What are parents to do when their gender-conflicted child says it’s either transition or suicide? What are we to make of the stories from individuals who claim that sex-change surgery saved their lives? And how does this line up with the argument that there is no such thing as gender transition and that, in the end, attempts to transition do more harm than good?
Without a doubt, there are children and adults who feel so tormented by their internal gender conflict that they truly believe it’s either transition or suicide. The inner anguish must be intense.
To cite one example, about 10 years ago, I spoke with a Christian man who identified as, and lived as, a woman. As a result, he told me candidly, he destroyed his marriage, rendering his wife a virtual widow and alienating his children.
I asked him, “What about the biblical command to love your wife as yourself and to lay your life down for her? Why didn’t you put her needs first?”
He answered, “It was either transition or suicide.”
To the core of his being, he believed this to be true, and to this day, he is still living as a woman. Others have shared similar stories, claiming that sex-change surgery and hormone treatments saved their lives. At last, they say, they have peace of mind. There are even major surveys that claim the vast majority of those who transition do not attempt to go back to their biological sex. Surely, this speaks of success.
Reality, however, is stubborn. Here’s why.
No amount of surgery or hormones can genetically change a man into a woman, or vice versa. Several other studies indicate that the suicide rate for trans-identified people, after surgery, is massively higher than that of comparable peers, and this cannot simply be blamed on societal marginalization. There is more sex-change regret than is widely reported, in fact a growing chorus of disparate voices is speaking out boldly against trying to transition children. The vast majority of kids who identify as transgender, if left alone to develop and grow, will not identify as such after puberty (this is even admitted by trans activists). And even in cases of “success,” there is always a better way – unless you believe that mutilating (or removing) perfectly healthy organs and subjecting someone to a lifelong regimen of hormones is the best-case scenario.
According to the Sex Change Regret website, “Up to 20% have regrets about their sex change. Sex change procedures are not effective, say researchers.” So, even though many of those who attempt to change their sex through surgery do not express regrets, some do.
Obviously, something is still wrong – terribly wrong – meaning that mutilating or removing healthy body parts and manufacturing new ones does not cure the inner pain and conflict. Otherwise, why the high suicide rates? The pro-transgender community has their own response to the topic.
Some have argued that the reason we don’t hear more reports from people experiencing sex change regret is because they have dropped off the map, not responding to follow-up questions and surveys. In many cases, tragically, this is because they have taken their own lives.
Kellie (“Scott”) Newgent, featured in Matt Walsh’s documentary “What Is a Woman,” told me that she has spoken to hundreds of people who have tried to change their gender. Only a few of them, she claims, are happy today with their decisions. The Left has a rebuttal to this as well.
As for Kellie herself, who is, in trans terminology, a female-to-male (or, trans man), she deeply regrets her own sexual change efforts, recognizing that no amount of surgeries or drugs can make her into a man. Kellie also pointed to the emotional collapse she experienced about seven years after her transition attempts. At that point, she claims, reality begins to settle in, leading to deep depression, if not worse.
Experiences like Kellie’s are why Dr. Paul McHugh, upon becoming psychiatrist-in-chief at Johns Hopkins Hospital in 1975, decided “to test the claim that men who had undergone sex-change surgery found resolution for their many general psychological problems,” and demanded more information before and after surgery. With the help of a fellow psychiatrist, he “found that most of the patients [his colleague] tracked down some years after their surgery were content with what they had done and that only a few regretted it.”
But that was only part of the story. McHugh noted that “in every other respect, they were little changed in their psychological condition.”
They had many of the same problems with relationships, work and emotions as before. The hope that after transitioning they would emerge from their emotional difficulties to flourish psychologically had not been fulfilled.
McHugh explained further, “We saw the results as demonstrating that just as these men enjoyed cross-dressing as women before the operation so they enjoyed cross-living after it. But they were no better in their psychological integration or any easier to live with. With these facts in hand I concluded that Hopkins was fundamentally cooperating with a mental illness. We psychiatrists, I thought, would do better to concentrate on trying to fix their minds and not their genitalia.”
He continued: “As for the adults who came to us claiming to have discovered their ‘true’ sexual identity and to have heard about sex-change operations, we psychiatrists have been distracted from studying the causes and natures of their mental misdirections by preparing them for surgery and for a life in the other sex. We have wasted scientific and technical resources and damaged our professional credibility by collaborating with madness rather than trying to study, cure, and ultimately prevent it.”
In short, McHugh concluded the problem was in the mind, not the member. (His conclusions remain the same to this day, for which he is widely reviled. In his words, he is “absolutely convinced” the transgender movement is “folly and it’s going to collapse, just as the eugenics folly collapsed.”)
As for his views about attempting to transition children, Dr. McHugh stated explicitly in a November 18, 2009, email, “I hold that interfering medically or surgically with the natural development of young people claiming to be ‘transgendered’ is a form of child abuse.”
Tragically, today, there are thousands of children being subjected to this child abuse. How many more Keira Bells do we need to read about before this madness comes to a screeching halt? I do not deny that many of those who have transitioned feel at home in their reconstructed bodies and believe that they are finally whole. And I do not deny that many parents genuinely believe they are helping their children by encouraging their transition.
But, just as we do not give liposuction to an anorexic – to quote the much-maligned Dr. McHugh again – and instead seek to address the root of the cause, we should devote our medical, psychological, and spiritual efforts to helping these trans-identified people from the inside out.
Surely, that’s the compassionate way.
Dr. Michael Brown (www.askdrbrown.org) is the host of the nationally syndicated Line of Fire radio program. He holds a Ph.D. in Near Eastern Languages and Literatures from New York University and has served as a professor at a number of seminaries and is the author of 40 books. Connect with him on Facebook, Twitter, or YouTube.
The views expressed in this piece are the author’s own and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.