In their attempt to strongarm otherwise traditional Americans into accepting the belief that minors who identify as transgender should be able to receive irreversible surgeries and other treatments, many LGBT activists insist that without such intervention these individuals are likely to commit suicide.
The Federalist’s Maria Keffler chronicled the trend in detail more than three years ago.
“Time and again I hear about the same experience from parents of gender-dysphoric children: After their child announces that he or she wants to change genders, the parents consult the ‘experts’ — the principal, the school counselor, the pediatrician, the therapist — who tell the parents, ‘Affirming the child’s gender transition is the only option. If you don’t, your kid will likely commit suicide,’” she wrote at the time.
Of course, mounting data shows that allowing children to undergo such procedures does not reduce the risk of suicide. In fact, it appears to slightly increase the rate.
“The best scientific evidence suggests that gender transition is not necessary to prevent suicide,” concluded psychologists Michael Bailey and Ray Blanchard, who added: “There is no persuasive evidence that gender transition reduces gender dysphoric children’s likelihood of killing themselves.”
"WoULd YoU rATheR HavE a LiVE dAugHTeR Or A DeAd SoN?" pic.twitter.com/Ss7F1jZwbp
— Eve Keneinan 𝛗☦️ن (@EveKeneinan) January 31, 2023
Nevertheless, many of the same leftists who demanded that vaccine skeptics “follow the science” during the COVID-19 pandemic are anxious to use emotional arguments in order to further their support of their transgender ideology.
In fact, an individual identified only as Kobe who identified as transgender at the age of 13 recalled being told by the adults in his life that he should claim to be suicidal in order to receive the treatment he sought at the time.
“I started using, like, the suicide tactics, because that’s what they are,” he said. “That’s what they tell us all to do. … I don’t want to use the word ‘groom,’ but we are, like, taught.”
Now, he has detransitioned and lives with the regret of undergoing life-altering procedures as a child.
“I was expecting it to help me, help my mental health, and it didn’t do anything,” Kobe said. “I just wasted so much time, and all I did really was become a medical patient for life.”
