This is far outside of my normal narrative, but this interview needs to be shared far and wide, if for no other reason than to get some pressure to get (hopefully pro bono) legal help for Briana Ivy.
Rebecca, thank you for sharing this heart-wrenching interview, which needs to be widely viewed. What gets me is the implicit homophobia of the trans promoters. Brianna (while still a boy) was so affected by anti-gay comments and bullying that she was misled into believing that she would be happier turning into a girl/woman than being a gay man, and that it would be possible to do so, neither of which ended up being true. Why could no one have assured her (while still him) that there's nothing wrong at all with being an effeminate boy/man or gay man, and helped her/him find other less disastrous ways to address the emotional pain she/he was experiencing at age 14, prior to starting hormone treatments.
To me it's most important to emphasize to children that there are many ways to be a boy or girl, and that their body and way of expressing themselves, are just right for them, so that they don't start hating their body. (Anorexia is another example of girls hating their bodies.) Briana was so desperate to change her body and saw no other way, with cruel and unethical medical professionals leading her and her parents down into the abyss with false promises that could never be fulfilled. The physical and emotional trauma that was meted out to her is disgraceful. May she grow strong and use her experience to reach others and save them from the same fate.
25 years ago, many parents and I did a lot of work at my children's high school combatting homophobia among students and other parents, so that the small number of out gay kids would be accepted, and those still in the closet wouldn't feel scared and ashamed. My daughter helped start a gay-straight alliance there. Are those efforts all now being subverted??
That was kind of an astonishing interview. I had not heard of Candace Owens nor her podcast before but felt she did a very good interview here. There are so many things going on here it's hard to know where to start. Jordan Petersen has been very vocal about the transgender 'movement' specifically speaking to how the medical system is harming young people, and no doubt this is exactly what he's been speaking about. He believes the medical system is victimizing young people, believing that it's taking young vulnerable gay kids and pushing them towards being transgender. I don't know what the truth is here though, certainly in this case with Briana the case could be made she was just a very effeminate gay boy.
It's interesting because I wasn't exactly effeminate as a teenager, I certainly also experienced aspects of what she talks about. For instance, hating sports, preferring to hang out with girls and not liking the stereotypical boy things in school. But at the same time I never had a sense I was in the wrong physical gendered body. I liked being masculine, although I did never felt like I measured up to a masculine ideal, being masculine is what I've always known is the right thing for me. I've assumed that a transgender person had an equally strong sense that their internal sense of self didn't match to their physical apparatus.
However, it's clear Briana's story is a cautionary tale where drastic surgeries can't be allowed for minors who haven't had time to sort things out. It's clear there were not nearly enough safeguards to prevent a mistake from happening.
There's a lot of pushback right now in segments of the larger LGB community over including transgender people within the movement and I think this is one of the reasons for that. I've seen a lot of horrifying pictures show up on Twitter of body mutilating surgeries for FTM transgender folks having large chunks of flesh taken from forearms and I just couldn't grasp what was happening.
I do think that Jordan Peterson (another individual about whom I have mixed feelings) has a point. The trans kids movement almost seems like the new conversion therapy. “No, you’re not gay, you’re this new thing we’ve put in place to replace gay.” And THAT possibility is awful and inherently homophobic. Heck, Briana even alluded to that!
I have to admit this interview STUNNED me. It is, as you said, a very tough area. I have always been a feminine girl and woman and have felt very aligned with my “gender assigned at birth” (assigned, like it isn’t an inherent part of a person - I digress), so I don’t know what it feels like to feel like you’re in the wrong gender body, but I have had other aspects of myself that I’ve had a difficult time accepting in the past so I feel a lot of empathy for people, especially children, who feel like something about them is very out of alignment with their self perception. I don’t know what the answer is here, but I really appreciate that Briana is sounding the alarm about the real physical dangers of doing these interventions too young. My heart breaks for Briana for what she went through.
Rebecca, thank you for sharing this heart-wrenching interview, which needs to be widely viewed. What gets me is the implicit homophobia of the trans promoters. Brianna (while still a boy) was so affected by anti-gay comments and bullying that she was misled into believing that she would be happier turning into a girl/woman than being a gay man, and that it would be possible to do so, neither of which ended up being true. Why could no one have assured her (while still him) that there's nothing wrong at all with being an effeminate boy/man or gay man, and helped her/him find other less disastrous ways to address the emotional pain she/he was experiencing at age 14, prior to starting hormone treatments.
To me it's most important to emphasize to children that there are many ways to be a boy or girl, and that their body and way of expressing themselves, are just right for them, so that they don't start hating their body. (Anorexia is another example of girls hating their bodies.) Briana was so desperate to change her body and saw no other way, with cruel and unethical medical professionals leading her and her parents down into the abyss with false promises that could never be fulfilled. The physical and emotional trauma that was meted out to her is disgraceful. May she grow strong and use her experience to reach others and save them from the same fate.
25 years ago, many parents and I did a lot of work at my children's high school combatting homophobia among students and other parents, so that the small number of out gay kids would be accepted, and those still in the closet wouldn't feel scared and ashamed. My daughter helped start a gay-straight alliance there. Are those efforts all now being subverted??
It can be difficult not to see some of this aggressive trans stuff as being inherently anti-gay.
That was kind of an astonishing interview. I had not heard of Candace Owens nor her podcast before but felt she did a very good interview here. There are so many things going on here it's hard to know where to start. Jordan Petersen has been very vocal about the transgender 'movement' specifically speaking to how the medical system is harming young people, and no doubt this is exactly what he's been speaking about. He believes the medical system is victimizing young people, believing that it's taking young vulnerable gay kids and pushing them towards being transgender. I don't know what the truth is here though, certainly in this case with Briana the case could be made she was just a very effeminate gay boy.
It's interesting because I wasn't exactly effeminate as a teenager, I certainly also experienced aspects of what she talks about. For instance, hating sports, preferring to hang out with girls and not liking the stereotypical boy things in school. But at the same time I never had a sense I was in the wrong physical gendered body. I liked being masculine, although I did never felt like I measured up to a masculine ideal, being masculine is what I've always known is the right thing for me. I've assumed that a transgender person had an equally strong sense that their internal sense of self didn't match to their physical apparatus.
However, it's clear Briana's story is a cautionary tale where drastic surgeries can't be allowed for minors who haven't had time to sort things out. It's clear there were not nearly enough safeguards to prevent a mistake from happening.
There's a lot of pushback right now in segments of the larger LGB community over including transgender people within the movement and I think this is one of the reasons for that. I've seen a lot of horrifying pictures show up on Twitter of body mutilating surgeries for FTM transgender folks having large chunks of flesh taken from forearms and I just couldn't grasp what was happening.
This is a tough area.
I do think that Jordan Peterson (another individual about whom I have mixed feelings) has a point. The trans kids movement almost seems like the new conversion therapy. “No, you’re not gay, you’re this new thing we’ve put in place to replace gay.” And THAT possibility is awful and inherently homophobic. Heck, Briana even alluded to that!
I have to admit this interview STUNNED me. It is, as you said, a very tough area. I have always been a feminine girl and woman and have felt very aligned with my “gender assigned at birth” (assigned, like it isn’t an inherent part of a person - I digress), so I don’t know what it feels like to feel like you’re in the wrong gender body, but I have had other aspects of myself that I’ve had a difficult time accepting in the past so I feel a lot of empathy for people, especially children, who feel like something about them is very out of alignment with their self perception. I don’t know what the answer is here, but I really appreciate that Briana is sounding the alarm about the real physical dangers of doing these interventions too young. My heart breaks for Briana for what she went through.