Mary Zwicker:

Back in May, Matt Walsh and the Daily Wire’s documentary What is a Woman? exposed the world to the reality of the transgender movement’s lies, and the dangers associated with it. In a world that accepts and even promotes an ideology that encourages people to sterilize themselves, mutilate their bodies, and live their lives as a lie, it is important to show that transgenderism is not as glamorous as it may seem, and to demonstrate the horrors that the transgender movement is not keen to show – and there are many such horrors.

The transgender movement is not, as its promoters would have people believe, a liberating movement that seeks to perpetuate what is best for each individual. Conversely, transgenderism as a movement is deeply flawed, promoting and perpetrating an agenda that is inherently evil, and which harms, both mentally and physically (and often irreversibly), those who subscribe to its ideologies. Instead of addressing the root of the problem and searching for alternative routes, the transgender movement applauds the practice of mutilating and maiming children at a young age, pumping them full of hormones before they are able to consent, and risking their health, fertility, and very lives.

A dark and troubled past

Gender theory provides the basis of today’s transgender ideology. The roots of gender theory are found in a dark and troubled past, beginning with the unethical research and the disturbing theories that were presented by two grisly figures, Alfred Kinsey and John Money during the early to the mid-20th century. 

A major influence on how society now views sexuality, Kinsey’s influential scholarship is rooted in disturbing and controversial research. He developed what is known as the Kinsey Scale, measuring sexual orientation. Between 1948 and 1953, Kinsey came out with his Kinsey Reports which, among other things, documented the orgasms of over 300 children. These children were as young as two-month-old infants and went up to 15-year-olds. This was done in the name of science, in order to show that, from infanthood, humans are inherently sexual creatures. Kinsey conveniently claimed to have gained this information from “other sources,” and so it was not until recently that his methods used in obtaining such conclusions were questioned. Kinsey is responsible for much of the modern outlook on sexuality, which, however, was due to faulty or fake research. Kinsey believed that people are sexual from birth, and that sexual experimentation is what really makes them happy. However, Kinsey’s research was later discovered to have been conducted almost entirely on sex predators, pedophiles, prostitutes, and prison inmates, as well as children. This would account for its radical (and fraudulent) conclusions, which were adopted as normal behavioural patterns and provided the basis for later gender theory to flourish and spread. 

Another figure associated with the early transgender movement was John Money. Influenced by Kinsey, Money took his ideas of sexuality a step further into the idea of gender. Money is responsible for originally introducing terms such as gender identity, gender role, and sexual orientation into the realm of scholarship. Money was a psychologist and sexologist who once expressed support for pedophilia in a debate where he said that it was more than acceptable if it were “mutual” and “affectionate.” Perhaps the most horrific of his experiments was the case of the Reimer twins. After one of their twins, David, suffered a circumcision gone wrong, the devastated Reimer parents came to Money, who suggested that they reassign, transition, and raise David as a girl, to which they desperately agreed. At 22 months old, David underwent surgery to remove his testicles and was later also put on hormones. Money performed experiments on both twins that were nothing short of child abuse, forcing them to simulate different sexual actions for “research.” In a deep depression at age 14, David was finally told the truth about his past by his parents. He instantly changed his name to David and decided to live his life as a man. However, due to their traumatic upbringing, both brothers died young and mentally troubled: Brian of an overdose and David later on through suicide at the age of 38.

Kinsey and Money represent the sad beginnings of what is now taught widely in schools and promoted as truth in today’s culture. What began as the sick experiments of two twisted individuals now constitutes the basis for the norms of modern society.

A medically unsound practice

Despite the unsettling roots of transgenderism, this ideological movement continues to push its transhuman views on society. Unfortunately, the disturbing roots of transgender ideology are not the only part of this movement that is unsettling. The methods themselves employed in order to transition an individual are unsafe, medically unfounded, and have results that are often completely devastating. 

The process of transitioning begins with the administration of hormone blockers. In the case of a child who has not yet reached puberty, this halts the process of their bodies’ development of their secondary sex characteristics, thus making it “easier” for them to transition later on, without many of the surgeries necessary to remove characteristics such as developed breasts. If the person “transitioning” has passed puberty, they still take these hormone blockers to halt the production of the male or female hormones. After that comes the administration of either testosterone or estrogen in order to produce the desired masculinizing or feminizing effects. 

Sadly, while these hormones are marketed as “safe” and “reversible” by the medical practitioners who prescribe them, limited studies so far have shown that these hormones wreak havoc on the human body. 

People who need actual medical and psychological help are ignored and instead taught that the only cure to their perceived illness is to change their bodies. Too often, no alternative route is pursued or even suggested, and there is no questioning into what the underlying causes of their gender dysphoria might possibly be. The only “help” that people receive is affirmative care. This means that individuals who really need psychological help are instantly affirmed and told that they can be cured if they reject their biological sex and begin the transformation process.

These atrocities continue to occur despite the American College of Pediatricians warning that “there is not a single long-term study to demonstrate the safety or efficacy of puberty blockers, cross-sex hormones and surgeries for transgender-believing youth. This means that youth transition is experimental, and therefore, parents cannot provide informed consent, nor can minors provide assent for these interventions. Moreover, the best long-term evidence we have among adults shows that medical intervention fails to reduce suicide.” 

Other institutions also warn of the effects of hormone use on the body. Oxford University sociology professor Michael Biggs stated that “there was no statistically significant difference in psychosocial functioning between the group given blockers and the group given only psychological support. In addition, there is unpublished evidence that after a year on (puberty blockers) children reported greater self-harm, and the girls also experienced more behavioural and emotional problems and expressed greater dissatisfaction with their body—so puberty blockers exacerbated gender dysphoria.”

Harmful effects of hormone use

However, while there are not many long-term studies on the effects of extended hormone use, there are many known side-effects to many of the drugs used in this process, and these effects are not good, ranging from loss of cognitive abilities to infertility. One study published in Human Brain Mapping in 2010, stated that “when a child’s natural puberty is blocked, we can expect to see effects not only on the body but on the developing brain. It is the surge of sex hormones at puberty which triggers the important changes in the adolescent brain which only reach completion in the mid-twenties. Hormonal changes at puberty are thought to influence the development of both brain structure and function.”

Many of the hormones used during transitioning also have severe health risks associated with them. Two of the main hormones prescribed to transitioners are testosterone and estrogen. Men who are trying to transition to appear female are prescribed estrogen; however, this comes with significant risks. Doctors do not even want to administer estrogen to women in menopause — who need it for serious reasons such as to help with their vaginal or uterine atrophies — because the medical establishment knows and admits that it can cause pulmonary embolisms or strokes. Hormonal estrogen can also cause deep vein thrombosis, infertility, heart disease, and reduced bone density, among other things. Men will also experience decreased libido and testicular atrophy when on estrogen.

For women who wish to appear male, there are also significant risks associated with the prescription of testosterone. A study published in the Journal of Obstetrics and Gynaecology Canada in 2012 on the effects of testosterone on women stated that “the safety concerns of testosterone therapy include the potential for developing hirsutism, acne, behavioural and personality changes, breast cancer, endometrial cancer, hepatotoxicity, and potentially detrimental effects on cardiovascular health and bone health.”

Studies have shown that the use of hormones is not only harmful to the health of the transitioner but that they can also affect them sexually, often leaving the victim sterile, prone to pain during intercourse, or unable to experience sexual pleasure. 

However, according to testimonials from people who have regretted their transitions, none of these potential risks are discussed with the transitioning individual, and by the time they come to realize what they have done it is usually too late; the damage has been done, which is invariably irreversible.

Biggs says in a video posted at Transgender Tend: “Puberty blockers followed by opposite sex hormones cannot create ‘opposite sex puberty,’ only secondary sex characteristics of the opposite sex. However, normal sexual or reproductive development will not occur. Girls will not begin menstruation and so will be infertile. Boys’ testes will not grow and develop and will impact on fertility. The change, therefore, is only cosmetic. A boy’s penis will remain immature and remain the size of that of a child into adulthood. This will cause problems sexually if the penis is retained, both functionally and in terms of sexual arousal. It is also problematic if gender reassignment surgery is later chosen since there is too little material to use from the penis and testicles.”

Lupron, one of the many drugs administered to children as a puberty blocker, is a drug that has been used to chemically castrate pedophiles and other sex offenders. Studies show that the use of Lupron can result in conditions such as osteoporosis, fibromyalgia, blindness, depression, seizures, and — why it is used as chemical castration — sterility. This is an extremely dangerous drug, and the company has undergone countless court cases over the years because of patients whose lives were ruined due to its deadly effects. Now, this dangerous drug is being routinely used on young children, removing their ability to have children in the future and giving them critical health conditions before they can even consent or begin to understand the risks.

Long-term and irreversable effects

President Joe Biden once said that “affirming a transgender child’s identity is one of the best things a parent, teacher, or doctor can do to help keep children from harm, and parents who love and affirm their children should be applauded and supported, not threatened, investigated, or stigmatized.” 

However, it is exactly because just such an affirmative approach has been taken that so many lives have been destroyed by schools and by the medical profession in recent years. Children are not able to fully understand the long-term consequences and the irreversible effects of the transitioning process, and ought to be given counselling and aid instead of merely positive affirmation that mutilating their bodies is the correct step. (Even adults who are affirmed need to be aware of the root causes of their distress, not tell them to destroy themselves beyond repair.)

The next step after being put on hormones for an assigned period of time is sex-reassignment surgery – what is often called sex-confirmation or gender-affirming surgery. Sex-reassignment surgery attempts to cosmetically alter the individual’s appearance in order to appear as the gender a person suffering gender dysphoria identifies with. For women, this would include anything from a double mastectomy or the removal of the breasts to a full hysterectomy, where the uterus is removed, often along with the ovaries and fallopian tubes. Some women may go so far as to undergo a “bottom surgery” in order to appear like a biological male in all regards. This involves enlarging the clitoris through hormone treatments in order to then transform it into a make-shift penis using skin grafted from another area of their body. For men, surgery includes the removal of the testicles and the creation of a fake vagina by inverting the penis. These surgeries are not only irreversible, but they leave the patient sterile forever. As a result of such surgeries, many transitioners experience incontinence, suffer from continued infections, run the risk of contracting STIs more easily, and frequently forego their ability to experience any sexual pleasure.  

Again, testimonies from de-transitioned individuals – men and women who come to accept their biological sex after transitioning – make it clear that these side-effects are not normally shared with patients, in fact quite the opposite. While transgender activists, therapists, and surgical doctors reassure their patients that sex-reassignment surgery is perfectly safe, the results of such surgeries are devastating and are often not fully understood by youth and their families.  A teen girl who removes her breasts cannot possibly fathom that one day she may want to breastfeed her children. Likewise, a young boy or girl who has their sexual organs removed cannot imagine that one day they may wish to have their own children and that this surgery forever ruins their chances of being a biological mother or father. Children are not yet mature enough to realize the consequences of such life-altering decisions, especially ones that can never be reversed. 

Scott Newgent, a woman who transitioned to appear as a male, appeared on Matt Walsh’s What is a Woman? to speak out against the transgender movement’s aggressive attack on children. In a heartbreaking plea for the world to wake to reality, Newgent described the medical process and the life-threatening risks associated with transitioning. “During my own transition, I had seven surgeries to change my appearance to male. As side effects, I also had a massive pulmonary embolism, a helicopter life-flight ride, an emergency ambulance ride, a stress-induced heart attack, sepsis, a 17-month recurring infection due to using the wrong skin during a (failed) phalloplasty, 16 rounds of antibiotics, three weeks of daily IV antibiotics, the loss of all my hair, (only partially successful) arm reconstructive surgery, permanent lung and heart damage, a cut bladder, insomnia-induced hallucinations—oh and frequent loss of consciousness due to pain from the hair on the inside of my urethra. All this led to a form of PTSD that made me a prisoner in my apartment for a year.”

Newgent mourned the system’s attack on children and youth who are not equipped to understand the consequences and impact of the transition process. She went on to say that she would probably not live too long because of the consequences of her surgeries and treatments. Unfortunately, this heart-breaking tale is just one of many stories that show the devastating reality of the harm inflicted by the transgender movement. 

Mental health

Although the bodily effects of transitioning are heartbreaking, the mental health ramifications of such “treatment” are arguably much worse. Parents of children seeking to transition are routinely told by “health experts” that it is better to have a “live son than a dead daughter” or a “live daughter than a dead son.” This is a blatant lie. Studies that have followed the state of mental health in transgender people after their surgeries show that the highest rates of depression in transgender individuals come seven years after surgery, not before. Thus, not only does the transition process not help their mental health conditions, but it actually makes them worse.

A 2017 study in Sweden followed 324 individuals who medically transitioned between 1973 and 2003 – 191 male-to-female, 133 female-to-male — in order to study the effects of transitioning on mental health. The study concluded that “persons with transsexualism, after sex reassignment, have considerably higher risks for mortality, suicidal behaviour, and psychiatric morbidity than the general population. Our findings suggest that sex reassignment, although alleviating gender dysphoria, may not suffice as treatment for transsexualism, and should inspire improved psychiatric and somatic care after sex reassignment for this patient group.”

Awakening to reality

While things may sound hopeless, there are some who are waking up to the dangers of transgender ideology, and the destruction it wreaks on children and their families. In the United Kingdom, England’s National Health Services (NHS) announced earlier this year that it will be shutting the doors of the Tavistock Clinic by 2023. This is due to the conclusions of a report on the clinic that said that Tavistock, the country’s sole facility to transition self-identifying transgender children, was neither “safe” nor “viable” as an option for confused youth. Following an official NHS review, it found parents of children whose lives have been ruined by their transitions through the clinic claimed that the Tavistock Clinic “recklessly prescribed puberty blockers with harmful side effects” and that it affirmed the children without question. One whistleblower said that there was an ideological commitment to accept every child’s claim to be the opposite of their biological sex and that psychological and psychiatric treatment for mental health issues were routinely skipped over in the rush to transition early adolescents. Now, more than 1,000 families have joined in a lawsuit against the clinic, seeking reparation for the irreversible harm inflicted upon their families and upon their children. 

A lawyer representing the families suing the Tavistock Clinic Gender and Identity Development Service because of their approach to “treating” their children, described Tavistock’s rushed diagnosis in the following words: “Children and young adolescents were rushed into treatment without the appropriate therapy and involvement of the right clinicians, meaning that they were misdiagnosed and started on a treatment pathway that was not right for them. These children have suffered life-changing and, in some cases, irreversible effects of the treatment they received.” 

While Tavistock’s closure provides a beacon of hope to those who wish to see the atrocities committed against children (and adults) stopped, the harsh reality is that this is a rarity, especially in North America. As schools, large swathes of the medical establishment, and, increasingly, society at large continue to promote and even encourage transgender ideology, more and more people are convinced to subscribe to this health and life-threatening charade.