Here's an example of how detrans people's experiences can be turned into anti-trans conversion practices. Partners for Ethical Care created a "desistance/detransition" survey and are now using the findings to write a book for parents on how to "detrans" their trans kid.
PEC's survey was targeted both at detrans and desisted people and at parents of detrans/desisted people. Through out the survey, detrans/desisted people are referred to as "the child" regardless of age, even if the person is an adult. Creepy.
They're upfront about why they're collecting this data, to help parents of trans youth try to get their child to desist or detransition. The survey includes questions about what parents did to get their children to desist or detransition and advice for parents.
The survey assumes that young people are being turned trans by "gender ideology", "affirming communities", and other external social forces. This could be used to justify restricting young people's access to the internet, information about trans people, supportive friends, etc.
It also linked being trans to mental illness. The survey asked about why people detransitioned/desisted, including such options as "became bored with transgender ideology" and being convinced that "gender ideology was illogical"
Transphobic groups are going to keep protesting at clinics treating trans youth. I'm still figuring out what the best response is but one thing that's important to factor in is their target audience.
I can understand not wanting to give these groups any media coverage, problem is they're going to get it from more conservative media outlets. Here's the Christian Post interviewing members of LGBFightBack and Parents of ROGD Kids. web.archive.org/web/2021022320…
And spreading their conspiracy theories to an audience that's more inclined to believe them. That's what really worries me. They're reaching out to people who already don't trust liberal/mainstream media and are already fairly transphobic.
Convincing a trans person that they're trans because of trauma is incredibly harmful. It's a conversion practice. Lots of people like to make a connection between trauma and gender dysphoria but there's not much research or other evidence to back it up. People need to know that.
It's theoretically possible for trauma to cause gender dysphoria or something that resembles it but it's dangerous to assert a connection with such limited evidence and without taking into account how that could negatively impact trans people, particularly trans trauma survivors.
Trans people are already pathologized/stigmatized so heavily. Experiencing trauma can make you feel like there's something wrong with you. Unhealed trauma can be excruciating. All that can make trans trauma survivors especially vulnerable to conversion therapy/practices.
Need, narrative, network, or filling a need one has, gaining a sense of meaning/purpose and finding a group to belong to. These are all factors researchers who study "extremist" groups identify as playing important roles in how these groups recruit people.
A person is suffering, has some kind of problem, some kind of need they want to fill, etc and they're looking for a solution. They find a group that gives them a place to belong and gives them ideas/stories that explain their problems and how to fix them and also often give...
...them a role in a larger us vs them kind of struggle. Often, they join the group first, develop a connection with people in it and then they pick up the group's ideology. Indoctrination follows human connection and is often about strengthening that connection.
Robert Stoller, transphobic psychoanalyst, thought transmasculinity was caused by an afab child developing too close of a relationship with their father, while developing a distant relationship with their mother. He summed it up as "Too much father, not enough mother".
Rad fem theory is similar in some ways, too much patriarchy, not enough positive (radical feminist) female influence. Both of them posit an outside masculine influence distorting the development of a "proper" female identity in a transmasculine person.
Both theories assume an afab person should develop a female sense of self though bonding with cis women and see any deviation from that as a problem that should be corrected if at all possible, through therapy or radical feminist consciousness raising, respectively.
Found this on Ovarit, someone recommending people check out The Transgender Industrial Complex, a book written by a fascist promoting antisemitic transphobic conspiracy theories. The book is also very racist and homophobic. This is very troubling.
Here's a link to a transcript of the conversation for those using screenreaders. pastebin.com/raw/rzeMq57H
Found the conversation on this thread about "who's funding the trans movement".
I've come across gender crit feminists like Kara Dansky use the transhumanist Jewish billionaire conspiracy theory to justify working with right-wing Christian organizations like the Heritage Foundation. She argues that the "trans industry" is so well funded and powerful...
...that they need all the help they can get defeating it, including help from conservative Christians. The conspiracy theories allow them justify their right-wing alliances and connect with right-wingers who are sympathetic to the idea that the LGBT movement is funded by...
...transhumanist Jewish, trans and/or gay billionaires. It's important to see what function these conspiracy theories play in bringing together various hate groups and creating a narrative where they can claim victimhood. They're creating an enemy that justifies using any means..