The whistleblowers of the gender revolution

Whistleblower stories proceed in three acts. In Act One, the whistleblower publicizes hidden information for the benefit of third parties. In Act Two, authorities try to silence the whistleblower. In Act Three, the truth is exposed and the public learns who is trustworthy.

Thankfully, diverse voices are now blowing the whistle on transgender ideology in medicine and education. Taking the risk of being “cancelled,” they are telling the truth that we are created male and female so that children won’t be harmed by a dangerous falsehood.

Here is where we are now headed: Trusting his doctor, a 12-year old ingests hormones that block puberty, a process with irreversible effects. Similarly, a 16-year old relies upon his or her doctor’s word that massive doses of the opposite sex’s hormones will help more than harm. And an 18-year old puts great confidence in the advice of surgeons who remove her reproductive organs.

These are the ages at which the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) recommends interventions to “resolve” children’s distress with their bodies. In the child-led, “gender affirmative care” model, parents listen and defer to children. Parents who hesitate are frequently cowed into submission by an unsubstantiated threat that delaying transition will cause their child to commit suicide.

By some claims, one in 50 high schoolers now identify as transgender. The number of girls seeking gender surgery quadrupled in one year. As these numbers skyrocket, more doctors are expressing alarm. In 2017, child psychiatrist Dr. Allan Josephson urged that instead of rushing towards transition, doctors should pay more attention to underlying causes of distress, such as anxiety and depression. As he had pointed out, 65–95 percent of children “desist” from identifying as transgender if they go through puberty naturally. For this modest proposal, the University of Louisville demoted him from his post as head of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and Psychology and later fired him. His statements were supported by expert Dr. James Cantor, director of the Toronto Sexuality Center, who pointed out the AAP’s “systematic exclusion” of reports that children desist. He wrote that the AAP “told neither the truth nor the whole truth committing sins both of commission and of omission.”

Dr. Lisa Littman surveyed 100 “detransitioners” who underwent surgical or hormonal interventions and no longer identify with a sex that doesn’t match their bodies. Fifty-five percent of them believe their doctors did not give them adequate information before approving (or even pushing) life-changing medical transition. And now two leading transition surgeons (both themselves transgender) warn of “sloppy care” leading to casual transition of children and youth without adequate psychological counseling.

The detransitioners are warning teens, children, and their parents. In an explosive 60 Minutes piece, they recounted doctors rushing them towards castrations and double mastectomies in just months. They are victims of malpractice, and they seek to save others from the same heartbreak.

Some who listened were teachers in Loudoun County, Va. After hearing detransitioners speak on 60 Minutes, Tanner Cross spoke against a proposed school policy that would require him to use pronouns that do not correspond to biological sex because it would spread the falsehood that gender is fluid and encourage “transition.” His stand for truth got him suspended, but also inspired fellow teachers Monica Gill and Kim Wright to stand up.

Parents are also speaking up, but facing similar mistreatment. Last June, the Loudoun County School Board superintendent told parents that there was no reason to worry a gender identity policy could lead to more sexual assaults in bathrooms. All the while, he knew that a 14-year old girl had been recently raped in a girls’ bathroom on campus by a boy. Scott Smith is that girl’s father. His outrage over the superintendent’s defense of the policy led to Mr. Smith’s arrest. The National School Board Association (NSBA) cited him as a threat and urged the Biden Administration to take action. Although the NSBA has apologized for its letter to President Biden, U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland has yet to rescind his aggressive and misdirected directive to the FBI and U.S. Attorneys to turn their sights on concerned parents.

While trust has been broken at many levels, more and more doctors, detransitioners, teachers, and parents are shining the light on the truth that we are created male and female—and revealing the devastation that occurs when we ignore this truth. Lawmakers and policy groups are also stepping up to protect children’s minds, bodies, and relationships with their parents through the Promise to America’s Children movement. Protecting the freedom of truthtellers is essential for children’s well-being. And while we should champion these truths in legislative halls, courtrooms, and school board meetings, may we never neglect our very own kitchen tables with our precious kids. For children who are bombarded with the falsehoods of gender ideology, the truth couldn’t come a moment too soon.