The Left has celebrated the transgender movement in the United States unabashedly, praising gender-confused individuals for their courage and passing policies to cement “gender identity” into our legal code, as well as our national discourse.
Gender ideology, the idea that gender is a fluid construct rather than an undeniable biological fact, has made its way into just about every part of our culture, from Hollywood films to public school curricula. And it is now making its way into our medical system, with potentially grievous consequences for young children and adults.
The Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation defines “transitioning” as “the process a person undertakes to bring their gender expression and/or their body into alignment with their gender identity.” According to GLAAD, there are three phases:
- Social transition: Telling family, friends, and co-workers, using a different name, using different pronouns, and dressing differently.
- Legal transition: Changing your name and/or sex marker on documents, such as a driver’s license, passport, Social Security record, bank accounts, etc.
- Medical transition: Hormone replacement therapy and/or one or more surgical procedures, including mastectomies and penectomies.
Because transitioning is a relatively new trend and the process itself takes a certain amount of time, there’s not much history available to gauge its success or failure.
Similarly, it’s nearly impossible to find accurate statistics on the number of transgender people who choose to transition medically, let alone a breakdown of which procedures they choose. A report from the Cleveland Clinic estimates that approximately 1 in 4 transgender people undergo at least one procedure, either hormonal or physical.
But what if some of these individuals have been misdiagnosed? What if, rather than suffering from gender dysphoria, they were struggling with trauma, internalized homophobia, depression, or something else? And what if they’ve undergone an irreversible surgical procedure and then realized they’d made a terrible mistake?
Unfortunately, this scenario is playing out with increasing frequency, and the results are truly devastating.
There is no doubt some individuals are delighted with their choices. Unfortunately, there is growing evidence that others are deeply unhappy with their decisions, and they are starting to speak out.
Ritchie Herron, 35, a civil servant living in Newcastle, England, is one of the individuals who mistook his struggle with mental health for gender dysphoria. Four years ago, Herron underwent an irreversible vaginoplasty operation, which he claims to have regretted the moment he woke up from surgery.
During an interview published by the Daily Mail on Saturday, Herron said, “My first thought as I came round was, ‘Oh, God! What have I done?’”
In addition to his emotional anguish, he said the simple act of emptying his bladder continues to be a painful, 10-minute process, and that his sex drive is nonexistent. He added that his crotch is numb and “shell-shocked.”
Herron is currently suing the National Health Service of England for being fast-tracked by an NHS “gender clinic” into “making the biggest mistake of his life.”
Herron said he had “suppressed his homosexuality” for decades and now realizes his “confusion” was caused by his inability to accept he was gay.
He “buried his sexuality, which left him with depression, anxiety and obsessive-compulsive disorder,” the report said.
“[I]n his 20s, he stumbled across the idea of gender dysphoria in an internet chatroom. Older men on the forum convinced the vulnerable young man he ‘must be trans.’ At that time for Ritchie, it felt like a lightbulb moment. After a series of breakdowns, in 2012 he decided to seek professional help.”
Still on the NHS’s long waiting list in March 2014, he took out a payday loan to pay for a psychiatrist at a private gender clinic, where “he was diagnosed with ‘transsexualism’ after just two 30-minute appointments,” the Mail reported.
He assumed the name of Abby and began taking testosterone blockers.
The article details the events which preceded his May 2018 vaginoplasty and the agony he’s suffered from that moment on.
“This is an avalanche waiting to happen. Transition is now being sold to people on a mass scale,” Herron argued. “In a few years, I’m sure we’ll have law firms asking people if they transitioned and would like to claim compensation.”
He may be right.
In the last decade, referrals to gender clinics such as the one Herron visited have jumped by an alarming 1,700%, according to the Daily Mail. Among young women in the United Kingdom, specifically, the number of persons now identifying as transgender has risen by more than 4000%. In the U.S., up to 2% of young girls now identify as transgender. Not too long ago, that number was .002%. Most of these patients are children or young adults, and most, if given enough time, will grow out of their dysphoria, according to multiple studies.
Last week, Sen. Tom Cotton (R-AR) and Rep. Jim Banks (R-IN) introduced a bill, the “Protect Minors from Medical Malpractice Act of 2022,” that would allow adults to sue medical practitioners who performed any gender-transition procedure on them as minors for a period of 30 years after their 18th birthday.
Responsible parties should face a reckoning. Many young people, particularly adolescents, are confused and, like Herron, see transitioning as the solution. Unfortunately, health professionals, school counselors, and woke parents are often too quick to agree with them.
Herron’s case is a wake-up call. Rather than glamorizing this dangerous trend, medical professionals and lawmakers must take a closer look at the consequences that are just beginning to be revealed.
Elizabeth Stauffer is a contract writer at the Western Journal. Her articles have appeared on many conservative websites, including RedState, Newsmax, the Federalist, Bongino.com, HotAir, MSN, and RealClearPolitics. Follow Elizabeth on Twitter or LinkedIn.
