Penna Dexter

A Brown University researcher has published a study that attempts to answer the question: 'Why are so many teenage girls showing up at gender clinics?' There are signs a sort of social contagion may be at work. Lisa Littman, an OB-GYN and behavior and social sciences professor at Brown University, authored the study. She facilitated detailed questioning of 256 parents whose teenage and young adult children suffer from rapid onset gender dysphoria. Dr. Littman says she took on this issue because:

"Parents have described clusters of gender dysphoria occurring in pre-existing friend groups with multiple or even all members of a friend group becoming gender dysphoric and transgender-identified in a pattern that seems statistically unlikely based on previous research."

87 percent of the children studied became gender dysphoric after friends did and/or after increasing their time online — on sites and in social media featuring advice from transgender activists. None of the kids in the study had been gender dysphoric before. However, sixty-two percent had previously been diagnosed with a psychiatric disorder or neurodevelopmental disability. One parent said her daughter stopped taking anti-depressants and ceased going to her psychiatrist, and instead began seeing a gender therapist. The mom said the girl saw transitioning as her cure. This study seems to suggest that some kids are self-identifying as trans as a coping mechanism — a harmful one like alcohol, drugs, or cutting. Some kids used threats of suicide to demand acceptance of their preferred gender status. A third of those studied asked for medical or surgical transition. Of the parents questioned for the study, many were ok with cross-dressing, but not on board with getting their kids hormones or surgery. The Left's criticism of this study was swift and sharp. The University pulled the story from its website and plans to organize a panel to "define directions for future work" on this. Dr. Littman plans more studies. She'll have to navigate this academic tyranny.