When Sons Become Daughters | Angus Fox

• Part 1
• Part 2
• Part 3
• Part 4
• Part 5
• Part 6

“Parents have been complaining about their kids’ lifestyle choices and political convictions since the dawn of time, of course. But rarely have such choices involved committing oneself to the possibility of sterility and a lifetime of medical therapies.”

Ignoring Differences Between Men and Women Is the Wrong Way to Address Gender Dysphoria | Kathleen Stock

“We need a sensible collective approach that doesn’t leave us stuck, between a damaging tendency toward reality-denial on one side, and a brutal realism destructive of good social relations on the other.”

How the Nonbinary Trend Hurts Those with Real Gender Dysphoria | Debra Soh

“To create one group that includes people who do not actually have gender dysphoria—and to then call everyone ‘trans’—diminishes the suffering of those with gender dysphoria, a real condition recognized by medicine.”

No One Is Born in ‘The Wrong Body’ | William J. Malone, Colin Wright, and Julia D. Robertson

“Up until age seven, many children often believe that if a boy puts on a dress, he becomes a girl. To such extent as any such identity may exist, the concept relies on stereotypes that encourage the conflation of gender with sex.”

Every Gender Identity Is ‘Authentic’—Until It Isn’t

Faddish forms of self-identification often reflect subjective feelings that shift over time. Let’s stop treating them as sacred truths.

QuilletteDavid A. Nelson

Misunderstanding a New Kind of Gender Dysphoria | Lisa Marchiano

“What will it take for this contagion to be seen for what it is, so that its most damaging effects can be prevented? Recently, one mom told me that I was her only hope. She surely deserves better than that.”

Replacing One Kind of ‘Conversion Therapy’ With Another | James Esses

“To my knowledge, gender dysphoria is the only such condition in which the officially sanctioned treatment is to encourage, in all cases, the distressing and anxiety-provoking thoughts inside one’s own head.”

Gender’s Journey from Sex to Psychology: A Brief History | Tomas Bogardus

“The Self-Identification View is appealing because it respects individual autonomy. But it also has, at its core, a serious definitional problem. It is circular: What is a woman? It’s someone who identifies as… a woman. We’ve used the word to be defined in the definition itself.”

Sexual and Gender Identity: Four Competing Paradigms

If we are going to expend so much effort on the topic of gender and sexual identity, we should be clear and rigorous in how we think about it.

QuilletteWilliam Vex

I May Have Gender Dysphoria. But I Still Prefer to Base My Life on Biology, Not Fantasy | Debbie Hayton

“Yes, gender dysphoria is a real condition. I know, because I have it: the feeling that my male biology is at odds with my desire to have a female body. But I don’t have to invent some mystical spiritual force called gender identity to explain it.”

Forget What Gender Activists Tell You. Here’s What Medical Transition Looks Like | Scott Newgent

“We now have thousands of naïve parents walking their children into gender-treatment centers, often based on Internet-peddled narratives that present the transition experience through a gauzy rainbow lens.”

Reflections on My Decision to Change Gender | Deirdre McCloskey

“In that autumn of first realization in 1995 I left to my wife—stupidly, husband-style—the task of telling my children, my grown son and my college-freshman daughter.”