In response to Colin Robinson, and this question of rapid onset gender dysphoria (no title case since it’s not a real thing):
absolutely, Colin; I don’t believe any parent wants their child to have a difficult time negotiating life’s hurdles; every parent wants their children to have better than they had; absolutely no doubt in my mind.
I can also see that some parents, upon being made aware that their child is transgender, view it akin to their child choosing to self-harm, and that this choice will only result in completely messing up the child’s life and making him or her sad, depressed, suicidal or being bullied, beaten and murdered. I have not even mentioned what effect their child coming out as trans will have on them, the parents; being no fools they will envision countless hours spent explaining it to the rest of the family and friends, being ostracized and demonized by many of the same for merely allowing this to happen, not to mention the fact that having biological grandchildren may now be impossible.
I’m not saying that parents’ motives for grasping at any straw presented rather than accept what their child is telling them is primarily self-centered, but it does have resonance with them; of that I also have no doubt since I know first-hand: “what will the neighbors think?” “what to we tell Mom and Dad?” “Was it our fault?” “But we stopped you from playing with dolls!”
In the group that focuses on transkids that I’m associated with, classes are held just for the parents of these children. We are definitely NOT trying to steal these children away, or have any kind of secret trans agenda; that’s absurd. In these parental seminars, yes, there are tears, anger, and even threats of law suits, but in the end most see reason, and chief among those reasons is the fact that if the child is not given the support he or she needs to transition, then statistically that child is in great danger of actual self-harm to the point of suicide or leaving home never to return, which is tantamount to the same.
This group, the BZBLL ( Blanchard, Zucker, Bailey, Lawrence, Littman and others), are all cisgender, white, heteros who stubbornly continue to espouse the theories put forth back in the 1960’s to 80’s, and even they cannot completely agree with each other. Being in a group that is completely cisgender (no transgender), their view is askew, slanted and biased in a way that blinds them to reality and allows them no actual insight into what, for the entire cisgender world, is the actual question: what is it truly like to be trans? The BZBLL group continue to demonstrate that they have no idea (I mean, have you ever read Bailey’s “Man who would be Queen”?… absolute rubbish), but with all their credentials, they appear legitimate and these parents of transkids must think (and who can really blame them?): these are experts, psychologists and psychiatrists… we should believe them, right?
Regarding desisting… I completely agree that in some cases (an extremely low percentage), desistance is warranted for as many reasons as there are stars in the sky.
For more reports on actual studies regarding desistance, I would recommend you consider reading Brynn:
or Julia:
and especially her:
Thank you for your response, Colin, and I hope this helps.
peace