Gender Analysis

An increasing share of anti-trans discourse is now occupied by the contention that a gender-affirming approach to transgender-identified youth, including social transition and puberty blockers, constitutes a form of anti-gay conversion therapy that serves to prevent these youth from growing up into cisgender gay and lesbian adults. This possibility is hinted at in articles such as those by Debra Soh:

Of the boys and girls seen in clinics like Dr. Zucker’s, a high percentage — up to 80% in a study of 44 gender dysphoric boys — grow up to be not transgender, but bisexual, gay or lesbian adults. Thus, helping prepubescent children feel comfortable in their birth sex makes more sense than starting a lifetime of hormonal treatments and surgeries that will in all likelihood turn out to be unnecessary and unwanted.

And Alice Dreger:

I’m going to say something incredibly politically incorrect: Some pink boys may benefit simply from meeting a swishy gay man—or better yet, two or three such men who can show them you can grow from being a pink boy to a pink man and have (dare I say it?) a fabulous life. I’ve actually met one therapist who whispered to me at a meeting that when he met a “gender dysphoric” pink boy who seemed to need this kind of “intervention,” it’s just what he provided (with a consultation by a colleague). The point was to let the boy know that there were even grown-ups like him, men who love “girly” things like beautiful clothes and Martha Stewart (and, um, men), and who are perfectly at home in their bodies and their selves. Why can’t you have (and keep) a penis and love sparkles? Lots of men have.

I asked Sarah—who has engaged with many parents in situations similar to hers—about whether she thought some parents seek out the transgender route for their children because it will mean they might end up going from having a gay son to having a straight daughter. Was homophobia motivating these parents?

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