The world is unsafe for transgender kids all over the United States. Even in California, which has set itself up as a sanctuary state for trans families escaping violence in other states, there is considerable anti-trans sentiment and legislative efforts, particularly targeting our trans youth.
San Luis Obispo prides itself on its progressive reputation, but the reality of our local LGBTQ-plus community does not always align with these assumptions.
The conversation has shifted over the years and progress has been made, but statistics from The California Department of Education’s California Healthy Kids Survey consistently show that transgender youth in SLO County schools are more at risk of experiencing violence and suicidality here in SLO than they are in the state of California overall. In 2019, 60.5 percent of trans students in SLO County reported having seriously considered suicide in the past 12 months compared to 17.9 percent of their cisgender peers and compared to 52.7 percent of trans teens in California overall. The survey’s answers about why are devastating: Their rejection comes from everywhere—peers, family members, even teachers.
The sensationalized pearl clutching that goes on in most visible discussions of transgender youth simultaneously over-exaggerate the issue (California Healthy Kids Survey data tells us that only 1.3 percent of SLO County youth identify as transgender) and use transness as a reason to dismiss the humanity of the young person. LGBTQ-plus children and teens need what all people do—to be believed, to be respected, to be safe. But time and time again every action is taken except the most obvious and crucial: Take them seriously.
The recent violent death of Nex Benedict threw this conversation further into chaos. Investigation into Benedict’s death revealed a long history of verbal and physical abuse by peers at school with no intervention from school security or administration. This ultimately led to an altercation where Benedict was beaten so severely by other students that they were hospitalized for head trauma, then experienced a seizure after being released home, where they later died. In spite of this experience, their death was ruled as a suicide by prescribed antidepressant and antihistamine.
But there’s a bigger story beyond the specific details of their death. Even if Nex Benedict’s death was a suicide, the fact remains that more than a year of bullying was ignored, even excused. Using this to fuel the narrative that transitioning has deadly consequences for children is victim blaming. It is the responsibility of adults to ensure the safety of children, not the responsibility of children to suppress themselves out of fear of deadly violence.
This is often where the conversation turns to gender-affirming medical care for youth. While the standard narrative is that this care “permanently warps” children’s bodies, the reality is far more rational.
Here’s the long and short of it: Gender-affirming surgery and hormone replacement therapy are not available to youth under 18 except in very rare, extreme circumstances. Youth may take hormone blockers that delay the onset of puberty under recommendation of therapists and doctors working with parents, and these medications have no long-term impacts on a person’s body.
Additionally, we know from adult transgender surveys that only 0.3 percent of people who get gender-affirming surgery experience any regret, compared to 6 to 30 percent of knee replacement surgery recipients. We also know from the American Medical Association that access to gender-affirming care reduced rates of depression by 60 percent and rates of suicidality by 73 percent in trans youth. Other research tells us that only 13 percent of people who pursue any form of transitioning (social, medical, or legal) end up going back to their gender assigned at birth, and of that group, 82.5 percent of them report detransitioning due to external pressures. Rather than unhappiness with their own decision, it is societal pressures and the threat of intense rejection from family or community that causes them to abandon their choice.
There is no longer anything to “discuss” or “debate.” Gender affirmation is a life-saving practice. Believing people about their experiences is a life-saving practice. Excusing bigotry is a life-threatening practice and further normalizes the dangerous ways in which trans students are treated by peers, teachers, and family. Transness has been around since the dawn of history. It is not a fad, and we know that the more it’s supported, the happier and safer the lives of those who experience it.
Aside from anything else, the fact remains that socially ostracizing trans kids for their identity is the real killer of trans children. The Trevor Project reports that one affirming adult in a trans child’s life reduces suicidality by 40 percent. It is up to us to decide which adult we want to be. Δ
Lola White-Sanborn has been the Gala Pride & Diversity Center’s content curator since 2022. Send a response for publication to letters@newtimesslo.com.
This article appears in May 30 – Jun 9, 2024.
Outstanding letter. Thank you for debunking several myths. Ball is in your court, Mr. Donegan.
When startled, the squid will often expel a cloud of ink to conceal itself. Likewise, when confronted, the trans activist will often expel an inky cloud of statistics, jargon and rhetoric to obscure and conceal the true issues. Fortunately, the trans activist is in no danger of ending up in some calamari recipe.
This concealing inky cloud can consist of pronouncing that there is “no longer anything to discuss or debate”, thereby prohibiting any further resistance to their agenda. Or, it can consist of invoking “safety”, suggesting that an unwillingness to accept their opinions somehow endangers them, or somehow “dismisses their humanity”. It can even involve the seemingly plaintive plea that all teenager’s feelings should be “taken seriously”, as if the fleeting, ever-changing emotions of any child, trans or otherwise, are a firm, sacred ground worthy of great deference from adults. We have all been kids ourselves, and remember that kids can be pretty goofy. There is a good reason why there are minimum ages required to vote, drink, sign contracts, and drive cars.
The immense increase in the numbers of kids suddenly reporting themselves as transgendered is unprecedented, and strongly suggests social contagion. While the transgendered have always existed, they have never consisted of such a large numbers, nor have mass influences like social media previously existed.
Regardless of any tantrums that may erupt, it is sound policy to require that any irreversible medical transitioning be deferred until after the 18th birthday and adulthood. Not only is an adult more likely to make a sound decision, but waiting will help reduce the effect of social contagion and help ensure that the decision is enduring and has been thought through.
As I previously mentioned, the lobotomy was such a well-received therapy to treat emotional problems that the developer received the Nobel Prize in Medicine in 1949. How’d that work out?
Incidentally, I don’t “clutch my pearls”. As an old hippie, I clutch my love beads.
Attaboy, the octopus metaphor is a good touch.
I’m struggling to understand why John Donegan continues to spread this “social contagion” myth despite being corrected on it in one of my previous comments. Here’s a link to a summary of the study (with this very unambiguous headline: “Study Finds No Evidence of Social Contagion Among Transgender Youth.”)
https://publications.aap.org/aapnews/news/…
@VMM: Your citation proved to be yet another example of meaningless authority which did not actually support the position that it claimed to support . It cited a study which showed no difference between males and females in claims of sudden onset transgenderism. In other words, boys do it at the same rate as girls, not that social contagion is not occurring. Your claim that there is no social contagion runs contrary to the experience of the rest of us, who have observed the recent great increase in people claiming to be transgendered. If it is not social contagion, what else could account for this dramatic increase?
@John Donegan – You’re absolutely not understanding what the study is saying and demonstrate no awareness of the basic conclusions from the study’s authors. It seems as though you did not read beyond the opening sentences of the linked article and/or chose to ignore nearly everything else that didn’t agree with your feeble “lived experience” argument–a type of argument someone makes when they are trying to double-down on a bad argument after having been called out on it.
If you had read further into the article, you’d realize that the social contagion theory was entirely premised on observations about youth who are assigned female at birth and based on incomplete analysis and considerable methodological shortcomings. This is why the present study was looking specifically at youth assigned female at birth. The original study promoting the social contagion theory was so flawed that the authors were forced to issue a correction. It isn’t clear why you continue to believe evidence that is so flawed, although this is par for the course. The newest study uses better methods and finds no evidence for the contagion theory. As summarized by the lead author:
“The hypothesis that transgender and gender diverse youth assigned female at birth identify as transgender due to social contagion does not hold up to scrutiny and should not be used to argue against the provision of gender-affirming medical care for adolescents, said study senior author Dr. Alex S. Keuroghlian. This isn’t exactly hard to understand.
You seem unaware that there might be any other explanation for the increased visibility of trans people in society, even though there are several valid explanations, not the least of which is that trans folks feel more supported and more comfortable living openly and freely than they have in the past. People are more comfortable being out and visible as trans when they don’t fear being discriminated against or that they might be subjected to violence based on their identity.
NP, perhaps sex education should be left to the parents who are responsible anyway? sex, politics, religion the hot button issues…yes? freedom of to be quiet, etc.
SH the MOUTH is too much to bare!
Sh….the MOUTH….is to much to bare!