The trans fad

Want to read spiked ad-free? Become a spiked supporter.

Last week, researchers from the University of Groningen in the Netherlands revealed that kids and young people tend to go through phases. In other news, water is wet.

This was the upshot of a 15-year-long study, tracking more than 2,700 children from age 11 into their mid-twenties. Every two or three years, the Dutch researchers asked them how they felt about their sex and identity. Predictably, the results of this, which were published in the Archives of Sexual Behavior journal, showed that feelings of gender confusion normally pass as young people mature into adulthood. At the start of the research, 11 per cent of the children expressed ‘gender non-contentedness’ to varying degrees. But by age 25, just four per cent said they ‘often’ or ‘sometimes’ felt discontented with their gender.

The researchers concluded: ‘The results of the current study might help adolescents to realise that it is normal to have some doubts about one’s identity and one’s gender identity during this age period and that this is also relatively common… As such, policies that prohibit gender transition for minors make a great deal of sense.’

So far, there has been no comment on this study from leading trans advocates. Nothing has been said by the likes of former Mermaids chief executive Susie Green, the woman who warned the world that children would be at risk of committing suicide if we didn’t unconditionally affirm their ‘gender identities’. No statement has been issued by any of the trans-lobby groups that claim that children not old enough to get a tattoo are capable of making life-altering medical decisions. The careers and self-image of trans advocates depend upon maintaining the fiction of the ‘trans child’, so perhaps this is not surprising.

The many public figures who claim to be acting in the best interests of so-called trans children have also been notably quiet. Actress Emma Watson has remained tight-lipped, despite directing her 29million followers on X to donate to Mermaids and condemning JK Rowling for her gender-critical stance. Nadia Whittome MP has also kept schtum, despite having advocated for the use of puberty blockers for gender-confused children. Tellingly, the BBC also hasn’t found time yet to cover this new research.

The Dutch study demands more attention than this. Although the findings simply confirm what anyone with a brain already knew, they are nonetheless significant. As Oxford sociology professor Michael Biggs tells me:

‘It provides additional evidence for what we already know. First, a significant minority of children – 11 per cent – sometimes wish they were the opposite sex. Second, that children who wish to be the opposite sex are more likely to end up as lesbian, gay or bisexual. Third, most kids who wish to be the opposite sex eventually grow into adults who don’t have any desire to change sex.’

These facts have been in the public domain for a long time now. Whistleblowing clinicians, academics and detransitioners have been warning for the best part of a decade about the dangers of blindly affirming children in their faddish identities. Figures from the now-closed gender-identity development services (GIDS) at the Tavistock clinic in London show that the kids most at risk of being put on a medical pathway towards ‘transition’ are overwhelmingly same-sex attracted. If left to figure things out, these kids would likely grow up to simply be gay, lesbian or bisexual, rather than transgender.

The children fed into the gender-medicine machine are among the most vulnerable. A hugely disproportionate number are also autistic and many come from care backgrounds. These kids are more likely than most to struggle with coming to terms with their identities through adolescence. They need compassion and support. Instead, they have been used as pawns.

This most recent study should be too important to ignore. Yet many have ignored it. The study confirms the obvious: that growing up is a time of experimentation, when youngsters try on different identities as they progress toward adulthood. By affirming children in their childish, magical belief that they are the opposite sex, adults have cheered on the mass medicalisation of what for many young people will have been merely a fad.

Adults who should know better have abdicated their responsibility to the most vulnerable in society. They have allowed themselves to be taken in by a trendy ideology. And they have hidden their ignorance behind glitter, rainbows and catchy slogans. A simple ‘sorry’ won’t give the children experimented upon their fertility, health or self-esteem back. But it would be a start.