Parents of trans kids fight back against ‘gender cult’

A number of activist and parent support groups have been formed that oppose extreme gender ideology and what is called the “medicalization” of trans youth.

When Denise Canaan’s 17-year-old daughter Chiara came out as a trans man in 2014, she thought it was “cool” at first.

“The trans thing sounded like it was going to be the next big civil rights issue and I thought, great!” said Denise, who lives in North Carolina. “I didn’t know much about it.”

But when Chiara immediately began talking about undergoing a medical transition, which can involve puberty blockers, cross-sex hormones and surgery, Denise got nervous. Chiara wanted a mastectomy, or what is called “top surgery.”

“I knew something wasn’t right because this came out of nowhere,” Denise said. “I didn’t care what kind of clothes or hairstyle my kid wanted to wear. I supported all that. The medical intervention is the real issue. I scoured the Internet for help but there was nothing out there. I was screaming into the void. But there were no groups out there to help.”

So she started one, called 4th Wave Now, which was the first to question the more extreme aspects of gender ideology and “trans kids,” a population that started to explode in 2015, accelerated by trans-friendly content on social media.

Since then, a number of activist and parent support groups have sprung up, including GenSpect, Partners for Ethical Care, Our Duty, Transgender Trend and Parents With Inconvenient Truths About Trans or PITT.

Parents of Rapid-Onset Gender Dysphoria Kids launched in 2017 with just two mothers. Now they have more than 2,000 members and are growing rapidly with chapters in most states and some in Europe and Asia.

“I wouldn’t wish this on my worst enemy,” an activist mom who uses the pseudonym Charlie Jacobs told The Post. “We face teachers going behind our backs, radical trans activists trying to doxx us, we face gender clinics pumping our kids full of hormones and we face our college-age daughters coming home for Christmas with no breasts. I’m a liberal. I believed it all at first. But this is the emperor’s new clothes, designed to hurt children.”

It wasn’t until 2007 when Dr. Norman Spack, a pediatric endocrinologist, opened the country’s first pediatric gender clinic in Boston. There are now an estimated 60 to 300 gender clinics that provide hormonal intervention to minors.

According to activists, kids in some states can get blockers and hormones just by walking into a Planned Parenthood office or a gender clinic within an hour.

The majority of parents who spoke to The Post described themselves as Democrats. They said they are not anti-trans but oppose extreme gender ideology and what is called the “medicalization” of trans youth. They rail against what they say is the emotional blackmail peddled by trans activists.

The rise in parent opposition groups coincides with the Biden Administration’s increasing advocacy of all things trans.

On March 31, the Dept. of Health and Human Services, where Admiral Rachel L. Levine, a transgender woman, is Assistant Secretary, released a manifesto encouraging early “gender-affirming” surgeries for young people as well as puberty blockers and hormones.

Some parents have even lost custody of their children because judges believe parents must affirm their child’s gender and not oppose medical intervention.

Susan believes that her daughter, who now identifies as a lesbian, was never transgender but succumbed to what she calls intense social pressure to become male.

“It’s uncool to be a cisgender white woman,” Susan said. “You want to be a cool oppressed minority and the minute you become trans all the doors open and everyone applauds and you’re a star.”

Even transgender pioneers are starting to express concerns about the rising number of youth who say they are trans. Psychologist Erica Anderson, 71, who is transgender herself, told the Los Angeles Times last month she is horrified that even 13-year-old kids are now getting hormone treatment without meeting with psychologists.

Dr. Marci Bowers, the transgender woman who was Jazz Jennings’ surgeon, admitted during a recent Duke University Zoom call with Dr. Johanna Olson-Kennedy, one of the premier transgender specialists in the country, and others, that young boys given puberty blockers and hormones probably have never experienced orgasm and likely never will once their testosterone is shut off.

Source: Parents of trans kids fight back against ‘gender cult’