It is sobering to contemplate that the effects of transgenderism can be seen statistically:
- Here, Reuters reports that new gender dysphoria diagnoses in U.S. patients ages 6-17 nearly tripled from 2017 to 2021
- Here, the CDC reports that “In 2021, 42% of high school students felt so sad or hopeless almost every day for at least two weeks in a row that they stopped doing their usual activities” (page 60)
To be clear, these two data points are used here to propose a hypothesis that transgenderism correlates with observed rates of mental illness in children. The correlation is not proved, nor if it were would we know the underlying cause.
But these caveats aside, one can understand why adults, especially parents, are concerned that media and academic attention to transgenderism may be harming children.
Tidewater News and Opinion Forum 
One of your more nonsensical posts.
I think it is undeniable that the diagnosis of gender dysphoria has increased. But that does not mean that there is more of it. Thanks to the “woke” people of this country there is less unwillingness to seek help for mental disorders than there was a few years ago. What, you think if you hear about it you catch it?
But you really jump the shark with your insinuation that teenaged depression is caused by “transgenderism” somehow. You are ALWAYS lecturing how correlation is not causation but seem to have forgotten it for this diatribe.
“But these caveats aside, one can understand why adults, especially parents, are concerned that media and academic attention to transgenderism may be harming children.”
No, one cannot understand it when there is no substantial evidence that children are being harmed. If parents are concerned for their children, don’t let them go to church. That is where the danger lies.
The real explanation for concern is the deliberately dishonest fear-mongering of MAGA politicians and the lying liars in the media who help them.
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RE: “I think it is undeniable that the diagnosis of gender dysphoria has increased. But that does not mean that there is more of it.”
Actually, it does in the sense that undiagnosed gendeer dysphoria either doesn’t exist or is nearly impossible to talk about in a rational way. If you are taking the position that undiagnosed gender dysphoria has some kind of normal and previously unknown level in children the burden is on you to provide the substantiating science.
RE: “But you really jump the shark with your insinuation that teenaged depression is caused by ‘transgenderism’ somehow.”
As I wrote, the insinuation amounts to a reasonable hypothesis.
RE: “The real explanation for concern is the deliberately dishonest fear-mongering of MAGA politicians and the lying liars in the media who help them.”
Please get back to us when you have some evidence.
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“the burden is on you to provide the substantiating science.”
You already have. Your first link makes it clear that it is more common than previously known.
“As I wrote, the insinuation amounts to a reasonable hypothesis.”
Uh, not on this planet.
“Please get back to us when you have some evidence.”
You first. But do you deny that political fear-mongering about the transgendered is something widespread and new? You shouldn’t, because it is.
In the good old days GOP fear-mongered about commies. When that lost traction they moved on demonizing African-Americans and then on to the LGBTQ community. That too is worn out, so this cycle it is all about the threat of the transgendered and the need to eradicate.
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You don’t know what you are talking about.
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Just who is “transgenderism” harming? Your two different posts do not correlate one to the other. Most of the depressive issues in 2021, and not just among students, can be tied to the effects of COVID on society.
An attempt to tie transgenderism to a rise in depression in kids is, in a word, ludicrous. Or worse, and appears most likely. by you, a desperate attempt to demonize a small group of the population.
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RE: “An attempt to tie transgenderism to a rise in depression in kids is, in a word, ludicrous.”
Is it? Parents witness both in their children. Who is to say they are wrong to connect the dots, especially since transgenderism is a relatively recent phenomenon as a widespread family issue?
I think it is a cop out to make this topic about discrimination.
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Who is making it about discrimination? If we were talking about the proposal in Texas to not allow single-parent families or families with same sex parents not being able to get the same tax breaks on property taxes as everyone else, then yes, it is discriminatory.
Why did you ignore the effects of the pandemic? These have been PROVEN in studies to show that the depression issue has been exacerbated by the effects of COVID on society.
Also, I posted a report from AP about this topic under one of Don’s comments. Around 1% desire detransitioning or are depressed or regret due transitioning.
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RE: “Who is making it about discrimination?”
You are. You wrote: “Or worse, and appears most likely. by you, a desperate attempt to demonize a small group of the population.”
RE: “Why did you ignore the effects of the pandemic?”
I didn’t. I linked to the CDC survey which actually makes an issue of it. But the trend line that CDC describes goes back a decade, predating the pandemic.
RE: “Around 1% desire detransitioning or are depressed or regret due transitioning.”
Not the topic that concerns me. I’m interested in showing that it is reasonable, or at least understandable, to connect the increase in transgenderism among youth to the increase in mental illness. As I pointed out, the connection is hypothetical, which means that it remains to be tested.
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“You are. You wrote: “Or worse, and appears most likely. by you, a desperate attempt to demonize a small group of the population.””
The entire current discussion about Transgenderism, in general, IS an attack on a small minority. Germany 1930 was an attack on a minority group as well. We know what happened there.
“I didn’t.” I disagree. You may have posted the CDC link, but YOU did not address it. By extension, you IGNORED it.
“Not the topic that concerns me. ”
It should it is what is being ignored in the discussion by those espousing the idea that transgenderism is a PRIMARY reason for depression in young people today. Trying to find an alternative to that which has already been shown to be true.
…” the connection is hypothetical,”..
It is a bad, dangerous, and stupid hypothesis, IMO, for reasons I have already mentioned.
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“Is it? Parents witness both in their children.”
Yes, it is ludicrous. Gender dysphoria affects far less than 1/10th of 1% of children and teens. Depression at some level is experienced by about 1 in 5. Even if every teen experiencing gender dysphoria experiences depression as well, they would not come close to supporting your claim that transgenderism is the cause of teen depression.
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Like many things, it is more complicated.
The genome has not shifted. But I suspect that transgenderism secondary to other mental illness.
There are strong correlations between clinical depression and Autism and transgenderism. I suspect that these are desperately unhappy or disconnected people grasping for a lifeline, and needing to change something in their lives.
More or less like “I don’t have any friends. My brother has friends. Maybe if I was a boy I’d have friends.” That may be why so many either kill themselves or go back, when they find that transitioning doesn’t solve their problem.
Their problem is Autism, or depression, and gender was never really the issue.
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“Their problem is Autism, or depression, and gender was never really the issue.”
Whatever is at the root of gender dysphoria, there is no excuse for demonizing harmless people with a diagnosable disorder to score political points. It is shameful and disgusting. Anybody who does that is not worthy of high office.
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RE: “I suspect that transgenderism secondary to other mental illness.”
That’s my reading, as well, but in a different way. Technically, transgender is not a diagnosis, but a category of diagnoses that covers various illnesses and paraphilias.
The problem is that some mental illnesses are culture-bound (as a recent Forum post described). For those, cultural corrections should be part of the solution.
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…”I suspect that transgenderism secondary to other mental illness.”
I suspect that the increase in trans numbers is due more to acceptance and not having to hide in the shadows and live a lie.
Neither one of us is a psychiatrist or psychologist. TO say we suspect we KNOW the answers to any of these questions is not wise.
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Anecdotes are not strong evidence of anything. For every person like this one, there are plenty who are happier after than they were before.
The real problem is the Republicans meddling in very personal family and medical decisions to score poltical points with brain dead yahoos – the sort of person who thinks people do this so that they can ogle girls in rest rooms. You know, the MAGA base.
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So, we should ignore the anecdotes of those who have actually experienced the bias of the medical system to overtreat?
Note that her parents were not asked for informed consent, they were actively sold on the idea of medical transition.
Of course, we don’t have those troubling anecdotes from those who killed themselves.
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How about a study on regret and de-transitioning.
https://apnews.com/article/transgender-treatment-regret-detransition-371e927ec6e7a24cd9c77b5371c6ba2b
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RE: “How about a study on regret and de-transitioning.”
I wouldn’t read too much into the AP article. It doesn’t link to the studies for which it cites results, so one can’t be sure the article is accurate.
Other problems emerge from a close reading, but the big one is this: Suppose, say, 90% of transgender patients have no regret over the medical treatment they received. What would that tell us about the safety and efficacy of the treatments themselves?
I’d say, not much on the face of it. I’m not dismissing the article, just pointing our that the issue at hand is more nuanced than the article envisions.
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…” so one can’t be sure the article is accurate.”
Right only news sources that YOU post can be trusted 100% every time regardless of how bad their studies are received by their peers.
“What would that tell us about the safety and efficacy of the treatments themselves?”
My interpretation would be that the treatments ARE safe and effective in 100% of those with no regrets. Most new drugs on the market that are being prescribed for everything from ED to hair loss have a lower efficacy.
And your idea of “nuance” is to ignore COVID and present, in a bad hypothesis, the HUGE effect transgenderism has on the population at large.
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And, based on what they print about Climate, AP has lost track of the difference between news and opinion.
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…”based on what they print about Climate, AP has lost track of the difference between news and opinion.”
Seriously? They report the NEWS. Just because you don’t LIKE the news they report does not make it untrue.
And losing track of the difference between news and opinion is quite common on this forum. Which begs the question, so often asked by Mr. Roberts, “So what?”
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There are a few Democrats I hate, but most i am just sorry for.
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“There are a few Democrats I hate, but most i am just sorry for.”
You have expressed your hatred countless times. But go ahead an backpeddle.
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Really?
Show me where I have expressed hatred for more than a half dozen Democrats.
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“Really?”
When you accuse our majority political party of deliberately and maliciously trying to destroy our country and steal your goods and your liberty, that is an expression of the hatred you harbor.
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Perhaps for you, hatred and disagreement are the same thing, but that is not the case for me or most other people.
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“Perhaps for you . . . blah blah”
I understand why you are backtracking so hard from your frequent grotesquely overheated rhetoric. Good for you.
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“And, based on what they print about Climate . . .”
Classic example of the ad hominem logical fallacy. AP publishes data that harms your argument. You cannot refute their facts so you attack them. Textbook.
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“So, we should ignore the anecdotes . . .”
If malpractice was committed there are already remedies. We do not need any new laws.
You do not base laws on anecdotes. You do not interfere with the doctor/patient relationship based on anecdotes. You do not constrain personal freedom for no reason except some people think you are making a mistake.
Many millions of women are not happy with what nature endowed them with. Too much or too little. So they seek surgery to make their bodies align better with what they want. Surgery can be deadly and it is not infrequently regreted. Why is your hair not on fire over that?
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They are adults.
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“They are adults.”
And so are the people getting gender surgery. And their parents.
This is a phony “issue” perfect for a phony party.
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Perhaps you should have listened to the anecdote. “Experts” talked her parents into having her on puberty blockers, which are every bit as destructive as surgery, when she was 12, and she had a double mastectomy at 15.
That is not an adult.
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“Perhaps you should have listened to the anecdote.”
I am sure that it is horrific. There are remedies for malpractice. Taking the most grotesque experience one can find as a typical experience is not sound reasoning. Somebody, somewhere will be found who will regret the consequences of the decisions that they made.
Again, I could cite at least dozens of children killed or maimed because their parents did not have a gun safe as should be required by law. When you are really ready to protect the children join in the fight to make guns safer.
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