The most important idea that trans activists will protect is the idea that trans people are “born this way”, and that one’s gender identity is an immutable characteristic. Everything else that they advocate for depends on this belief. Without that, why would insurance pay for medical transition since it would just be cosmetic? Why would you medically transition children since they might change their minds? Why would you allow people in opposite sex spaces? Why would employers have to accommodate people presenting themselves in unusual ways?
Because this really is questioning the very foundation of the trans movement, I would not expect you’ll have any success in being allowed to continue this research, and it’s why Littman was attacked so ferociously for saying things that really weren’t very extreme at all and weren’t hateful.
I also have to mention that I think you’re barking up the wrong tree if you believe that you’re going to find that some transgender people have “real” transgenderism as opposed to the ROGD type who are just subject to social contagion. While different people may have different motivations, I think the best-kept secret is that it’s not an inborn trait for anyone. Some of them know they are lying, many others truly believe it and have deceived themselves.
I’m a parent of one of the ROGD girls. I believe they’re the victims of cult-like brainwashing by those who get validation and social acceptance of their demands by convincing as many vulnerable kids as possible that they’re trans.
There's a question I desperately want to ask all the people stalling this research proposal: What are the actual harms that would occur if it was discovered that ROGD does exist for some portion of youths or if there are subtypes of gender dysphoria? What exactly are the "harms" they are fearing? Many conditions have subtypes. There are subtypes of anxiety and depression and understanding those subtypes allow for everyone to get better treatment. The existence of psychogenic tics as a social contagion spread through TikTok videos about Tourette's does not mean doctors stopped believing Tourette's existed (for those who argue that recognizing ROGD mean the "true trans" people could no longer transition). So what exactly are they afraid of? It's time to stop letting them hide behind vague words like "harm and specify and define their fears so that people can understand why this type of research is being shut down.
The harm is that people would realize that being transgender isn’t actually an inborn immutable characteristic after all. And then the whole house of cards would fall down. They would lose insurance coverage for medical treatments, the ability to legally force their way into women’s restrooms and sports, the ability to openly practice their lifestyle at work and in public without anyone being able to say anything, and the ability to feel validated as “true” women (or men) by insisting they are truly the opposite sex and have always been that way, and look at all these kids who are also that way so that proves it.
To fit within their annoying framework, you could propose looking into the identification as trans as a reaction to homophobia. Most gender non confirming kids grow up to be gay and their gender dysphoria resolves. Homophobic parents and children with internalized homophobia may feel incentivized to transition
I’d suggest research in the apparently groundbreaking area of puberty anxiety, which suddenly becoming male or female can evoke easily.
It’s a far simpler explanation for these feelings, and the wish not to become “opposite sex” but to “nave no sex at all” which is the core reaction.
It curious to me the far simpler explanation has been avoided entirely, though medicine (as a subset of science) supposedly searches for the simplest explanation that fits the facts.
Demonic possession of the mind by an opposite sex brain seems a bit far fetched compared to anxiety over bad acne, hairy bodies, new urges, bulges and ridicule from other teens.
This (open access) academic article (https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1007/s10508-023-02576-9.pdf) by Suzanna Diaz (pseudonym) and J. Michael Bailey, which investigates ROGD via an online survey of parents, has recently been retracted by Springer. (Bailey is a highly respected academic in the field of sexual psychology). This action follows a concerted campaign by transactivists to have the paper retracted and the editor, another highly respected, open-minded academic, dismissed. The activists were successful in getting the article retracted (on ridiculously spurious grounds) but did not manage to get the editor dismissed, thank goodness.
Unfortunately for the transactivists, the article is still available to download and, in a wonderful example of the “Streisand effect”, it has been viewed over 105,000 times! This kind of exposure is practically unheard of in academia.
I wish I could find your story unbelievable but sadly I can’t. Genderism is like a cancer, slowly but surely metastasising into all our institutions, from the Academy to Health, from Education to the Criminal Justice System. It is a truly terrifying disease, especially as we don’t currently have the chemotherapeutic agents to arrest its spread.
Congratulations to you for having disco ered the difference between story telling and research
And kudos for biting off such a contentious issue to start your journey of doing real research.
Keep plugging away!
Brilliant, and….terrifying. LSL, PhD
What’s wrong with correct English?
The most important idea that trans activists will protect is the idea that trans people are “born this way”, and that one’s gender identity is an immutable characteristic. Everything else that they advocate for depends on this belief. Without that, why would insurance pay for medical transition since it would just be cosmetic? Why would you medically transition children since they might change their minds? Why would you allow people in opposite sex spaces? Why would employers have to accommodate people presenting themselves in unusual ways?
Because this really is questioning the very foundation of the trans movement, I would not expect you’ll have any success in being allowed to continue this research, and it’s why Littman was attacked so ferociously for saying things that really weren’t very extreme at all and weren’t hateful.
I also have to mention that I think you’re barking up the wrong tree if you believe that you’re going to find that some transgender people have “real” transgenderism as opposed to the ROGD type who are just subject to social contagion. While different people may have different motivations, I think the best-kept secret is that it’s not an inborn trait for anyone. Some of them know they are lying, many others truly believe it and have deceived themselves.
I’m a parent of one of the ROGD girls. I believe they’re the victims of cult-like brainwashing by those who get validation and social acceptance of their demands by convincing as many vulnerable kids as possible that they’re trans.
There's a question I desperately want to ask all the people stalling this research proposal: What are the actual harms that would occur if it was discovered that ROGD does exist for some portion of youths or if there are subtypes of gender dysphoria? What exactly are the "harms" they are fearing? Many conditions have subtypes. There are subtypes of anxiety and depression and understanding those subtypes allow for everyone to get better treatment. The existence of psychogenic tics as a social contagion spread through TikTok videos about Tourette's does not mean doctors stopped believing Tourette's existed (for those who argue that recognizing ROGD mean the "true trans" people could no longer transition). So what exactly are they afraid of? It's time to stop letting them hide behind vague words like "harm and specify and define their fears so that people can understand why this type of research is being shut down.
The harm is that people would realize that being transgender isn’t actually an inborn immutable characteristic after all. And then the whole house of cards would fall down. They would lose insurance coverage for medical treatments, the ability to legally force their way into women’s restrooms and sports, the ability to openly practice their lifestyle at work and in public without anyone being able to say anything, and the ability to feel validated as “true” women (or men) by insisting they are truly the opposite sex and have always been that way, and look at all these kids who are also that way so that proves it.
To fit within their annoying framework, you could propose looking into the identification as trans as a reaction to homophobia. Most gender non confirming kids grow up to be gay and their gender dysphoria resolves. Homophobic parents and children with internalized homophobia may feel incentivized to transition
I’d suggest research in the apparently groundbreaking area of puberty anxiety, which suddenly becoming male or female can evoke easily.
It’s a far simpler explanation for these feelings, and the wish not to become “opposite sex” but to “nave no sex at all” which is the core reaction.
It curious to me the far simpler explanation has been avoided entirely, though medicine (as a subset of science) supposedly searches for the simplest explanation that fits the facts.
Demonic possession of the mind by an opposite sex brain seems a bit far fetched compared to anxiety over bad acne, hairy bodies, new urges, bulges and ridicule from other teens.
This (open access) academic article (https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1007/s10508-023-02576-9.pdf) by Suzanna Diaz (pseudonym) and J. Michael Bailey, which investigates ROGD via an online survey of parents, has recently been retracted by Springer. (Bailey is a highly respected academic in the field of sexual psychology). This action follows a concerted campaign by transactivists to have the paper retracted and the editor, another highly respected, open-minded academic, dismissed. The activists were successful in getting the article retracted (on ridiculously spurious grounds) but did not manage to get the editor dismissed, thank goodness.
Unfortunately for the transactivists, the article is still available to download and, in a wonderful example of the “Streisand effect”, it has been viewed over 105,000 times! This kind of exposure is practically unheard of in academia.
I wish I could find your story unbelievable but sadly I can’t. Genderism is like a cancer, slowly but surely metastasising into all our institutions, from the Academy to Health, from Education to the Criminal Justice System. It is a truly terrifying disease, especially as we don’t currently have the chemotherapeutic agents to arrest its spread.