現在就想廢除它們。

***

這些主題的共同點是真相被性別意識形態所掩蓋。 關於對幼兒進行過渡治療的風險，人們撒了謊，既是為了淡化這些治療的危險，也是為了誇大這些治療已知的幫助程度。 研究人員和記者試圖報道接受過渡治療的少女所麵臨的社會傳染危機，但他們卻撒了謊。 關於消除婦女保護空間的運動也存在謊言。

這些謊言背後的性別意識形態是批判種族理論的兄弟。 雖然批評種族活動人士告訴孩子們，他們很大程度上是由膚色來定義的，但性別活動人士卻告訴孩子們，性別有很多種，而且隻有他們知道自己的真實性別。 正如反對學校種族灌輸的家庭被告知，他們對種族主義的否認就是種族主義的證據一樣，反對親生男性參加女子體育運動的年輕女性也被告知，她們的反對是跨性別恐懼症偏執的證據。

這些虛假的教條已經腐蝕了我們的 K-12 學校、我們的大學、我們的傳統媒體、我們的科學期刊和我們的醫學認證組織——美國兒科學會、美國醫學會、美國精神病學協會等。 讓你知道事情已經發展到什麽程度了，去年年底，美國科學作家協會（一個由具有科學背景的記者組成的協會）的一名成員告訴我，該協會的在線論壇的一名成員因提及我的文章而被開除。 關於少女中跨性別社會傳染的書。 他甚至沒有讀過我的書。 他隻是提到這聽起來很有趣，因此他因跨性別恐懼症而被禁止。

同樣，關注性別幹預風險的內分泌學家、精神病學家、兒科醫生和研究人員報告說，他們今天很難發表自己的研究成果。 公共和私人的研究資助幾乎完全僅限於促進性別轉變並淡化風險的研究人員。

現在有一大批年輕醫生，其中許多人從事兒科或兒童精神病學工作，他們公開表示自己的主要工作是“社會正義”。 他們毫無保留地慶祝年輕人過渡治療的增加，並對這些治療的風險感到不可原諒的自滿。 《華盛頓郵報》最近引用了其中一些醫生的話，大意是青春期阻滯劑是完全可逆的——這不是任何誠實的醫生都可以聲稱知道的事情。 我們根本沒有數據知道青春期阻滯劑在用於阻止健康的青春期時是否在物理上是完全可逆的，而且它們在心理上當然也是不可逆的。 我們看到醫學和科學出現了驚人的政治化，這是美國社會更大範圍的覺醒腐敗的症狀。

***

現在，我每次講話時都會強調一件事，我這麽說的原因很簡單，那就是這是真的：跨性別成年人是我在記者工作中遇到的最清醒、最善良的人。 他們中的許多人似乎都得到了轉型的幫助，他們過著令人欽佩且富有成效的生活。 他們無意傷害婦女或推動兒童轉型。 性別意識形態活動家並不代表他們。

我對自由的理解包括這樣一種信念，即社會應該允許成年人對自己的生活做出重大決定，其中包括選擇接受變性手術。

每當跨性別成年人問我時，我都會使用他或她選擇的名字和代詞。 在我看來，這是有禮貌且正確的做法。 但是——這是一個很大的但是——我從不撒謊。 這意味著我從來沒有說過，也永遠不會說，跨性別女性就是女性。 我認為，正如我們所看到的，背誦這個謊言會給婦女和女孩帶來不公正和危險的後果。 人雲亦雲地重複這些謊言既不禮貌也不正確。 這是婦女福利向覺醒的眾神怯懦的投降。 這是錯誤的。

我也經常被問到為什麽性別意識形態活動家正在做他們正在做的事情。 例如，告訴小男孩他們可能是女孩，告訴小女孩他們可能是男孩，這有什麽可能的理由呢？ 我對答案的最佳猜測是在與去轉變者交談時想到的。 我多次從這些年輕女性那裏聽到，她們在轉型過程中感到憤怒且政治激進。 在性別活動人士的網上指導下，她們經常斷絕與家人的關係。 與此相關的是，如果你仔細觀察，你會發現在波特蘭等城市的 Antifa 隊伍中，性別困惑者的數量不成比例。

換句話說，混亂才是重點，這些陷入困境的女孩成為那些尋求招募革命者的人的獵物。 正如批判種族理論的破壞性目標是在種族上分裂美國人一樣，性別意識形態的破壞性目標是破壞穩定家庭的形成，而家庭是美國生活的基石。

那麽我們該怎麽辦呢？ 我們如何反擊？ 首先，我們要反對對兒童進行性別意識形態灌輸。 這樣做沒有充分的理由，而且確實有害。 我們絕對可以堅持所有的孩子都應該善待彼此，而不是向整整一代人灌輸性別混亂的觀念。

其次，我們必須克服嬌氣，在公共場合說真話。 無論我們身在何處，我們都必須拒絕背誦謊言。 我們必須始終清楚地區分變性美國人（通常是優秀的人）和意識形態變性運動，後者旨在扭曲兒童和削弱家庭。

這是一場會讓我們的孩子們反對自己的運動，因為它的倡導者知道，沒有什麽比讓我們的孩子對自己造成不可逆轉的傷害更大的傷害了，沒有比讓美國屈服更快的方法了。 推行這種意識形態的人們可能比我們領先了十年。 但現在我認為他們喚醒了沉睡的巨人。 我的書的成功就是一個跡象。 目前正在辯論這些問題的許多州立法機構是另一個問題。

這些是我們的孩子和孫子。 我們的未來取決於我們能否贏得這場戰鬥。

 

JUNE/JULY 2021 | VOLUME 50, ISSUE 6/7

Gender Ideology Run Amok

https://imprimis.hillsdale.edu/gender-ideology-run-amok/

Abigail Shrier

Author, Irreversible Damage: The Transgender Craze Seducing Our Daughters

The following is adapted from a speech delivered on April 27, 2021, in Franklin, Tennessee, at a Hillsdale College National Leadership Seminar.

In 2007, America had one pediatric gender clinic; today there are hundreds. Testosterone is readily available to adolescents from places like Planned Parenthood and Kaiser, often on a first visit—without even a therapist’s note. 

How did we get to this point? How is it that we are all supposed to pretend that the only way you can know I’m a woman is if I tell you my pronouns? How did we get to an America in which a 13-year-old in the State of Washington can begin “gender affirming” therapy without her parents’ consent? How did we get to an America in which a 15-year-old in Oregon can undergo “top surgery”—elective double mastectomy—without her parents’ permission? And what can we do about it?

*** 

To understand how we got to this point, it is useful to begin by considering gender dysphoria—the feeling of severe discomfort in a person’s biological sex. Gender dysphoria is certainly real. It is also exceedingly rare. It afflicts about 0.01 percent of the population, most of whom are male.

For nearly 100 years of diagnostic history, gender dysphoria typically began in early childhood, between the ages of two and four, and usually involved a boy who insisted that he was not a boy but a girl. Children afflicted are insistent, consistent, and persistent in the feeling that they are in the wrong body. It is by all accounts excruciating—I’ve talked to many transgender adults, most of them biological males, who describe the relentless chafe of a body that feels all wrong. 

Historically, this has been the classic presentation of gender dysphoria. When these children were left alone—when no one intervened medically or encouraged what we today call “social transition”—over 70 percent of them naturally outgrew their gender dysphoria. Most of those who outgrew it became gay men. Those who did not outgrow it became what used to be known as transsexuals. They did not believe they were women, but they felt most comfortable presenting themselves as females. 

Today, however, we don’t leave these children alone. Instead, the moment children seem not to be perfectly feminine or perfectly masculine, we label them as “trans kids.” Teachers encourage them to reintroduce themselves to their classes with new names and new pronouns. We take them to therapists or doctors, nearly all of whom practice so-called affirmative care—meaning they think it is their job to affirm the diagnosis of gender dysphoria and help the children medically transition. 

The typical first step in treatment administered to these kids is puberty blockers, which shut down the part of the pituitary gland that directs the release of hormones catalyzing puberty. The most common of these drugs is Lupron, whose original purpose was the chemical castration of sex offenders. To this day, the FDA has never approved this drug for halting healthy puberty. 

One has to wonder why a parent or a doctor would take measures to stop a child’s puberty, given that even a child with genuine gender dysphoria would most likely outgrow that condition if left alone. Some argue that it is traumatizing to let children go through the puberty of the sex to which they do not wish to belong. But in many cases, puberty seems to have helped children overcome gender dysphoria. The truth is that there is no satisfying answer, given that scientists have no way of predicting which children will outgrow the dysphoria on their own and which won’t. 

Proponents of “affirmative care” also argue that allowing puberty to occur is dangerous, because suicide rates for trans-identified youth and trans adults are very high. Therefore, they say, we need to start treating children with gender dysphoria as soon and as dramatically as possible. 

Yet there are no good long-term studies indicating that puberty blockers cure suicidality or even improve mental health. Nor are there studies that show puberty blockers are safe or reversible when used in this manner.

What we do know is that puberty blockers prevent the development of secondary sex characteristics, sexual maturation, and bone density. Indeed, because of the inhibition of bone density and other risks, doctors don’t like to keep children on puberty blockers for more than two years.

We also know that in almost every case when a child’s healthy puberty is medically arrested, placing the child out of step with his or her peers, that child proceeds to cross-sex hormones. And when puberty blockers and cross-sex hormones are administered to a girl, she becomes infertile. She may also have permanent sexual dysfunction given that her sex organs never reach adult maturity.

Given this, the claims made by so many doctors and gender activists today that these medical transition measures for children are safe and reversible—that they are a “pause button,” without serious downsides—are not only dishonest, but destructive. We would not accept this sort of glib salesmanship in any other area of medicine. 

Trans Identification among Teenage Girls

As I mentioned, for the nearly 100-year history of scientific study of gender dysphoria, it has been diagnosed almost exclusively in young children, and mostly in boys. But over the last decade, large numbers of teenage girls have begun to claim they have gender dysphoria. 

Prior to 2012, in fact, there was no scientific literature on gender dysphoria arising in teenage girls. Dr. Lisa Littman, then a Brown University public health researcher, used the phrase “rapid onset gender dysphoria” to refer to the subsequent sudden spike in transgender identification among teenage girls with no childhood history of gender dysphoria.

This spike is not unique to America—we see it across the Western world. To offer just one statistic, there has been a decade-to-decade increase of over 4,400 percent in the number of teenage girls seeking treatment at the United Kingdom’s national gender clinic. Across the West, teen girls are now the leading demographic claiming to have gender dysphoria. 

What is behind this is social contagion—the spread of ideas, emotions, and behaviors through peer influence, one more instance of teenage girls sharing and spreading their pain. There is a long history of social contagion with this demographic—anorexia and bulimia are also spread this way. And we know that teen girls today are in the midst of the worst mental health crisis on record, with the highest rates of anxiety, self-harm, and clinical depression. 

The teen girls susceptible to this social contagion are the same high-anxiety, depressive girls who struggle socially in adolescence and tend to hate their bodies. Add to that a school environment where you can achieve status and popularity by declaring a trans identity. Add to that the teenage temptation to stick it to mom. Also add the intoxicating influence of social media, where trans activists push the idea that identifying as trans and starting a course of testosterone will cure a girl’s problems. Put those together, and you have a fast-spreading social phenomenon. 

I’ve spoken to families at top girls’ schools who attest that 15, 20, or in one case 30 percent of the girls in their daughter’s seventh grade class identify as trans. When you see figures like that, you’re witnessing a social contagion in action. There is no other reasonable explanation. 

These teen girls are in a great deal of pain. Almost all of them have at some point dealt with an eating disorder, engaged in cutting, or been diagnosed with other mental health comorbidities. And now they’re being allowed to self-diagnose gender dysphoria by a medical establishment that has decided that its job is to affirm and agree with trans-identified adolescents.

Turning a Blind Eye

You may not know the name Keira Bell. She is a young woman in the U.K., very troubled in adolescence, who was rushed to transition in her teen years and came to regret it. She underwent double mastectomy and spent years on testosterone, only to realize that her problem had never been gender dysphoria. She sued the U.K.’s national gender clinic, and last December, after the High Court of Justice examined her case and the claims of similarly situated plaintiffs, she won. 

The Court examined the medical protocols applied to Keira Bell—protocols identical to the ones we have in the United States—and was horrified that a young girl had been allowed to consent to begin a process of eliminating her future fertility and sexual function at an age, 15, when she could not possibly have gauged that loss.

Hailed as a “landmark case” by The Times of London, The Economist, and even The Guardian, Bell’s victory was widely viewed as a serious condemnation of the effort to fast-track teen girls to gender transition. One of the appalling things the Court noted was that the national gender clinic had been unable to show any psychological improvement in the adolescents it had treated with transitioning hormones. 

If, as I suspect, you haven’t read or heard about the Keira Bell case, that’s because America’s legacy media decided to pretend the case didn’t happen. Similarly, they continue to ignore or dismiss the stories of the thousands of “detransitioners”—young women who underwent medical transition, later regretted it, and attempt to reverse course. A lot of the treatments these girls have undergone are permanent, but they do what they can to try to reverse some of the effects. 

Thus it is that in the United States, this crisis among teenage girls gets treated as a political issue—a conservative issue—rather than a medical one. And so perhaps the greatest medical scandal of our time is dismissed as a conservative preoccupation.

The Assault on Women’s Sports and Safe Spaces

No discussion of gender ideology can ignore the ongoing movement to eradicate girls’ and women’s sports and protective spaces. Many or most of the people pushing this are not transgender themselves. But they are activists, they are energized, and they seem to be winning. 

This movement promotes dangerous bills like the Equality Act, which would make it illegal ever to distinguish between biological men and women—and thus to exclude a biological male from a girls’ sports team or a women’s protective space, whether it be a restroom, locker room, or prison. We have these laws now in California and in the State of Washington—and as you might imagine, one result is that hundreds of biological male prisoners, many of them violent felons, have applied to transfer to women’s units. 

For activists pushing this, it is not enough to create unisex bathrooms, a separate category for trans-identified athletes, or separate safe zones in prisons for trans-identified biological men. No, they are working to abolish all women’s-only spaces and they want to abolish them now. 

***

The common thread running through these topics is that the truth is being obscured by gender ideology. Lies are told about the risks of the transition treatments administered to young children, both to play down the dangers of those treatments and to exaggerate the degree to which those treatments are known to be helpful. Lies are told about the researchers and journalists who attempt to report on the crisis of social contagion among teenage girls undergoing transition treatments. And lies are told about the movement to eradicate women’s protective spaces. 

The gender ideology behind these lies is a sibling of critical race theory. While critical race activists are teaching kids that they are largely defined by their skin color, gender activists are teaching kids that there are a great many genders, and that only they know their true gender. And just as families who object to racial indoctrination in schools are told that their denials of racism are proof of racism, young women who object to biological males participating in girls’ sports are told that their objections are proof of transphobic bigotry. 

These mendacious dogmas have corrupted our K-12 schools, our universities, and our legacy media, as well as our scientific journals and our medical accrediting organizations—the American Academy of Pediatrics, the American Medical Association, the American Psychiatric Association, etc. To give you a sense of how far things have gone, I was informed late last year by a member of the National Association of Science Writers—an association of journalists with scientific backgrounds—that a member of the association’s online forum had been expelled for mentioning my book on the transgender social contagion among teenage girls. He hadn’t even read my book. He just mentioned that it sounded interesting, and for that he was banned as transphobic. 

Similarly, endocrinologists, psychiatrists, pediatricians, and researchers who are concerned about the risks of gender interventions report that they struggle today to get their research published. And public and private funding of research is almost entirely restricted to researchers who promote gender transition and downplay the risks. 

There are phalanxes of young doctors now, many of them in pediatrics or child psychiatry, who are open about their belief that their primary job is “social justice.” They unreservedly celebrate the increase in transitioning treatment of young people and are inexcusably complacent about the risks of those treatments. The Washington Post recently quoted some of these doctors to the effect that puberty blockers are fully reversible—which is not something that any honest doctor can claim to know. We simply don’t have the data to know whether puberty blockers are fully physically reversible when applied to halt healthy puberty—and they are certainly not psychologically reversible. We’re seeing a startling politicization of medicine and science, which is symptomatic of a larger woke corruption of American society.

***

Now, there’s something I make a point of saying whenever I speak, and I say it for the simple reason that it is true: transgender adults are some of the soberest and kindest people I have met in my work as a journalist. Many of them seem to have been helped by transition, and they are leading admirable and productive lives. They have no desire to harm women or to push transition on children. The gender ideology activists do not represent them. 

My understanding of freedom includes a belief that society should allow adults to make consequential decisions about their lives, which includes choosing to undergo sex reassignment surgery. And whenever I am asked by a transgender adult, I use his or her chosen name and pronouns. This seems to me the courteous and the right thing to do. But—and this is a big but—I never lie. This means I never say, and I will never say, that trans women are women. I think reciting this lie leads, as we are seeing, to unjust and dangerous consequences for women and girls. It is not courteous or right to parrot these lies. It is the cowardly surrender of women’s welfare to the woke gods. And it is wrong.

I’m also often asked why it is that the gender ideology activists are doing what they are doing. What possible justification could there be, for instance, for telling small boys that they might be girls and small girls that they might be boys? My best guess at an answer occurred to me while talking to detransitioners. I heard repeatedly from these young women that while they were transitioning, they were angry and politically radical. They often cut off relations with their families, having been coached to do so online by gender activists. Related to this, if you look, you’ll notice a disproportionate number of gender-confused people among the ranks of Antifa in cities like Portland. 

In other words, chaos is the point, and these troubled girls become prey for those who seek to recruit revolutionaries. Just as the destructive objective of critical race theory is to divide Americans racially, that of gender ideology is to disrupt the formation of stable families, the building blocks of American life.

So what do we do about it? How do we push back? First and foremost, we must oppose the indoctrination of children in gender ideology. There is no good reason for it, and it does real harm. We can absolutely insist that all children treat each other kindly without indoctrinating an entire generation in gender confusion. 

Second, we must overcome our squeamishness and speak the truth in public. Wherever we find ourselves, we must refuse to recite lies. And we must always clearly distinguish between transgender Americans, generally wonderful people, and the ideological transgender movement, which seeks to warp children and weaken families. 

This is a movement that would turn our children against themselves because its advocates know there is no greater harm—no quicker way to bring America to its knees—than by driving our children to do themselves irreversible damage. The people pushing this ideology have gotten a head start on us by perhaps a decade. But now I think they have awakened a sleeping giant. The success of my book is one indication. The many state legislatures that are now debating these issues is another. 

These are our kids and grandkids. Our future depends on our winning this fight.