Troubled Teens and Social Activists Create a Craze, According to Journalist
A nothing-at-all-funny thing happened to Keira Bell on her way to becoming a man – she changed her mind. She sued those who accommodated the wishes of a 16-year-old, and won a unanimous court decision.
Unless you read The Guardian, The Economist or the Times of London, you likely haven’t heard of Keira. She’s in the UK, as is the clinic she sued for helping her transition. But the protocols applied to Keira are identical to those prescribed in the U.S., according to Abigail Shrier, author of Irreversible Damage: The Transgender Craze Seducing Our Daughters (2020).
In a recent address at Hillsdale College, Ms. Shrier indicated that, in her estimation, Keira represents the second of three categories of gender dysphoria characteristics. It’s the one Shrier terms “social contagion.” She sees it “spreading among adolescent girls, many of whom do not have typical gender dysphoria at all.”
Shrier’s website describes her as “
Distinct Groupings
Gender dysphoria is “absolutely real and exceedingly rare,” Shrier said at Hillsdale. It’s most commonly seen in boys ages 2-4 “who are insistent, consistent and persistent that they’re in the wrong body,” according to Shrier.
The rate of affliction is about one in 10,000 boys, Shrier said, but about 70 percent will outgrow their gender dysphoria by adulthood – if left alone. The others upon reaching adulthood may choose a sex change.
She pointed out that “transgender adults are some of the nicest, soberest and kindest people I have met in my work as a journalist. They have good jobs, stable associations, and they are leading admirable and productive lives.”
That’s a disclaimer Ms. Shrier says she incorporates into every speaking engagement “because it’s true.”
The Vulnerability of Teenage Girls
Eating disorders and expressing hatred of one’s body stand as historical precedents to the “social contagion.” A Brown University public health researcher termed it “rapid onset gender dysphoria,” the spike among teenage girls with no previous indication of gender issues.
Keira Bell was among a 4,400 percent rise in teen girls presenting for treatment at the UK gender clinic.
“Before 2007, there was no extant scientific literature on their having gender dysphoria at all,” said Shrier.
In a chapter titled “Sexualize the Children” in We Will Not Be Silenced by Erwin Lutzer, it’s pointed out that Apple’s iPhone was introduced in 2004 with social media apps soon to follow. Pew Research showed that 60 percent of Americans opposed same-sex marriage at that time, and now only 40 percent oppose it.
Shrier claims that influential voices on social media are pushing the trend toward trans, capitalizing on “the delicious temptation to stick it to mom.”
Lutzer’s book is more blunt:
“There is no doubt that the transgender revolution is a fad; it is yet another way teenagers seek their sense of independence, and it appeals to a young person’s natural desire to rebel against the status quo.”
A Bad Fad
Long hair among males was a Beetles-inspired fad among teen boys during my youth, but it was solved by a timely intervention from Ricky the barber. Gaining popularity by declaring a trans identity can have life-altering permanent consequences, Shrier pointed out.
“Today we don’t just leave kids alone and let the chips fall where they may, letting some kids outgrow their gender dysphoria and others to transition when they reach adulthood,” said Shrier.
“Affirming” sounds so noble but what is appropriate to let a child decide?
“Teachers affirm young children in school,” Shrier said, “both by teaching the class that only they – the children themselves – know their true genders, and encouraging kids to reintroduce themselves to the class with their new name and pronouns.”
“We take them to a therapist or doctor, nearly all of whom practice so-called affirmative care, which means that they have accepted that it is their job to affirm or agree with the patient’s self-diagnosis and to immediately help them transition medically.”
That results in prescription of puberty blockers, which shuts down the release of hormones in the pituitary gland, and eventually hormones directly. Infertility and impaired sexual function is a probable results of puberty blockers, although more data needs to be compiled with regard to what point their effects become irreversible, Shrier indicated.
Get these books for a better understanding of the transgender craze and the sexualization of school children
Great Britain’s High Court of Justice ruled in the Keira Bell case that “its absolutely appalling that a young girl had been allowed to consent to eliminating her future fertility and sexual function at an age when she could not have possibly gauged that loss.”
The court also noted that “the clinic was unable to show any psychological improvement in girls it had treated with transitioning hormones.”
Any teen girl wanting testosterone need only visit Planned Parenthood, said Shrier. “Depending on which state it’s located, it even gives testosterone to minors. In Oregon, Planned Parenthood gives it to 15-year-olds on their own recognizance; they don’t even need a parental note.”
The Third Group – Social Activists
According to Shrier:
- We’ve discussed young children, some of whom suffer legitimate gender dysphoria that a majority will outgrow but those who don’t can decide as adults to transition.
- We addressed the situation with adolescent girls, most of whom are victims of a social contagion.
The third group is one comprised of social activists “who are using the other two groups to attack women and to advance their goal of chaos and social upheaval.”
These social activists use the gender issue to eradicate girls’ and women’s sports, to invade women-only spaces such as baths, prisons and locker rooms, and – perhaps – to fuel radical political activism.
“There are phalanxes of doctors in child pediatrics or psychology who believe their primary job is social justice. They brag about it online every day,” Shrier said.
Gender Ideology
Shrier quoted no bible scripture in her address at Hillsdale, not even mentioning that “God made them male and female,” (Mark 10:6b). But she did call the situation “a startling corruption of medicine and science and it’s a symptom of a larger woke corruption of American society.”
Shrier said that a member had been kicked out of a National Association is Science Writers forum for merely mentioning that he thought her book sounded interesting.
Shrier applies the term gender ideology to the the social activists’ seizure of the transgender issue.
“They promote dangerous bills such as the Equality Act, now before the US Senate, which would make it impossible ever to distinguish between biological men and women, ever to exclude a biological male from a girls’ sports team, or scholarship, or a woman’s protective space like locker rooms and prisons.
“And they would do this entirely on a male’s self-identification.
“All that a violent male felon needs to do is announce his new pronouns and identity, and wherever such laws are found he becomes eligible to transfer into women’s prison.”
If you can’t readily sympathize with incarcerated females, you might consider the consequences to your family. Shrier pointed out that Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) recently claimed that “gender-affirming care is a human right of children.”
“The minute it becomes a human right, Shrier warned, “every parent who disagrees with it has to worry about their custody.”