The origins of what has become known as “wokeness” have been very well described by a recent Paul Graham article. In summary, he demonstrates that most ‘woke’ people are essentially just prigs.
It is undoubtedly true that many woke people get their kicks from screaming at others about some kind of -ism or -phobia, which they claim to have identified as a moral transgression. However, this doesn’t quite cover some of the most visible and harmful aspects of woke behaviour. Especially in relation to the transgender issue, woke zealots have deliberately lied about observable reality in service of castigating any deviation from their deconstructionist ideologies. The most consequential aspect of this behaviour was not the priggish denunciation of those who didn’t accept their postmodern gibberish. It was the perpetuation of a medical scandal that harmed many vulnerable children. They knew the truth and they knew that the lies caused enormous harm, but they just didn’t care.
There are two cast iron facts that we know about childhood gender dysphoria, which have never been in dispute. The first is that in the great majority of cases the dysphoria will desist naturally over time; and the second is that in the great majority of cases where puberty blockers are prescribed, the treatment pathway progresses to years of cross-sex hormones.
The short video clip below from NBC News describes this treatment pathway in relation to the case of one specific 11 year-old boy experiencing gender dysphoria. Puberty blockers are administered immediately to prevent male puberty from beginning, with a promise that oestrogen will follow from age 13. There is no suggestion that any further tests or assessments are required after the puberty blockers are administered. Rather, the doctor already states 2 years in advance that the oestrogen will begin from age 13, because the puberty blockers alone will not create “breast buds”. Similarly in the UK, 98% of children who were prescribed puberty blockers went on to be given cross-sex hormones, according to this gender-affirming treatment pathway.
The very obvious concern here is how we can distinguish which are the great majority of 11 year-old patients who will see their gender dysphoria desist naturally, and which are the tiny minority who will retain a trans identity throughout their adult life. The treatment pathway being prescribed could have life-altering implications for bone density, fertility, cognitive development and other consequential medical complications. It would be an appalling breach of the Hippocratic Oath to cause such harms to this 11 year-old boy, if he would not otherwise require any pharmaceutical intervention at all. The ability or inability of clinicians to determine which are the tiny minority of gender dysphoric children who might benefit from this treatment pathway, was the precise issue that Steve McRae raised in his tweet illustrated below.
The only defensible position for the gender-woo cheerleaders who advocate for such treatments, is that there is no breach of the “first do no harm” principle since clinicians can be absolutely confident that they will prescribe this treatment only to those patients who really need it. So in response to Steve’s tweet, the video clip below illustrates exactly this claim being made. That is, prescribing this very consequential treatment pathway for this specific 11 year-old boy is justified on the basis that the clinicians can verify with confidence even before the puberty blockers begin that he is one of the tiny minority who will retain a trans identity into adulthood. In fact, the last few sentences of this clip demonstrate an understanding of the fear that many parents will have about the possibility of causing entirely unnecessary and very harmful side-effects for an 11 year-old who would otherwise see their gender dysphoria desist naturally. This possibility is ruled out based on the professed high confidence in the efficacy of the “scientific or medical test” for 11 year-olds that Steve referred to.
The problem with this is that they always knew it was a lie, and they just didn’t care. They always knew that clinicians have no way to tell which 11 year-olds suffering gender dysphoria are going to grow out of it naturally, and which are the tiny minority who will benefit from medical interventions. This is why many people put the phrase “trans children” in quotations. When we are discussing 11 year-old gender dysphoric patients, we have no way to tell which will simply grow out of their dysphoria such that they are not “trans children” at all, and which might benefit from the pharmaceutical treatment pathway. In the full knowledge that no such “scientific or medical test” exists, the gender-woo cheerleaders perpetuated the following very dangerous lie, because they just didn’t care about the consequences …
“This story about this 11 year-old girl, is whether or not they are ‘trans’ … that’s the thing that people are afraid of … the doctors are just going to give your kid a bunch of drugs. No! There are assessments that happen beforehand.”
Quote from video clip above
We know they were fully aware that this was a dangerous lie; and we know they were fully aware that this could have very onerous consequences; and we know they just didn’t care about the harm being caused; because they recorded themselves saying all of this and streamed the video on the Internet. In the short clip below, we can see that they are fully aware there is in fact no way at all to distinguish which gender dysphoric children will retain a trans identity into adulthood. They make it clear that they just don’t care.
In the short clip above there is full understanding that the relevant clinicians are themselves entirely transparent about the lack of any “scientific or medical test” to indicate which childhood dysphorias relate to a lifelong trans identity. All practicing professionals treating childhood gender dysphoria fully accept that they are entirely unable to distinguish which patients will see their distress desist naturally. However, the commentary of the gender-woo ideologues about these facts indicates that they simply don’t care …
“Great. That doesn’t matter. That’s fine. I don’t know why this is a problem.”
Quote from the video clip above
One of the reasons why the great majority of gender dysphoric children don’t retain a trans identity into adulthood, is that the dualist idea of being ‘born in the wrong body’ is demonstrable nonsense. Gender dysphoria is instead very often a symptom of a different root problem. For example, it is not uncommon today for young girls who have been sexually abused by an adult male to say that they don’t want to be a girl anymore, and that they would rather be male. Of course, in such cases the best interests of the patient are served by dealing directly with the root cause of the problem. If a clinician were to instead ignore the root problem and deal only with the symptom by prescribing puberty blockers, testosterone and a double mastectomy, then this would represent an appalling medical scandal. Similarly, if an 11 year-old boy is experiencing a gender dysphoria that is not related to a lifelong persistent “trans” identity, then it would be very serious medical malpractice to pharmaceutically sterilise him, along with the other onerous side-effects of the relevant treatment pathway.
However, the gender-woo promoters don’t care about the awful harms caused to vulnerable children, and instead continue to act as cheerleaders for this medical scandal. In the clip below we can see that they are fully aware of the entirely unnecessary sterilisation of very many such children, and they conclude that this is “not the end of the world”.
No child can fully understand all of the relevant facts about biological sex, gender expression and sexual orientation, when they are just 11 years old. Children at that age can suffer from all kinds of distressing confusion, and they may be mistaken on lots of issues. Merely insisting that we must affirm whatever an 11 year-old self reports about sex and gender, is not healthcare. Most patients suffering from gender dysphoria at this age, simply need to grow out of it with the active help and support of parents and clinicians. That is, for most such 11 year-olds suffering from gender dysphoria, puberty is the cure for their distress and blocking puberty is incredibly harmful.
The gender-woo cheerleaders know this. They always knew this. They recorded videos of themselves accepting this. They just didn’t care about the harms caused. They told us in their own words that they simply didn’t care. It was more important to them that they should recite their absurd postmodern deconstructionist critical theory slogans, while screaming “bigot” at anyone who cited the evidence. However, the victims of all this nonsense were not the subjects of their puerile insults, but rather the vulnerable children who suffered terrible and unnecessary harms.