Why Trans Activism Is Doomed To Fail

In his 2021 special, The Closer, Dave Chappelle famously pointed out that Twitter isn’t a real place. Which is a relief. Because if it were, it would be by far the worst place in the world. 

Even without being a real place, Twitter has convinced millions of people to hate each other over trivial differences of opinion and identity. It’s normalised expressing those differences in the meanest, most toxic terms imaginable. And it’s taught an entire generation that the worth of a person’s character can be judged by a ten-year-old tweet. 

Twitter is a place where conversation often feels impossible, but it’s also a place where people like Angel Eduardo, the man behind the concept of “star-manning,” remind us why conversation is so vital:

If your cause is truly righteous and the stakes are really as high as you imagine, you have even more reason to be allergic to hyperbole and dishonesty in your efforts.

Each brick you lay on a foundation of bullshit will come down on you eventually.

Your means will be your end.

The toxic environment of Twitter is the ultimate stress test, not only for your ideas but for your ability to express them. Because the only thing that can survive it is the truth.

If you've been here for any amount of time, you'll know that another great stress test is talking about trans issues. And lately, there's been a lot to talk about.

Back in May, a journalist called Michel Shellenberger leaked a report containing hundreds of internal messages from the World Professional Association for Transgender Health (WPATH), the world’s leading body for guidance on transgender care. 

And it wasn’t good.

Some messages revealed that children didn’t understand—and therefore couldn’t consent to—the medical procedures they were undertaking (one patient didn’t even realise that testosterone injections would cause facial hair growth).

Others revealed failures to disclose potential links between hormone therapy and liver cancer.

Still others showed that patients were being rushed into medical transition despite mental health issues like PTSD and severe depression (one therapist bragged about withholding hormone treatment only one time in fifteen years. And only because the patient was in active psychosis and hallucinating during the assessment session).

This week, the UK’s National Health Service published the findings of the Cass Review, a 388-page, four-year investigation into gender identity services for young people in England. 

And arguably, it was even worse.

This report found that there was “no good evidence on the long-term outcomes of interventions to manage gender-related distress.” Found no evidence that social and medical transition improved mental health outcomes, and warned against “social justice” driving medical decision-making.

But those of us who've been paying attention weren’t surprised. 

The U.K. Labour Party, which until recently couldn’t say what a woman even was, immediately committed to implementing the report’s recommendations, which include limiting puberty blockers to research settings, a stronger focus on mental health services for gender nonconforming youth, and improved follow up care for young people who pursue medical or surgical transition.

But that won’t surprise many people either. We all know that politicians will bend whichever way the wind is blowing.

But given that these documents confirm what many of us have been saying for years regarding gender-affirming care, and directly contradict the people claiming to have “listened to trans people” it was a little surprising to see the reactions of those “true believers” on Twitter.