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PaperclipPerfector  8d ago (text post)   27215 thread views

Culture War Roundup for the week of May 26, 2025

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Anxiety around starting puberty does not need therapy, though. People have had it since time immemorial. It needs talking with the same sex parent. It does not need to be taken as a serious objection.

It does not need to be taken as a serious objection.

But the well-meaning (to be as charitable as I can) jump on it as indicating dysphoria which means "this child is trans" and then we get the "if not allowed to transition, they will commit suicide"

Puberty and Gender Incongruence
• There can be huge psychological stress: self-harm/suicidal ideation due to incongruence between the developing body and internal feelings and body image; e.g. periods/breasts developing or facial hair/deepening voice etc...
• Additional stressors of bullying and possible family rejection
• Young people often disclose around this age, as their bodies are developing and feeling ‘different’ to the way they feel inside. This can lead to co-occurring mental health difficulties, with suicidal ideation and self-harm (Mayock et al. 2009; McNeill et al., 2013). Eating disorders with over/under eating and also young people not wanting to use the bathroom.

and schools doing things like hiding from parents that their child is socially transitioning on the rationale that "parents not supporting their trans child is abuse", though that seems to be changing at least as far as official policy is concerned due to protests and backlash:

Communicating With Families
It is still important for schools to maintain positive communication and working relationships with family members. A consortium of LGBTQ advocacy groups and educational associations produced a guide for Colorado educators that includes the following advice about working with families:

“When contacting parents or guardians of a transgender or gender nonconforming student, school personnel should use the student’s legal name and the pronoun corresponding to the student’s gender assigned at birth unless the student, parents, and or guardian has indicated otherwise... In some cases, notifying parents of the student carries risk, such as being kicked out of the home or experiencing rejection from their family. Prior to notification of the family, school staff should work closely with the student and consider the health, well-being, and safety of the student.”

Detailed guidance from the Massachusetts Department of Education also offers helpful considerations in communicating with families, particularly when a student is the target of bullying and harassment:

“School officials should use their discretion in discussing the incident and avoid sharing information that might endanger the mental or physical health and safety of the student. Where the student has not disclosed his or her sexual orientation or gender identity, expression, to his or her parents and the student believes he or she may be at risk if it is disclosed, to the extent possible, discussion should focus on facts regarding the student's involvement as a target or aggressor and on safety planning, not on information that reveals the actual or perceived gender identity or sexual orientation of the student. As in all bullying incidents, school officials should offer resources and support to the student and family.”

Sure, I was taught that if I needed to talk about puberty I could go to my parents or maybe grandparents, but to only ask my doctor straightforward physical health questions and to not bother teachers, coaches, etc with such things at all.

This seems normal politeness and boundaries and not new-style paranoia to me(after all, it would never have occurred to my parents that doctors could turn me trans- it was simply assumed that anxiety about new feelings was impolite to discuss with them). My parents did, in fact, brush off my discomfort with starting puberty and I turned out fine. The need for conversion therapy wasn’t anticipatable-seeming and it did, in any case, work.

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