A group of concerned mothers whose sons struggle with gender identity have come together in a secret online group to find support amid a culture whose institutions increasingly offer them no help.
Nine mothers of gender-confused boys recently recounted during intimate interviews with The Christian Post (CP) how the group of about 75 has been a comfort to the isolation of trying to discern how best to respond to their teenage or young adult sons claiming to be transgender.
The mothers in the group they interviewed, whom CP described as “a politically and religiously diverse group” from various regions of the U.S., spoke to the outlet on condition of anonymity, many out of fear that state social services might seize their children from them if their identities were revealed.
“It’s Demonic”
One mother, who spoke under the pseudonym Danae Johnson, told CP that her son Jeremy came out to her as transgender when he was 14. She believes his struggles with identity are rooted in being bullied for having been smaller than other boys. She noted that Jeremy, now 17, has newfound popularity with his peers after coming out as trans.
Jeremy nevertheless continues to suffer from anxiety and severe depression, Danae said, and he has been hospitalized for threatening suicide. Jeremy remains adamant that he will begin hormone replacement therapy when he goes to college, despite threats from his parents that they will cut off financial support.
“We all have one common goal, and that’s to save our sons,” she said. “Because we recognize the harms of these [hormonal] treatments and surgeries and using our kids as guinea pigs.”
A Catholic, Danae said she struggles with anger toward God for what her family is suffering.
“I pray a lot at night. And there are nights where I’m angry,” she said. “I feel bad because there are nights where I have so much anger in my heart. It’s no longer praying, but yelling and questioning: Is this all for naught?”
“We’re up against the whole culture, and it’s a losing battle,” she added. “We’re up against other parents and a culture that tells us that nothing matters anymore, that it’s only about how a person feels. The parents [who object to gender-transitioning of their children] are being demonized.”
“I know my God doesn’t make mistakes when He’s forming children,” she said. “It’s demonic. And there’s a devil out there, and the devil, right now, with our culture, is winning.”
“The Medical Industry Is Devouring And Grooming Our Boys”
Another mother from the online group, whom CP called Paulina Hinson, is not religious but has found solidarity in the group. Her son Kevin identifies as a transgender lesbian who expressed his intention to transition at 15.
Kevin, his mother noted, is very intelligent and struggled to relate socially to other boys growing up.
High intelligence is seemingly a common trait among the trans-identifying sons of the mothers they interviewed, CP observed, with many also falling along the autistic spectrum or suffering from other issues such as ADHD. “Every one of their kids has mental health issues,” one of the mothers said of the others in the group. “Most of them are autistic. High-functioning Asperger’s, that kind of stuff … This whole understanding of the world, it’s a subculture I had no idea existed.”
Paulina, who struggled to conceive, said she was particularly grieved that such profound confusion should afflict her only son. “All I ever wanted was to be a mom and for this to happen to my only child is just devastating,” she said.
Paulina is particularly disgusted with Planned Parenthood, which has turned trans-identifying kids into a “cash cow,” according to a former worker at one of their clinics who spoke to journalist Abigail Shrier.
“I used to think they were good in that they helped low-income women get medical services,” Paulina said. “But now they’re not doing that. And all the organizations, even the places that used to help people with AIDS, now it’s all about trans. Any LGBT group … it’s all about trans. All these places made a deal with the devil, and I have to hope that it comes back to bite them.”
Paulina warned adults online are grooming children with underlying mental health issues and sexual confusion to believe they are trans. “The answer that these kids are getting is that there is something wrong with them [their body] and that the solution is that they are trans,” she said.
“They’re being told a lie … The medical industry is devouring and grooming our boys to be medicalized for life.”
“Really Scary, Scary World”
Paulina also discerned a political element to the destruction of the family that the trans movement poses. As The Christian Post reported:
“They are confusing kids. They’re ruining families. You thought you could have a child and make a difference,” she said. “It’s like they’re taking away the core of a family. And I look at everyone who is having a child, and I’m like, ‘Don’t do it,’ because you have no control over your child. Parental rights have been taken away. The schools are complicit in pushing this agenda.”
She recalled reading about Communist Chinese Chairman Mao Zedong’s rulership and how under his reign, children were instructed to turn on their parents and rupture the family structure.
“I feel like that’s what’s happening. It used to be a world where the parents had control. But it’s all taken away from us because our kid can complain to the school, and social services would be called because we’re not affirming them in this lie. We could lose custody. That’s a really scary, scary world we’re in.”
The recent appointment of transgender Dr. Rachel Levine as assistant Health and Human Services (HHS) secretary has renewed scrutiny on the ability of government to bypass parental consent regarding sex changes for minors.
Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) faced accusations of bigotry during Levine’s confirmation hearing last month for asking if Levine supported giving puberty blockers and sex-change surgeries to children against the wishes of their parents. Levine repeatedly refused to answer the question, reverting instead to a scripted answer about how “transgender medicine is a very complex and nuanced field with robust research and standards of care that have been developed.”
Related: Shrier: Why Girls Become Boys