Toddlers aren’t transgender
The subject of “gender-affirming care” for children has hit a fever pitch in recent weeks. A firestorm of video clips went viral on social media, depicting medical professionals cheerfully describing various surgical procedures available at their gender clinics. One clip showed a professor at Yale University talking about how she helps children as young as 3 years old who identify as transgender or “nonbinary.”
At the rate this is going, I won’t be surprised when so-called experts start claiming more children than not are transgender.
The public outrage has been palpable following the revelation that Boston Children’s Hospital provides hysterectomies , vaginoplasties, and associated treatments such as puberty blockers for its gender-dysphoric patients.
If you think it sounds insane to take seriously a 3-year-old’s whimsical and quite possibly arbitrary declarations, that’s because it is. Three-year-olds can barely dress themselves, much less articulate a complete thought, yet gender cultists wholeheartedly believe these children know their “authentic selves.”
At best, parents may be concerned about their son’s or daughter’s cross-sex preferences in toys, hairstyle, or clothing. To be clear, I don’t believe these are preferences caretakers should frown upon.
Needless to say, it is common for children to have gender-atypical interests. Whether they merely have a fondness for a particular toy or steadfast conviction in the belief that they shouldn’t have been born a girl or a boy, most grow up to be content in their bodies as adults. Many tell me they can’t fathom what would have happened to them if they were growing up in today’s environment.
Radical gender theory, however, insists that gender-nonconforming behavior is proof a child is truly the opposite sex, even if the child in question is a toddler, and that the only appropriate response is affirmation.
It’s a small wonder, then, that the acceptance of this phenomenon continues to grow, with 10 % of U.S. adults reporting they know a child who identifies as a gender different than his or her sex.
When I first began writing about gender ideology and children, I frequently asked myself if there was any chance I was wrong in my opinions. And yet everything I predicted since that first op-ed has come true, in worse ways than I could have expected.
The outcome of this movement is, and will continue to be, devastating.
Dr. Debra Soh is a sex neuroscientist, the host of The Dr. Debra Soh Podcast, and the author of The End of Gender: Debunking the Myths About Sex and Identity in Our Society.
