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Drag Queen Story Hour (DQSH) is one of the most contentious issues in the current debate surrounding gender ideology. Many throw accusations of “grooming” at these events, which involve drag queens reading children’s books to kids at libraries, schools, and other venues. Others brush it off as harmless entertainment and the accusations of grooming as far-right hysteria—even “stochastic terrorism.” The truth is that DQSH is not harmless, and it is, in fact, steeped in a political and ideological agenda that targets children. Drag itself is adult entertainment full of sexually charged themes meant to be performed at nightclubs. It did not lose these elements when children became the audience. This is all spelled out in a paper called “Drag Pedagogy: The Playful Practice of Queer Imagination in Early Childhood,” which Christopher Rufo called the “manifesto” of DQSH in his investigation into the movement. The paper was co-written by Harper Keenan, an assistant professor who heads the SOGI (sexual orientation and gender identity) program at the University of British Columbia and Harris Kornstein, an assistant professor at the University of Arizona, a founder of DQSH, and a drag queen who goes by the stage name Lil Miss Hot Mess. Keenan and Kornstein were also involved in a SOGI UBC panel discussion on drag pedagogy a few months after the paper was published. Before we jump into the paper itself, let’s take a quick look at what grooming actually is. RAINN (Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network) defines grooming as: "manipulative behaviors that the abuser uses to gain access to a potential victim, coerce them to agree to the abuse, and reduce the risk of being caught." Grooming involves tactics like victim selection, victim isolation, desensitization to sexual topics, the pushing of personal boundaries, and attempts to make the behavior seem normal. These tactics bear more than an uncanny resemblance to the five elements of DQSH as described in Keenan and Kornstein’s paper: “play as praxis, aesthetic transformation, strategic defiance, destigmatization of shame, and embodied kinship. No, not all drag queens and not all drag queens who read books to children are trying to groom them. In fact, most very likely are not. But the movement itself and particularly the “drag pedagogy” it is based on does employ an awful lot of the tactics of grooming once you take a closer look. “Drag queens have historically been relegated to the realm of the night,” Keenan and Kornstein begin their paper. “In the past few years, however, drag performers have made their way from the dimly lit bars of gayborhoods and into the fluorescent lights of libraries and classrooms.” Why? Why did drag queens move from the bars to the classrooms? Well, the paper continues, “DQSH seems to uniquely thread the needle between queer activism and broad cultural acceptance.” The aim seems to be to create little queer activists, and DQSH is an effective vehicle with which to do it: “Many elements of DQSH are common to early childhood schooling: bright colours, music, art, and imaginative play.” “The traditional role of the teacher, transformed into a loud and sparkling queen, becomes delightfully excessive,” Keenan and Kornstein write. “Her pedagogy is rooted in pleasure and creativity borne, in part, from letting go of control.” “Pedagogy rooted in pleasure” and “letting go of control,” are interesting and deliberate choices of phrasing. Keenan and Kornstein also argue that DQST is about exploring “the boundaries of acceptability” and “children’s curiosities about social norms.” “At many DQSH events,” they write, “children ask genuine questions like ‘are you a boy or a girl?’ or ‘why are you dressed like that?’ … In many cases, drag queens may not respond with answers, but with questions meant to complicate perceptions of gender and society.” Why can’t the drag queens simply respond that they are men and that dressing up the way they do doesn’t change that? Why do they have to deliberately confuse children about sex and gender? Well, the aim is not only to create queer activists but to encourage children to be “queer” themselves. “Drag is an imaginative and creative process. It is grounded in building character,” Keenan and Kornstein explain. “This approach can support students in finding the unique or queer aspects of themselves.” They continue: “Drag pedagogy might enact a mode of queer kinship that acknowledges that there is already queerness within the classroom.” By uncovering the queerness that they claim is already there in the classroom, Keenan and Kornstein explain that DQSH seeks to drive a wedge between children and the supportive structures in their lives, like school and family. They say this quite plainly and outright: “We suggest that DQSH offers a queer relationality with children that breaks from the reproductive futurity of the normative classroom and nuclear family.” The “normative classroom” and the “nuclear family” are two main areas of child safeguarding. Why should anyone seek to “break” these relationships? Because, once these relationships are broken, the child is free to be “queer.” “As drag has moved further into the mainstream, some have questioned whether this queer art form has lost its edge,” Keenan and Kornstein lament. “In discussing the work of DQSH within our social circles, we have occasionally encountered critiques that DQSH is sanitizing the risqué nature of drag in order to make it ‘family friendly.’” Not to worry, Keenan and Kornstein don’t agree that drag loses its risqué edge when performed in front of children. “We do not share this pessimistic view,” they write. “Queer worldmaking, including political organizing, has long been a project driven by desire.” The word “desire,” like “pleasure,” crops up repeatedly throughout the piece. Where this all points is to the final of the five elements of DQSH: embodied kinship. DQSH and the drag pedagogy that underpins it is not an innocent program where grown men get dressed up as female caricatures and read stories to children—though that’s strange enough. The ultimate goal, stated clearly at the end of the paper, is to connect kids to a new, “queer” family: “It may be that DQSH is ‘family friendly,’ in the sense that it is accessible and inviting to families with children, but it is less a sanitizing force than it is a preparatory introduction to alternate modes of kinship. Here, DQSH is ‘family friendly’ in the sense of ‘family’ as an old-school queer code to identify and connect with other queers on the street.” By using theatrics, bright colors, appealing stories, and a playful approach, drag pedagogy targets children, desensitizes them to a form of adult entertainment, and seeks to undermine protective elements like school and family. Interestingly, Keenan and Kornstein never actually define pedagogy. While definitions vary, pedagogy, most simply put, is an approach to teaching knowledge or skills, usually to children. Drag Queen Story Hour doesn’t aim to teach, it aims to indoctrinate children into “queerness.” It isn’t pedagogy at all—it’s grooming.

We recently took some time to dig around the forum TrevorSpace, which they themselves describe as "an affirming, online community for LGBTQ young people between the ages of 13-24 years old." With over 400,000 members across the globe, they go on to say that "you can explore your identity, get advice, find support, and make friends in a moderated community intentionally designed for you." Although sources say that TrevorSpace was investigated by law enforcement for facilitating inappropriate conversations among children and adults, the problem is still going on. What we found will shock you. TrevorSpace markets itself as a safe space for LGBTQ+ young people to talk about their experiences with identity and peer/familial rejection, which sounds like a great idea. But browsing the website for merely a few minutes makes it abundantly clear what it actually is: an online dating service for children and people aged 13-24. No website or chat room of this nature should cater to minors, especially one that encourages them to talk to adults. Adults in their 20s regularly talk to teenagers about sexuality and gender transition on Trevorspace. Profiles specify whether the user is over or under 18, but there is no procedure to verify whether the user is answering truthfully. Not only is the website specifically for children and adults, but someone of any age can say that they are a minor and have inappropriate conversations with kids. Genspect, an organization which includes therapists, psychologists, researchers, and experts in this field, consistently point out that kids who are being transitioned often exhibit similar patterns of behavior and are victims of a social contagion. The website overwhelmingly consists of this exact demographic of kids. Although some of the theories about the teenage transgender epidemic have been heavily criticized, Trevorspace is basically the social contagion theory come to life. It is full of posts about how these girls are lonely, have little social support, low self-esteem, issues with body image, and have difficulty socializing with others. The two most alarming themes that we observed were that a lot of these kids are autistic and most of them express that they are same-sex attracted. It has been noted that a large percentage of children who are transitioning are autistic or same-sex attracted. They are being targeted. And the people doing the targeting are adults. “Courage Is A Habit,” a parental rights group and friend of GAG, have pointed out that this new wave of child transsexualism can be attributed to a direct pipeline “from the classroom to the operating room.” They learn about various sexual identities as part of their school curriculum and even given surveys which directly ask them what their sexual identity is, pressuring them to pick an option. They are told that if they are confused or unsure about their identity, there are resources to help them, often listing The Trevor Project. Planned Parenthood, the largest distributor of hormones to kids, also recommends this website to kids who are at an age where people first start figuring this stuff out for themselves. The reality is that some kids mature faster than others. Therefore, some of the kids using this service who have not yet reached that point. Children are being pressured at school to pick an identity. It was not surprising that a large portion of their posts are about asexuality and asking for guidance about how to find their place on the “asexual spectrum.” Since they are being forced to choose a sexual identity label at school everyday, as young as kindergarten, when they are too young to even conceptualize such a concept, then they are going to choose labels on the “asexual spectrum” because kids are not sexual beings. This is not a controversial opinion – it is the difference between right and wrong. The predatory website features various “clubs” that kids can join, where they are able to discuss their sexual identities with hundreds of other kids and adults. One of these clubs is called “Furries”, designed for people who are attracted to anthropomorphic animals. The discussions in this group often revolve around fetishism and how the “Furry Fandom” is not inherently sexual, but lets them know that there are a lot of people who engage in this for paraphilic reasons. Most of the conversations in the “Furries Club” are kids asking other users to help them discover their “fursona.” A fursona is a personalized animal character created by someone in the furry fandom. Fursonas may be anthropomorphic personas, idealized versions of their owners, fleshed out roleplay characters, or simply digital mascots. These posts feature cartoon drawings of their “fursonas” and describe different attributes that their character has. It is very easy to see how kids can easily get caught up in something that requires them to watch cartoons and pretend to be the characters they see on their screen. It seems harmless. These kids are probably just playing pretend, which is a normal thing for kids to do. But the people who are encouraging this behavior on Trevorspace are adults. According to a recent study on autoanthropomorphozoophilia, a paraphilic phenomenon where an individual is aroused by the idea of being an anthropomorphic animal and dresses up in animal costumes to live this fantasy, is a fetish in 99% of cases. It is linked to both autism and autogynephilia (fetishistic cross-dressing which develops in adulthood). It is very unlikely that these adults are all just playing pretend and do not have any fetishistic incentive. They also have clubs centered around BDSM and kink. An adult guiding a child and teaching them how to participate in their fetish is grooming and should never be tolerated in any circumstance. It is insulting that a website like this is marketed as a resource for “LGBTQIA+ young adults.” This has nothing to do with being same-sex attracted and is not beneficial to our community whatsoever. Gays Against Groomers would like to publicly denounce The Trevor Project for being an enemy to the people it claims to advocate for. It is outright betrayal and everything that the gay community spent decades fighting against. These adults encourage social transition to these kids, leaving comments about how to dress and how to “pass” as the opposite sex. Social transition is a direct gateway to persistence of their trans identity and subsequent medicalization. They are applauded for taking puberty blockers, which are linked to osteoporosis, brain swelling, and future sexual dysfunction. They are given advice on how to get sterilizing hormones behind their parents’ back. And they are being taught that disembodiment/dissociating from their bodies is a good thing that everyone should try out. A hot topic recently has been pornographic material in school libraries, which are labeled as “LGBTQ+ literature designed to help kids understand diversity and feel more included at school.” We are not sure what pornographic books have to do with being gay, but we completely reject this practice and the fact that it is being done in our name. One of these books is titled “This Book Is Gay” by a transwoman named Juno Dawson, describes how to use dating and hookup apps to children, including meeting up with strangers for sexual encounters. Trevorspace explicitly states that doing this is very unsafe and their website advises against it. After stating this, the next line says, “If you must meet somebody, please use this external guide (it is aimed towards adults, but a lot of it is also good information for teens). Hopefully it’ll help you make a healthy, informed decision!” Trevorspace tells children that they should not do something and then basically says, “But if you want to do it anyway, we have a guide to show you how!” There is never a circumstance in which this behavior is “healthy” for a teenager to engage in. It is a recipe for kidnapping and exploitation and needs to be terminated immediately. If The Trevor Project claims to advise against children meeting up with strangers, then why do they allow kids to make posts about their location and seeking a boyfriend/girlfriend in their area? Why are they encouraging kids to participate in this behind their parents backs and allowing adults to give advice about sex? The Trevor Project is a grooming organization that sexualizes children and puts them in danger. Trans activists can claim that there is no social contagion all they want, but the gay people in our coalition prefer to recognize it for what is is: a transgender grooming epidemic. The kids who use this predatory dating service have threads and forums about how the website has “too many groomers and pedophiles,” yet the adults that they trust in their lives are telling them that it is a good source for social support. It is an identity crisis in a nutshell. The service is full of frantic posts from teenage girls freaking out over the fact that they are unsure of their sexual identity and how this is something that they need to figure out immediately. Since when is that considered appropriate? The most disturbing part is that a lot of these girls express that they are same-sex attracted. Instead of being told that there is nothing wrong with being gay and that they will figure this out eventually, The Trevor Project tells them that they are actually boys trapped in female bodies and minors need to be chemically castrated as soon as possible or there is a 40% chance that they will kill themselves. This overused statistic is a lie and The Trevor Project is facilitating the spread of this lie. There are posts where girls say that they realized they were attracted to women and transitioned into boys in order to become straight. This is a new form of conversion therapy. Studies show that nearly 80% of these children will reach adulthood and realize that they are just gay, lesbian, or bisexual. Trevorspace is a grooming nightmare come to life. It is a direct contribution to an impending health crisis in the gay community – an epidemic of detransitioned people whose lives have been ruined by this new form of teenage conversion therapy, which they were groomed into partaking in. Over the next decade, there is going to be a huge wave of detransitioners who realize that they were victims of conversion therapy and grooming. The wave has already started and is going to forever be a stain on our community that we look back on in horror. Given recent events in the UK and Mermaids, it is probably a smart idea to consider the possibility that a similar phenomenon is occurring across the pond. Detransitioned people are usually shunned from the trans community and harassed by queer activists if they try to discuss their experience publicly. This is present in the Trevorspace forums. Kids who were permanently altered have made posts about feelings of regret. They are then chastised about how the detransitioner problem is a hoax and that recognizing their existence is considered hateful, invalidating, and harmful to the transgender community. If the transgender and queer community are so hung up on validation and accuse people of “denying their existence,” then why are they demanding that we deny the existence of gay people who were converted as kids and face medical/bodily harm for the rest of their lives? My community deserves better than that. Detrans people have a lot of important perspectives to contribute and they are welcome at our table any day. Upon finding out that kids are using a website to connect with strangers and form polyamorous relationships with multiple anonymous individuals, people in our community are absolutely horrified. Most of us want nothing to do with these people and will not stop fighting it until it is shut down. The gay community is going to put an end to this and morally mandate it out of existence. And we expect everyone involved to be held accountable. Gays Against Groomers believes that calling out The Trevor Project, schools, child transsexualism, and the budding detransition epidemic should come from within our community. We all had the teenage experience of figuring ourselves out and becoming happy, confident, successful, and comfortable gay adults. Being given access to a website like Trevorspace would have made that process much more difficult, confusing, and dangerous. This is directly harming our community and is only going to get worse. We are going to talk about it until it is abolished. ______________________________________________________ Support our movement

...You know what's even more devastating? That line being used as emotional blackmail to get someone to comply to your demands. Suicide rates in trans people are at their absolute highest 7-10 years AFTER sexual reassignment surgery. And it's because most of the time these surgeries are botched. They're experimental. These folks lose their sex drive, their mental health issues were only AFFIRMED and not DIAGNOSED AND TREATED and with hormones in the mix (raising risk of cancer), untreated depression mixed in with constant infections, tragic dating sex life, doctors not fixing their fuck ups, etc . These surgeries have a 67% complication rate. Once you do this, you become a chronic medical patient. Show me one person who's had all these surgeries and treatments who has made it to old age. I'll wait. Puberty is ESSENTIAL for our growth. Kids going on puberty blockers are being sterilized. They're giving themselves osteoporosis because they're not allowing puberty to do what it's supposed to. Bones, muscles, tendons, heart, BRAIN, lungs, blood, sexual reproduction, skin, EVERYTHING relies on puberty. Blockers are NOT reversible. You can say it 1000000000 times but it won't make it true. You cannot reverse puberty blockers. Saying you can is absolutely false and dangerous. There is zero proof to back up those claims that puberty blockers are reversible. For proof that they aren't, you just have to go to any real medical website and read peer reviewed studies. Stay off the bs affirmation websites that are littered with false claims. They give the same puberty blockers to sex offenders to castrate them. They're also giving these drugs to children. Listen to literally ANY detransitioner and you will QUICKLY learn how wrong it is to be saying these things and pushing these narratives. $1.3 million dollars is what big pharma makes off of EACH trans child going through treatment. $70k is what sexual reassignment surgeons make PER surgery. Some make even more. When you follow the money, you find the highest levels of corruption. And unfortunately they're targeting children. Gender dysphoria only affects 1 in 30,000 or 1 in 110,000 people. There's no reason we should be seeing upwards of like 30 kids per school claiming to be trans or non binary or whatever. It's all indoctrination. And it's a huge disservice to the ones who actually suffer with it. They truly need treatment because it isn't a trend for them. It isn't a way to fit in with their peers. I feel for them. But majority of what is going on right now is NOT authentic and a lot of children are ALREADY speaking out about their experience and what influenced them to think this way. 99% of the time it was someone else telling them who they are purely based off of gender stereotypes. I'd would have been told I was trans if I grew up in today's society. Luckily I was just allowed to be a kid. Wear dresses one day, pretending to be the queen of the land and be rolling in the mud the next day collecting bugs with my friends. I was a gymnast but also a baseball player. I was a competitive cheerleader but also a sgt in cadets. I wore a pinstripe suit to my grade 8 grad and cut my hair in a pixie cut and I wore a Marilyn Monroe inspired dress with long curly hair and a flower pinned beside my ear for my grade 12 prom. I am 34 now and I go to metal concerts and thrash but I also am a boudoir photographer who loves to get girly and sexy and do makeup and hair and all that good stuff. I'm still a woman. I'm bisexual but that's it. Where's kids being told it's okay to like trucks if your a girl or its okay to like dolls if your a boy?? That isn't happening anymore. Kids are being told if they don't love themselves they can become someone else. Or if they like dolls then they're a girl. It's fucking stupid. THAT is confusing for a kid on its own and it's ugly when parents put that in their heads just so they can feel like they're part of something. Why did I spend the last 34 years trying to break stereotypes and stigmas and labels only for those exact things to be used as a stepping stone to castrate and mutilate kids for a buck? If you're an adult, you do you boo boo. Be informed, ask questions. Know your rights. If you're a kid, GO BE A KID. Leave the children out of it.

Written by Gays Against Groomers member Haley Shane Remember seeing tomboys? Girls that played in the mud, played sports with the boys teams, and would rather wear cleats than be caught in heels? I remember. I was one. My mom and dad tell a very colorful story of me throwing a dress on the floor after my grandmother practically forced it on me. I was 4. I had no idea what a gender was. Or sex. Or a sexual orientation. I just knew I didn't like dresses. I liked football. And playing in the mud. And working on cars with my dad. (I use the term "working" loosely) Now? I'd be labeled a boy trapped in a girl body. I'd be recommended puberty blockers, hormones (DRUGS — call them what they are), and maybe even Gender Reassignment Surgery. That's horrifying to think of as an adult. What makes no sense to me on top of it, is the same crowd that would tell me to do all that, would also preach that gender is a social construct. But it made me wonder, what would my life look like had I been "transed" (transed - verb - assuming someone who is attracted to the same sex, or has interests of the opposite gender, that they are trapped in the wrong body. Example: "Haley got transed into being a dude cause she likes football and vagina.") Well, I know I wouldn't be as healthy as I am now. I wouldn't be as grounded, stable, secure. I wouldn't accept myself for who I am. I'd have LOADS of identity issues, and my dating pool would be cut to 0. But, I grew up in a different time. (That sounds weird to say, I'm only 29.) I want to say, if you're a woman or a girl reading this and you like sports, and playing football, and shooting guns, and anything else considered "masculine" or "manly"... You might be a lesbian. But you're definitely a tomboy. And tomboys are fucking rad. Own it. Embrace it. BE PROUD OF IT. To answer the question in the beginning of this post; "Where did all the tomboys go?" They went to gender identity clinics cause someone told them they were probably a man. And they sadly, believed it. #SaveTheTomboys

Reddit, the social bookmarking website, is known for hosting a wide variety of content from politics to porn that virtually anyone can access. These topics are organized into forums known as subreddits, where users can interact with one another using text, links and photos. While users are required to be a minimum of 13 years of age to use Reddit, the social site has no fool proof verification process to keep out even younger users who wander in with a simple lying click. This is the first of many red flags on Reddit and other sites that simply can’t verify age while simultaneously hosting a plethora of mature content. Founded in 2005, Reddit has been through its fair share of drama and scandals amongst users and moderators (also known as ‘mods’) alike, and is often the source of radicalized thoughts that have spilled into real life behaviors. While subreddits have typically been perceived as safe spaces for specific topics, as social justice movements have ramped up over the years this has proven to be false. In 2020, a subreddit for detransitioners and questioning transgender people was suspended. Detransitioners tend to experience a lot of censorship and hate due to the fact that their perspective often perturbs the LGBTQ+ community by raising too many questions and concerns about the transition process. Remember, you’re no longer “allowed” to question or criticize the new LGBTQs. The suspension was devastating for detrans people who already feel homeless, rejected by the LGBTQ community for even suggesting that transitioning isn’t a magical cure for gender dysphoria. Detransitioners like Chloe Cole, who is barely an adult, often receive violent comments including death threats for expressing heartache in hopes of saving youth from the same fate. So the destruction of the one space detrans folks thought they had was an overwhelming stab in the back. Users flocked to other sites to express their sadness over the suspension. On a site called mumsnet.com, user rogmum lamented: “I’m so upset about this [suspension]. It was the one community and support group detransitioners had…Reddit is nothing more than a TRA/MRA platform now.” After numerous complaints and protests, the r/detrans subreddit was subsequently brought back, and detransitioners tentatively rejoiced, resuming their criticism of the new LGBTQ narrative so dismissive of their questions and pain. Even now, users in the r/detrans subreddit cannot fathom why they are considered pariahs by the trans community specifically, who can’t seem to handle healthy discourse. “It seems to me like the trans community and its allies are just being willfully ignorant at this point,” user Enough-Process-2373 wrote in a recent thread. “There is absolutely NO tolerance of other perspectives and any attempts at critical discussion get immediately shot down. If their ideology is so unquestionably correct, then why won’t they defend it? When they do defend it, it’s so easy to poke holes in their arguments…I can understand it on a surface level, but I only believed in their rhetoric for so long because I was actively in denial. So many pro-trans arguments are so contradictory and straight up illogical. An entire community can’t be THAT stupid.” The discussion thread above has been labeled in red as CONTROVERSIAL by Reddit, who haven’t exactly been hiding their bias for the neo gay movement. Other threads that have been suspended in the past include r/ActualLesbians, r/GenderCritical and r/truelesbians after several popular LGBTQ+ subreddits experienced prolonged attacks in 2020. These attacks, known as brigades, occur when users from other subreddits coordinate to infiltrate other boards with spam and derogatory comments, manipulating any current polls and otherwise creating a hellish scenario for moderators. One moderator, Aimee Knight, dealt with the fallout of a long brigade on the r/lgbt subreddit at the end of April in 2020, banning 473 users, and removed 1,403 posts and 11,323 comments with co-moderators. There’s just one problem: Aimee Knight is a pedophile sympathizer. Previously known as Aimee Challenor, Knight is a British trans rights activist who is trans herself. According to Google, Aimee was “assigned” male at birth, discovering her trans identity at just 10 years old. In 2018, she was suspended from the Green Party after appointing her father, David Challenor, as an election agent, despite him having been arrested and charged with sexually abusing a 10-year-old girl in 2016. Aimee feigned ignorance and claimed she did not know the full details of the charges against her father before appointing him as her election agent. The Green Party was forced to make a statement and question their safeguarding processes. Among the dangers children face on a platform like Reddit, access to cross-sex hormones without a prescription is on the list. An account called libsofreddit has taken to Instagram to expose Reddit’s illegal trafficking of HRT and puberty blockers to minors, who are looking to bypass health professionals and disapproving parents. The subreddit known as r/TransDIY has taken steps to avoid legal repercussions, stating their Reddit policy against directly marketed goods, including giveaways and private sales. They’ve also stated that “exact age should be largely irrelevant to the discussion.” This hasn’t stopped mods from funneling their followers to medical websites like transfemscience.org, which includes a disclaimer that the writers are not medical professionals nor academic researchers, despite the extensive advice and recommendations for readers as to which drugs to take, where to find them, and a list of related subreddits they call “articles” which are medical in nature. One of the mods on r/TransDIY in question funneling subs to this site is a user called spitirual_cowboy, who also participates in a satire subreddit called r/transgendercirclejerk, where they have expressed a love for “tranny porn.” Not only does the r/TransDIY subreddit funnel users to channels where they could potentially access cross-sex hormones illegally, the thread features a “pharmacy” called Okotokono, an illegal pharmacy from Brazil ran by a MtF known as “Lillian.” Okotokono has been caught at least once by authorities for illegal HRT shipping, and Lillian, who goes by “Lil_lily” on Reddit, has had to beg users to remove posts referring to Otokonoko deliveries and payments, which include cryptocurrency. Mods of r/TransDIY try their best to keep up and moderate posts about illegal drug trafficking and including minors, but can’t always dig deep enough. Minors can still be found asking for help and advice in certain subreddits that inevitably funnel to the same threads. Every parent needs to know the possibilities on Reddit. Much like many other social websites, it is a double edged sword where users can lift each other up and enable potentially harmful behaviors so they feel “less alone.” We feel responsible to raise the alarm regarding Reddit’s protection of predators in the name of LGBTQ. Children should not have access to this kind of encouragement to make life changing decisions with no adult supervision. These people do not represent all of us, and we find these behaviors shocking and abhorrent. From questionable mods, to selling drugs to children, to censorship of traditional gay people, Reddit has no shame in sanctioning reckless behaviors. Please be aware of these red flags on Reddit. Written by: Judith Rose | Images provided by Michael Costa

Disclaimer: The purpose of this article is not to conflate all transgender people as predators. We acknowledge that not all transgender people are a threat to society. But simply put, no demographic is exempt from scrutiny, and one has to admit there is a rising pattern of concerning behavior by people who claim the trans identity. We at Gays Against Groomers believe the special treatment of murderers and rapists should not go unquestioned, and will not be respecting the “preferred pronouns” of the violent undeserving criminals in this article. As we watch the decline of modern society into a fever dream of affirmed delusions, censorship of truth and applauded violence, there is one trend we can’t help but notice: violent transgender prisoners who are clearly using their trans identifier as a shield. Our society is actively participating in the destruction of female spaces, boundaries, and safety by attempting to blend the binary prison system in particular. Multiple criminals have not only decided to transition from male to female only when they become incarcerated, but don’t bother to become rehabilitated citizens, instead committing further crimes with help from a collapsing system that enables their fantasies. Let’s start with the story of Xena Grandicelli, a biological male born Jeffrey Willsea who now identifies as a woman. After pleading guilty to 11 counts of sexual assault against a 3 year old girl and serving just four months in Rikers Island state prison, Grandicelli went on to become a “trans rights activist” in New York. Despite being a level 3 sex offender in the state (which does not permit being within 1,000ft of a school), Grandicelli spoke at numerous panels and workshops, partnering with the Sylvia Rivera Law Project after they actively recruited him from prison. Claiming the female identity after serving time brought Grandicelli a lot of attention and sympathy as recently as 2021 by the Women & Justice Project for being a “woman who survived sexual assault during incarceration.” Not only were Grandicelli’s crimes overshadowed by two of the most prestigious universities in the nation giving him a platform to speak on, he was also presented with a Community Hero Award by the Anti-Violence Project, which sounds suspiciously like Orwellian double-speak. Grandicelli was not the only violent criminal the Sylvia Rivera Law Project supported, either. In 2014, the SRLP advocated for child rapist and murderer Synthia China Blast (born Luis Morales) to be released from isolated confinement by launching a petition to New York's Department of Corrections and Community Supervision. Blast/Morales brutally raped and murdered a 13 year old girl and bragged about it afterwards to his friends. It is worth noting that Xena Grandicelli has been known to use a community outreach program for an organization that advises incarcerated men on how to legally change their identification by declaring transgender status. It is also worth noting that transgender actor Laverne Cox spoke up as a representative of SRLP in support of Blast/Morales. But apparently Cox was not initially aware of Morales’ crimes due to the name change, later stating “If I had been made aware of these charges, then I would not have [shown support].” In California these self-ID prison policies have given male sex offenders the ability to sneak their way into a female juvenile detention facility. A 26-year-old man who went to jail for violating a minor is being housed in a juvenile detention facility for girls. Hannah Tubbs admitted to assaulting a 10-year-old girl in the restroom of a Denny’s restaurant. The assault stopped upon somebody else entering the restroom. Tubbs is spending the remainder of his two year sentence in Dorothy Kirby Center/Barry J. Nidorf Juvenile Hall. If Tubbs was able to manipulate the laws in this way, then future criminals might be a be able to use the same loophole. Rapist Adam Graham was the image that one might conjure when thinking of a hardened criminal: bald, muscular, tattooed and prone to violence. He was like the vision of a henchman of a mob boss in a heist movie. However, after facing rape charges in Scotland’s court in 2020, Graham decided to become a woman named Isla Bryson, slapping on a wig and starting female hormone therapy. Conveniently, Graham/Bryson was then held at Cornton Vale women’s prison, where they claim he’ll undergo a rigorous risk assessment to determine if he will serve the final sentence in a men or women’s prison. In Scotland, people as young as 16 can seek a gender recognition certificate to confirm a change in one’s legal sex after living in their new gender for just three months, and a medical diagnosis of gender dysphoria is not required. Ever heard of The Frankston Serial Killer? Infamous Australian serial murderer Paul Denye went through a “trans phase” in prison while serving a 30 year sentence for strangling and stabbing three women to death in the early 90s. Denye confessed to the crimes in shocking detail. In letters sent to his brother, Denye allegedly stated that he’d committed the crimes “in anger over not being born female.” In 2021, he began openly identifying as a woman, asking to be called “Paula,” a phase that faded out within about a year after his application for gender surgery was denied. Was Denye expecting special treatment based on something he’d heard from someone like Xena Grandicelli? Did he truly kill women out of jealousy? Or was it just autogynephilia, the transvestic fetish some men suffer from that gives them arousal at the idea of being or becoming a female? Why do so many men who rape and transgender women share the common denominator of being sexually assaulted themselves in their past? Demi Minor, formerly Demitrius Minor, is another self identified trans woman from New Jersey who is now known for impregnating two fellow (but biologically female) inmates, forcing a transfer to a men’s prison in 2022. Countless media platforms referred to Minor as a “she,” despite the extreme breach in conduct that is forbidden at the women’s prison Minor was housed in, as well as the gruesome murder Minor committed at age 16. It seems no matter what they do, self-declared “trans women” in the prison system all around the United States as well as other parts of the world are being protected and respected by media platforms and Senate Bills alike. Take California Senate Bill 132, for example. Known as the Transgender Respect, Agency and Dignity Act, Gov. Gavin Newsom signed the bill into law, effective January 1, 2021. The bill essentially lets prisoners choose their gender identity for the purpose of placement–regardless of sex assignment surgery or proof of hormone therapy. This means that biological men can take full advantage of this law by simply proclaiming themselves as women. There is currently an ongoing lawsuit between the state of California and female inmates of the state’s prison system, who are arguing that the law is unconstitutional in that it requires forfeiting any safety women in female facilities have left. These women want the world to know how unsafe they really feel. Inmates at the California Institute for Women (CIW) have been reaching out to the media in hopes that their cries of help are heard, but the mainstream media is busy uplifting these predators by painting them as “stunning and brave survivors of the prison system.” These are women with very little rights left who now feel completely disregarded as men are allowed into their spaces. Studies suggest that as many as 1 in 4 incarcerated women in the US experience sexual violence, typically by male staff members. Now these women have a new threat: biologically male bunk mates who could potentially impregnate them with or without their consent. Why are so many male murderers and rapists getting respect by shielding themselves with the trans or non-binary label? Why are chronically online leftists defending child murderers like Audrey Hale, demanding we use her “preferred pronouns”? Moreover, why is our system allowing this insanity? Why is our media agreeing with it? Once upon a time, society wanted to believe and protect women, but now that anyone can proclaim themselves a woman, the safety of women is being completely discarded in favor of, yet again, men. Society has taken sympathy too far. While there are those who make mistakes that deserve a second chance (and want it), clearly there are corrupted individuals who take advantage of the sudden saintly status of all who claim they’re transgender. Sadly, states like California and New Jersey are allowing biologically male rapists into female prisons with no signs of stopping. And across the world in Ireland, a transgender woman named Barbie Kardashian (formerly Gabriel Alejandro Gentile) was sent to a women’s prison in Limerick for over five years for threatening to rape, torture and kill his mother, and was later deemed “a serious threat to both female inmates and staff.” Something is seriously wrong here. Where are the mental health professionals who can find psychological red flags sooner? Where are the lengthy assessments and tests to get to the bottom of why these sick individuals are choosing to identify as female to avoid a harsher sentence or environment? We can only assume the goal is chaos, not safety. The solution would be to keep the prison system binary, requiring all convicted offenders to be placed with their true biological sex. Prison inmates should not be allowed to transition while incarcerated, and should instead be placed into regular therapy to assess the true intentions of a transgender claim. Solitary confinement may seem inhumane, but could be a must to keep all parties safe. Furthermore, their records should be carried over with their new legal name should they transition outside of the prison system. Criminals should not have the right to warp and hide their identities in a way that not only separates themselves from their crime, but creates a whole new image for the public to associate them with, a devious psychological tactic to distract from their dirty past. If these ideas and more are either broken down or not implemented to keep women safe, we are that much closer to the breakdown of society as we know it. The boundaries and safety of female inmates should still matter. If this is going on in the prison system, imagine the kinds of things predators who haven’t been caught are doing outside of it. We can’t keep letting men use the trans identity as a shield. Why are we bowing to the demands of rapists and child killers? It is harming not only women, but the trans community, which loses sympathy more and more each day as dishonorable people commit atrocities in the name of the LGBTQ+ cult. We implore you, transgender or not, to speak up and call out evil when you see it. Listen to the women speaking out and don’t dismiss them for fear of being “transphobic.” These are murderers and rapists who have no remorse. Why do they deserve respect? They don't.

Gays Against Groomers Florida Travel Advisory Miami, FL— Today, Gays Against Groomers Florida took the extraordinary step of issuing a travel advisory, warning of the risks posed to the health, safety and freedom of predators and groomers looking to travel or relocate to Florida. The advisory comes in response to several new bills that have been passed to allow the death penalty for child abusers, the expansion of parental rights in education and the broadening awareness of how children are being targeted. The state government has made it clear that sexualized events marketed for and featuring children will not be tolerated. Governor DeSantis, who has made these policy moves a cornerstone of his administration, is dedicated to making Florida the least hospitable place for child predators and anyone seeking to abuse or coerce children into radical social ideologies. Many reports are circulating that these moves have already had the desired effect of pushing predatory people that are indoctrinating kids to consider relocating away from Florida. A major victory. This should show anyone that thinks they can get away with these grotesque behaviors in relation to children will have a rude awakening in Florida. Florida stands opposed to the permanent medicalization of children and has passed laws to ensure that kids aren’t abused by the medical system coercively forcing gender affirming care into their lives. If that is a deal breaker for you to be in the state of Florida, then do not come here. This level of social harm will not be visited on the children of Florida any longer. Groomers and Predators will not be allowed to infiltrate the school system with their ideologies to ensnare vulnerable youth. Classroom materials that glamorize and glorify radical fringe lifestyles will not be projected onto kids. Pornographic content will NEVER be permitted. If that is a deal breaker for you to be in Florida, then do not come here. After the exposure to the world of what happens at drag events with children, there are real world consequences to the assault on children. Organizers of Drag Queen story hours are not permitted to have their events any longer. The citizens of Florida have spoken and they have forcefully rejected these predatory ideological forces from existing in Florida. And if predators and groomers still choose to travel to Florida, please be aware that your crimes of abuse against children are now punishable by death. Groomers beware.

Gays Against Groomers made a splash in 2022 by speaking at local school districts around the country, beginning with California. And we are doing the same in 2023. Several months ago, our former Director of Chapters, Mario Presents, attended a meeting in Conejo Valley, California at the request of concerned/bullied parents. Parents, psychologists, and others being pressured into silence about their concerns is occurring all over the country. We have had multiple parents from California fill us in on some that they have with this district. The first situation involves a local clinical psychologist who spoke against gender-affirming curriculum. She delivered a sincere and professional speech about her concerns. She commended the school on being inclusive of students who may feel different or isolated. She encouraged the importance of empathy. But she feels like some of the school’s policies are creating adverse effects on the mental health of students. Before adolescence, children do not have the neural connections of brain architecture to understand the concept of identity. So when third graders are presented with abstract concepts about transgenderism and gender fluidity, they are not able to process these concepts in a rational way. They can only think in terms of black and white. They can only use concrete thought. The schools are introducing abstract concepts years before students are able to mentally process them. Some children have been seeking therapy because the school material is causing confusion and psychological issues. Young girls are developing hatred and insecurity about their bodies. She had a patient who was anorexic because she wanted to delay puberty. She was afraid of developing curves and hips, like females do during puberty. She eventually got the issue under control and developed according to her natural puberty. A few years later, she started testosterone. Her body issues returned and she assumed that testosterone would get rid of or redistribute her body fat. She is now detransitioned, suicidal, full of regret, and her body is irreversibly altered. She was falsely labeled as transgender and prescribed hormones because of pre-existing psychological conditions that were not addressed before allowing her to transition. The psychologist fears that many of these individuals are struggling with other issues that are being clouded by an excessive focus on gender. While she supports diversity and inclusion, she felt the responsibility to voice her concerns because the school policies could be creating more and more cohorts of these girls through what they are learning in school. The psychologist had a complaint lodged with the licensing board for bringing up concerns about the mental health of children to her local school board. A local father went to a school board meeting to voice his concerns about what his daughter was learning in school. He said that his daughter was shown a video and book about transgenderism and became confused. Her friends even tried convincing her to shave her head and identify as a boy. The main takeaway from his speech was that in order to create an inclusive educational environment, PARENTS also must be included in making decisions about what their kids are learning at school. His story was picked up by a local newspaper and the article received a lot of backlash from activists. In May, a local school was vandalized with spray paint because of the radical sexual curriculum being taught to children. Although he had nothing to do with the incident, Schneider’s article in the local newspaper was blamed for “creating hate in the community and encouraging citizens to commit criminal acts against schools.” It was a method of gaslighting parents, claiming that expressing disagreement with the content taught in the classroom is somehow dangerous and leads to violence. In June, Schneider was accused of being the one who vandalized the school. There was no evidence of this, but the accusation was still thrown his way and he was investigated as a suspect. Law enforcement found no proof of him being connected to the crime. Another parent who spoke up at a school board meeting had his business doxxed by Antifa. Gays Against Groomers was recently notified by a concerned parent that the school is currently bringing a transgender student to different classrooms. The school is bringing the student into kindergarten classrooms to influence 5-year-olds about gender identity and encourage them to “explore their gender.” All of these issues lead back to a local activist mother named Megan Goebel. She is connected to the doxxing & harassment of several parents who disapproved of the curriculum and classroom material. She is the head of LGBTQ District Advisory Council for Conejo Valley School District. She is the mother of the transgender child being brought into kindergarten classrooms. And she is connected to the doxxing of the parents and professionals who spoke up at these school board meetings. A video of Goebel recently went viral on Libs of TikTok, where she claims that her child started showing signs of cross-gender identification before the age of two. This mom transed her 2-year-old son because he liked to dress up in dresses and makeup. On her social media, most of her content is promoting child transition to her audience of parents and young people. On her website, she even has a recommended list of books that promote gender ideology to children. Some of these books, including “Call Me Max” have been read to students, causing parents to become concerned. In December 2020, she founded Unity Conejo – an organization whose mission is to fulfill the 2016 Ca Healthy Youth Act: Teen Talk and to spread transgender education to K-5. Clearly, she is determined to force gender ideology in schools in every way that she can. Goebel is the lynchpin for LGBTQ affirmation in Conejo Valley and is adamant about introducing this material to all other children in the district. The district currently has an affirmation-only model or gender identity. She also works closely with the ACLU and is connected to Antifa. This is being done in our name, even though gay people loving one another has absolutely nothing to do with indoctrinating children into a cult of disembodiment and nonsense. After being contacted by multiple parents in his own school district Mario Presents went to yet another school board meeting to notify them about how Gays Against Groomers feels about all of this: “Children fantasize about being princesses, or superheroes all the time. We indulge children because to them the world is a beautiful and wondrous place and we want to preserve that innocence. Last Friday, your children’s innocence was shattered because the actions of an adult created a lockdown situation, terrifying them, and that is not okay. I’ve uncovered a school official in another District who began the process of affirming their 18 month old son because he likes wearing fingernail polish like his older sister. That child’s mother is LGBT Director for the district, and now trotting the child to the elementary schools as a living incarnation of the “I am Jazz” story. This is indoctrination. “Gay & Lesbian" refers to men and women who are same-sex oriented. It is not a belief, not socially influenced, and requires participation of consenting adults...It is about who you love. Trans is a belief that requires everyone to participate in your identity...even at school. It is a social & medical process that starts at any age. Jazz Jennings began this process as a child and now suffers from severe health problems as a young adult. Not to mention a 100-pound weight gain from depression & a binge eating disorder. Luka Hein, a detransitioner from Nebraska had her breasts removed at 16 because she was affirmed and given cross sex hormones immediately after. Now at 21 she suffers constant joint pain and uncertainty about her ability to even have a child. She will never breast feed a baby because of a choice she made as a minor who could not understand the long term consequences of her actions. Scott Newgent is a trans man who underwent the process at 42, a grown adult, and now lives with constant infections and complications from these experimental processes. If Scott Newgent, Luka Hein, Chloe Cole, Jazz Jennings, Cat Cattinson, Oli London, Sinead Watson, and countless others are having this experience, what chance do your children have if an educator is willingly, deliberately, and directly influencing your children? Listen to these parents because they will pay the medical bills, you… you’ll be responsible for the litigation when the finger is directed at the culprit of indoctrination.” When parents send their kids to school everyday, they should not have to worry about what teachers are going to do behind their backs. And they should not have to be afraid to voice their concerns. The repeated doxxing, reporting, and defamation of concerned parents are not just isolated incidents. There is a pervasive issue caused by aggressive activists running the system, using schools to push their beliefs onto children, and intimidating people into silence. An education system that caves to the demands of aggressive trans activists, despite mental health and safeguarding concerns, is not a system that parents, gay people, or taxpaying citizens should support. We are going to keep speaking out about this until it is resolved.

As I was picking up my eight-year-old son from school, I noticed that the high school across the street had a flashing sign, wishing students a “Happy Pride Month.” I instantly rolled my eyes. Thankfully, my son's elementary school did not have any flashing signs, no “progress” flags hanging out front, and no “Happy Pride” newsletter. Part of me was hopeful…until I pulled into the parking lot and saw his teachers wearing LGBTQIA+ shirts, with painfully stereotypical slogans printed across them. I was later made aware that they wore clothes like this every day throughout June. As a preschool teacher, I need to be very careful about my clothing choices. I often wear t-shirts that provoke conversations with my students about their favorite movies and characters. At the same time, there are things I actively avoid, like wearing something scary, political, or provocative. I am a bisexual mother of three and it would NEVER cross my mind to wear pride merchandise to school. As a teacher, it is important to keep in mind that you should not put something in your classroom that you are not willing to have discussions about. My son's school might not have LGBTQIA themes listed in their formal lesson plans, but the fact that teachers were wearing these outfits daily confirms that it is being discussed, at least to some extent. It all seems to strange to me. When I was growing up, I never had a teacher explain to me what the terms gay, lesbian, or bisexual were. I never had a teacher imply that one should label themselves, according to who we were attracted to. The reason for this is because we never needed them to. Kids do not feel different or excluded unless people make them feel that way. I knew that I liked girls from a very young age. And trust me, I did not need a teacher to explain that to me. Learning about sex and gender can be confusing for a child. They especially do not need to be hyper-focused on correctly fitting into their "gender identity” labels that they adopt in the classroom without parental consent. We do not need to teach LGBTQIA themes for the purpose of tolerance. Teaching kindness and acceptance does not include singling out groups of people and putting them on display. Instead of focusing on how they are different, maybe it would be more effective to highlight what they have in common. We do not need teachers to wear shirts “in support” of a group of people and make them feel oppressed and victimized. And regardless, people eventually figure out their orientation without anyone's help. Schools are not a place for virtue signaling. Another worrisome trend that is being normalized in the classroom is the conflation of biological sex and socially constructed gender norms. From David Bowie and Joan Jett, we have long worshiped cultural icons who are willing to step out of traditional gender norms and embrace who they are. This is not new. However, we are witnessing a cultural phenomenon where fashion and clothing are the determinants of one's "identity." Androgyny, by definition, is the quality or state of being neither specifically feminine nor masculine. It also includes those who express both feminine and masculine characteristics. Androgynous people have always existed, but they were never under told that maleness and femaleness is dependent on how you look. In numerous states, including mine, the school curriculum begs to differ. When Gerard Way wears a feather boa on stage and performs like the sassy king he is, he has never denied that he is male. More importantly, he is loved and appreciated for being a man with feminine qualities. He also appeals to thousands of gays, lesbians, and bisexuals because he challenges the boundaries of how men and woman should look and act. The same can be said of Joan Jett, who paved the way for women in rock music. With her leather jackets, swagger, and confidence, she showed America that women do not need to align with Hollywood beauty standards to be successful. She showed women that having a more androgynous aesthetic and being tough does not make you any less of a woman. Women like her are not a different gender, nor do they require different pronouns just for not adhering to unattainable beauty standards placed upon women in the music industry. It was empowering to see people wearing what makes them happy without caring about who disagrees with it. Her greatest hit speaks for itself: "A girl can do what she wants to do and that's what I'm gonna do. I've never been afraid of any deviation. And I don't really care if you think I'm strange. I ain't gonna change." Somehow, we have created a world where one cannot break such boundaries without being labeled and told that they are not male or female. This so-called progressive idea that females who like sports, have short hair, or date other women makes them less of a female. These confusing and nonsensical identities are regressive, to say the least. Androgyny has now been redefined to reinforce the outdated concept that males need to be masculine and females need to be traditionally feminine. Children are taught that gender is a spectrum and those who do not feel masculine enough to be a boy or feminine enough to be a girl are stuck somewhere in the middle. In some cases, they are encouraged to undergo irreversible surgical procedures. They are being encouraged to hide behind a label instead of embracing who they are. Androgyny has always been more common among gays, lesbians, and bisexuals. Because of this, they were demonized, referred to with derogatory terms, ostracized, and looked down upon. It was a long and treacherous battle to finally have society be open-minded enough to expand their view of acceptable fashion choices, regardless of whether they were considered masculine or feminine. Despite their appearance, androgynous men were not stripped of their manhood or considered to be anything other than males whose appearance was different than others. The hard truth is that men and boys have always been male. Women and girls have always been female. Stating otherwise is blatantly regressive. Girls who like baseball caps and baggy jeans are being told by their teachers that they can change sex and need to adopt an imaginary gender label to validate themselves. We are raising a generation of children who are under the impression that this regressive worldview is a good thing. It reinforces the very same regressive stereotypes that the LGB community fought against. It backhands the numerous icons who have paved the way for future generations. And frankly, most can agree that they look ridiculous while doing it.

Growing up in a Baptist home near Dallas Texas, there were few things I dreaded more than a Sunday morning. Sunday morning meant brushing a week’s worth of knots out of my hair and being forced into a frilly dress for the entire day. I never felt like I fit in with the other girls at church. They liked lip gloss, perfume, nail polish and talking about boys. I liked riding my bike, playing video games, Dragon Ball Z and rolling down the big dirt pile in my grandma’s front yard. I wore baggy shirts, basketball shorts and hated anything pink. When I’d play make believe with my brothers, I always wanted to be a boy character because girls aren’t supposed to fight. When I would say my prayers, I would secretly ask God to make me a boy instead. If anyone had told me that I could actually turn into a boy back then, I would have traded anything for it. The teasing from the other girls was awful and most boys didn’t want to be friends with a girl. Going into puberty was hell and I felt ugly every single day as a preteen. I wanted to crawl out of my skin and into a body that could enjoy traditionally masculine activities and still fit in. I was depressed and didn’t understand why I was so different. Lately, we’ve all noticed the massive rise in transgender youth. You can’t scroll on your phone, watch the news or simply walk around any major city without hearing something about it. According to a study conducted by the Williams Institute in 2022, “Approximately 1.6 million people ages 13 and older—0.6% of the population—identify as transgender in the United States….This includes 1.4% of youth ages 13-17 (about 300,000 youth).” This is a huge leap compared to the 0.7% of 13-17 year olds that the Williams Institute had found in their 2017 study. Why is this happening and what should be done about this? Those are the big questions. As of now, there is a huge push towards fast tracking these children into gender transition in order to keep them from becoming suicidal. When you frame it as the only two options are transition or die, the choice seems obvious. Is this really the best method for protecting them though? Is there any data to back up the claim that transitioning children is the best way to improve their mental health in the long run? There is no substantial evidence linking gender affirming care for minors to a decreased rate in suicide. All of the current studies used to argue on behalf of medically transitioning our youth are small, short term, lacking a control group and/or frequently have other major flaws. Youth suicide rates have only been going up alongside the rate of trans identifying youth and the acceptance of transgender people all together. Personally, I do believe that there is a small percentage of folks out there struggling with gender dysphoria. I was one of them. I’m not trans though, I’m gay. A 2018 study posted in the National Library of Medicine states that “80% of children who meet the criteria for GDC, the GD recedes with puberty. Instead, many of these adolescents will identify as non-heterosexual.” This is just one of many studies showing evidence that the vast majority of adolescents who experience childhood gender dysphoria will simply grow out of it while going through puberty and/or come to the realization that they are homosexual or bisexual. I am a woman. I’m a somewhat masculine woman, but a woman none the less. I shop for my clothes in the men’s section, have thick calluses on my hands, go shooting, play drums and sometimes forget to put on deodorant. I spend my mornings in a warehouse and the rest of the day delivering heavy boxes for a living. I’m in love with a woman and I have learned to love myself exactly how I am. I’m alive and healthy as an adult because rather than being chopped up and pumped full of hormones or puberty blockers, I was given the chance to realize that being a woman doesn’t mean living in a pink and feminine box. I was a tomboy who grew up into a gay chick and there are so many others out there just like me that are being told they are trapped in the wrong body. They are being told that medically reconstructing their bodies with drugs and a surgical blade is the only way to end their hurt and confusion. They don’t need any permanent and life altering procedures to live a long healthy life. They need to be told that they are perfect and loved exactly as they are. It takes time to figure it out, but it will get better. Tell the feminine boys that they can play with a barbie and still be a boy. Let the tomboys know that they are awesome and being a girl doesn’t mean you can’t roll around in the dirt. Let the extremely small percentage of those who continue to experience gender dysphoria into adulthood make their own decisions when they are old enough to fully consent to permanent and life altering procedures. Don’t butcher the gay kids before they have a chance to grow up. Works Cited “New Estimates Show 300,000 Youth Ages 13-17 Identify as Transgender in the US.” Williams Institute, 21 June 2022, williamsinstitute.law.ucla.edu/press/transgender-estimate-press-release/ Kaltiala-Heino, Riittakerttu, et al. “Gender Dysphoria in Adolescence: Current Perspectives.” Adolescent Health, Medicine and Therapeutics, U.S. National Library of Medicine, 2 Mar. 2018, www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5841333/