Transgender: Person whose behavior does not conform to sex-role stereotypes.
Homosexual: Person whose behavior is eight to fifteen times more likely not to conform to sex-role stereotypes in childhood.
No wonder many gay kids are concluding they must be trans.
Earlier this month, I interviewed Lauren Leggieri, co-executive director of the LGB Courage Coalition:
Ever since, I’ve been fielding questions:
Is there really data showing that “trans kids” would have have been gay?
Who are “trans kids” anyway?1
Here’s a summary of the research:
1) Most “trans kids” are girls – a radical reversal from the past.
In the sixties, more than 90 percent of transsexuals were male. Of the youth referred to the U.K.’s now-shuttered Gender Identity Development Service (GIDS) between 2018 and 2022, 73 percent were birth-registered females.
Of the young people described in Lisa Littman’s 2018 seminal paper on Rapid-Onset Gender Dysphoria, 83 percent were female.
2) Most “trans kids” are or will be same-sex attracted.
Numerous independent, prospective and long-term follow-up studies, including the comprehensive Cass Review, “clearly showed a heightened prevalence of bi- or homosexuality.”2
In the original Dutch protocol, 89 percent of the 70 patients were same-sex attracted. Only one was heterosexual.
Seventy percent of girls and sixty percent of boys seen at GIDS reported same-sex attraction.
One 2021 follow-up study found that 64 percent of boys with gender dysphoria3 who received “watchful waiting” rather than medical interventions grew up to be gay or bisexual.
Even the current Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders acknowledges,
“Studies have shown a high incidence of sexual attraction to those of the individual’s birth-assigned gender, regardless of the trajectory of the prepubescent child’s gender dysphoria.”
In sum: Lauren Leggieri is right: Our society is trans-ing gay kids.
Caveat: The percentage of trans-identified kids who are or will be gay might decline as trans identification continues to spread in popularity among children with autism, adverse childhood experiences, and mental health comorbidities.
3) It’s hard for kids to cope with being lesbian or gay.
Littman’s 2021 study of 100 detransitioners, the majority of whom were also female, found that internal or external homophobia was expressed by 23 percent as a reason for transition and subsequent detransition.
In another study of detransitioners and desisters – most of whom had undergone medical transition – 52 percent expressed a psychological need for learning to cope with internalized homophobia.
4) Kids who grow up to be lesbian or gay are likely to be gender-nonconforming.
This makes them particularly susceptible to suggestions that some people are “really the other sex” or were “born in the wrong body.”
When looking back on their childhood, a majority of lesbians and gay men report that they were gender-nonconforming children, as was I.
Gender nonconformity in childhood is also predictive: In one 20-year follow-up study, children who defy sex-role stereotypes were eight to fifteen times more likely to grow up to be gay or lesbian than those who did not.
5) It’s a phase.
Childhood gender dysphoria will recede with puberty in about 80 percent of cases, according to ten prospective follow-up studies. “Very few trans kids still want to transition by the time they are adults,” says clinical psychologist James Cantor.
Conclusions
“Trans kids” are not a unique type of children with a deep inner knowing about their “true, authentic selves.” They’re kids who are expressing discomfort with their growing bodies; discomfort with sex stereotypes; discomfort with other aspects of their lives (bullying, autism, anxiety, depression, etc.) or a desire to belong. Most will grow out of it.
Given the high desistance rate, the most likely adult outcome for gender dysphoric children is “a homosexual sexual orientation without gender dysphoria.”
Since most trans-identified kids are girls, and since many trans-identified kids would grow up to be gay, when we hear “gender-affirming care,” we should think “gay conversion therapy – especially for lesbians.”
All children need information: Everyone is male or female. Sex stereotypes are bogus. Humans cannot change sexes. They do not need to be “affirmed” as the opposite sex.
Parents need to protect their kids from the medical conveyor belt that starts with social transition (“affirming” kids as the other sex) and, according to the Society for Evidence-Based Gender Medicine, often leads from that seemingly innocent phase (“oh, what’s the harm in playing along?”) to medical interventions. Marketed as “time to think,” puberty blockers lead to cross-sex hormones about 98 percent of the time. When puberty is blocked, natural maturation of the body, including the brain and sexual anatomy and physiology, fails to occur.
The trans conveyor belt can also lead to irreversible surgeries, including mastectomies and hysterectomies — which damage health and damage or destroy sexual and reproductive functioning.
For more about whether it’s ever appropriate to tell children that they are or can become the other sex, see “Three Ethical Questions About “Gender-Affirming Care.”
For research about such things as social contagion; suicide rates of “trans kids” compared to kids with the same comorbidities; autism, ADHD, mood disorders, anxiety, other comorbidities; and the effects of exogenous testosterone on the female body; start with Genspect’s Stats for Gender.
Thoughts? I’m always curious. See also:
“They’re Nearly All Gay or Lesbian”—What This Gender Clinic Founder Learned in 50 Years Beyond Gender interview with Dr. Susan Bradley
‘Transgender’ Kids Usually Grow Up Gay, by Ben Appel
50 Shades of Gay: How Activists Hijacked A Community by James Bessinger
Transgender is “an umbrella term for persons whose gender identity, gender expression or behavior does not conform to that typically associated with the sex to which they were assigned at birth,” according to the American Psychological Association. The American Psychiatric Association, The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the Endocrine Society, and other groups define transgender in almost identical ways. Gender nonconformity is similarly defined as behavior or appearance that does not match masculine or feminine gender norms. In other words, “transgender” now includes anyone who defies sex-role stereotypes, including effeminate boys and “tomboy” girls.
Reported percentages vary across studies and depend on what domain is measured (fantasy, attraction, identity, or behavior); sample composition (clinic-referred vs. population); measurement tools (Kinsey scale, questionnaires); and follow-up age.
Gender dysphoria is a “marked incongruence between one’s experienced/expressed gender and natal gender.” (Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders)
This compilation of information is invaluable. I am saving this for reference, and I have restacked. Thank you so much.
Love the Photo of li'l you, Mariah. Thank goodness "trans" ideology wasn't pushed on you.
Yes, it's a phase for these kids, but, unfortunately, if the medical-pharmaceutical-surgery complex sinks their talons into these kids, they get "locked in" to being a lifetime medical patient, which is what that complex wants.
As always, good work.