Ben, thanks for all this. But I think it's important to note that many LGB people do not wish to be associated with T (and Q+++) and wish the T had never been glued onto LGB in the first place. LBGs have achieved many of our goals (e.g. gay marriage) and now want to live in peace and quiet.
The activities, claims ('transwomen are women') and demands of TRAs (trans rights activists) have been damaging to LGB people. The LGB-without-the-T among us do NOT want children to be told they are born in the wrong body and we are appalled by trans-identified males claiming to be lesbians. It is true that some LGBs support gender ieodlogy but many do not and it is important to make that distinction.
The Trevor Project has some sort of algorithmic arrangement with Google. Any YouTube video that includes a discussion of "gender identity" in youth gets a nice little message right underneath to remind the viewer that "Conversion therapy refers to a range of dangerous and discredited practices aimed at changing one's sexual orientation or gender identity or expression." It's most visible in desktop. See Malcolm Clarke's recent interview with Andrew Gold for an example.
Sometimes it seems that if the teens are so obsessed with the way they dress, their hair and makeup etc, they need to get a hobby, get their minds off of this subject. No wonder they are depressed. Imagine waking up every day knowing they have to dedicate a lot of time and energy to present themselves by looks, speech etc and that in the course of the day they will fail several times because they are pretending to be what they are not. The irony is that they have convinced themselves that the fake persona is who they really are. That is a living a lie.
When they are bullied by this choice to the point of suicidal thoughts, they could undo the whole sham by really being themselves, if they had the support they needed.
Here is the passage. I commented on his post twice but he deleted my comment:
Turban: 'The company told its users (3 billion on Facebook alone) that bullying LGBT people is acceptable. Roughly 1:3 LGBT kids report being bullied in the past year. And this leads to dramatically elevated rates of suicide attempts. By normalizing bullying, Meta is ensuring that these suicidality rates intensify. And vulnerable kids and their families are going to pay the price.'
Thank you for this well-written and well-researched piece. As someone who works in mental health, I'm dismayed to see activist groups use discussions of suicide for political gain. At the very least, it's crass and manipulative. Beyond that is the impact that the groups' messaging has on vulnerable young people. Essentially, what's being communicated is that if government passes any measures that can be perceived as "anti-trans", suicide should be a normal and expectable response. This results in these young people becoming more fragile, as they are led to believe that the world is against them and that they cannot withstand any setbacks or disappointments. Your points about resilience are particularly key here. The best way for these groups to help children is to encourage them to become MORE resilient, to give them a sense of efficacy in navigating challenges and disappointments.
"In August 2017, the Movement Advancement Project (MAP), a nonprofit think tank, published the second addition of its messaging guide, Talking About Suicide & LGBT"
I could've sworn the same indigo blob also told us MAP is acronym for "Minors Attracted Person".
I so appreciate the clarity and heartfelt exasperation with the coverage of this as click bait for organizations trying to raise funds for their own purposes.
The kids I know who have been lauded and affirmed over and over still ended up in the ER and psych ward over and over. It hasn’t fixed the underlying monster in the closet.
Not to be flippant, but we used to call it teen angst and listen to goth or metal bands and dye their black. The dye would wash out eventually, thought the music taste stuck.
The Gender movement and its leaders and followers, now that they're at last facing some serious pushback, have come to a fork in the road, where they can either:
1) Trim their project a bit and still support rights for Trans adults, while admitting that of course biological sex is real and thus womens' spaces (esp prisons and showers) must be protected and that teaching Gender theory (where the hard inescapable reality of Sex is replaced by the gnostic mysticism of Gender) to children and encourging them to get sex changes is a socially destructive project all of whose claims have been scientifically rejected and that has never been able to clear the crucial hurdle of informed consent, ie. no child can reasonably understand and anticipate the consequences of what they're signing up for; OR
2) they can double down on their campaign of hysterical moral blackmail and emotional bullying, paint themselves into the corner of "Do as we say or a small child dies!" (which maybe more than anything points to how intensely juvenile and psychologically pathological this movement is), and continue to depict anyone who rejects any of their sacred dogma as evil bigots who need to be banished from society.
The reason why they never can and never will accept Option 1 is that this would require them to admit that they mentally and physically poisoned many thousands of children and teens, not to mention that they campaigned to have them sterilized and mutilated. As many of the people involved in this mad science experiment either underwent it themselves or let it happen to their own children, you can see how it would be almost psychologically impossible to admit this.
Thus there will remain entrenched pockets of Trans maximalism, esp in the blue states and liberal cities where they are powerful and well-funded, and the battle against this toxic ideological campaign will have to be fought place by place and step by step, essentially a war of liberation against the conquest of America by the theorists and zealots of Gender.
Ben, thank you so much for this piece of indispensable reporting. I have not seen anything on this topic as well-written and informative that gathers so much pertinent information in a single place and explains it so well. I am saving this for reference and use whenever needed to combat the falsehoods that are out there. Thank you, thank you, for all you are and all you do.
In no world is the failure to stop natural puberty or the failure to cause unnatural side effects from chemicals or loss of body parts from unnecessary surgeries a cause of suicides. On the other hand, LYING to children, teens and vulnerable young adults and telling them they MUST alter their bodies to appear the opposite sex and MUST be treated and referred to as the opposite sex in order to have any semblance of happiness or peace of mind (or to not be constantly tormented) - and that they are fairly likely to kill themselves if they don't immediately get those things - IS certainly a cause of suicides (although thankfully rare). Actually causing physical harm to these vulnerable individuals through use of chemicals and scalpels is another (rare) cause of suicides, as is removing young people from the support of loving families.
The bottom line is that these organizations, such as Trevor Project, are responsible for pain and suffering, and, yes, they have blood on their hands.
If any of these organizations truly wanted to help vulnerable, non-conforming, sensitive individuals, they would be promoting acceptance of such unique people for who they are rather than chemically and surgically altering their bodies to make them less healthy and pretending they are the opposite sex.
Agree. I fear this almost encourages vulnerable, desperate people to attempt suicide to "make a point". And sadly I think there are people who will take advantage of them.
This is great, thanks. As there are other ways that these organizations and mainstream news outlets have contributed to the youth mental health crisis, maybe it could be expanded or be a series? For example, glorifying and normalizing "no contact," with families or encouraging young people to find their "glitter families" online, or posting slick and glossy images of attractive trans identified young people who make it all look cool and glamorous. As you say, they sell lies, not truth--the ever-elusive goal of happiness through transition, which can only fail and produce horrible mental anguish. For many, the dysphoria is never vanquished, for the obvious reason. The frame of "affirmation only" has itself contributed to the mental health crisis. The core of the ideology is not healthy as it promotes lying to oneself and wrapping oneself in fantasy rather than facing (painful) reality, which is a critical part of cultivating mental health for every human. While of course these organizations are only one part of the mental health problem, they deserve to be called out and called out and called out some more.
Ben, thanks for all this. But I think it's important to note that many LGB people do not wish to be associated with T (and Q+++) and wish the T had never been glued onto LGB in the first place. LBGs have achieved many of our goals (e.g. gay marriage) and now want to live in peace and quiet.
The activities, claims ('transwomen are women') and demands of TRAs (trans rights activists) have been damaging to LGB people. The LGB-without-the-T among us do NOT want children to be told they are born in the wrong body and we are appalled by trans-identified males claiming to be lesbians. It is true that some LGBs support gender ieodlogy but many do not and it is important to make that distinction.
The Trevor Project has some sort of algorithmic arrangement with Google. Any YouTube video that includes a discussion of "gender identity" in youth gets a nice little message right underneath to remind the viewer that "Conversion therapy refers to a range of dangerous and discredited practices aimed at changing one's sexual orientation or gender identity or expression." It's most visible in desktop. See Malcolm Clarke's recent interview with Andrew Gold for an example.
I’ve noticed this.
I wish more people were open to listening to the truth, and accepting of the facts. Instead, they just block you.
Sometimes it seems that if the teens are so obsessed with the way they dress, their hair and makeup etc, they need to get a hobby, get their minds off of this subject. No wonder they are depressed. Imagine waking up every day knowing they have to dedicate a lot of time and energy to present themselves by looks, speech etc and that in the course of the day they will fail several times because they are pretending to be what they are not. The irony is that they have convinced themselves that the fake persona is who they really are. That is a living a lie.
When they are bullied by this choice to the point of suicidal thoughts, they could undo the whole sham by really being themselves, if they had the support they needed.
Oh man check out Turbans post today......egregious.
https://open.substack.com/pub/jackturban/p/the-american-psychiatric-association?utm_source=share&utm_medium=android&r=1ur2sq
Here is the passage. I commented on his post twice but he deleted my comment:
Turban: 'The company told its users (3 billion on Facebook alone) that bullying LGBT people is acceptable. Roughly 1:3 LGBT kids report being bullied in the past year. And this leads to dramatically elevated rates of suicide attempts. By normalizing bullying, Meta is ensuring that these suicidality rates intensify. And vulnerable kids and their families are going to pay the price.'
Good god.
Thank you for this well-written and well-researched piece. As someone who works in mental health, I'm dismayed to see activist groups use discussions of suicide for political gain. At the very least, it's crass and manipulative. Beyond that is the impact that the groups' messaging has on vulnerable young people. Essentially, what's being communicated is that if government passes any measures that can be perceived as "anti-trans", suicide should be a normal and expectable response. This results in these young people becoming more fragile, as they are led to believe that the world is against them and that they cannot withstand any setbacks or disappointments. Your points about resilience are particularly key here. The best way for these groups to help children is to encourage them to become MORE resilient, to give them a sense of efficacy in navigating challenges and disappointments.
Happy to read they're coming face to face with reality lately: https://www.nbcnews.com/nbc-out/out-news/trevor-project-undergo-layoffs-restructuring-major-transformation-rcna188067
"In August 2017, the Movement Advancement Project (MAP), a nonprofit think tank, published the second addition of its messaging guide, Talking About Suicide & LGBT"
I could've sworn the same indigo blob also told us MAP is acronym for "Minors Attracted Person".
I so appreciate the clarity and heartfelt exasperation with the coverage of this as click bait for organizations trying to raise funds for their own purposes.
The kids I know who have been lauded and affirmed over and over still ended up in the ER and psych ward over and over. It hasn’t fixed the underlying monster in the closet.
Not to be flippant, but we used to call it teen angst and listen to goth or metal bands and dye their black. The dye would wash out eventually, thought the music taste stuck.
The Gender movement and its leaders and followers, now that they're at last facing some serious pushback, have come to a fork in the road, where they can either:
1) Trim their project a bit and still support rights for Trans adults, while admitting that of course biological sex is real and thus womens' spaces (esp prisons and showers) must be protected and that teaching Gender theory (where the hard inescapable reality of Sex is replaced by the gnostic mysticism of Gender) to children and encourging them to get sex changes is a socially destructive project all of whose claims have been scientifically rejected and that has never been able to clear the crucial hurdle of informed consent, ie. no child can reasonably understand and anticipate the consequences of what they're signing up for; OR
2) they can double down on their campaign of hysterical moral blackmail and emotional bullying, paint themselves into the corner of "Do as we say or a small child dies!" (which maybe more than anything points to how intensely juvenile and psychologically pathological this movement is), and continue to depict anyone who rejects any of their sacred dogma as evil bigots who need to be banished from society.
The reason why they never can and never will accept Option 1 is that this would require them to admit that they mentally and physically poisoned many thousands of children and teens, not to mention that they campaigned to have them sterilized and mutilated. As many of the people involved in this mad science experiment either underwent it themselves or let it happen to their own children, you can see how it would be almost psychologically impossible to admit this.
Thus there will remain entrenched pockets of Trans maximalism, esp in the blue states and liberal cities where they are powerful and well-funded, and the battle against this toxic ideological campaign will have to be fought place by place and step by step, essentially a war of liberation against the conquest of America by the theorists and zealots of Gender.
Ben, thank you so much for this piece of indispensable reporting. I have not seen anything on this topic as well-written and informative that gathers so much pertinent information in a single place and explains it so well. I am saving this for reference and use whenever needed to combat the falsehoods that are out there. Thank you, thank you, for all you are and all you do.
In no world is the failure to stop natural puberty or the failure to cause unnatural side effects from chemicals or loss of body parts from unnecessary surgeries a cause of suicides. On the other hand, LYING to children, teens and vulnerable young adults and telling them they MUST alter their bodies to appear the opposite sex and MUST be treated and referred to as the opposite sex in order to have any semblance of happiness or peace of mind (or to not be constantly tormented) - and that they are fairly likely to kill themselves if they don't immediately get those things - IS certainly a cause of suicides (although thankfully rare). Actually causing physical harm to these vulnerable individuals through use of chemicals and scalpels is another (rare) cause of suicides, as is removing young people from the support of loving families.
The bottom line is that these organizations, such as Trevor Project, are responsible for pain and suffering, and, yes, they have blood on their hands.
If any of these organizations truly wanted to help vulnerable, non-conforming, sensitive individuals, they would be promoting acceptance of such unique people for who they are rather than chemically and surgically altering their bodies to make them less healthy and pretending they are the opposite sex.
such a great comment!
Agree. I fear this almost encourages vulnerable, desperate people to attempt suicide to "make a point". And sadly I think there are people who will take advantage of them.
This is great, thanks. As there are other ways that these organizations and mainstream news outlets have contributed to the youth mental health crisis, maybe it could be expanded or be a series? For example, glorifying and normalizing "no contact," with families or encouraging young people to find their "glitter families" online, or posting slick and glossy images of attractive trans identified young people who make it all look cool and glamorous. As you say, they sell lies, not truth--the ever-elusive goal of happiness through transition, which can only fail and produce horrible mental anguish. For many, the dysphoria is never vanquished, for the obvious reason. The frame of "affirmation only" has itself contributed to the mental health crisis. The core of the ideology is not healthy as it promotes lying to oneself and wrapping oneself in fantasy rather than facing (painful) reality, which is a critical part of cultivating mental health for every human. While of course these organizations are only one part of the mental health problem, they deserve to be called out and called out and called out some more.
Good suggestion. Thank you!
Thanks for this!
Thank you for writing this. I can now share this article with those on Facebook who are posting about suicide to help inform them.
The latest article in the NYT was really disturbing - shining the light in particular on this fanatical doctor in New York “treating” twelve year “trans” kids going through the “trauma” of menstruation. But this one is absolutely the weirdest. I’m revolted by the articles, as well by the ones in the Washington Post, but if I stopped reading them I wouldn’t know what was going on in their parallel universe: https://www.nytimes.com/2024/10/26/health/kinnon-mackinnon-detransition-research.html?smid=nytcore-ios-share&referringSource=articleShare