<
https://juliaserano.medium.com/understanding-the-anti-trans-parent-movement-90d126de1fc9>
"We are currently in the midst of an all-out moral panic against transgender
people. If I were to ask “who is driving this panic?” most people in the United
States would likely say the far right and social conservatives who have
traditionally been opposed to LGBTQ+ people. In the United Kingdom, they might
say “gender critical” (GC) or “TERFs,” who frame their opposition to trans
people as a feminist crusade. If you said “both,” well, that would also be
correct, as these two groups have long been working together.
But there is a third faction driving this moral panic that has received far
less public attention: the
anti-trans parent movement. This movement is
comprised of reluctant parents of trans children. They coalesce online to share
stories, spread alternative theories that explain away their children’s
transness, and exchange tips on how to coerce their children into “desisting.”
Some of their theories are pseudoscientific (e.g., that trans identities are
now spreading among children via “social contagion/ROGD”), while others are
conspiratorial (e.g., children are being recruited via “gender ideology,”
“grooming,” or “Jewish billionaires working to create a transhumanist future”).
Some parents come into these groups with strong pre-existing views on trans
people (e.g., social conservative or GC/TERF), while many others are initially
trans-unaware and simply seeking answers in the wake of their children coming
out to them. Either way, because these online communities tell parents exactly
what they want to hear (“your child isn’t really trans, they’ve just been
influenced by an insidious outside force and we can help you dispel it”), many
find these spaces and the misinformation they propagate to be quite
compelling."
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
