My latest post for Genspect looks back on the five years that have passed since Lisa Littman published her research on rapid-onset gender dysphoria:
Five years on, the term ‘ROGD’ still prickles nerves. Activists still claim—falsely—that Littman’s paper was retracted or that rapid-onset gender dysphoria has been “debunked.” At this year’s European Professional Association for Transgender Health conference in Killarney, Ireland, ROGD was everywhere—and everyone was trying hard not to see it. The winner of the poster competition claimed to find no basis for ROGD—all because the researcher decided not to look. The incoming president of EPATH, the Dutch clinician and researcher Annelou De Vries, said the “ROGD hypothesis” was a “concept we need to get rid of.” Other presenters tiptoed around the topic—the huge demographic shift is hard to miss, after all—before declaring that there may well be a demographic shift but patients with adolescent-onset gender dysphoria are just as valid—just as ‘trans,’ just as worthy of access to life-altering interventions—as previous cohorts.
In a “critical commentary” on rapid-onset gender dysphoria, Florence Ashley spent most of the article explaining why it wouldn’t matter even if Littman were right:
“Let us assume, for a moment, that there is indeed a new subgroup of youth who, having experienced trauma and mental illness, come to believe themselves to be trans as a maladaptive coping mechanism. It would not follow that social and/or medical transition is unethical or harmful… Not all coping mechanisms are unhealthy. Even if it were the case that for some people believing oneself transgender is a coping mechanism brought on by trauma, transition may still be indicated. If the rise in transgender identities evidences social contagion – a claim I have shown to be unsubstantiated – it may yet be a healthy contagion.”
In other words: nothing to see here! And—if it is a contagious maladaptive coping mechanism—so what?
Online, trans-identified young people trash the concept while serving up evidence for it:
“I think its more that lgbtq+ people have a tendency to group together (seriously almost all my close friends have since come out as lgbtq+ or at least questioned it) before you even know it and its generally about teens who are probably going to realise their gender around the same time anyway. And one person coming out can make someone realise oh hey yeah this is a thing.”
This quote...I just can’t. It feels like a kick in the gut reading it. Please, Florence Ashley, step out of your bubble, come down from your ivory tower, and sit down with my desisted ROGD child who used this “coping mechanism” during her early teens mental health crisis. I want Florence Ashley to spend actual real life, face-to-face time watching her cry, listening to her rage about the mental health professionals that she trusted who decided to cheer on and encourage her “maladaptive coping mechanism” with lies and lessons on deception and how to “maladaptively cope” instead of giving her proper mental healthcare and helping her build relationships built on trust and honesty. Let Florence Ashley spend some of her days and sleepless nights trying to figure out how to support a teen girl traumatized by the maladaptive coping strategy and social contagion she hypothesizes is a good thing while she sits in her little bubble and never actually deals with the pain and the consequences of her ideas. There was nothing “healthy” about it. Florence Ashley doesn’t have to live even one single moment with the pain, the harm, and the trauma she causes with her flippant little ideas about this. Would she even bother listening to one of those kids she hurt? It makes me want to scream seeing the people who promote the harm that caused my child - my entire family - so much trauma go to such ridiculous and extreme ends to dismiss it, to refuse to see it. Florence Ashley can f- off
“Let us assume, for a moment, that there is indeed a new subgroup of youth who, having experienced trauma and mental illness, come to believe themselves to be trans as a maladaptive coping mechanism. It would not follow that social and/or medical transition is unethical or harmful…Even if it were the case that for some people believing oneself transgender is a coping mechanism brought on by trauma, transition may still be indicated. If the rise in transgender identities evidences social contagion – a claim I have shown to be unsubstantiated – it may yet be a healthy contagion.”
A lot of the activists also keep bringing up that " the "same tired group of detransitioners" are trotted out because there really aren't many. They also say destransitioners are " love-bombed" , it is a social contagion, cult, etc. Pretty much using same words gender critical use for gender ideology.......I just wish it would all stop and people could get real help for their truly maladaptive coping mechanisms. If you bring some of the arguments to their full logical conclusion society would become a free for all of people doing whatever feels good to them at any time or place without any consequences.