I’m a licensed therapist who discovered how extremely wrong gender affirmative therapy is simply because it became so radical and widespread in the last 5 years. I took a hiatus from my profession due to a physical disability and when I returned, the changes were shocking. My views on gender ideology are not politically motivated.
I understand feminists have a large stake in the fight against this trans wave for two main reasons. 1. In the more recent years, the trend is overwhelmingly impacting adolescent girls. 2. Women’s spaces are being invaded by transgender women (men).
These facts are very true, but that does not mean the trans issue is a women’s issue. In fact, far from it:
A male detranistioner named Abel Garcia had a very poignant tweet on 11/14/22:
Unfortunately, there are a few feminists that only care about girls and women being hurt, they could care less about boys and men being hurt by this ideology. We all need to understand that this ideology targets everyone & we need to protect & help everyone hurt by it.
Male detansitioner, Ritchie Herron, known as Tulip on twitter has been viciously attacked by feminists when he called for support for young boys who have fallen victim of trans ideology. He tweeted on July 20th, 2022:
I see a lot of rallying calls to protect women and girls, but why not boys too? Aren’t all children worthy of protection?
The threat to young males and boys has been overshadowed for too long. Your fury for what’s happening to young women and girls should apply to them too. If no one stands for them, I will. And I’ll still be standing alongside women and girls.
Both of these men, and countless more have horrific stories about how they were victims of gender malpractice.
They deserve our support and their voices to be heard.
But male detransitioners are not the only ones being hurt by gender ideology. Let’s take a look at the parents who are estranged from their children because of the cult-like mentality that gender ideology preaches. The trans activists teach those who join the gender cult that their loving family and friends who simply have questions are bigots and transphobes. I receive countless messages from parents who are struggling with grief, fear and anger because their child, who they care about deeply, will not talk to them. This includes mothers and fathers.
Here is recent message from an anonymous parent: My daughter is 20. She began injecting male hormones at 18. I do not pretend to agree. Our relationship has suffered. I can’t sleep well. I can’t do much of anything well. I don’t know how to help her. What to say. What not to say. My life is a wreck and I feel like I’m holding my breath every day. I can’t save her. I want to. I can’t find help. She’s not going to be ok.
And let’s not forget about siblings, cousins, aunts, uncles, grandparents and other family members who lost a family member because a trans cult told them they should be cutting off their families.
Another group most people don’t consider are the other children. I’m talking about the kids who don’t ride the ‘trans train’ but are subjected to speech policing and lose close relationships because their friends choose a glitter family instead. In addition, there are children who already struggle to fit in, don’t have insight or confidence to stand up to uncomfortable lies. The way gender ideology is weaved into our culture is devastating for all children (and adults too).
I watched this dynamic unfold as I led teen therapy groups. I found the “pronoun game” just as damaging to the kids who were not trans-identified as those who were. Some enjoyed the feeling of “doing the right thing”, but this left them empty and less connected to their peers because it was superficial. Or some didn’t feel comfortable but felt peer pressure and disgruntled by compelled speech. Either way, all of these children had an extra obstacle from creating genuine connections with each other. (I never encouraged pronouns when I worked there, but I didn’t fight the kids who insisted on using them either.)
And what about humanity? If we have an entire generation growing up with a fractured sense of self, an inability to trust others, inability to procreate, inability to have sexual pleasure, and some with devastating physical disabilities, this affects us all! Whatever happened to the cliche “The children are our future”. Now it’s “Lets trans the kids, it feels good, and we don’t care about the future”. We need our children to grow up and thrive so our society can thrive. If an entire generation is suffering psychological and physical harm, we all suffer.
Plain and simple. This is a humanity issue, not a women’s issue.
Pamela Garfield-Jaeger, LCSW is a licensed clinical social worker with over 20 years of experience. She is located in the Bay Area of California. Pamela had to leave her part-time job at Sutter Health’s IOP/PHP program due to the state of California’s COVID vaccine mandate despite a medical reason and natural immunity. She still suffers chronic pain so she cannot work full-time, so she has dedicated herself to educating parents on how to navigate the confusing mental health system.
In addition, she is not captured by ideology and cancel culture, so she is not afraid to speak the truth. You can find in depth classes on how to navigate the mental health system on her website:
I'm glad to hear some people think feminists should care boys are being mutilated at the altar of gender ideology. That has not been the historic MO of feminists. The ideology disables both sexes.