The Patriot Post® · 'Transgender' Activists Claim Social Contagion Isn't a Factor

NBC’s Out section — dedicated to LGBTQ+ news — published an article crowing over a study that seemingly calls into question the notion that some kids who claim to be “transgender” might be suffering from a social contagion. The study was published in no less an authoritative source than the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP), so it must be totally unbiased and true, right?

Well … no.

From the get-go, the study was pursued to contradict an earlier study by Dr. Lisa Littman, whose 2018 paper was the first to sound the alarm bells on the rapidly rising number of young women (ages 12+) who were claiming to be gender dysphoric. Those who oppose this paper by Dr. Littman claim it was invalid because she questioned the parents of these children and not the children themselves.

This claim is absurd on its face. Parents are, in general, more reliable narrators and tend to be experts on their children’s behaviors and proclivities. This newer study published in the AAP only surveys the children ages 12-18. According to its data collection, more children claimed to be transgender in 2017 than did so in 2019. The trend was downward, therefore Littman’s theory is “disproved.”

It’s also interesting to note that two of the four writers of the AAP-published study are deeply invested in or connected with the gender dysphoria industry. Dr. Alex S. Keuroghlian is director of the National LGBTQIA+ Health Education Center. Dr. Jack Turban is, as the study itself says, an “expert witness [who receives] payments from the American Civil Liberties Union and Lambda Legal. He has received a pilot research award for general psychiatry residents from the American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry and its industry donors (Arbor and Pfizer) and a research fellowship from the Sorensen Foundation.” These facts about the researchers reasonably call into question the integrity of the study.

As far as the AAP study’s conclusions go, we can see with our own eyes that gender dysphoria — especially amongst young women who are more easily influenced by social pressure — is a social contagion. This was made especially apparent after the 2020 COVID lockdowns, when children were stuck in their homes, mindlessly scrolling through social media and leading them down the “transgender” rabbit hole.

Dr. Littman isn’t the only one to notice this phenomenon. Abigail Shrier wrote a book called Irreversible Damage in which she uses her own journalistic acumen to pursue this rising phenomenon.

Then there are the teachers and other people in positions of authority who are pushing the “transgender” agenda. One very recently explained how her whole second grade class came out to her as “transgender.”

Left-leaning Bill Maher even did a segment pointing out that this trend is on the rise. If one needs further proof, just look to the Hollywood elite — the notorious trend followers — and how many of them or their own children are claiming to be “transgender.”

At the end of the day, this study is another red herring set to distract us from the crucially important issue: The “transgender” ideology is one that is being used by powerful people to influence, control, destroy financially, destroy emotionally, and destroy mentally vulnerable kids. This “study” is just another attempt to rewrite history in real time.