Commentary
I went to a CAMFT (California Association of Marriage and Family Therapists) training conference on May 5 and 6 in order to get an in-person account of what is happening in my profession, in particular regarding gender ideology. I attended because I wanted to hear firsthand what is being taught to my colleagues.
They said some wild stuff in the trainings. I will be sharing some of that here, but I will focus on why I believe that the trans activists know their narrative is under threat:
1) They said it: Linda K. Reeves, WPATH GEI Certified Gender Specialist, said she was afraid of the new bills being passed in the Republican states. She shared how the trans community was previously making such great progress, but she is afraid they are going backwards with these new “anti-trans” bills. The bills she referenced are all bills to safeguard children and stop minors from being medicalized for life before they can consent. She mentioned this fear two times throughout her 1.5-hour lecture.
2) They asked the audience not to film their presentation because it’s a “tumultuous and hostile environment.” The only session to make this request was the workshop entitled “Gender-Affirming Medical and Mental Health Care for Transgender Adolescents” by Aydin Olson-Kennedy, LCSW, a trans man who has fully transitioned, and the wife Johanna Olson-Kennedy, MD, a pediatrician from Los Angeles Children’s Hospital who has been prescribing puberty blockers for 16 years. She even has a Wikipedia page. This class “taught” me that puberty blockers are as harmless as a new haircut or clothing style. My question for them is: If you are an expert sharing important clinical information that you are certain of, why would you want your workshop to be hidden? The PowerPoint slides were promised to the audience, but it’s been 12 days since the session and they are still not posted.
3) This luncheon brought up many gender-critical talking points and attempted to debunk them, albeit very poorly. This leads me to believe that counter messages are being heard.
Here are a few examples.
They attempted to answer the question most people have: How can children truly know themselves so young? Both Aydin and Johanna Olson-Kennedy assured the audience that children know themselves as young as three years old. To argue against the obvious fact that the internet feeds young people ideas, they said that if a young person spends extra time on the internet, this HELPS them and is a good indicator that they have taken the necessary time to know that they are trans.
Finally, Johanna stated that every trans adult was a child, and this is why we need to transition children. (She left out the fact that most children desist if left untreated.) According to a summary of multiple studies, about 80 percent of children desist.
Statsforgender.org states: “Evidence from 10 available prospective follow-up studies [1] from childhood to adolescence indicates that childhood gender dysphoria will recede with puberty in ~80% of cases. A Dutch paper [2] notes that follow-up studies show the persistence rate of gender identity disorder to be about 15.8%, or 39 out of the 246 children who were reported on in the literature.”
They emphasized that gender dysphoria causes other co-morbid mental health issues, but that’s not what most common-sense therapists see, which is troubled kids latching onto a trans identity with the false promise that being trans will fix their deeper problems.
“Depression treatment does not treat dysphoria. Gender Dysphoria for some folks is Depression. Gender Dysphoria = Depression,” stated Aydin Olson-Kennedy.
The instructors discredited the standard psychology manual, the Diagnostic Standard Manual-5, which states a person must experience gender dysphoria for at least six months. Aydin described the DSM as a book smothered in cis-white privilege. Aydin stated that the DSM was “colonized” due to its problematic binary language and its emphasis on gender dysphoria as distress.
However, Aydin spent much of the lecture, including a video, showing the audience how distressing being trans is. Aydin even said it’s “normal” for dysphoric feelings to increase after receiving hormones and surgeries and that “there are pieces of dysphoria you can’t undo,” negating the prevailing thought that transition solves the issue.
However, the audience was assured that offering puberty blockers, hormones, and surgeries is the compassionate form of treatment. Aydin rhetorically asked the audience: “At what point is it mean to let people suffer?”
And finally, Johanna Olson-Kennedy countered the common question classical liberals have about accepting a gender non-conforming child without changing their bodies. She said that would be nice, but we don’t live in a “gender utopia,” so her medical interventions are necessary.
4) Detransitioners were acknowledged. Up until recently, detransitioners have been ignored because they poke too many holes in the notion that every person who says they are trans “just knows.” The instructors downplayed the numbers of detransitioners, but they were acknowledged because the instructors know that the audience is likely to hear an interview from Chloe Cole, Ritchie Herron, or many others who have very real and emotional stories. “People are going to detransition; that’s OK, but we need not to organize our practice around it,” stated Johanna Olson-Kennedy.
5) The amount of puberty blockers prescribed was downplayed to argue no need for legislation against it. Johanna Olson-Kennedy said: “Only 5,000 children total are on puberty blockers in the U.S. That’s a small amount of kids to be writing legislation about.” However, most people who know the truth would agree that 5,000 healthy children being medicalized for life is 5,000 too many. She also argued that puberty blockers are very helpful because they prevent future surgeries. She failed to mention the fact that a child who begins puberty blockers before Tanner stage two (age 9–11) will never be able to have an orgasm. (Marci Bowers, the president of WPATH, admitted this fact in a leaked Zoom meeting.) In addition, the FDA has issued a warning about brain swelling and blindness.
6) Dr. Olson-Kennedy argued that cross-sex hormones aren’t bad for you because everyone has hormones. Yes, that was the argument, from a medical professional. Later in her presentation, she stated a few side effects of testosterone, such as changes in sex drive as well as more sweatiness, body hair, and clitoral growth, but she did not mention the more dangerous effects such as early onset menopause, urinary tract issues, mood instability, blood clots, and heart issues. “At least the patient is alive,” she stated, alluding to the high suicide rates of trans people, but she did not share any data on that point.
7) Lisa Littman’s research on rapid-onset gender dysphoria (ROGD) was also brought up in Linda Reeve’s presentation. The research was “debunked” by WPATH because they say it only surveyed parents, who would know nothing of their children’s history and emotions. Littman’s work was discredited based on their belief that parents have absolutely no insight into their children’s thoughts and behaviors. A slide from the presentation contains an emotion-based argument stating that the report was “intended to cause fear” instead of acknowledging facts and ideas. I see this as a win. WPATH knows this data is a threat to their questionable “standards of care,” and they had to get their audience to hear about it with their spin first.
I’d also like to note that Littman’s correction about her research was only done under immense pressure from WPATH.
In summary, it was interesting to hear people who promote the sterilization of children and vulnerable adults attempt to defend their faulty ideas. Most of what I heard were blatant lies or bending or omission of truth.
They openly said they were afraid of the “attacks” on trans people (which are simply bills to protect minors from dangerous procedures), and they tried unsuccessfully to discredit the thoughts, ideas, and experience of many outspoken critics of transgender medicine. The people leading these workshops spoke very quickly and left very little time for questions.
I believe they are listening to counter-arguments and they know more people are learning the truth. If you are against the gender transition of minors and vulnerable adults, keep speaking up. It matters. It’s working. Our collective voices are being heard, and those who are pushing gender transitions are feeling the threat.
Views expressed in this article are the opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times.
