No. The “affirmation model” wrongly requires doctors and therapists to affirm any claims of a “trans” or “nonbinary” identity, without taking into consideration developmental stage, online influences, or comorbidities such as depression/anxiety or autism. There is no proven protocol for determining who, if anyone, will benefit from the medical interventions offered—puberty blockers, opposite-sex hormones, and surgeries—and no credible evidence that they are safe or effective. For those over 18 or minors with parent permission, no psychological or medical evaluation is required to access hormones. Planned Parenthood, one of the largest purveyors of opposite-sex hormones in the U.S., has a “no barriers” policy: “We follow the Informed Consent model so patients do not need a mental health referral to receive services.” In blue states, most gender clinics and Planned Parenthood will dispense testosterone or estrogen to minors starting at age 16 after one short visit. At age 18, no parental notification or approval is required and in some cases, opposite-sex hormones have been prescribed after a phone or video consultation as short as 15 minutes, with no prior in-person meeting and no mental health evaluation or health history taken. Resources: “By Any Other Name. The story of my transition and detransition,” Helena, February 19, 2022 Reddit detransitioner forum re: Planned Parenthood

No. Suicide rates among trans-identifying youth are comparable to those with similar mental health and developmental conditions, such as anxiety, depression, OCD, autism, and ADHD. Fortunately, suicide is rare in both groups. Comprehensive mental health evaluation and treatment should be the first step in addressing gender-related distress. Studies examining gender medicine and suicide rates have found no statistically significant link between "gender affirming care" and suicide prevention. According to suicide prevention experts, suicide isn't caused by just one thing, but is the result of many factors. Even so, too many clinicians and advocacy organizations—including the Trevor Project, a suicide prevention organization—claim “untreated gender distress,” or mistreatment and stigmatization, as a single cause of suicidality. Despite the recommendations from the federally-funded Suicide Prevention Resource Center, messaging from activists and others advocating for medical interventions promotes the idea that suicide is an expected or reasonable response to not receiving “gender-affirming care.” Furthermore, the claim that “gender-affirming care” prevents suicide is not supported by the NIH-funded study, Psychosocial Functioning in Transgender Youth after Two Years of Hormones. Despite the authors’ conclusions that these interventions improve psychosocial functioning, two of the young study participants committed suicide within the first year after starting opposite-sex hormones in a highly affirming environment, with affirming parents, and therapeutic support, and despite prescreening participants for suicidal ideation and significant distress. In Sweden, the longest (40-year) study of sex-reassigned adults found that compared to others of the same sex, completed suicides were 19.1 times higher, suicide attempts 4.9 times higher, and psychiatric inpatient care 2.8 times higher. See di-ag.org/suicide-risk for more information.

No. There is no medical diagnosis for “trans.” It is not possible to be “born in the wrong body”—we are not “in our bodies,” we ARE our bodies. Despite decades of research, no brain differences between trans-identifying individuals and others have been found. The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual Of Mental Disorders, Fifth Edition (DSM 5), a publication of the American Psychiatric Association, includes a mental-health diagnosis called “gender dysphoria.” According to DSM 5, “gender dysphoria” is when a person has been uncomfortable with their birth sex for at least six months. This distress can be (and until the 21st century largely was) treated through non-medical interventions and resolves with time. There is no credible evidence that hormonal and surgical interventions actually help a person feel better about their sex in the long term—or improve their mental health or quality of life. Despite what we have been told, “gender-affirming care” is not medically necessary.

When a child or adolescent tries to be perceived as a member of the opposite sex by changing their name, asking others to use opposite-sex pronouns, and wearing sex-atypical clothing, hairstyle, and make-up (aka ”social transition”) they are embarking upon a pathway that can lead to lifelong medicalization. Social transition is an intervention with serious ramifications. Adults in positions of authority (parent, teacher, therapist, doctor) who encourage social transition can interrupt the natural process of identity formation, introduce or reinforce ideas of "wrongness," and push a young person down a path towards ever more extreme measures to appear as the opposite sex. Social transition also falsely presents identity as fixed, locking youth into a rigid sense of self and limiting future choices. According to the The Cass Review (England, April 2024), “‘Social transition’ is not a neutral act but a major psychosocial intervention that may affect whether a child’s gender distress disappears or becomes long-lasting." Given time and space to explore and mature, most children outgrow gender distress. Adults in positions of authority should aim to be neutral. Resources: Social Transitions - A Powerful Psychosocial Intervention, Gender: A Wider Lens, Episode 40, Sasha Ayad & Stella O’Malley, September 2021 Independent review of gender identity services for children and young people: Final report, Dr. Hilary Cass, page 31

No. There is no evidence or reason to assume that interrupting a specifically timed, necessary physical maturation process does not irreversibly affect development. Puberty is normal and involves changes to every organ system in the body, including neurodevelopment—not just secondary sex characteristics. Blockers stop neurodevelopment necessary for identity formation, sexuality development, and the ability to accurately assess risk. Without this cognitive maturation, youth cannot comprehend the impacts of the medical pathway. Puberty blockers exploit a child's anxieties about puberty and cement the pathologizing of normal development, essentially guaranteeing that children continue on to opposite-sex hormones, as data shows. Children should be reassured and helped to tolerate the discomforts of a changing body, not told it is possible to flip a switch to shut down a crucial developmental phase. Children do not have the life experience to meaningfully consent to drugs that compromise future sexual function and fertility. The Cass Review (England, April 2024) concluded that no high-quality evidence supports using puberty blockers (or hormones) to treat young people with gender dysphoria: puberty blockers have never been approved to treat this condition. In June 2025, results from a multi-million dollar U.S. government-funded study were published which found that puberty blockers do not improve mental health. Resources: Protecting Puberty, Genspect campaign launched June 2025 Puberty blockers for gender dysphoria: the science is far from settled, William Malone et al., The Lancet, September 2021 Puberty Blockers Can Powerfully TRANSFORM a Body, Genspect Conference, Zhenya Abbruzzese, December 2023 “Off-label, on meds: What does America's Food and Drug Administration know about the risks of transgender puberty blockers?,” Gender Clinic News, Bernard Lane, March 16, 2023 Puberty Blockers for Children: Can They Consent?, The New Bioethics, Antony Latham, June 22, 2022

No. There is no credible long-term evidence on the safety of opposite-sex hormones provided for the purpose of altering sex traits. Extended use results in vaginal atrophy, eventually leading to hysterectomy because testosterone shrinks the uterus and causes pain. Boys and men taking opposite-sex hormones face an increased risk of heart attack, stroke, and dangerous blood clots. Boys given blockers early in puberty who progress to opposite-sex hormones will be permanently sterile and unable to orgasm. In the 1970s, athletes in East Germany were administered testosterone (then recognized as illegal “doping”) and about 800 of them developed serious health problems. Opposite-sex hormones create an endocrine disorder in otherwise healthy bodies, increasing risk of serious illness while providing only cosmetic changes. Resources: The effects of gender-affirming hormone therapy on cardiovascular and skeletal health: A literature review, Nyein Chan Swe et al., March 2022 “Brandt Files #4: Side Effects? Haven’t Seen ‘Em: A Cheery Endocrinologist Testifies About Everything and Nothing,” BROADview, Lisa Selin Davis and Unyielding Bicyclist, September 7, 2023 Testosterone Health Risks for Females Estrogen Health Risks for Males

No. There are no credible long-term studies on regret. We know from detransitioner accounts that regret often doesn't set in until 2 to 10 or more years after beginning medical interventions, but all the studies on regret are short term, spanning no longer than a few years. Gender clinics are not required to follow up with patients who stop treatment and data show that 75% of those experiencing regret don’t report this to their physicians. While we have no quality evidence, the Reddit/detrans discussion forum created in 2017 has grown to 57,000 members as of June 2025, indicating significant regret. According to the Society for Evidence Based Gender Medicine, “A new study (now available in English) from Germany poses a formidable challenge to the presumption of permanence of gender dysphoria in adolescents and young adults. German insurance data, containing medical claims for about 14 million insured persons aged 5-24, indicate that over 60% of young people diagnosed with ‘Gender Identity Disorder’ (F64) no longer have the diagnosis 5 years later, indicating low diagnostic stability.” Resources: “The Gender Dysphoria Diagnosis in Young People Has a “Low Diagnostic Stability,” Finds a New German Study,” Society for Evidence Based Gender Medicine, July 2024 The Detransition Rate Is Unknown, Archives of Sexual Behavior, J. Cohn, June 2023 Detransition and Desistance Among Previously Trans-Identified Young Adults, Archives of Sexual Behavior, Lisa Littman et al., December 2023 “Surge of detransition lawsuits pose threat to booming gender-transition business,” The Washington Times, Valerie Richardson, December 5, 2023 “Better, after: A group of detransitioners deliver a message of hope,” Gender Clinic News, Bernard Lane, December 7, 2023 “Loss to Follow-Up and Transition Regret, Examining 27 studies used in a 2021 meta-analysis on post-surgical regret,” Michelle Alleva, Some Nuance Please, May 3, 2023

In the last 15 years, the number of children, adolescents, and adults identifying as transgender has skyrocketed across the Western world. In the U.S., according to a study from the Annals of Plastic Surgery, there was a 13-fold increase in double mastectomies performed on 12 to 17-year-olds from January 1, 2013 to July 31, 2020. Data from a study by researchers at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) Williams Institute, show that more than 2.8 million people now identify as transgender in the US, including an estimated 724,000 youth. A 2021 analysis by Reuters tallied over 42,000 minors in the U.S. diagnosed with gender dysphoria, about triple the number diagnosed in 2017. This analysis was based on insurance records and is therefore an undercount. The Cass Review also documented the rise in trans identification among youth. Gender-related medical interventions are irreversible and damaging, and because sex is immutable, they are purely cosmetic—no one changes sex. Puberty blockers followed by opposite-sex hormones lead to sterility and sexual dysfunction. Genital surgeries are high risk, often requiring multiple revisions and leaving patients with permanent physical impairments. Even one person harmed in this way is too many. Resources: “Putting numbers on the rise in children seeking gender care,” Reuters, Robin Respaut and Chad Terhune, October 6, 2022 Gender-Affirming Mastectomy Trends and Surgical Outcomes in Adolescents, Annals of Plastic Surgery, Annie Tang MD et al., May 2022 “Headline: When a quarter of the class identifies as trans,” Parents With Inconvenient Truths About Trans, July 7, 2022 “Where is the line? A reflective essay,” Ritchie @TullipR, December 7, 2023

No. Human beings come in two sexes: male and female. Male bodies are genetically programmed for the ability to produce small gametes (sperm) and female bodies are genetically programmed for the ability to produce large gametes (eggs). There is no third type of sex cell, no spectrum of gametes, and therefore no additional sexes. Sex is binary. Those with exceptionally rare genetic variations are still classified as either male or female (see “What about intersex people?” below). Humans do, however, vary in how their secondary sex characteristics (height, lung size and capacity, bone density, skull shape, and so on) develop and overlap. For example, though males typically are taller than females, there are some females that are taller than many men. And of course, there is great variation in the way people respond to culturally-imposed, sex-based stereotypes. Resources: There Are Two and Only Two Sexes, Genspect Conference, Heather Heying, January 2024 “Debunking Pseudoscience: ‘Multimodal Models of Animal Sex’,” Reality’s Last Stand, Colin Wright, March 2023 “Is Sex a Spectrum?,” Inspecting Gender, May 6, 2024 Why is Sex Binary, Paradox Institute, May 18, 2020

No. Intersex people prove that genetic mutations sometimes occur that result in changes in the appearance of sex traits and reproductive function of some males and females. The term “intersex” refers to people born with differences of sex development (or DSDs). The term is misleading since it infers that there is a type of sex that is in between male and female, which is not true. Almost all people with DSDs are unambiguously male or female. A tiny minority, 0.018% of all births, are born with ambiguous genitalia. DSDs do not represent a third sex and are not proof that sex is a spectrum. Many people with DSDs object to being included in the “LGBTQIA+ community” because a DSD is a physical condition, not an identity. The vast majority of people who want to be seen as the opposite sex do not have a DSD. Resources: “Avoid the ‘Intersex Trap’,” Reality’s Last Stand, Colin Wright, April 11, 2023 “Kids with Intersex Conditions in the Age of Gender Identity,” Part I, BROADview, Lisa Selin Davis, June 9, 2022 Differently Normal, blog by someone “happily living with Complete Androgen Insensitivity Syndrome”

No. Girls deserve their own sports opportunities, as afforded by Title IX (federal civil rights law passed in 1972 that prohibits discrimination on the basis of sex in any federally-funded education program or activity). It is not kind to prioritize the desires of males over the needs of females. Female-only sports exist due to the profound physical differences between the sexes. There is no evidence that taking estrogen or suppressing testosterone overcomes the advantage that males have over females in terms of strength, size, hand grip, twitch muscle fibers, hemoglobin levels, body fat, etc. Some of these advantages exist even before puberty. Arguments in favor of allowing males to compete on female teams are typically and disingenuously framed as allowing “trans kids” to compete. No one is arguing that any boy be prohibited from playing sports, only that they should join the team that matches their sex, or, if a school has one, on a coed team. It is unsafe and unfair to require girls to compete against boys. See di-ag.org/womens-sports for more information.

No. Males shouldn’t be housed in female prisons because they’re not female. Any male, no matter how they identify, presents a threat to incarcerated women. While most states handle placement of males who claim a woman identity on a case-by-case basis, in other states, any male inmate, even a rapist or murderer, need only claim a "female gender identity," to be placed in a women's prison. There is no requirement of genital surgery or low testosterone levels, and even males who have had genital surgery are a threat to women. Data from 2023 indicate that 47% of trans-identified males in federal U.S. prisons were incarcerated for sex offenses, about 4 times the rate of the general male prison population. Women in prison are highly likely to have suffered from past physical or sexual abuse at the hands of men. Forcing them to share cells, showers, and other facilities with males amounts to cruel and unusual punishment. Males who claim a woman identity may need protection from violent men, but so do other vulnerable men and none are moved to women’s prisons. It is also worth noting that women’s prisons have lower security than men’s prisons, which segregate prisoners by crime (in particular rapists and child murderers). Women's prisons aren't segregated because so few women are rapists and child murderers. Men's prisons can segregate men who think they're women from the general prison population, whereas women's prisons cannot. Resources: Keep Prisons Single Sex Women’s Liberation Front, Protecting Single Sex Prisons Women’s Liberation Front, Chandler vs CDHR (challenging California’s SB 132 which allowed males into female prisons) Women’s Declaration International, Freedom of Information Act 2023 (state by state analysis)

No. Men, regardless of how they identify, pose a threat to women. The vast majority of sexual violence is committed by men against women. Women have a right to single-sex facilities. Women suffering from the trauma of rape may be fleeing abusive male partners and need the option to recover in a female-only space, cared for by and with other women. This was not controversial until the 21st century when males started demanding access to these women-run safe spaces on the basis of their woman “gender identity.” Instead of placing the desires of males above the safety and well-being of women, men who wish to be perceived as women must seek out or create their own crisis centers. Resources: No Longer “Women Only”: How “Gender Identity Ideology” Has Changed Women’s Shelters, a report from Women’s Declaration International, June 2024 “JK Rowling launches support centre for female victims of sexual violence,” The Guardian UK, December 12, 2022

No. While there have always been people who have mannerisms or preferences more common in the opposite sex, the idea that physical appearance should be medically altered to reflect someone’s desire to be seen as the opposite sex is a phenomenon that didn’t occur until the middle of the 20th century. The word “transgender” didn’t exist until the 1960s. Doctors first started experimenting with hormones and surgeries to change appearance in the 1930s. Trans activists often claim that the fa'afafine in Samoa, the hijira in India, and “two-spirit” people of North America prove that trans identities existed within these indigenous cultures for centuries. In truth, the cultures adopting these concepts were extremely patriarchal and homophobic. Designating homosexual males as a third and separate category or as a type of female enabled these societies to maintain the integrity of the male category, unsullied by insufficiently masculine males. Contrary to activists claims, these categories are proof of misogyny and homophobia rather than ancient wisdom recognizing a non-existent third sex. Coined by both Native and Non-Native participants at the Third Annual Inter-tribal Native American, First Nations, Gay and Lesbian American Conference in 1990, the term “two spirit” was developed to replace a derogatory term for gay males. The term is criticized as a Westernized invention that doesn’t reflect cultural traditions—the idea that a person holds both male and female spirits is not part of Native Americans/First Nations tradition. Using a modern western lens to interpret indigenous culture reeks of colonialism!

No. Gays and lesbians were discriminated against because people were uncomfortable with the idea of same-sex attraction. As a result, homosexual behavior was criminalized and homosexuality was considered a mental disorder. Physicians used therapeutic and medical interventions to attempt to convert homosexuals to heterosexuals. There is tremendous shame and resentment about these practices. The fight for gay rights was about decriminalizing sexual relations between consenting adults, depathologizing same-sex attraction, and giving homosexuals the same rights as heterosexuals. People with a “transgender identity” demand that others perceive them as members of the opposite sex. This requires that others must believe that people can change sex and/or accept that the words “woman,” “man,” “girl,” and “boy” no longer relate to the sex of adults or children. Rendering these words essentially meaningless results in the homophobic erasure of same-sex attraction—a female in a relationship with a trans-identified male becomes a lesbian, making that term and concept now equally meaningless.The fight for “trans rights” is about allowing “trans-identified” people access to the spaces, opportunities, and honors afforded to those of the opposite sex and providing tax-payer funded access to harmful medical interventions. Activists' demands extend to controlling speech by requiring others to use preferred pronouns, an idea incompatible with the First Amendment. Though often framed as the newest frontier in civil rights, 21st century trans activism is authoritarian, regressive, and seeks rights granted to no other groups of people. Same-sex attracted people don’t demand that others hold particular beliefs. And of course gays and lesbians don’t lobby for taxpayer-funded cosmetic surgeries. Resources: LGB Alliance USA LGB Courage Coalition

No. “Exploratory therapy” (the therapy previously known as therapy) is the time-tested first step to resolving mental distress. Clinicians who don’t explore the reasons for a patient’s distress are abdicating their duty. This is particularly true for people who may want medical interventions with serious consequences including, for trans-identifying clients, irreversible physical changes, lifelong medication that introduces dysfunction and illness, and high-risk surgeries. By referring to any psychotherapy as “conversion therapy,” transactivists are invoking the shameful and throroughly discredited practice of gay conversion therapy inflicted in the 20th century which consisted of horrific practices ranging from electroconvulsive shock to lobotomy to corrective rape. Grouping exploratory talk therapy with these barbaric practices is a profound category error and is manipulative to the extreme. Resources: “Affirmation OR Assessment,” Genspect, February 2025

Yes. The U.S. has many urgent problems. But central to a healthy, functional society is the common belief in objective truth. Those promoting the denial of binary sex and the elevation of personal truth—including the belief in “gender identity”—over objective evidence have stifled debate and exacerbated the divisiveness and polarization that interferes with our nation’s ability to solve priority problems. This subordination requires censoring speech to facilitate implementing unpopular policies and practices, like allowing males into female spaces or categorizing references to someone’s sex (aka “misgendering”) as discrimination. Our major institutions—schools and universities, medical associations, political parties, courts, and media—have adopted and promoted this ideology and the associated medical pathway. As a result, trust in these institutions has declined. We need strong and trusted institutions to advance our understanding of, and ability to mitigate, climate change; to tackle income inequality; to improve health insurance; to get big money out of politics; and to address the many other issues that are important to liberals. Institutional trust declines (and the Democrats bleed voters) when: people lose their jobs (and in some cases, custody of their children) by refusing to agree that there are more than two sexes or that people can actually change sex parents discover that their young children are being taught that their bodies are irrelevant to their sex, or that their child’s school has hidden an opposite-sex identity formerly top-tier science magazines and journals try to burnish ideological claims that sex is more complicated than gamete size or publish poor-quality, easily-refuted studies that support the medical pathway while not publishing rebuttals women’s sports are open to any male that claims to be female despite the well-documented advantages of males starting even before, but accelerating quickly after, puberty. To reestablish institutional trust, preserve our liberal principles, and advance liberal policies in the U.S., we must abandon all support for gender ideology.

The term “trans” claims to describe a new category of human that requires hormones and surgeries to “be their true selves,” or who was “born in the wrong body” or who has an “inner gender” that doesn’t match their sex.  This category of human beings does not exist. The belief that a person can be born in the wrong body—e.g., that a girl can be born in a boy's body—is an anti-scientific metaphysical belief. You are your body, there is no “you” that is separate from your body. Feelings of discomfort are universal, but there are only males (whose feelings/experiences are male, even if they believe they are female) and females (whose feelings/experiences are female, even if they believe they are male), just as a person who thinks they’re a cat is still having human feelings and human experiences. People who adopt a "trans" identity are not physically different or distinct from others in their sex class any more than losing a limb makes someone distinct from their sex class. Both "gender identity" and "trans" are invented social labels (the complete opposite of innate characteristics), proliferated across peer groups, social networks, ideological school curriculum, and clinical settings. These labels are typically adopted for social, psychological, or political reasons and too often serve to detach vulnerable people from reality. Many of those vulnerable people do not conform to regressive sex stereotypes (feminine boys and masculine girls), are gay/lesbian or are seeking a secure or fixed identity group as an antidote to discomfort and loneliness. People who become attached to these fabricated identities are akin to those who struggle with anorexia: while the distorted body image may feel “real” and cause enormous distress, the solution is not to encourage or affirm the disorder, but to heal the mind and steer the person towards self-acceptance. No disorder represents a new category of human. Despite not describing a clearly defined or coherent subset of humans, the concept of "trans" has served to legitimize and enshrine this false human category into law, policy, and culture. Those promoting the existence of this category do so largely through manipulation of language (e.g., using "woman" when referring to a male and "man" when referring to a female) which distorts both biology and reality. We use the terms “sex-rejecting” or “sex-denialist” or “person who claims to be the opposite sex.” These terms more accurately describe the phenomenon of “trans.” Further reading: “This Is Why There Is No Such Thing as Trans,” Kat Highsmith, Substack, February 25, 2026 “There Is No Such Thing,” Kat Highsmith, Substack, February 22, 2023  “Sex Mimics are Mimics (Part 1),” Amy Sousa, Substack, February 2, 2023  “‘Gender’ Has No Application to Humans,” Kat Highsmith, Substack, June 7, 2023 “Three Fundamental Truths to End the Scandal of Paediatric Gender Medicine,” Mia Hughes, Genspect, January 1, 2026

DIAG considers Steven Hassan’s BITE model and Robert Jay Lifton’s “Eight Criteria For Thought Reform” when evaluating whether gender identity ideology—the belief system that is the basis for the idea of a “trans” identity—meets the criteria for the term “cult.” Cults are defined primarily by behavior. The focus within a cult is on intense psychological pressure that goes far beyond holding strong views; instead, beliefs are tightly linked with limitations on independent thought and action, and extreme behaviors.  Part I: What is a cult? General characteristics of a cult: Questioning the cult carries consequences, including threats of violence. Shared repetitive slogans/jargon and evasive language games are used to shut down dialogue. Loaded or oversimplified language constricts knowledge, stops critical thoughts, and reduces complexities into platitudinous buzz words. “Fear or phobia indoctrination”—instilling fear or using extremist language to maintain control i.e., claiming there is a “trans genocide,” calling removing healthy body parts or taking opposite-sex hormones “life saving care” or “suicide prevention;” referring to given names as “deadnames.” These fears limit engagement with the outside world and fabricate threats. Members believe they can leave behind their past selves and be born anew:  “Transition is packaged as a symbolic form of death and rebirth, complete with deadnames and rebirthdays. But it’s better understood as a comprehensive program of self-rejection that proceeds from one ‘disowning’ to the next. Your name, your past, your self-understandings, parts of your body, any loved ones who resist, any inner voice that questions.”—Sarah Mittermaier Devaluing and/or severing familial bonds or relationships. Redefining physical reality—claiming it is possible to be born into the wrong body, or become a third, new kind of person, or that changing external characteristics alters your fundamental self. Manipulating memory  Black and white thinking  Group indoctrination rituals largely via social media Discouraging individualism, encouraging group-think Changing member’s name and identity  Making exiting costly and intimidating (loss of social support, public defamation, scorn from adherents, threats, accusations of betrayal, shutting out heretics or denying that ex-members (detransitioners/desisters) exist  The spread of this ideology is unique due to the unprecedented and decentralized influence of social media platforms and online subcultures. In the case of “trans,” there is no centralized authoritarian figure controlling the cult behavior, but rather a powerful combination of online influences and algorithms, peer behaviors, and institutional capture, thus broadening our understanding of cult dynamics and new avenues of control. Group think on the topic of “trans” often begins online, is fueled by school curricula and peers and is reinforced by law, policy, and the medical system. So while not a traditional cult, “trans” does function as a cult. This video provides a satirical but incisive overview. 1. Hassan’s BITE model (Behavior, Information, Thought, Emotion)  This model evaluates whether a group exercises undue influence over members by: Behavior control (rules governing actions, relationships, time) Information control (restricting or filtering outside perspectives) Thought control (encouraging “correct” thinking, discouraging doubt) Emotional control (using guilt, fear, or belonging to enforce conformity) 2. Lifton’s “Eight Criteria for Thought Reform”  Lifton identified patterns such as: Milieu control (controlling communication and environment) Mystical manipulation (group members seen as divine exceptions) Confession (“faults” are publicized) Demand for purity (strict moral binaries) Sacred science (beliefs treated as unquestionable truth) Loading the language (specialized jargon shaping perception) Doctrine over person (individual experience subordinated to ideology) Dispensing of existence (outsiders seen as inferior or invalid) Part II: Why might we characterize “trans” as a cult? We cannot help people exit from high control systems if we aren’t aware of how such systems operate. Understanding why it’s so difficult to dislodge someone from this mindset helps reframe what is happening in cultural/social/familial dynamics not as a “journey towards self- understanding,” but as a function of a larger movement designed to detach people from reality, from their bodies, and from their families. Family members and friends may find themselves disoriented by their loved one’s new rigidity, declining mental health, and fixation on medical interventions as a solution to life’s problems. Understanding how cults function may help others evaluate their loved one’s behaviors through the lens of brainwashing, rather than trying to understand and respond to this as a normal expression of self. Rumination/perseveration on “identity” and the accompanying extreme behaviors (isolation, threats/demands, self-harm, personality changes, anger, retreat from family/friends, changing friend groups, changing appearance, changing name/pronouns, altered language or ways of speaking, speaking in slogans, etc) are symptoms of a cult mindset and demonstrate that something more powerful is at work than simple self-discovery or exploration. Different tactics may need to be used if we understand the below-the-surface psychological influences that are resulting in these rigid and extreme identity groups and behaviors. The “why” of “trans” is less important for the purposes of this FAQ than the how. More reading on the potential “why’s” can be found here and here.

Part I: do adults truly have autonomy? Adults do indeed have autonomy. However, society imposes consequences on adults who engage in unsafe behaviors, and we conduct education campaigns to dissuade adults from hurting themselves. Those who don’t wear seatbelts while driving are fined. Smoking in restaurants is banned. If you speed, you get a ticket. If you drive drunk, you will likely lose your license. If you batter your wife or child, you go to jail. Arrive at work high? You’re out of a job. Adults with eating disorders or drug addictions are referred to treatment, not to provide more access to these harmful behaviors, but to recover from them. Efforts are made to deter people from activities that damage their current and long-term health, such as eating only processed or high sugar foods, not wearing sunscreen, or not exercising. Restrictions on adult behavior are everywhere. It’s already part of the fabric of society to curtail activities of adults that are known to be harmful. If an adult believes they would be happier without their penis or breasts, that’s an illness, not a medical necessity. Society should not call catering to these wishes medical care, nor should insurance cover it, nor should doctors provide it, therapists encourage it, or schools teach it.  Will some adults still pursue this? Probably.  Will some unethical cosmetic surgeons (not covered by insurance) still be willing to do these procedures? Probably. Part II: The magic age of 18 Foolish and destructive decisions are not just the purview of young people. We do not magically stop making terrible mistakes once we turn 18, nor is there any age when a person is 100% no longer susceptible to compelling ideologies. Harms from irreversible surgeries and opposite-sex hormones don't suddenly vanish when someone turns 18. There is no age at which we can say, “it is acceptable for this person to receive care that has no evidence base and in fact reduces or eliminates, instead of restores, functionality.” Fentanyl addicts are severely damaged, many homeless, and most not in treatment. Did they “choose” this life as an expression of their “authentic selves?” Is it acceptable that they are left to suffer? Should we celebrate their “journey” to their “true selves?” Or should we look for root causes, offer preventative education to deter harm, and create realistic off ramps to escape addiction? Can we stop people from using fentanyl? Maybe not, but we should try. Can we stop adults from believing they are the opposite sex? Maybe not, but we should try.

Nope. A right-wing organization would continue allowing and encouraging the Democrats to commit political suicide. The Dems embrace of gender extremism has caused our party to hemorrhage voters, and undermined their credibility. Poll after poll show that a majority of Democrats support an evidence-based response to those who are confused or distressed about their sex, and believe that women's rights, gay rights, and single sex spaces should be protected. These liberal voices have been wrongfully silenced. Our party has strayed from foundational liberal principles, and we aim to steer the Dems back to reality and reason.