As red states restrict or ban pharmaceutical and surgical interventions for gender-questioning youth, the trans community goes to some very, very dark places. On Reddit, this poster asks: “If you were forced to detransition, would life be worth living?”
Thanks again, Eliza for your unique contribution to this fraught topic.
I had been thinking about the issue of trans genocide recently, because one of my favorite podcasts, the Fifth Column -- which has mostly sidestepped the trans issue -- responded aggressively to the controversy over the recent GLAAD/NY Times contributors letters. They made note of the rhetorical claim that the NYT was denying trans people’s right to exist, which of course sounds deranged. Kmele Foster commented that they were going straight to putting trans people in ovens.
I have been wondering how much this rhetoric is literal fear-mongering that trans genocide is intended, and how much is figurative. It seems to me that any questioning of trans identity appears to TRAs to be a kind of genocide, because it raises doubts about the reality of trans identities. It reminds me of Peter Pan -- if you don’t clap your hands, Tinkerbell won’t exist (for the record I clapped my hands, but hey, I was three years old).
In other words, the trans genocide rhetoric is a reflection of the fragility of trans identity claims. It requires the assent of the broader society. If that assent is lacking, trans people feel they won’t exist. Of course, this also morphs into fears of a literal genocide.
Not hard to deduct that the writer is a male. Threats of suicide bombings, taking as many transphobes with him as he can, getting his diy pipe bomber out of the garage - it's all ready and waiting!... Synthetic testosterone seems to be doing no good to the young women who take it, but males, even on estradiol, are still far more aggressive and murderous. When are the police and courts going to arrest and prosecute the REAL hate speech culprits?
I am also fascinated by this concept of trans ancestors, for this reason. This is a population that is literally being sterilized, and also, through double mastectomies, eliminating their ability to breast feed children. They are alienating themselves from their reproductive capacities. They are amputating their connection to the great chain of biology, which connects us with our ancestors (a friend of mine has commented that we are born in a river of blood, a vivid metaphor that expresses our deep connection with those ancestors and with the universe itself).
Having amputated this connection, and in many cases alienated themselves from their true biological families, they are now creating a false genealogy through the invention of invented ancestors.
Losing that connection would only heighten their sense of trans genocide.
It’s so hard to know that one of these voices could be that of my own child. How, how, how do we get them back? I think of hiring someone to get him out and have him ‘reprogrammed’ like those who had their beloveds rescued from religious cults. It’s so heartbreaking, scary and real and there is nothing I can do.
Imagine telling a young girl that, unless she immediately gets the nose-job and breast enlargement she's been clamoring for, she will suffer immeasurably, living in a shell of her "true, authentic" small-nosed, buxom self. What a horrific notion - telling someone they can never be happy unless and until they modify an otherwise healthy body. Even if some women may ultimately live better lives with smaller noses and bigger breasts (due solely to the shallow nature of our current society), what would the world think of some adult who has had those procedures and is happy about them and then tells vulnerable teenage girls they must immediately have the same procedures or risk suicide. The only difference between those cosmetic surgeries and the chemical and surgical alterations associated with transition (besides transition being much more invasive and dangerous) is something called a Gender Identity. However, Gender Identity is an undefined, undefinable amorphous concept that, if it exists at all, would by its nature, not require bodily alterations, since it's supposedly divorced from biology. People scaring these vulnerable kids do not have their best interests at heart.
But no, "being trans" is not a "mental health disorder"!? FFS, I have spent time in mental health facilities (as a visitor, not a patient) and this all sounds like the ravings of the severely unhinged. If we supported everyone in their beliefs, we wouldn't need inpatient mental health facilities because well, all us sane people would spend our lives catering to the delusional beliefs of the insane. If you need drugs, surgery and the unquestioning support of everyone around you to live your "real" life, I question just how "authentic" your life is. Artifice is not authenticity.
And parents' role is not to say "yes" to everything, but to keep children from harming themselves by doing things that will cause them lifelong damage, which is why these laws are aimed at children, not adults. If children are "gender questioning" it's because those around them (including their parents) have indicated to them that tree climbing girls and doll loving boys are either "wrong" or indicative of some problem that needs to be fixed. Children are incapable of distinguishing between adult definitions of gender and sex and (if given encouragement) will believe that sex change is possible when it is not.
All parents lie to their children in the cause of creating a magical world for them. But there exists a vast gulf between Santa Claus and the tooth fairy and the unfulfillable promise that you can be whatever sex your heart desires. https://lucyleader.substack.com/p/lying-to-our-children-hey-all-parents
Great article. And it helps to explain the increasing violence shown at trans demonstrations: with placards now saying not just "KILL TERFS" but "DECAPITATE TERFS" -- taking a cue from Muslim jihadi extremists and terrorists.
Much easier to threaten real violence in "defence" against "genocide" as an indoctrinated phobic belief.
The comments strike a familiar note to trans widows, the ex-wives of cross-dressing men. They'll suddenly detransition of their own volition when they realize how tiring the entire charade is, after decades of causing their nearest and dearest to pretend for them. It is a psychiatric illness, as outlined by psychiatrist and former "affirming" practitioner, Dr. Stephen B. Levine. The casual mentions of eating disorders and other co-existing mental illnesses demonstrates that the hormones and surgeries haven't "cured" the conditions, but rather, have been used for placebo effect. I will repeat: if trans widows' stories of experiencing the husband's manic episodes (and other erratic, unwell behavior) after he got on estrogen, perhaps the path of the "diagnosis" would have been slightly less dogmatic and extreme.
It's truly mind blowing how this has been taken on board by so many young people.
I recently joined twitter and have tried to engage with some of the trans allied kids. They start with well structured sentences, but almost immediately go to something like "and you and your lot are just hateful bigots, you're as bad as those authoritian people in WW2. The KKK wanted to protect their women and children too. And you don't really care about vulnerble kids getting the wrong treatment, that's just a dog whistle for all your fascist friends" I have 15 followers.
These replies come after I've simply asked a question. Now some of them maybe trolling or trying to get clicks/clout. But this happens regularly. Which leads me to believe what you are saying here. Some of them truly believe that there is a genocide in progress. It's terrifying.
We gave these lunatics power. Now we reap what we sow.
I'm tired of kowtowing to these people and letting them abuse everyone around them with threats of suicide if they don't get what they want. I'm at the point where I honestly do not care anymore. If all these laws are passed (and hopefully they will be) I don't care what the people in this thread do to themselves. What's alarming is what they want to do to others.
There is a mental health professional (I forget her name) that postulates self-harm and suicidality represent an unhealthy relationship w/anger. For teens who are self-harming or suicidal, she'll work with their family on being more assertive so anger and upset can be managed in a healthier way. This really makes sense to me and I wish there was more research into the links between anger, aggression, and suicidality.
There does seem to be quite a bit of aggression in the comments whether it's self-directed, other-directed or both. This would also make sense as to why females are typically more suicidal but don't die by suicide as often (females aren't typically permitted to express anger on their own behalf) as males. From what I've read, the sex ratio holds true in trans populations as well. From my work in mental health, I've also noticed that people who struggle with suicidality also struggle with mental rigidity as well as difficulty self-regulating (which seems to apply to a good portion of the trans population).
If all of this is true, a "solution" might be to work with these individuals on building their assertiveness, cognitive flexibility, and self-regulatory skills. Perhaps this would even lead to life in general feeling more tolerable.
As I read your first-class piece, Eliza, it reminded me of a documentary I saw about an Australian man and his family, although it has happened here, too, on numerous occasions. It featured a homicidal man who took the lives of his family out of spite, it seemed to me. He was no longer in control of their lives, so he slaughtered them. I believe there is a name for this phenomenon.
These people, I would bet, are mainly males because the murderous language used is both extreme and toddler-like tantrumy at the same time. TRAs who are thwarted in any way display this dichotomy. It is mainly associated with domestic abuse, and we have come to learn from 'trans widows' that autogynephiles often behave in ways that can only be deciphered as extreme domestic abuse edged with sexually-motivated cruelty and sadism.
I think these men do not actually want to harm themselves - that's their last resort, and it's a kind of self-spite - but they would harm others. The use of the word, genocide, in relation to 'trans' is such a gross insult to those who did suffer genocide as to be unconscionable. These people are plainly deranged, dangerously so, and, if we do not put a stop to this madness, we are going to regret it deeply and for a very long time. I think it needs a Jordan Peterson to actually tease out all the psychological strands.
Thanks again, Eliza for your unique contribution to this fraught topic.
I had been thinking about the issue of trans genocide recently, because one of my favorite podcasts, the Fifth Column -- which has mostly sidestepped the trans issue -- responded aggressively to the controversy over the recent GLAAD/NY Times contributors letters. They made note of the rhetorical claim that the NYT was denying trans people’s right to exist, which of course sounds deranged. Kmele Foster commented that they were going straight to putting trans people in ovens.
I have been wondering how much this rhetoric is literal fear-mongering that trans genocide is intended, and how much is figurative. It seems to me that any questioning of trans identity appears to TRAs to be a kind of genocide, because it raises doubts about the reality of trans identities. It reminds me of Peter Pan -- if you don’t clap your hands, Tinkerbell won’t exist (for the record I clapped my hands, but hey, I was three years old).
In other words, the trans genocide rhetoric is a reflection of the fragility of trans identity claims. It requires the assent of the broader society. If that assent is lacking, trans people feel they won’t exist. Of course, this also morphs into fears of a literal genocide.
What do you think of this idea?
Not hard to deduct that the writer is a male. Threats of suicide bombings, taking as many transphobes with him as he can, getting his diy pipe bomber out of the garage - it's all ready and waiting!... Synthetic testosterone seems to be doing no good to the young women who take it, but males, even on estradiol, are still far more aggressive and murderous. When are the police and courts going to arrest and prosecute the REAL hate speech culprits?
I am also fascinated by this concept of trans ancestors, for this reason. This is a population that is literally being sterilized, and also, through double mastectomies, eliminating their ability to breast feed children. They are alienating themselves from their reproductive capacities. They are amputating their connection to the great chain of biology, which connects us with our ancestors (a friend of mine has commented that we are born in a river of blood, a vivid metaphor that expresses our deep connection with those ancestors and with the universe itself).
Having amputated this connection, and in many cases alienated themselves from their true biological families, they are now creating a false genealogy through the invention of invented ancestors.
Losing that connection would only heighten their sense of trans genocide.
It’s so hard to know that one of these voices could be that of my own child. How, how, how do we get them back? I think of hiring someone to get him out and have him ‘reprogrammed’ like those who had their beloveds rescued from religious cults. It’s so heartbreaking, scary and real and there is nothing I can do.
What kind of "social movement" threatens suicide if they don't get what they want? A cult. Cults do that
Holy 🐄. Yeah, no mental illness here...
What dark and scary mass psychosis is taking over the world?
Hint: it’s one that makes people want to ‘unalive’ themselves.
Imagine telling a young girl that, unless she immediately gets the nose-job and breast enlargement she's been clamoring for, she will suffer immeasurably, living in a shell of her "true, authentic" small-nosed, buxom self. What a horrific notion - telling someone they can never be happy unless and until they modify an otherwise healthy body. Even if some women may ultimately live better lives with smaller noses and bigger breasts (due solely to the shallow nature of our current society), what would the world think of some adult who has had those procedures and is happy about them and then tells vulnerable teenage girls they must immediately have the same procedures or risk suicide. The only difference between those cosmetic surgeries and the chemical and surgical alterations associated with transition (besides transition being much more invasive and dangerous) is something called a Gender Identity. However, Gender Identity is an undefined, undefinable amorphous concept that, if it exists at all, would by its nature, not require bodily alterations, since it's supposedly divorced from biology. People scaring these vulnerable kids do not have their best interests at heart.
But no, "being trans" is not a "mental health disorder"!? FFS, I have spent time in mental health facilities (as a visitor, not a patient) and this all sounds like the ravings of the severely unhinged. If we supported everyone in their beliefs, we wouldn't need inpatient mental health facilities because well, all us sane people would spend our lives catering to the delusional beliefs of the insane. If you need drugs, surgery and the unquestioning support of everyone around you to live your "real" life, I question just how "authentic" your life is. Artifice is not authenticity.
And parents' role is not to say "yes" to everything, but to keep children from harming themselves by doing things that will cause them lifelong damage, which is why these laws are aimed at children, not adults. If children are "gender questioning" it's because those around them (including their parents) have indicated to them that tree climbing girls and doll loving boys are either "wrong" or indicative of some problem that needs to be fixed. Children are incapable of distinguishing between adult definitions of gender and sex and (if given encouragement) will believe that sex change is possible when it is not.
All parents lie to their children in the cause of creating a magical world for them. But there exists a vast gulf between Santa Claus and the tooth fairy and the unfulfillable promise that you can be whatever sex your heart desires. https://lucyleader.substack.com/p/lying-to-our-children-hey-all-parents
Great article. And it helps to explain the increasing violence shown at trans demonstrations: with placards now saying not just "KILL TERFS" but "DECAPITATE TERFS" -- taking a cue from Muslim jihadi extremists and terrorists.
Much easier to threaten real violence in "defence" against "genocide" as an indoctrinated phobic belief.
“life-saving breast augmentation and laser-hair removal" -- what a phrase.
The comments strike a familiar note to trans widows, the ex-wives of cross-dressing men. They'll suddenly detransition of their own volition when they realize how tiring the entire charade is, after decades of causing their nearest and dearest to pretend for them. It is a psychiatric illness, as outlined by psychiatrist and former "affirming" practitioner, Dr. Stephen B. Levine. The casual mentions of eating disorders and other co-existing mental illnesses demonstrates that the hormones and surgeries haven't "cured" the conditions, but rather, have been used for placebo effect. I will repeat: if trans widows' stories of experiencing the husband's manic episodes (and other erratic, unwell behavior) after he got on estrogen, perhaps the path of the "diagnosis" would have been slightly less dogmatic and extreme.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P_5-7-2azH0&t=1s
It's truly mind blowing how this has been taken on board by so many young people.
I recently joined twitter and have tried to engage with some of the trans allied kids. They start with well structured sentences, but almost immediately go to something like "and you and your lot are just hateful bigots, you're as bad as those authoritian people in WW2. The KKK wanted to protect their women and children too. And you don't really care about vulnerble kids getting the wrong treatment, that's just a dog whistle for all your fascist friends" I have 15 followers.
These replies come after I've simply asked a question. Now some of them maybe trolling or trying to get clicks/clout. But this happens regularly. Which leads me to believe what you are saying here. Some of them truly believe that there is a genocide in progress. It's terrifying.
We gave these lunatics power. Now we reap what we sow.
I'm tired of kowtowing to these people and letting them abuse everyone around them with threats of suicide if they don't get what they want. I'm at the point where I honestly do not care anymore. If all these laws are passed (and hopefully they will be) I don't care what the people in this thread do to themselves. What's alarming is what they want to do to others.
There is a mental health professional (I forget her name) that postulates self-harm and suicidality represent an unhealthy relationship w/anger. For teens who are self-harming or suicidal, she'll work with their family on being more assertive so anger and upset can be managed in a healthier way. This really makes sense to me and I wish there was more research into the links between anger, aggression, and suicidality.
There does seem to be quite a bit of aggression in the comments whether it's self-directed, other-directed or both. This would also make sense as to why females are typically more suicidal but don't die by suicide as often (females aren't typically permitted to express anger on their own behalf) as males. From what I've read, the sex ratio holds true in trans populations as well. From my work in mental health, I've also noticed that people who struggle with suicidality also struggle with mental rigidity as well as difficulty self-regulating (which seems to apply to a good portion of the trans population).
If all of this is true, a "solution" might be to work with these individuals on building their assertiveness, cognitive flexibility, and self-regulatory skills. Perhaps this would even lead to life in general feeling more tolerable.
As I read your first-class piece, Eliza, it reminded me of a documentary I saw about an Australian man and his family, although it has happened here, too, on numerous occasions. It featured a homicidal man who took the lives of his family out of spite, it seemed to me. He was no longer in control of their lives, so he slaughtered them. I believe there is a name for this phenomenon.
These people, I would bet, are mainly males because the murderous language used is both extreme and toddler-like tantrumy at the same time. TRAs who are thwarted in any way display this dichotomy. It is mainly associated with domestic abuse, and we have come to learn from 'trans widows' that autogynephiles often behave in ways that can only be deciphered as extreme domestic abuse edged with sexually-motivated cruelty and sadism.
I think these men do not actually want to harm themselves - that's their last resort, and it's a kind of self-spite - but they would harm others. The use of the word, genocide, in relation to 'trans' is such a gross insult to those who did suffer genocide as to be unconscionable. These people are plainly deranged, dangerously so, and, if we do not put a stop to this madness, we are going to regret it deeply and for a very long time. I think it needs a Jordan Peterson to actually tease out all the psychological strands.