Truth and activism rarely go together. In fact, as ex-Muslim activist Sarah Haider recently pointed out, rigorous truth-seeking is anathema to activists. Because an activist’s primary motivation is to advance whatever their goal is: if the facts contradict that goal, then flagrant disregard for the truth is their only recourse.
We see this in action in nearly every high-profile activist cause. Extinction Rebellion, for instance, make blatantly untrue claims, as does their pinup girl, Greta Thunberg. BLM, as Jim Goad points out, is entirely “moored in lies and rampaging innumeracy”
Then there’s “transgender” activism, for whom truth is, in their own words, “transphobic”.
As Dr Harriet Hall, of the Science-Based Medicine website notes, transgenderism has exploded. Even though the numbers remain minuscule, they have doubled among adults in just a decade — and increased even more among younger people.
That alone ought to raise suspicions about what is really going on and the role of social contagion. But even mentioning that is to incur the wrath of the Trannish Inquisition.
It started when Lisa Littman coined the term “Rapid Onset Gender Dysphoria” (ROGD) in a 2018 study published in PLoS One. She had become aware of a disturbing trend: an increasing number of teenage girls who had not expressed discomfort with their natal sex in childhood suddenly self-identified as transgender in their teen years. She thought some of them may have been unduly influenced by their peer group or through the internet.
As has become a common pattern in even the supposedly sober scientific literature, Littman was attacked, apparently for simply questioning the “trans” orthodoxy. As was Abigail Shrier, with her 2020 book, Irreversible Damage: The Transgender Craze Seducing Our Daughters. Tranny activists tried to have the book banned altogether and advocated tearing up and burning copies in libraries.
But behind all the sound and fury of the transgender activists is a remarkable paucity of hard facts. Despite being attacked over her earlier study, Littman persevered and published a study on “detransitioners” in the Archives of Sexual Behavior in October 2021.
Here are some of the findings.
Of the 100 detransitioners, 69 percent were natal females; 31 percent were natal males. The reasons they gave for detransitioning included:
Experiencing discrimination (23 percent)
Becoming more comfortable with their natal sex (60 percent)
Concerns about potential medical complications from transitioning (49 percent)
Coming to realize that their gender dysphoria was caused by something specific such as trauma, abuse, or a mental health condition (38 percent).
As well, 23 percent reported homophobia or difficulty accepting themselves as lesbian, gay, or bisexual.
With regard to the last, it’s significant that the surge in female-to-male “trans” has gone hand-in-hand with the virtual disappearance of girls identifying as lesbian. Similarly, Iran has the world’s highest rates of male-to-female transition: homosexual men are given a stark choice between transition and jail, even death. Far from “tolerant” and “progressive”, trans ideology appears singularly misogynist and reactionary.
Its intolerance is also demonstrated in its hostility to open inquiry.
In my review of Shrier’s book on the Science-Based Medicine (SBM) website, I said that while it was mostly based on anecdotes I thought it raised serious concerns that cried out for good scientific studies. As one of the three editors on that website, I was shocked when the other two editors took the unprecedented step of deleting my book review, the first time an SBM article had ever been retracted in the 14 years of its existence.
Skeptic
No one expects the Trannish Inquisition.
And no one dares challenge it, because they know they’ll lose their jobs, funding, and even the right to live without fear: trans activists routinely barrage critics with threats of death and rape.
It’s almost as if they know their ideology is anti-scientific garbage, and they’re afraid everyone else might catch on if they’re allowed to talk about it.