For all the controversy and commentary on transgenderism, Americans who fit the label of transgender comprise just half of one percent of the population.
When it comes to kids with the psychological condition known as gender dysphoria, scientific studies suggest the overwhelming majority will wind up identifying as their biological genders in adulthood. The dysphoria usually passes entirely.
Those who continue to identify as transgender ought to be free to do so. There is some scientific evidence that allowing transgender adults to undergo hormonal or surgical gender transitioning leads to lower suicidal ideation and depression.
Into this emotionally and culturally fraught question enters the disturbing story of James Damon Younger, which has gotten very little attention outside of some corners of the conservative media.
James is a 6 year old boy from Texas whose mother decided three years ago that he’s actually a girl. For half of his young life, James has been dressed as a girl and called Luna by his mother. His father is fighting in court to see his son and stop James’ mother from initiating “hormonal sterilization” which may start at age eight, according to reporting at The Federalist.
A handful of witnesses say that James doesn’t express any transgender tendencies when he’s not with his mother. Court documents indicate that James’ gender identity depends on which parent he’s staying with, but James’ father insists that James “violently refuses to wear girl’s clothes at my home.”
Because most of the reporting and publicity covering James’ case has been by niche conservative media mostly siding with James’ father, it’s possible that there’s more to the story.
But it’s worth considering the irreparable damage done when depriving a child of their gender identity.
In 1966, a pair of twin baby boys went to undergo an unconventional circumcision method, resulting in one with burned genitalia. The parents of the boys consulted with Dr. John Money and subsequently made the baby undergo sex reassignment surgery, raising that baby formerly known as Bruce as Brenda instead. Brenda wound up chronically depressed, only finally discovering in adolescence that she was born a he. Brenda then transitioned back to male, renaming himself David.
David Reimer, whose case had once been touted by Dr. Money as a testament to the malleability of gender, ultimately killed himself anyways. If transgender rights argue that their gender identities are important, so are those of people who identify with their biological sex.
James’s gender dysphoria may persist, and as an adult, he may end up identifying as a women, but if his mother puts him on puberty blockers, impeding the stage of life that usually resolves gender dysphoria, then he may never know. It’s fully possible that his father is simply intolerant and controlling, but he’s undeniably in the right to ask James’ mother to hold the breaks on forcing him into a life-changing decision at the age of six.
