The greatest shibboleth of all...the "trans child".

Good analogy. And it hasn’t gone away, either.

EXACTLY THIS!!!! Smoking was a sign of sophistication, long before the term "passive smoking" had been coined. And there was a doctor (in Queen Elizabeth's time, so relatively recently) who tried to point out that smoking was unhealthy, and he was shunned and vilified; in today's parlance, he would have been "cancelled". Remember these lines in Blackadder Goes Forth?
Nurse Mary: A man should smoke. It acts as an expectorant and gives his voice a deep, gravelly, masculine tone.
Blackadder: God, I love nurses. They're so disgustingly clinical.

And yes @OldCrone , from a young age, we're taught to take the word of our teachers and doctors (and politicians, and priests) as the gospel truth. Children in their formative years who hear "you can change sex" and Santa is very, very real have not learned to question authority, yet. It's true that nowadays, it's easier for children to check things independently with the internet than it was in our day, but would it occur to them to do so? And how would they know if the information they get is right or wrong? I'm ashamed to say that I believed everything I read in the newspapers until my mid twenties: I didn't learn to disbelieve the news until much later.

The YP I know is covered with self harm scars and on the list for a mastectomy.

The parade of falsehoods she believes is hard to swallow- she’s a walking leftist jargon machine. I say this despite being left leaning. She has no understanding of tax, economics or business. Her statements can’t be challenged because they are those core beliefs. I’m not expressing it well- we can’t discuss politics because she doesn’t have any understanding, just ‘four legs good, two legs bad’ level.
Obviously if she doesn’t trans herself, she will suicide before 30yrs old. It’s desperately sad.

I was reading about new research in autism that identifies 4 ‘types’ that have different characteristics and causes, and different ages of diagnosis. I wonder if gender dysphoria will turn out to fit in just one of the categories? That may help clarify things further.

Thank you for a very apt parallel. How times have changed. Sixty years ago when I was a kid our GP always had a fag on the go in an overflowing ashtray on his desk.

It means "repeat", at least in musical notation. Sorry.

It means "ditto", in this cause to avoid typing suicidal ideation twice.

What is "(-II-)"?

I wasn't stupid when I said to my mum "if I cut my hair short, will I be a boy?" Far from it: I was smart enough at five or six to recognise to recognise a two class social hierarchy in which I was a member of the inferior class.

... Suicidal ideation (but not by kids who grow up to realise they've effectively been sterilised)
... (-II-) (but not by girls who grow up to understand they've been viewed as porn fodder throughout their entire youth)

No accounting for distressed kids, then as now.

Autistic girls have always been statistically far more likely to suffer eating disorders. Perhaps now as a society we are much better at preventing eating disorders it’s the same distress coming out differently

And the NHS public website saying the NHS can give you any of the following:

For trans-identified females - penis and scrotum

For trans-identified males - vagina and vulva and clitoris

All of it is a lie

It's not altogether surprising that they believe this when it's people like doctors and teachers who are telling them that they can change sex.

Perhaps a good analogy might be smoking, which went from being an exotic private habit to being a pestilential nuisance in every public place and shared space. You were seen as selfish, old-fashioned and fuddy-duddy if you complained. But it turned out to be addictive, bad for health and being heavily promoted by people who knew perfectly well that it was toxic but stood to profit if it continued to be popular. Eventually the truth emerged and although it continued, limits were placed on the extent to which it could be inflicted on others, and efforts were made to protect children from it.

Not all of those 1000 will be 'new' trans kids, many will have contacted Mermaids in previous years.

Their supply is drying up so quickly that I predict we will see Mermaids fold within 6 months.

I noticed that Mermaid's annual return appeared on the Charity Commission's website a few days ago and I think even Mermaids must be wondering where all the trans kids have gone.

During 2024/2025 about 1000 unique children and YP contacted their support lines. That is a quarter of the number they had in their heyday (2021/2022).

I heard somebody my age (45) say: "When I was a child or teenager, if somebody had told me that little boys could become little girls, and vice versa, I would totally have believed them", making the point that children or teenagers who have not yet learned critical thinking might believe anything they are told.

Sadly, I’m with Stella on this.

As long as transgenderism is acceptable in adults, there will always be pressure to make it acceptable in children. Makes no difference that for the majority of trans-identifying adults it is a paraphilia, because most people do not understand this. The Be Kind mantras have sort-circuited many people’s capacity for rational thought, and many people cannot imagine such an expression of sexuality, either. They do not see that children and young people identify as trans as an escape from, whereas AGP men identify as Trans as an escape into.