Do Trans Kids Stay Trans 2: Desistance Boogaloo

Recently I nuked an old article I wrote, completely erased it and replaced it with a message about a certain author’s bigotry. This because Marcus Evans wrote a British Journal of Psychology bulletin article published in the Cambridge University Press which referenced my piece and completely misrepresented it. Marcus being a former GIDs governor who is now working with his wife to lead a judicial review against the service.

I had planned to reupload the original piece as it was but I don’t keep back ups like how I should and I guess its gone forever now. Besides that, I think I’m a much better writer than I was back then, so it would be nice to rewrite it and include a lot of perspective and information the original piece was lacking. The original piece being a thorough look at James Cantor’s “Do Trans Kids Stay Trans” piece, in which he asserted 60-80% of trans kids will desist, using 12 studies as evidence for that claim.

Before we get into the list of studies we need to define what we mean by “do trans kids stay trans?” and “desistance”. In both cases they are commonly understood to mean that children who present with dysphoria at clinics do not go on to identify as transgender. The desistance rate being high is then used to argue that the affirmative model of treatment, in which kids are given space to explore and figure out who they…