The Drop in Trans Identification: A Dangerous Fad That Hurt Our Kids

A decade of adults failed the children they claimed to protect. Now, the truth is catching up.

Over the last decade, we watched a social movement explode seemingly out of nowhere. Suddenly, children barely in middle school were being told that discomfort with their bodies might mean they were born in the wrong one. The message was repeated everywhere—on TikTok, in classrooms, in children’s books, and even in medical clinics. The number of teenagers identifying as transgender skyrocketed. But now, it’s starting to drop.

In my opinion, that decline isn’t a mystery. It’s the natural correction of a cultural hysteria—a fad that captured schools, media, and medicine. It was a dangerous fad that harmed young people, divided families, and destroyed reputations of those who dared to question it. The adults who encouraged it—teachers, activists, doctors—should be held accountable for grooming children into irreversible decisions under the banner of progress.

The Rise of a Social Phenomenon

A decade ago, gender dysphoria was rare. Traditionally, it affected a very small number of children, typically boys, who expressed persistent cross-sex identification from early childhood. The medical approach was conservative—watchful waiting, counseling, and, in most cases, eventual reconciliation with one’s biological sex.

Then, around 2013–2015, something changed. Clinics around the world reported an unprecedented surge in adolescent girls suddenly identifying as boys or nonbinary. Dr. Lisa Littman, a researcher at Brown University, described this as Rapid Onset Gender Dysphoria (ROGD)—a pattern emerging within peer groups, particularly among girls already struggling with anxiety, depression, or autism.

Her research sparked outrage. Activists demanded it be retracted. Yet the phenomenon was clear: gender transition had become a social identity—an idea spreading through online communities, reinforced by teachers and therapists who saw affirmation as compassion.

It wasn’t organic—it was cultural. Social media platforms like TikTok and Tumblr became engines of identity formation. Algorithms rewarded personal transformation stories, creating a feedback loop where the most dramatic narratives—coming out as trans, starting hormones, documenting surgeries—generated the most validation. Young people, especially those seeking belonging, saw these transitions as both escape and empowerment.

Schools as Ideological Laboratories

At the same time, many public schools began adopting “gender-affirming” policies, often written by activist organizations rather than psychologists. Guidance counselors were trained to affirm any student declaring a new identity, even without parental consent.

In some districts, students could choose new names and pronouns at school, while parents were deliberately kept in the dark. Teachers were told that “outing” a student to their family could be considered unsafe or discriminatory.

This was not accidental—it was institutional grooming. Adults who were entrusted to educate began to socially transition children, bypassing their parents. Instead of helping kids understand that identity crises are part of growing up, they encouraged them to declare themselves trans and validated it immediately.

To be clear, “grooming” here isn’t about criminal acts—it’s about conditioning: steering vulnerable children toward an ideological and medical path that they cannot fully understand. Many of these kids were isolated, anxious, and looking for meaning. Instead of mental health support, they were handed a new label—and a path toward irreversible change.

The Medicalization of Confusion

Once a child identified as transgender, the next steps followed quickly. The model of care known as “gender-affirming treatment” replaced caution with affirmation. It meant that doctors, therapists, and clinics were expected to take a child’s self-diagnosis at face value.

In practice, that meant putting minors on puberty blockers within months of coming out. These drugs—originally developed for cancer or precocious puberty—halt normal sexual and physical development. Advocates said they were reversible. The truth, as studies now show, is far less certain. Blocking puberty interferes with bone density, neurological development, and fertility.

After blockers came cross-sex hormones. Girls as young as 13 were prescribed testosterone; boys were given estrogen. These powerful hormones permanently change body composition, fertility, and voice. Once started, most adolescents never stop—leading almost inevitably to medical transition.

Surgeries followed. “Top surgery” (double mastectomy) was promoted online as a rite of passage. Some clinics even advertised chest reconstruction for minors. Genital surgeries, while rarer, have been performed on patients under 18 in the U.S.

The medical establishment failed these kids. Instead of addressing the underlying causes of distress—bullying, depression, autism, trauma—it endorsed body modification as treatment. This wasn’t healthcare. It was ideology disguised as medicine.

Silencing Critics and Suppressing Truth

Any movement built on fragile logic needs censorship to survive. From the start, professionals who questioned the gender-affirming model faced career-ending consequences.

Dr. Kenneth Zucker, one of the world’s leading experts on gender dysphoria, was fired from his clinic in Canada for suggesting therapy before transition. Lisa Littman’s peer-reviewed study on ROGD was retracted after activist backlash, then quietly republished with minimal changes.

Even journalists faced suppression. Major outlets refused to publish dissenting views, labeling them “anti-trans.” Parents who voiced concern were branded as bigots or transphobes. On social media, entire accounts were banned for sharing peer-reviewed data.

This silencing created a moral panic where critical thinking was forbidden. “Affirmation” became a moral test. Doubt was treated as hate. The result was mass conformity within institutions that should have known better.

It’s only now—years later—that cracks are forming in the narrative. Major medical reviews, once unthinkable, are finally happening. The truth always surfaces, even if it takes years.

International Reversals: The World Wakes Up

The turning point came not from American politics, but from Europe. In 2022 and 2023, several countries that had been pioneers in pediatric transition began walking it back.

The UK’s Cass Review, an independent investigation into the Tavistock Gender Identity Development Service (GIDS), found systemic failures. The report concluded that the clinic prioritized affirmation over caution, lacked robust evidence, and failed to safeguard children’s welfare. As a result, Tavistock—the UK’s only youth gender clinic—was shut down.

Sweden and Finland followed, sharply restricting puberty blockers and cross-sex hormones for minors outside of research settings. They concluded the risks outweighed potential benefits. These are not conservative nations; they are among the most progressive in the world. Yet even they recognized that what had been called “gender-affirming care” had outpaced science.

Meanwhile, in the United States, political polarization keeps honest discussion hostage. States like California and Washington have passed “sanctuary” laws for minors seeking transition without parental consent, while others like Florida and Texas have moved to restrict medical interventions on children entirely.

But across all ideologies, the data is forcing a reckoning. The drop in youth trans identification is part of that awakening. When the media hype subsides and reality sets in, what remains are thousands of young adults coping with regret, irreversible changes, and deep emotional scars.

The Human Toll: Detransitioners Speak Out

Perhaps the most compelling evidence that this was a fad comes from those who lived it.

The stories of detransitioners—young people who underwent medical transition and later reversed course—are multiplying. Their testimonies reveal a generation of kids who were rushed through therapy, encouraged to see surgery as liberation, and told that questioning meant betrayal of their “true self.”

Many describe being diagnosed and prescribed hormones after just a few appointments. They weren’t given alternatives. They weren’t told what lifelong medicalization truly meant. Now, some live with chronic pain, infertility, or irreversible voice and bone changes.

What’s most striking is their anger not just at themselves, but at the adults who enabled it. They trusted doctors, teachers, and therapists. They thought these professionals had their best interests at heart. Instead, ideology replaced ethics.

These stories are now the conscience of the movement—a reminder that compassion without caution is cruelty.

Cultural Factors: Why It Spread So Fast

The trans trend didn’t happen in a vacuum. It grew out of a broader cultural obsession with identity politics and victimhood. In a world where meaning is often measured by labels, being trans became a badge of authenticity and rebellion.

Teenagers crave belonging. Many of them—especially girls—were struggling with anxiety, loneliness, and digital dependency. Social media offered instant validation. Influencers turned transition into content. “Coming out” videos gained millions of likes, while any expression of doubt was met with hostility.

This was identity as performance—a digital contagion. Psychologists have long known that adolescence is the most impressionable stage of development. The trans fad exploited that vulnerability, turning genuine mental health struggles into ideology.

And because opposing it risked public shaming, even adults fell silent. It’s easier to go along with the trend than to be branded hateful. That silence allowed the movement to grow unchecked for years.

Accountability: Who Should Be Held Responsible?

It’s not enough to say “mistakes were made.” Mistakes imply accidents. What happened here was deliberate.

Teachers were trained to socially transition students without telling parents. Medical institutions ignored evidence and ethical standards. Activists rewrote school curriculums to normalize transition while censoring biological facts.

Accountability should start with transparency:

• Schools must be required to inform parents of any social transition.
• Medical boards should reexamine clinics that prescribed hormones to minors without long-term studies.
• Lawmakers should end taxpayer funding for institutions that facilitate or conceal gender transitions for children.

But moral accountability goes beyond policy. Every adult who looked the other way bears responsibility. Society’s duty to protect children outweighs its desire to appear virtuous.

Parents, meanwhile, must reclaim their role. The family is the first and most important safeguard against ideology. If a child struggles, they need therapy, patience, and love—not political indoctrination or chemical alteration.

The Drop: A Cultural Reversal

The decline in youth trans identification shows that reality has started to reassert itself. When truth collides with ideology, truth eventually wins.

More young people are realizing that their confusion was temporary, not evidence of being born in the wrong body. Some are speaking out, warning others not to repeat their mistakes. Medical institutions are backpedaling. Even the media—once complicit in promoting this narrative—is beginning to acknowledge the harm.

This drop isn’t hatred; it’s healing. It’s what happens when the noise fades and the human cost becomes undeniable. The fad is collapsing under the weight of its own excesses.

Why This Matters

This matters because children are not experiments. They are not political tools. They deserve protection from ideologies that prey on their confusion.

It matters because trust—between parents and schools, between patients and doctors—has been shattered. Restoring it means confronting hard truths and holding those in authority accountable.

It matters because the line between compassion and harm has been blurred. True compassion means safeguarding kids, not sacrificing them on the altar of political correctness.

And it matters because culture has consequences. When adults abdicate responsibility in the name of inclusion, it’s the vulnerable who pay the price. The next time a new “movement” emerges claiming to liberate youth, we should remember this one—and refuse to repeat it.

References

• Littman, L. (2018). Rapid-onset gender dysphoria in adolescents and young adults: A study of parental reports. PLOS ONE.
• Cass, H. (2024). Independent Review of Gender Identity Services for Children and Young People. UK National Health Service.
• Shrier, A. (2020). Irreversible Damage: The Transgender Craze Seducing Our Daughters. Regnery Publishing.
• Evans, M. (2020). Freedom to Think: The Long Struggle to Liberate Our Minds. Atlantic Books.
• de Vries, A. L. C., Steensma, T. D., Doreleijers, T. A. H., & Cohen-Kettenis, P. T. (2011). Puberty suppression in adolescents with gender identity disorder: A prospective follow-up study. Journal of Sexual Medicine.
• Zucker, K. J. (2019). Adolescents with Gender Dysphoria: Reflections on Some Contemporary Clinical and Research Issues. Archives of Sexual Behavior.
• Sweden National Board of Health and Welfare (2022). New guidelines for care of children with gender dysphoria.

Disclaimer:
The views expressed in this post are the author’s opinions for educational and commentary purposes only. They are not statements of fact about any individual or organization and should not be construed as medical, legal, or financial advice. References to public figures and institutions are based on publicly available sources cited in the article. Any resemblance beyond these references is coincidental.