@Beerincomechampagnetastes
This caught my eye.
The final word to Dr. Lisa Marchiano: “I think the last holdouts in all of this are going to be the parents who transitioned their children. They’ll never be able to admit that maybe they did something wrong.” Don’t be them.
Mermaids anyone?
They remind me of Jerrod Scepter's parents - strict Jehovah's Witnesses who let their son refuse a blood transfusion and die. They got deeper into the religion after his death and the governing body occasionally films them for JW Broadcasting videos and Watchtower interviews and the like, showing how loyal they were to the organisation that they sacrificed their child. They have to believe that they did the right thing and their son will be resurrected in the paradise earth after Armageddon, because the alternative - that they were manipulated and needlessly let their son die because eight blokes in America suddenly decided in the 1940s that the Bible didn't support certain medical procedures that weren't invented yet even though it'd violate the principle of preserving life above all other laws - is too awful to face. It's no wonder they cling to the belief, because the cost they've sunk into it is just so enormous. When you've done something like that to your child, you have to keep believing you did the right thing or face what you did.
Though to be fair to these parents, there are a lot of lobby groups that manipulated them and they can't shoulder all of the blame. Organisations that blackmailed them with irresponsible and inaccurate claims that their children would definitely commit suicide otherwise, the claims that all treatments are reversible, sexists, homophobes and ableists who told them that a gender nonconforming, gay or autistic kid was somehow wrong or broken, all of them. I hope the parents can come to terms with it and they and their children can reconcile. Though it's a bloody tough thing to face.