Myths
What's said isn't always true
A few standard lines that come back in every conversation — and that turn out to be air when you press on them. Per myth: what's being said, and what's factually true.
"Transition or suicide — do you want a dead daughter or a living son?"
What's factually true: this is emotional blackmail dressed up as statistics. The figures come from self-reported research with activist methodology (typically: an online survey among members of trans organisations).
Good population studies, like Dhejne's Swedish register research, show that suicide risk in trans-identified people remains elevated after transition and is linked to the same factors as in their peers — depression, loneliness, autism, prior trauma. Not to whether or not someone transitioned.
"Born in the wrong body"
What's factually true: no one is born in a wrong body. Sex is determined at conception and your body develops along that line — so it is always "the body that belongs to you". What some people feel is strong discomfort with that body, and that is real. But that discomfort is a feeling, not a biological error.
The sentence is often used by activists and care providers as a frame — as if there are two categories: cis (born in the right body) and trans (in the wrong one). That framing is philosophical speculation packaged as fact.
"Puberty blockers are reversible and give time to think"
What's factually true: the Cass Review (2024) concluded that the evidence for this claim is "remarkably weak". Up to 98% of those who get blockers proceed to hormones — versus 15-20% in children who don't get blockers.
Blockers halt bone growth (osteoporosis risk later), affect brain development with consequences we don't know, and in boys who get them before puberty the genitals never fully develop. That's not a pause. That's a different path.
"Detransition is rare — less than 1%"
What's factually true: that figure comes from studies with short follow-up (two to five years) and high dropout. People who regret often disappear from care — they don't go back to the clinic that started their treatment.
Studies with longer follow-up suggest 10-30% detransition or regret. The British Cass Review specifically pointed to the poor data capture: we don't even know how many people detransition, because no one tracks it.
"Being trans is the same as being left- or right-handed"
What's factually true: the comparison breaks on the most important point — a left-handed person doesn't have to do anything irreversible to be left-handed. A trans identification, by contrast, is converted in the affirmative route into hormones and surgeries within years.
Furthermore: 80% of children who identify as left-handed remain left-handed — for gender dysphoria in children the opposite holds (Drummond 2008, Singh/Bradley/Zucker 2021, Wallien & Cohen-Kettenis 2008: 70-90% no longer dysphoric after puberty). The comparison is also empirically wrong.
"Children themselves know best who they are"
What's factually true: children know what they feel. But interpreting what they feel as a lifelong identity is something their developing brains simply can't yet do. That's why a twelve-year-old can't buy alcohol, sign a contract, or drive a car.
It's not denigrating children to say they don't yet have the cognitive distance to weigh irreversible medical decisions. It's common sense, and it's how we treat every other serious decision for minors — except this one.
"Gender-affirming care is evidence-based"
What's factually true: the WPATH guidelines (SOC8) were drawn up by activists, not by independent researchers. The leaked internal communication (WPATH Files, 2024) shows that the organisation itself knows the evidence is weak.
Cochrane-style systematic reviews from recent years (UK, Sweden, Finland) consistently reach the same conclusion: the evidence for the affirmative approach is of very low quality. It's not science, it's a political position packaged as care.
"Trans people exist in every culture and every era"
What's factually true: what activists claim as "trans people in other cultures" (Two-Spirit, Hijra, Fa'afafine) is historically and anthropologically something different — often a third role for homosexual people or people who didn't fit heterosexual mating roles, not the modern "born in the wrong body" identity.
The current trans identity in its Western form is largely a phenomenon from after 1950, sharply accelerated since around 2010. That's not a problem in itself — attributing it to "eternal human experience" is a misrepresentation of history.
"Against transition = transphobic"
What's factually true: criticising a medical treatment model with weak evidence is not hatred. The Cass Review was led by a prominent paediatrician on commission from the NHS — not by protesters with placards.
The "transphobic" label is used to silence questions. That works sometimes — but it doesn't change that the questions are still there, and that the answers, in more and more countries, lead to revision of protocols.
"Waiting is cruel — as if you're not helping your child"
What's factually true: waiting is what the long-term data points to as wise. 70-90% of children with dysphoria were no longer dysphoric after puberty — if not medically treated (Drummond 2008, Wallien & Cohen-Kettenis 2008, Singh/Bradley/Zucker 2021). That's a majority not pushed towards hormones by waiting.
What is actually cruel: pushing a twelve-year-old girl into mastectomies by the age of seventeen. That has happened. That's now court material, because it's becoming ever clearer that this wasn't the care she was promised.