Thank you, Daily Mail, Liz Hull, and especially Esther Ghey!
I appreciate all of the interviews as I find them interesting and helpful as a mother of two high functioning autistic adult children now, but it was not long ago that I was having the same issues with my tween and teen children, with them being bullied and the grooming behaviors online from strangers.
I also see this regularly as a paraprofessional educator working with students on the spectrum. Both of my young adult children are navigating the adult world today and they identify as neurodivergent and as transgender.
Admittedly, this was not what I visualized as a young Mom with babies and young school aged children of the early ‘00s to 2010s, on to the 2020s. The pandemic REALLY EXACERBATED the influence of social media and videos that my children and my students became obsessed by. We had no support at all! No one would speak openly about what was happening in the media, social media, medical and mental health professionals were scolding if we asked questions about how will this impact our children as they grow older and what if “they” (meaning the “professionals” at the Children’s Hospital were wrong!) and what if this was just a phase that kids are going through today?, etc. Where were all of the transgender teens 30-40 years ago when we were teens?! Understand, I am not against genuine transgender rights or LGB+ rights at all. I am quite understanding of how the human experience can be expressed by different peoples, perspectives and cultures or religions.
I expected a psychological or psychiatric evaluation for my children before they were transitioned. I wanted their mental health issues treated! Now at least, it’s become more clear that the medical and mental health professionals are after our money, they also fear losing their licenses to practice, and I see that they really don’t have the full benefit of children or teens and young adults’ physical or mental health disabilities or disorders in mind at all.
Please consider another season.
Regards, Erin near Seattle, Washington state.