You can always tell in a argument with the gender religious when you are about to hit one of the many contradictions inherent in the ideology, it’s when the accusations of being a bigot or being transphobic or the slur ‘terf’ is leveled at you.

Here’s a big ‘ole controversial issue: Is being transgendered a mental health condition?

Actually it is, and often presents with a host of serious comorbidities that can drastically affect an individuals well being.  But often, we’re not allowed to even get this far, as the word ‘transgender’ is almost always defined vaguely and uniquely in the moment and framing ‘trans’ in terms of the mental disorder literature is met with cries “bigotry & transphobia”.  It shuts down conversation because who wants to be called a bigoted transphobe?  Just imagine if people who have anorexia pulled the same evasive denial bullshit – you’d be a body-shaming bigot in seconds for rightly pointing out an obvious discontinuity between reality and the anorexic’s self image.  The tactic is bullshit in both cases.

This returns to another one of the fundamental problems with transgender ideology – the absolute lack of definitional clarity.  The terms “trans” and “gender-identity” are nebulous.  Who qualifies as an authentic transgender person?  Who the fuck knows?  The person in question often doesn’t know.  Does being trans require having gender dysphoria (sometimes)?  Is it autogynephilia (in many cases)?  It is a crap-shoot, but almost always you never get to the point to where you can nail down what being ‘trans’ is.

The evasiveness isn’t helping anyone, especially the people who call themselves trans as said earlier being trans comes with a host of linked conditions that can severely impact an individuals mental health.  Yet here we are stuck arguing over definitions while people are injured.

Why?  Because a small subset of the trans community demands that society renounce the physical reality we all share and adopt gender religious mantra’s like ‘trans women are women’.  If you respect science, and material reality, then the previous mantra must be regarded as patently false.

Human beings cannot change sex.  Men, cannot become women, no matter how much genderfeelings-magic they invoke.  But rather than have a real conversation about how trans people fit into society the low road is taken and any questions or concerns with transgender ideology are shouted down and the person making the inquiries personally attacked.

A lose/lose situation for everyone involved.

“Raising the issue of the mental health of transgender individuals is inevitably met with screams of insensitivity and transphobia. It is neither. Let’s look at some facts.

A recent study from Denmark looked at 359 transgender patients. In 75% of them, cross-gender identification was interpreted as a byproduct of other psychiatric illnesses, notably personality, mood, dissociative, and psychotic disorders. Major mood disorders, dissociative disorders and psychotic disorders were reported in 79% of transgenders.

Likewise in Sweden, a separate study found that “Persons with transsexualism, after sex reassignment, have considerably higher risks for mortality, suicidal behavior”

In fact, 30% of transgenders commit suicide. Suicide.org says that 90% of all suicides are the direct result of untreated mental illness. A 2013 U.S.-based study showed 90% of transgenders have mental disorders consisting of depression and anxiety–known causes of suicide.

The World Health Organization (WHO) states that transgender people often experience disproportionately high levels of mental health conditions.

The 2015 U.S. Transgender Survey (USTS) is the largest survey specifically looking at the experiences of transgender people in America. 27,715 people responded from all fifty states, the District of Columbia, American Samoa, Guam, Puerto Rico, and U.S. military bases overseas. 39% reported serious psychological distress. Only 5% of the general United States population reports the same. Alarmingly, 40% of the transgender survey respondents indicated they had attempted suicide at some point in their lifetime.

The 2019 Trevor Project National Survey was the largest survey of LGBTQ youth mental health ever conducted. It had more than 34,000 respondents. The results indicate more than half of transgender youth have seriously considered suicide and that nearly 70% of transgender youth show symptoms of a major depressive disorder.

Dr. Paul R. McHugh, the former psychiatrist-in-chief for Johns Hopkins Hospital and its current Distinguished Service Professor of Psychiatry, says that transgenderism is a “mental disorder” that merits treatment. He also says that people who promote sexual reassignment surgery are collaborating with and promoting a mental disorder, rather than treating it. Dr. McHugh is no casual observer. He is the author of at least 125 peer-reviewed medical articles and six books.

The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM) defines transgenderism as a mental disorder.

The American College of Pediatricians joins other experts in condemning gender reclassification in children. They mince no words, making the bold statement that transgenderism in children amounts to child abuse.

As a result, ThinkProgress, a left-wing activist group, labeled The American College of Pediatricians as a hate group. They aren’t a hate group. They are medical doctors who treat and speak with children every day. Their opinion, like this column, is not transphobic; they don’t fear transgender individuals.

I certainly don’t advocate bullying transgender individuals or anyone for that matter, and I’m sure the American College of Pediatricians doesn’t either, but as a society, we can’t look at a group of folks clearly exhibiting mental illness and ignore it. We can’t pretend it’s normal. It’s not. Any condition with sky-high incidents of suicide must be given care and concern, must be treated and must be corrected. Not bullied, not dismissed but most certainly not ignored under the pretense they are just fine.”