Note: Meant to only address a few points but the AC isnât working in my office and Iâm cranky so I got carried away. 
I certainly supported trans rights and considered myself an ally to a vulnerable group who, based on what I had read in the media, had always felt deeply unhappy with their bodies.
And
For clarity, I shall call her âsheâ and âJoâ here throughout, but she demanded a new name and pronouns and immediate acceptance on threat of withdrawing all communication and love.
Yeah, you werenât an ally, you just didnât want people to think badly of you until you were faced with it head on.
We wondered what had led to these feelings of dysphoria when she had never shown any discomfort with her sex or body.
We hide it dipshit, because weâre afraid of reactions like yours.
Alarmingly, almost all of Joâs friends adopted a trans identity around the same time, strongly suggesting to us that social contagion was an issue.
Ah thereâs the ROGD BS. You know queer people tend to find one another before they even realize theyâre queer, right? Like of my high-school friend group a good 75% later came out as gay or bi, and a couple of us as trans. And when one comes out, the others might feel like maybe they wonât lose their friend group and so feel safe doing so too?
the potential use of powerful hormonal drugs that could suppress our daughterâs adolescence and lead to irreparable damage to her body.
My trans body is anything but irreparably damaged by cross-sex hormones, thank you very much. It is irreparably damaged by having had to go through the wrong puberty though.
She found it almost impossible to describe her feelings â following her later diagnosis of autism, we learnt this is a common symptom.
Yes, lots of us are autistic, doesnât mean we donât know who we are. And when you act like youâre acting here, lady, it makes it even harder.
However, I refused to allow breast binding â it seems an inherently bad idea to restrict a growing body.
Translation: I ignored medical science saying itâs safe and forced my child to present in a way that causes psychological distress because it made me feel icky!
Trans people call it their âdead nameâ; a cruel choice, forcing parents to think of their baby in such emotive terms.
Itâs called a deadname because people like you will put it on our graves against our wishes.
I grieved my loss and felt guilt in the grieving.
Yes, make it about yourself and not the suffering of your child. You should never have had kids.
Despite all our support, her mental health worsened and during a trivial argument she blurted out that a few months previously she had taken an overdose of paracetamol, with the intention of ending her life.
Despite your WHAT? Nothing youâve written shows you supported him in any way. This is on YOU.
I created secret, anonymous social media accounts to search for evidence about chest binding, puberty blockers and surgeries.
Social media research isnât research. Yes, peer-reviewed trans related research is not as robust as it should be, but it overwhelmingly supports transition. You found TERF BS and decided you liked it better and therefore it was true.
Finally, I was able to find evidence and resources willing to view it with a critical eye.
You fell down a bigotry radicalization rabbit hole.
So it was that, as my husband drove us through a tunnel on a wet October evening I wound down my window and screamed to the wind âTranswomen are MEN!â.
Ah yes, there it is. The transmisogyny. And the fact you put that into an article and are proud of it? Get help.
Our daughter is now confirmed autistic, has poor mental health, and suffered bullying for her same-sex attraction. These are all things I learnt are common features in teenage girls who experience rapid-onset gender dysphoria (ROGD), It seems far more likely Joâs trans identity was a coping mechanism for a difficult period than that my child had somehow been âborn in the wrong bodyâ.
ROGD is a myth you utter pillock. It was created by cherry picking data to support a pre-conceived idea and you fell for it hook line and sinker. Your conclusion is wishful thinking.
We tread on eggshells around Jo, who soon will be old enough to make her own decisions.
There are signs itâs working; I hear my words repeated to her friends and while she still calls herself a boy, sheâs no longer unwilling to include herself when discussing sex-based issues.
Heâs masking because he realized trying to be himself with you around is a lost cause. I hope he can get away from you and your toxicity soon. If you lose contact with him once heâs of age, itâs 100% your fault.
âShe still calls herself a boy butâŚâ
That poor boy though. It sounds like Mom is secretly really emotionally abusive and controlling but likes to play the martyr.
Itâs pretty common for kids with this kind of parent to have worse mental health outcomes regardless of gender.
Even just the one-box has me wondering if this is some TER faking it. How could any âliberalâ get all of that so wrong just in the first couple of sentences?
Well following the authors logic and applying it to herâŚ
I see no reason to believe her just because âliberalâ is how she likes to self-identify. Probably just social contagion affecting a confused conservative who will one day be very proud of herself in her natural non-blue-haired body once she stops contaminating it with chemicals. Until then we will grit our teeth and pretend to accept her even though we definitely do not accept herâŚHopefully in a way she can pick up on so we can gaslight her about it if she feels like something is off⌠
Whole article was disturbing really.
Youâve expressed my thoughts exactly. I hope that poor boy escapes into adult hood with as little damage as possible.
When we decided we wanted kids, we talked about this. How would we feel if our child is bi, gay, ace, trans, non-binary? We explored the possibilities together, along with a lot of others, and didnât try to conceive until we were as sure as possible that we would accept our child for who they are, no matter if we were uncomfortable or disagreed, or feared for them. We also promised to hold each other accountable if we slipped.
Because this was our childâs life and wellbeing at stake. If we couldnât love a child who turned out differently from what we expected, we had no business having a child.
I hope the boy survives
Thereâs nothing I can add to the amazing analysis thatâs already been done but this particular line sticks with me. I know parents of children on the spectrum. I know they have trouble understanding their childrenâs feelings sometimesâthey admit that. But they also make the effort to understand because they know whatever their childâs dealing with is much, much, harder, and itâs their role to provide support.
Thatâs the difference between being a good parent and someone who shouldnât have kids in the first place.
Gender dysphoria is a very difficult thing to pin down at the best of times. It is EXTREMELY hard to describe to someone who hasnât had it, and those of us who are neurodivergent have an extra layer of stuff to sort through to be able to communicate it to neurotypicals. Hell, it took me until I was in my mid 40s to finally figure out that the cloud that had been hovering over me my whole life even WAS dysphoria, let alone being able to describe it to others. To do so to a hostile authority figure would have been extremely difficult, no wonder he wasnât able to communicate feelings clearly!
Conservative liberalism is a thing, unfortunately. Just look at Joe Manchin and Keir Starmer.
That woman can think of herself anyway she wants; but all I hear from all that BS is that SHEâS A TERRIBLE MOTHER.
I pity her kids.
I respect people who have chosen not to procreate way more than I do shitty selfish parents.
Yeah the naked narcissism is hard to take⌠not once does it sound like she sought therapy for herself because her extreme inability to cope was killing her child.
She shows more concern over the potential loss of a pair of shapely breasts than her sons actual life.
This right here is why Iâm mostly T4T. Limits the dating pool, but Iâm less likely to get fetishized and I start my relationship with a level of understanding that can take a long time to get someone up to if they arenât well educated in trans issues. Usually, anyway. I have run into trans trans chasers so YMMV.
From last year. WTF? racism
