49 Comments
User's avatar
Kai's avatar

Even though transphobes are trying to frame this supposed phase as a childhood thing, they will readily accuse trans adults of going through a phase when they come out too. Not wanting minors to transition is a flimsy goalpost that will move the second they believe they have a chance to ban transition for everyone.

Expand full comment
Tony D's avatar

Thank you for debunking this Erin

Expand full comment
Loree Cook-Daniels's avatar

This has nothing to do with trans children. These are youth doing what they're supposed to do and what is normal: imagining how they might be in the world. Of course that would include sometimes thinking about being another gender, just as it might include thinking about being an astronaut, firefighter, birthworker, etc. These people don't want kids to have imagination, either.

Expand full comment
Alex's avatar

If you're a novelist or aspiring novelist, you sometimes imagine what others from another "POV" are like, including women.

Expand full comment
Nicola A's avatar

Why can't conservatives ever report in good faith? That's rhetorical, I know the reason.

Expand full comment
allie's avatar

It's just too difficult for them to win an election without gerrymandering. Dishonesty and cheating are just a means to an end. As Machiaveli said the end justifies the means.

Expand full comment
Alex's avatar

They tried to do a coup attempt in 2021 when they lost an election too.

Expand full comment
Miriam's avatar

These assholes need a study to figure out how trans adults blink into existence if trans kids are desisting at 80%.

Expand full comment
JMom.0's avatar

Another possible reason F might say they want to be M is because of awareness of the unfairness of the patriarchy.

Expand full comment
KingRayVet's avatar

Nope. Never even occurred to me and I knew something was up when I was 6. Nothing to support what was going on in my head during the 1960's. I just didn't have language (or wisdom) to articulate anything.

When it occurred to me that I'm a male, those thoughts never occurred to me either and I was surprised when I started experiencing male-privilege. I was 58. None of that was the reason I transitioned. Chaz Bono is the first t-man I ever saw and it was my relatedness to him that brought alive all the memories of my youth; here and there throughout my life. From there, I connected the dots.

I was afraid of society and didn't know what was going to happen, but I knew it might not be good. I was afraid to come out to my family a second time in my life. I knew that would be an uphill battle. I still wouldn't change a thing.

Again, thoughts of the patriarchy never even entered my mind. Not long after I began my transition, I did have this thought, "Oh shit, I'm a Black man! UGH," not, "Oh yippee, I'm a Black man!"

So, I alone can debunk that bullshit.

Expand full comment
Ashton Mercer's avatar

I knew right off the bat that the headline of being trans being "just a phase" was bs when I saw it came from the Daily Mail. anything that comes from them or the Daily Wire or the Daily ShitMcnuggets usually is just propoganda.

Expand full comment
Jamie Holleran's avatar

Every day another hurtful headline. I'm so fed up with this. Elon amplifying this obvious misinformation is infuriating.

Expand full comment
Alex's avatar

He controls the algorithms now, ultimately.

Expand full comment
KingRayVet's avatar

That's not possible, man. I was a software engineer and no way can one man control all the algorithms in the U.S., let alone the world. NO WAY! Unless you know how those things work, and I used to write them, I don't know where you got THAT from. Hmmmm....

Expand full comment
Alex's avatar

Err, not in the U.S. or Internet as a whole, but on his platform (Twitter), his word is law, is what I'm trying to get at.

Expand full comment
KingRayVet's avatar

Ah yes. On that thang called Twitter/X. And it's not that he controls algorithms. He's letting racists loose all over that place. Trolling is their way of life and I think he loves it. All platforms have ridiculous algorithms now. Always trying to control someone's language, with no context, and pointing those things at certain people ... while not others. Also confusing terminology like AI with software tricks. LOL

Expand full comment
Jamie Holleran's avatar

It's more than that; he owns the company and has mandated changes to the algorithm and the safety guidelines. He's not some passive boss in this who is simply letting bad apples do their thing. He's in charge of it and has very clearly broadcast his intention to change Shitter to be a hate platform, regardless of any rosey rhetoric to the contrary he may employ.

Expand full comment
KingRayVet's avatar

I didn't say he's passive. If I told you what I really thought of that clown, you'd be offended. I'm saying the algorithms aren't any more obnoxious than other platforms like Fuckerbook. Otherwise known to me as Facebook. There's other rich people to be worried about than him. JK Rowling, or whatever her name is, is far more catastrophic to us than him. They're all hateful and ridiculous human beings. You'd better keep your eye on Google & Apple. They're controlling many things. In fact, corporations are at the helm, no matter who is running the show.

Expand full comment
nwclerk1989's avatar

Quick error correction on the line "parents of 'sissy boys' or masculine girls taking their parents in for psychological treatment".

I'm guessing your child having gender dysphoria doesn't lead to taking the child's *grandparents* in for conversion therapy, haha.

Expand full comment
Erin Reed's avatar

Hahahaha, that's a funny typo. Thanks, corrected :)

Expand full comment
nwclerk1989's avatar

Then again, that would be just as scientifically sound as taking the child themselves to conversion therapy, so who knows what the wacky bigots might try next?

Expand full comment
Vanessa Schmithorst's avatar

They're just flat out lying.

Expand full comment
Alex's avatar

As always.

Expand full comment
Joan the Dork's avatar

The Daily Mail- all the journalistic integrity of Fox News, but you can read it in a posh British accent to sound like a 𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘭 intellectual!

Ugh... gag me with a shovel. No surprise, though, coming from that scream rag. They only do fact-checking to make sure they're getting the facts 𝘸𝘳𝘰𝘯𝘨.

Expand full comment
Alex's avatar

The Daily Mail is outright notorious for being schlock, even worse than Fox News, in some senses.

Expand full comment
Scout Kopech's avatar

Thank you for addressing that Erin! There’s very little in terms of new information in that article and the skew, which is par for the course from the author and the site, is ridiculous.

Expand full comment
Juliet Martinez's avatar

The Daily Mail is patently awful, but most people in the US seem not to know this.

Expand full comment
Alex's avatar

The worst of the worst in British news.

Expand full comment
MARGO ALLEN's avatar

You nipped that one in the bud Erin! Thanks. I had just read that one yesterday in Blaze News🤮 Gotta see what is topical in other information silos to b relevant. Just the headline made me scoff( Do I really need infuriating misinformation and the Ra! Ra! of the peanut gallery in comment threads??)

But I read it and noted all it did not say about how they arrived at such conclusions....

Very unconvincing, yet I know it fits the world view of bigots everywhere.

Expand full comment
Kristine Coons's avatar

Well done! Thank you!

Expand full comment
allie's avatar

Was that "DeVos" as in former secretary of education and co conspirator of the Trump administration tasked with privatizing public education. Also heir to the Amway pyramid scam fortune ?

Expand full comment
Alex's avatar

I believe they're related.

Expand full comment