Stories of life for girls in US/Canadian schools facing pressure to self-ID as LGBTQ

[2catsandacomputer]

I was reading on Twitter and came across one tweet that reminded me of some of the things that Abigail Shrier had said previously about a lot of gender identity issues, especially in schools, were part of a "social contagion".

See here for an extract from her book:-

quillette.com/2020/07/08/discovering-the-link-between-gender-identity-and-peer-contagion/

The tweets seemed to be specifically related to north America, but is there the same sort of pressures here as well?

For context, my younger DS is now 25 so it's been a long time since I've had any contact with schools.

It seems to be so saddening that this has become so widespread. I remember back when I was young, there was sometimes an element of "competitive anorexia" amongst a small group. But this seems so widespread now. Is this just a US thing?

I have copied a number of tweets from that thread below to give an idea of the sort of comments being made.

twitter.com/GadSaad/status/1453203163805372419

My wife was chatting with another soccer mom who told her that in her daughter’s class, there are 8 girls. Five of the girls have declared that they are gay, LGBTQ, pansexual, or transgender. The daughter who is straight was told that it must suck for her to be straight.

Have seen this in college counseling, a female student upset b/c she found herself more attracted to males but her friend group all identified as anything but hetero/cis. She feared not fitting in. With younger kids the social pressures must be immense

My 10 year old daughter says it’s all any of the girls talk about. She was asked point blank on her first day at her new school as the new kid where she falls in the LGBTQ club. Now they keep asking if she’s sure she’s straight. This is in the Catholic system in Alberta.

We have all girls, and have been in multiple school districts across three states in recent years. I'd say this is the case with 70+% of all middle-to-high school aged girls. No evidence that it's anywhere close to that among boys.

Heard something similar about a buddies daughters class (she's 15). He claims around half her group of friends from school either identifies as gay or gender non-conforming of some description. I thought he must be exaggerating - maybe he's not...

My high school son told me yesterday, "Everyone is at least bisexual." I said, "Everyone? The boys?" He said, "Well, no, just the girls."

They are being sold a pup, aren't they? At the very least, the girls' time and energy taken up and wasted with this. It may damage some for life if they undergo medicalisation and surgery.

The figures become difficult as the majority of DDs friends describe themselves as pan, but mainly still have boyfriends. So yes whilst there is an element of social contagion it will not be long especially in girls that LGBT will be a majority.

It's bloody ridiculous. We know what social contagion is, we know how it works, we've seen it with multiple conditions. We also know how the less alarming system of trends and fashions works among school-age kids. It should be obvious to anyone that that's what's going on in the vast majority of cases of kids "being trans". Yet there's still this weird idea that as soon as someone identifies as trans it must be taken seriously and acted on and questioning it is wrong. It's so mindblowingly stupid and dangerous.

If identifying as something, which you don't have to prove in any way, gives you social cachet/membership of the cool gang, then OF COURSE tweens and teens are going to do that and it's not a reliable indicator of anything.

My DD's friendship group are at it too, aged 10/11. My DD, sensibly I thought in the circumstances, chose "bi" - I think probably because it has the vaguest meaning and least expectations attached. The friend who initially said she was gay is now identifying as a boy. So she could change her mind about being gay, but according to genderists being a boy is her "true identity" - it makes no sense.

A few years ago DD telling me she was "bi" might have meant something, but at the moment I know what it means is she has to choose an identity pronto. I've told her there is no pressure to make any decisions on anything like this. The one good sign is that they seem to have an awareness that it's about trendiness and the parents are all a bit and not pushing it.

Soon enough being straight will be exotic. I do think this will blow over but I wish it would hurry up.