Part 1 in 4-part series, ‘Mutilation or Healthcare?’
By Alison Despathy
With coupons for testosterone, minds molded by heavily monetized influencers, a false sense of belonging and support from online chatrooms dominated by questionable facilitators, impressionable, vulnerable youth sacrifice their minds and bodies for mutilation falsely labeled as healthcare.
One of the recent manias to arise in society, this phenomenon of ‘gender affirming care’ for youth is bringing parents to their knees and forcing families and medical providers to reevaluate what is healthcare versus mutilation. Youth experiencing intense, often uncomfortable development and a natural identity crisis, historically honored with ancient rites of passage, are desperately seeking extreme actions with profound consequences in a quest for resolution from their struggles and pain. Urgent societal questions emerge from this crisis that must be addressed.
What differentiates healthcare from mutilation?
What age is a child or young adult able to make informed health decisions for themselves?
What other factors influence these situations and why are we not discussing this?
Are we failing our children?
These questions are compounded by the fact that in this world today, and first in history ever, a generation of youth have been raised on devices and continually bombarded with manipulative marketing and advertising ruled by personalized programmed AI and chatbots, deceptively designed as ‘information’ sites and support groups. Constantly profiled, data mined for profit and run through algorithms, youth are directed down online paths that fuel their greatest fears and deepest desires. This all during a time naturally wrought with self esteem issues, insecurity, loneliness, and a quest for belonging and identity.
Our vulnerable children’s minds are the prey and in the case of ‘gender affirming care’ in youth this extends to their physical bodies. Behavior modification via online nudging is both an art and science funded by companies seeking high profits and the possibility of lifetime customers The world of advertising and public relations has moved far beyond catchy tunes, pretty packaging and a plea for your penny; full force mind control and brainwashing, perfected through marketing and the distillation of metadata are now the norm. Emotional and psychological manipulation are the order of the day and people of all ages succumb, often unknowingly.
To blindly move along with this experimental agenda without asking fundamental questions and seeking answers to a difficult and controversial issue is a disservice to our children, the future of humanity and the direction of society.
For endless reasons running the gambit of abuse, drugs, societal stress, poverty, teenage angst and mental health issues, many youth today–whether imaginary or not–feel disconnected from their families, real world peers and physical bodies. This ancient and genetically forged desire, really need, to belong rules self esteem, self-worth, even survival. Genetic memory prioritizing a sense of belonging and community is tribal and is no doubt to some degree the reason humanity has survived. Teamwork, camaraderie, purpose and identity have historically bound humans through time and life
Trans agenda critics utter the word cult while organizations focused on trans youth promise a supportive pathway and community. It could be argued, even identified, that the trans message for youth offers, and as many assert preys upon, this inherent need of humans to seek meaning and to live in a cooperative and supportive community with like minded allies.
Culturally speaking, the trans community is filling this void for some youth and young adults struggling in a polarized, distracted and in many degrees lost world. A reality that should direct the adults in the room to the immediate work needed to build and refocus energy on tight knit, on the ground communities and strong families, for the sake of our children and each other.
It is safe to say most Vermonters ardently support the gay community and a person’s right to choose who they love and who they want to walk this life journey with. To many this is personal and private. If a full grown adult chooses to be trans, why would anyone stop them? We live in a free society and we all hold rights to be who we are and live our lives. This is not the problem and should not be conflated with the issue of impressionable, vulnerable youth seeking controversial, experimental and dangerous medication and mutilation falsely labeled as healthcare.
The brains of our youth and young adults undergo continual development. Executive function, critical thinking skills and identity are an ongoing work in progress, as any adult understands. When it comes to our youth and the world we live in today, with minds easily manipulated, often struggling to find joy and belonging, we owe it to our children to protect and guide them through this confusing world, ruled by predators and profit who will stop at nothing and do NOT care about you or your children.
“A democratic society gives its citizens the right to act as free agents. At the same time, it imposes on them the responsibility for maintaining their freedom, mental as well as political. If through the use of modern medical, chemical and mechanical techniques of intrusion (i.e. drugs,screens), we reduce man’s capacity to act on his own initiative, we subvert our beliefs and weaken our democratic system. Just as there is deliberate political brainwashing, so can there be a suggestive intrusion masquerading under the name of justice or therapy. This may be less obtrusive than the deliberate totalitarian attack, but it is no less dangerous.” Joost Merloo (author, Medical Doctor, psychiatrist and WWII survivor under the Nazi occupation in the Netherlands).
The author is a clinical nutritionist and educator living in Danville.