A new study concludes that there is not a social contagion element to transgender children. Or does it? That is the media’s interpretation of the study but it is not really what the study shows.
The study shows that more transgender youth were biological males than biological females. The ratio was 1.5 biological males to 1 biological females. The study also showed that the number of transgender children went down between 2017 and 2019 from 2.4% to 1.6%.
Trans advocates say that this disproves a controversial 2018 study by Dr. Lisa Littman who coined the term “rapid onset gender dysphoria” in which she says that an increasing number of biological females are experiencing gender dysphoria and doing so later in life, which is atypical of gender dysphoria.
Does this new study disprove Dr. Littman’s research? The study’s authors say that the belief that gender dysphoria is more common in biological girls has been used to deny them gender-affirming care and in fact, there is legislation like this being debated in many states. But this study does not address social contagion and later-onset gender dysphoria, which is at the heart of Littman’s work. Surely there should be room for that research if we didn’t live in such a frenzied cancel culture.
