Anyone else hearing of backlash against trans ideology among their teens?

[KnittingDiva]

My 14 year old DS has been telling me that among his age group now there is no tolerance for Trans/NB TikTok influencers and that they are being ridiculed etc..

This is a very different attitude than when my older two (17 and 19) were at that age and it was the start of that trend and they would have been overtly respectful on that issue (would have avoided it mostly but not ridicule).

It seems it is now seen as being an 'older' person trying to be cool with the kids and a bit creepy.

Anyone else noticed this change or is it just here (Rep of Ireland)?

Loads of people are staying quiet about it at work.

The civil service is awash with people who think it’s utter, dangerous nonsense but don’t feel they can raise that because they fear they’ll be excommunicated.

Higher education is too. Wrong speak in the humanities and social sciences can be career ending.

There will be a flood when the dam comes down.

It must be horrendous for those parents of Rapid Onset girls.

Mind you I mentioned a primary age girl earlier on who returned to school after the lock-down and was idetifing as a boy. She has an older sister who apparently identifies as non-binary. Both parents, I believe, are psycho therapists, or certainly in that field.

Same here (public services)

Do you remember the phenomenon of ‘Indigo Children’ from about 20 years ago?

Sometimes I suspect the ‘trans children’ and ‘nonbinary kiddos’ of activist/therapist parents are just the latest version:

amp.theguardian.com/society/2006/aug/05/familyandrelationships.lifeandhealth

OP it's heartening to hear you say this as you're in ROI. I'm in NI & whilst trans ideology had started to raise it's head here, down south seemed well and truly caught in its grasp.
I'm so happy to hear that Irish teens are starting to see through this.

Have Irish nephews and they are not sold on any of it. They see social media as being dominated by teenage girls though who will pounce on a tiny word they say wrong so they don’t share these views publicly. They are very supportive of their male friends coming out as gay, which to them is different. Some of the people they know who are trans seem really troubled.

The girls are more supportive of trans ideology, but generally because it seems that girls are more dominant language wise on social media.

Here in the UK I do know two parents with trans female kids who want to be male, and it’s causing no end of difficulties. The parents are affluent middle class, Guardian readers, and are supportive of their kids, calling them their new name and pronouns.

The difficulties are that the kids really seem troubled, one has huge mental health problems which they insist are all about being a boy but I’m not so sure, they don’t want to change their all girls grammar school but want to be treated as a boy with male toilets etc, and the other one has been bullying her parent and I do wonder if other kids see some of the problems and just think ‘steer clear’?

Unfortunately because most of the kids identifying as trans were already struggling socially due to autism, trauma, bullying etc. many of the younger Gen Z kids look at older trans teens and see them as weird and losers. They don’t think being trans is cool. I have heard comments from younger kids (11-13) and they prefer to avoid the trans kids. They admire older kids who are skilled socially or athletically or artistically or whatever. I think they also think the older trans kids are immature. They just don’t want to emulate them anyway.

It would be interesting to see if there is a 'backlash' that correlates with the increase in young women seeking treatment for 'gender dysphoria' - an unexpected result of reinforcing gender stereotypes, is that young women reject them altogether. This potentially affects straight men, and therefore cannot be tolerated.

Yes I wonder about this. My colleagues daughter has gone from presenting as being a non-binary lesbian to being a gay man and is on a gay dating site. They're going to have a mastectomy at some point and are taking testosterone. So basically they are a heterosexual woman who is actively avoiding heterosexual men probably due to some sort of trauma.

Not nice to do it to their faces, but I see nothing morally wrong with privately ridiculing people who believe ridiculous things.

My dd is 17. She understands basic biology and knows that people can't actually change sex. She believes in the importance of protecting single sex spaces and she recognises that notions of gender are largely based on sex stereotypes that aren't helpful to anyone. She knows that gender is not actually a thing. That said, she would not ridicule anyone who does buy into gender ideology, she would respect people's chosen names and pronouns etc, and she is disturbed by what she perceives as some of the more aggressive feminist rhetoric on this subject, which she thinks actually alienates a lot of young people from their cause.

This is an issue. DS2 and his friends definitely avoid the trans kids. They are very obviously troubled young people and the trans ideology - plus how it’s being handled at school - are making them more socially isolated. They are just friends with each other and everyone else avoids them entirely, both because of the danger of being called ‘transphobic’ if they don’t police their language enough and because the trans kids seem to entirely define themselves and their interests by trans ideology (so the other kids just have nothing in common with them).

Things were crap for lots of kids in the 90s when I was at school (especially for gay kids or those with MH issues), but at least none of the teachers were setting up celebratory bulimia clubs and offering advice/encouraging advice giving about the best laxatives.

My colleagues daughter has gone from presenting as being a non-binary lesbian to being a gay man and is on a gay dating site.

I’m sure gay men are likely to be annoyed by this, and who could blame them? I recall an issue with a gay sauna a while ago. In fact this:

www.attitude.co.uk/news/world/london-gay-sauna-kicks-out-trans-man-for-not-having-a-penis-297475/

I can’t see how a surgically constructed penis would be acceptable either. Gay men are attracted to actual men, not imitations.

I just can’t get my head around a woman “being” a gay man. How does that work? I can’t see how gay men would be sexually attracted to her, given that they’re attracted to men, not women 😵‍💫

I recall a few years ago the Guardian (again) got into a spot of bother with its weekly Blind Date column. They match up people who then write about their experiences afterwards. It is all presented in a fairly lighthearted way. They set up a date between a lesbian transwoman (aka a man) and a lesbian woman. Needless to say the latter was not too impressed as she was not informed that the date would be with a TW. When she complained there was the predictable 'transphobe' pile on. "How dare she not be attracted to a biological male in full possession of a penis"

I'm glad I am not the only one getting a headache thinking about it.

Oh well, cover me in butter and call me a transphobe.

@DanseAvecLesLoup A migraine rather than a headache…What you wrote about the Guardian: she complained and was called “transphobic” for not being attracted to a man?! WTH? The entitlement…

Here you go!

“Things were crap for lots of kids in the 90s when I was at school (especially for gay kids or those with MH issues), but at least none of the teachers were setting up celebratory bulimia clubs and offering advice/encouraging advice giving about the best laxatives”

This is one of my main issues with Trans ideology and it’s harmful effects. We all know that humans can’t change sex, so why encourage the delusions of those with gender dysphoria? Encouraging anorexics to starve themselves due to their body dysmorphia would be condemned. Rightly so. Why is this different?

This seems to be an element of the way sexuality too is treated in schools at the moment, which I think is also causing parents to look askance at that element.

Here in Canada most schools now have GSA clubs - gay straight alliance. Including at the elementary level, so ages 4 to about 12. These clubs largely seem to be filled with kids who don't fit in elsewhere - the kids who, when I was in school, found a place in the alternative music oriented kids, or artistic kids, or nerds. They get together and do social events and bake and hang out. In my son's school about half are special education kids. In fact when school groups were all canceled due to the pandemic, this was the only one that continued to run.

There can also be some real pressure at some schools to join the group, my friend's daughter was the only girl in her class not to join at age 12 - they were all, apparently, lesbians.

The adults running these things seem to be totally clueless about what is going on.

Thanks. I’ll take this every time I read threads like this one.

@DemiColon
Children aged 4-12 join a group called Gay Straight Alliance in Canadian SCHOOLS?

Why do 4-12 year olds need to know anything about gay / straight whatever? Why is sexuality brought into baking classes for children?

Isn’t this a form of grooming?

Every time I read anything about Canada on here I thank God for not being born or growing up there.

This is good to be aware of and your DD can do as she wishes. However, there are plenty of threads on here explaining why calling people by opposite sex pronouns is very problematic. IMO your DD is displaying classic female socialisation of 'be kind'.

This springs to mind:

@DemiColon Wow, that’s just bonkers! Let’s hope the UK doesn’t go down that route.