![\"Irreversible](\"https:\/\/www.orthodoxytoday.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/02\/Irreversible_Damage_Transgender_Delusion_01.jpg\")
by Al Stewart –\nA decade ago, the number of people in the USA identifying as transgender was approximately 1 in 10,000 (0.01%). Now 2% (1 in 50) of high school students, identify as transgender. (See page 32)<\/p>\n
by Al Stewart –
\nA decade ago, the number of people in the USA identifying as transgender was approximately 1 in 10,000 (0.01%). Now 2% (1 in 50) of high school students, identify as transgender. (See page 32)<\/p>\n
[A 20,000% increase in just 10 years!]<\/p>\n
Irreversible Damage: The Transgender Craze Seducing Our Daughters<\/a> is a troubling book about an epidemic damaging the lives of many many teenage girls. While the book is particularly focused on the United States, this contagion, spread by the internet, is beginning to affect many westernized societies.<\/p>\n Abigail Shrier is a journalist who writes for the Wall Street Journal. She paints a grim picture of: <\/p>\n It\u2019s a book so thoroughly researched and so carefully explaining the problem and the damage done, that it\u2019s hard to believe the book has been opposed, cancelled, or made unavailable through various retailers even before it was published. Even the suggestion of publishing this book was met with howls of transphobia and warnings that it would promote suicide among trans people. It is interesting to notice that Shrier is not at all anti-trans for those who are of age and make their adult decisions. Her point is that this is a contagion among adolescent girls and the long-term and \u201cirreversible damage\u201d is significant.<\/p>\n I\u2019ll walk you through some of the material, but it\u2019s well worth reading this book yourself\u2014particularly if you\u2019re involved in any kind of pastoral work or have a family with teenage girls.<\/p>\n The New Social Contagion <\/strong> Shrier explains how \u201cgender dysphoria,\u201d formerly known as \u201cgender identity disorder,\u201d is characterized by severe persistent discomfort in one\u2019s biological sex. It typically begins in early childhood\u2014ages two to four\u2014though it may become more severe in adolescence. But in most cases\u2014nearly 70%\u2014childhood gender dysphoria resolves, i.e. the person grows out of it. [1]<\/p>\n Historically, gender dysphoria afflicted a tiny sliver of the population<\/strong> (roughly 0.01%) and almost exclusively boys. Before 2012, in fact, there was no scientific literature on girls aged 11 to 21 ever having developed gender dysphoria at all. This means that prior to 2012, the gender dysphoria rates were approximately 1 in 10,000 people. And almost never in girls (page xxvii).<\/p>\n And yet \u2026<\/p>\n Between 2016 and 2017, a number of gender surgeries for natal females in the U.S. quadrupled with biological women suddenly accounting for, as we have seen, 70% of all gender surgeries. In 2018, the UK reported 4400% rise over the previous decade in teenage girls seeking gender treatment. In Canada, Sweden, Finland, and the UK, clinicians and gender therapists began reporting a sudden and dramatic shift in the demographics of those presenting with gender dysphoria from predominantly school-aged boys to predominantly adolescent girls. (Page 26)<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Groups of friends together are now presenting as trans and wanting to transition to live as trans men. Shrier interviews Dr Lisa Littman, whose research has found that the contagion spreads more like anorexia nervosa<\/em>:<\/p>\n Like the new crop of transgender teens, anorexic girls suffered from an obsessive focus on the perceived flaws of their bodies and valorized the willingness to self-harm. (Page 33)<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Under the Influence<\/strong> Much of this messaging has happened with the support of schools and teachers.<\/strong> One of the most troubling chapters describes how the gatekeepers of education have allowed gender activists access to schools\u2014and even kindergartens\u2014to promote radical gender ideology under the pretext of resisting bullying.<\/p>\n Meanwhile, many mental health experts have abdicated their responsibilities. They simply affirm their patients\u2019 self-diagnoses; rarely attempt to talk them out of it or encourage them to wait. Shrier reports that puberty blockers and male hormones can be obtained even after the first visit to a counsellor with \u201cinformed consent.\u201d Without any solid evidence (as Shrier shows), counsellors operate on the assumption that:<\/p>\n Dissident Voices<\/strong> But in this case, as Shrier explains, there are serious physical consequences for those on the transitioning pathway. Puberty blockers, which are promoted as not having a long-term effect, prevent those taking them from experiencing the effects of puberty experienced by their peers\u2014potentially exacerbating the feeling of alienation from their female bodies.<\/p>\n Testosterone, which almost invariably follows blockers, brings short-term euphoria. But the long-term effects on girls\u2019 bodies, hair growth, mood, voice, vaginal atrophy, etc., are irreversible.<\/p>\n Top surgery, the removal of breasts, apart from the obvious consequences, can lead to scarring and other complications.<\/p>\n Phalloplasty\u2014the surgical construction of something that approximates a penis\u2014involves complex grafting and can leave the patient with terrible long-term complications. Only 3% of \u201ctrans-men\u201d go to this stage, and after getting the horrific details of the operation, one understands why.<\/p>\n Regret<\/strong> But Shrier does give encouragement to those who wish to come back or detransition that there is life beyond that.<\/p>\n The Way Back<\/strong> This book is very carefully researched and written essentially as a support to parents who are struggling with their girls caught up in this contagion. It lists the terrible damage done to those who proceed down this path but also encourages parents to stay strong and take definite action.<\/p>\n As she is not seeking to present a Christian worldview perspective, Schrier doesn\u2019t offer a consistent understanding of gender as rooted in our creation as male and female in the image of God. However, the book does supply useful statistics and useful responses from psychologists, psychiatrists, and doctors who have had the courage to refuse this progressive contagion.<\/p>\n \u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014 Book is available from Amazon: Irreversible Damage: The Transgender Craze Seducing Our Daughters<\/a>.<\/p>\n by Al Stewart – A decade ago, the number of people in the USA identifying as transgender was approximately 1 in 10,000 (0.01%). Now 2% (1 in 50) of high school students, identify as transgender. (See page 32) [A 20,000% increase in just 10 years!] Irreversible Damage: The Transgender Craze Seducing Our Daughters is a … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":497,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"generate_page_header":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[176,187,183,185,184,186],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-14124","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-lgbt-activism","category-lgbtq-groom-children","category-lgbtq-war-on-children","category-transdelusion","category-transgender-delusion","category-transgender-war-on-children"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.orthodoxytoday.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14124","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.orthodoxytoday.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.orthodoxytoday.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.orthodoxytoday.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/497"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.orthodoxytoday.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14124"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.orthodoxytoday.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14124\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.orthodoxytoday.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14124"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.orthodoxytoday.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14124"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.orthodoxytoday.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14124"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}\n
\nShrier names it \u201crapid onset gender dysphoria,\u201d\u2014the phenomenon where girls begin to identify as \u201ctrans\u201d in friendship groups or clusters, even though there was no sign of gender dysphoria earlier in their lives.<\/p>\n
\nShrier then explains how female-to-male influencers with huge followings (especially on YouTube) have been presenting gender transition as a liberating answer to whatever mental problems or anxieties a particular adolescent female has. If you\u2019re feeling depressed, anxious, sad, unhappy with your body, then you must be trans. Shrier lists some of the working hypotheses that are drip-fed into the heads of adolescent females by these influencers:<\/p>\n\n
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\nNevertheless, there are some psychologists, psychiatrists, and medical practitioners who are speaking out against this contagion and pointing out that it is actually a mental disorder. Shrier quotes Dr Michael Bailey, who has arrived at the conclusion that gender dysphoria is a hysteria much like multiple personalities disorder, another historical example of disturbed young women convincing themselves they possess an ailment and then manifesting the symptoms. (Page 133-134)<\/p>\n
\nShrier interviews a number of \u201cdetransitioners\u201d who wish to \u201cundo\u201d the change. Theirs is not a happy story. Aside from the irreversible physical effects, those who detransition have trouble being heard\u2014it\u2019s not politically correct to give detransitioners a voice.<\/p>\n
\nChapter 11, the most valuable chapter in Shrier\u2019s book, gives some very clear advice to parents on how to take strong action and not to be undermined or bullied by others when your adolescent girl starts down this pathway. Her seven principles for parents are worth looking at:<\/p>\n\n
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[1]<\/a>\u00a0It is also interesting (but tragic) to note in view of this, that the legislation introduced in Victoria, 4 February 2021 the\u00a0 Change or Suppression (Conversion) Practices Prohibition Bill 2020<\/em><\/a>\u00a0forbids anyone to try and counsel those presenting as transgender to reconsider.<\/span><\/p>\n
\nOriginal book review was posted here<\/a>. (Various edits and corrections were made by blog editors to improve clarity and readability. The author’s original meaning was not altered in any way.)<\/em><\/p>\n<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"