Teen transgender trend might not really be transgender | Nissa Enos
The 2010s are seeing exponential growth in the number of teenagers, particularly girls, who suddenly and without a history of prepubertal gender unease announce they are the opposite gender. The phenomenon is called rapid-onset gender dysphoria (ROGD). It is so new that while many clinicians have observed the trend, they remain unsure of its cause.
In today’s identity model, anyone claiming to be transgender is supposed to be understood as actually being transgender. The theory is that everyone is always a credible witness about themselves, that we know ourselves completely, and that an adolescent’s judgment is as good as an adult’s, all of which remain in doubt.
Much of the time in ROGD, a girl’s newfound belief that she is a boy actually reflects other anxieties, like anxiety about becoming a woman, and does not necessarily lead to long-term transgender identity. Because of this, those who support transgender should employ more hesitancy about permanent medical alterations for young adults.
In August 2018, Brown University researcher Dr. Lisa Littman published the first peer-reviewed study of this new phenomenon in the journal Public Library of Science (PLOS) One. Initially, Brown University was supportive, but within a week they withdrew support and removed the article from her website after pressure from activist groups who said it was hate speech.
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Based on the information from Littman’s survey, which is still available on the PLOS One website, parents commonly describe a scenario that plays out like this.
Your teenage daughter who grew up without displaying any tomboy traits spends a couple months becoming increasingly isolated in her room, binge-watching online media for hours at a time. One day, she tells you she is a boy.
She “comes out” by reading a letter. Only the letter doesn’t sound like her voice. It sounds like a form. Her announcement closes with a request for medical transition.
Medical transition includes puberty blockers for kids who haven’t gone through puberty yet, testosterone for girls who want to be boys and mastectomy, or breast removal, commonly called “top surgery.” Medical transition is often irreversible. A young person who takes puberty blockers followed by cross-sex hormones never goes through normal puberty and will be sterile for life.
Multiple girls in her peer group have already come out as gender non-conforming or as boys. She’s come out to them and to other trusted adults who affirm and encourage her. You are happy she’s getting support, but you note an element of social contagion, where once a few peers start doing something it quickly spreads through the friend group.
Online, you discover teenage transgender stars who create video content about how a person’s problems go away after transition. You find other coming out letters. Parts of your daughter’s letter appear to have been copied and pasted from them.
You are concerned she is seeking a magical cure-all that doesn’t exist. You suspect her unease stems from general problems related to body development, not from being transgender, but whenever you bring up the possibility, she accuses you of bigotry and transphobia.
Because of the irreversibility of medical transition and the circumstances around ROGD that suggest that many of these teens will wish to stop having transgender identity at some point in their lifetimes — perhaps even within nine to 36 months, as suggested by Dr. Littman — parents and professionals should use the precautionary principle and say “no” to hormones and surgery.
Contrary to what some activists claim, saying “no” is not tantamount to being anti-trans.
A safer, reversible course of action is social transition, where a person wears whatever clothes and uses whatever name and pronouns they want but does not undergo medical alteration.
Community columnist Nissa Enos is a Manitowoc resident.
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