For many years, the medical condition known as “gender dysphoria” slumbered in near complete obscurity. Gender dysphoria is a psychological affliction typically beginning in early childhood whereby an individual experiences a severe, persistent sense of being born as the wrong sex. True gender dysphoria is rare, affecting only 0.001-0.002% of the population. A European study showed that just 1 in 30,000 males and 1 in 100,000 females sought sex reassignment surgery. As one retired pediatrician observed, “During my 40 years in pediatric practice, I never met a child who believed he or she was born in the wrong body and wanted to change gender.”
No longer is this the case. The idea of being the “wrong” gender has swept across our nation. Cases of transgender identity are skyrocketing. Yet there are key differences between the gender dysphoria of the past and the current transgender craze. True gender dysphoria virtually always has an early onset; the large majority present before the age of 7 and thus well before puberty. Modern transgender identity, however, has overwhelmingly involved adolescents. One study of parents whose kids had announced a “trans” identity reported that such kids had recently “exhibited a marked increase in internet and social media consumption.” Cheering by transgender activists, this trend has been called a “social contagion.”
Importantly, the modern transgender movement has disproportionately affected teenage girls. These girls have previously been comfortable with their femininity, only to abruptly declare their desire to live as the opposite sex. Brown University public health researcher Lisa Littman has called this phenomenon “rapid onset gender dysphoria.” In the past, medical professionals would have wisely recommended therapy for these girls, with the realistic hope that the vast majority would be able to work through their angst and eventually accept the reality of their biology.
Transgender activists and the political left have demanded that medical professionals abandon this approach. They insist that every young person or child experiencing even the least bit of uneasiness regarding their gender be fully affirmed in their beliefs no matter how transitory or misguided. Such nonsense leads to tragic and permanent consequences. Young women are encouraged to undergo “top surgeries” – a brutal euphemism for double mastectomies. In plain English, surgeons remove both of the girl’s breasts, leaving her flat chested and scarred. These girls are also given male hormones (testosterone) leading to irreversible changes in their facial and body characteristics.
Needless to say, such medical interventions do not come cheap. A full course of sex reassignment surgeries and hormone treatment can easily cost hundreds of thousands of dollars. Sex change hormones have become big business for Planned Parenthood, which dispenses these “treatments” without requiring any psychological evaluation or parental consent.
Therapists and other professionals who express any reservation about such momentous decisions are threatened with the loss of their job and livelihood. Attempts at personal destruction have become sadly typical of the left. Yet these therapists are doing exactly what is most necessary: attempting to restore their patients to a state of health and flourishing whereby gender feelings are properly aligned with biological reality. Studies following children with gender dysphoria show that their dysphoria resolved in a very high percentage of cases – up to 80% – without misguided surgical or medical intervention.
All young people experience significant challenges as they grow into adulthood. They struggle to develop healthy relationships with parents, siblings and friends. They face pressure to succeed at school or in extracurricular activities. Many kids suddenly claiming transgender identity have previously experienced childhood trauma or abuse and are already suffering from depression and/or anxiety. Such individuals no doubt face daunting psychological problems. What they don’t need is to multiply the damage by making rash, irreversible changes to their bodies.
The psychiatric world is very familiar with disorders whereby people have misguided perceptions of reality. In this regard, gender dysphoria is similar to anorexia. Anorexic patients suffer from faulty perception of body image; they believe themselves to be overweight even when they are dangerously thin. Who would ever think of encouraging a young anorexic woman to further starve herself? Yet transgender activists insist that society fully capitulate to those children and adolescents who perceive themselves as the opposite sex. Those experiencing gender discomfort are promised that all their problems will be solved if they will only embrace their new identity.
Yet sex reassignment surgery and hormonal treatment is not the answer. A 2011 study at the Karolinska Institute in Sweden examined the long term outcomes for 324 people who underwent sex reassignment surgery. After 30 years of observation, these individuals experienced horrible mental health outcomes. Specifically, these patients demonstrated shockingly high suicide mortality – 20 fold above comparable populations. So the issue is truly a matter of life and death. But the truth is exactly the opposite of what the transgender community and the Democratic Party would have you believe. Those on the political left accuse anyone who opposes gender transitioning as a threat to the life of such youngsters. The reality is that attempting a gender transition simply compounds the problem.
Dr. Paul McHugh, former chief psychiatrist at Johns Hopkins Hospital, sums up the issue well: “At the heart of the problem is confusion over the nature of the transgendered. ‘Sex change’ is biologically impossible. People who undergo sex-reassignment surgery do not change from men to women or vice versa. Rather, they become feminized men or masculinized women. Claiming that this is civil-rights matter and encouraging surgical intervention is in reality to collaborate with and promote a mental disorder.”
The brutal truth is that President Joe Biden and the Democratic Party have fully committed themselves to the transgender agenda – an agenda which it completely antithetical to the Christian faith. During a recent press conference, Biden administration press secretary Jen Psaki made a dramatic opening statement regarding transgender policy. She made it abundantly clear that the Biden administration will do everything possible to encourage children and young adults to question their God-given gender. And when these impressionable kids become confused about their identity, the Democratic Party will demand they receive “gender-affirming therapy.” By gender-affirming therapy, Psaki means disfiguring mastectomies, grotesque genitourinary procedures and a storm of hormonal medication.
So we find ourselves back in the world of George Orwell, where totalitarian regimes control language to deceive and control people. As should be obvious, “gender-affirming therapy” is neither gender-affirming nor is it therapy. Rather, these are hellish gender-denying measures, which flagrantly violate a child’s female or male nature. Such activities are not therapeutic in any sense of the word. Those experiencing gender dysphoria are suffering from a mental/psychological affliction. True therapy would involve counseling with the goal of restoring alignment with their objective birth gender. Physical mutilation only makes the problem much worse and is often irreversible. The Democratic Party’s insistence on gender-denying actions are truly a form of abuse.
Republican lawmakers in Texas and Alabama have rightly moved to prevent such misguided and harmful practices. Jen Psaki made a special effort to attack them for their efforts. “Republican elected officials” Psaki claimed, “are engaging in a disturbing, cynical trend of attacking vulnerable transgender kids for purely partisan, political reasons.” Psaki preposterously characterized gender-denying actions as “medically necessary, lifesaving healthcare for [kids].” She (of course) used the same cynical playbook Democrats employ on every issue – calling Republican legislation “discriminatory.”
Additionally, Psaki claimed “every major medical association agrees that gender-affirming healthcare for transgender kids is a best practice and potentially lifesaving.” This is a spectacular lie. First of all, no civilization in the history of mankind has embarked upon such a radical experiment in human sexuality. The widespread practice of gender transition is relatively new and does not have a long track record. Second, the evidence that we do have completely contradicts Psaki’s claim. Gender-denying actions are severely harmful. Many of those who attempt gender transition deeply regret their decision and desperately seek to de-transition later in life. As we’ve noted, gender denial yields very poor mental health outcomes with high rates of suicidal ideation.
In the book of Acts chapter 13, we read about the Apostle Paul’s very first missionary journey. While on the island of Cyprus, Paul meets the Roman proconsul (or governor), a man named Sergius Paulus. The proconsul has an attendant named Bar-Jesus or Elymas – “a Jewish sorcerer and false prophet.” Sergius Paulus seeks to hear the word of God, but Elymas does everything he can to turn the proconsul away from Christian faith. The Scriptures dramatically portray the confrontation which follows: “[Paul], filled with the Holy Spirit, looked straight at Elymas and said, ‘You are a child of the devil and an enemy of everything that is right! You are full of all kinds of deceit and trickery. Will you never stop perverting the right ways of the Lord?”
Some Christians might find themselves quite uncomfortable with Paul’s language here. “Tone it down Paul!” they might suggest. “People are just not going to respond to that kind of approach! That’s not very kind.” Yet there the story stands, a stark reminder that Christians cannot be squeamish when it comes to confronting evil in our world.
This scripture often comes to my mind when I read about how the transgender movement has seized our nation and gained the Democratic Party’s wholehearted support. Those who are aggressively promoting this destructive ideology are nothing less than children of the devil and enemies of all that is right. People who truly seek to love kids experiencing gender tension must have the courage to speak the truth. For in the beginning, God created humans male and female. Our gendered existence is a gift from God and should be celebrated. Understanding the creative will of God and living according to his wisdom are essential for human flourishing. The transgender agenda will only bring about misery, alienation, and death.
If only the postmodern left would even accept the possibility of knowing truth or reality in general, much less to “eventually accept the reality of their biology” in the specific. I fear that their true adherents are beyond all our best arguments, have become largely immune to the concept of logic and reason, being double innoculated with a steady dose of postmodern thought and secular political expediency.