What separates a cis child from a trans child? How could you reliably detect/diagnose such a condition? Timmy doesn't like having a boy's name? Timmy doesn't like playing with male toys or prefers wearing dresses to pants?
Children throw tantrums over all sorts of trivial stuff, how could you possibly diagnose gender dysphoria off the fleeting whims of a preteen child?
What's arguably more dangerous is having an authority figure dictate to an impressionable child that they're "trapped in the wrong body" and setting them up for a lifetime of confusion. I don't think proponents of LGBT in the classroom realize that gender dysphoria is socially infectious, particularly when it is advertised as a solution to the typical confusion and angst that teens feel as they transition into adulthood.
This is utter nonsense. The "social contagion" hypothesis is one researcher (Littman) pushing an agenda, using unrepresentative samples of people recruited from transphobic websites.
As a trans person, I'm not confused about anything. I experienced severe gender incongruence since the moment puberty began. And no one's dictating anything to trans people either -- gender identity is remarkably resistant to external pressure, as seen in all the sexologist reports on trans kids from the 70s through the 90s. That's just not how gender works in our species.
You didn’t answer my question, which suggests your argument is not in good faith.
The authority figure angle is interesting, though, especially in the case of one of the children I mentioned who has a cisgendered twin of the same biological sex. Seems weird the parents would push it on one child and not the other…
…or, it could just be as simple as you being wrong. Maybe even intentionally so. I don’t know. Regardless I’m not interested in responding to you any more after this because I don’t have time for bad faith actors.
>You didn’t answer my question, which suggests your argument is not in good faith.
Well isn't that ironic, considering you didn't answer mine in the GP. I'll tell you what is bad faith though, your shallow accusation as a substitute for an argument. What exactly are you implying with this accusation anyway?
>Seems weird the parents would push it on one child and not the other
It's not necessarily being "pushed" onto them, but excessive encouragement and failure to intervene - and I'm not implying that they've done anything out of selfish reasons (though transgenderism absolutely confers clout in certain circles these days).
To be clear, people don't come out as trans for clout. Trans people are still at a higher risk of suicide and being murdered thanks to people like you.
What I'm alleging is that the condition is overdiagnosed because the symptoms mimic other disorders and people absolutely seek out victimhood for clout given
1. The state of the progressive movement, where underprivilege is used to justify special treatment
2. Specific dynamics of the LGBT and especially trans community, which psychologically incentivises entry and continued participation, in the same way as a gang or cult. Complete with a flavor of excommunication for detransitioners who are accused of bigotry for saying exactly the sort of things I'm saying. What about their lived experiences?
3. The [false] promise that a troubled teen can effectively reinvent himself and become the person they want to be with pills and surgery. It's common for teens to desire to be someone else.
The clout angle isn't unique to gender dysphoria either - teenagers self diagnose with all kinds of trendy disorders in certain circles, and when I was in HS it wasn't transgenderism but bisexuality that people latched onto as a fashionable form of rebellion. Difference being we didn't give them affirmative therapy and HRT.
Sorry, but acknowledging that the incentives are perverse does not make me a bigot, and such accusations only serve to derail the discussion. Perhaps parents wouldn't be up in arms if this wasn't the default response to criticism.
Failure to intervene in what? Any attempt to make a trans kid cis is conversion therapy. Gender identity is part of the core of personhood, and is (a) resistant to external pressure to change, and more importantly (b) ought not be changed.
> What separates a cis child from a trans child? How could you reliably detect/diagnose such a condition?
> how could you possibly diagnose gender dysphoria off the fleeting whims of a preteen child?
I'd recommend you take a look at the diagnostic criteria [0] for what you're talking about. Take note at how much stricter the criteria are for being diagnosed as a child. And then consider that mental health services already tend to discount the lived experiences of their adult clients. I can only imagine the crap young trans people have to go through.
> particularly when it is advertised as a solution to the typical confusion and angst that teens feel as they transition into adulthood.
I'm curious where you've been reading this. I only see people say this stuff in jest, and only if you take it out of context could you think it was serious.
Being a lesbian, I don't have to worry so much about having a partner who refuses to wash their ass or do chores because "that's gay," but that doesn't eliminate homophobia or catcalling or men thinking "I'm not interested, I have a girlfriend" means "I want to have a threesome with you and am playing hard to get, please continue to hit on me." Anyone who thinks about coming out knows that, even if being LGBT solves problem A, it creates problems B, C, and D.
But even if there is an epidemic of people thinking they're LGBT, what's the harm in that? Undergrad psychology students self-diagnose themselves all the time, and then they realize they're being stupid by the end of the semester. Trans people can't just write their own HRT prescriptions, the process is actually quite lengthy if you're a minor, and even for adults it can take awhile (and even then permanent effects take awhile, so if you realize you're not trans, it won't have lifelong consequences).
> gender dysphoria is socially infectious
It's not "socially infectious" like a disease, it's "socially infectious" in the sense of "oh wait, so these feelings I've been dealing with have a name, and I don't have to keep being miserable?" LGBT people tend to find each other and become friends, even while they're all still in the closet, and one coming out tends to have a bit of a chain reaction. It's not a bad thing unless you view being LGBT as a bad thing.
> It's not "socially infectious" like a disease, it's "socially infectious" in the sense of "oh wait, so these feelings I've been dealing with have a name, and I don't have to keep being miserable?" LGBT people tend to find each other and become friends, even while they're all still in the closet, and one coming out tends to have a bit of a chain reaction. It's not a bad thing unless you view being LGBT as a bad thing.
Children throw tantrums over all sorts of trivial stuff, how could you possibly diagnose gender dysphoria off the fleeting whims of a preteen child?
What's arguably more dangerous is having an authority figure dictate to an impressionable child that they're "trapped in the wrong body" and setting them up for a lifetime of confusion. I don't think proponents of LGBT in the classroom realize that gender dysphoria is socially infectious, particularly when it is advertised as a solution to the typical confusion and angst that teens feel as they transition into adulthood.