An unequivocal take-down of authors, publishers, libraries and schools for promoting this vile cult of transgenderism. The QT+ is the real author of this anti-human ideology which wants control over language, women, lesbians & gays. I can’t believe that it’s taken so long for the warning voices to be heard; we’ve been howling into the wind, it seems, for serious people to take our warnings seriously. Thank you so much for this article, LooobyLou. Will post it on X.
I've been parenting through this nightmare for more years than I should be capable of carrying the strain of +T in my family. I've researched so much for 4+years, night after long night, and found material that has told me that my intuition was never wrong.
And NOW I find your voice.
Oh my.
What i've secretly felt (even secret from myself) has been a sick feeling going to the library/ book shops with my child in the last 5 years.
So many weeks I've repeated our visits to the holiest of holy places in my avid, precocious, early reading child's life. The library. A good reader since 3yo, the hallowed hush of our most loved and looked forward to outings together. Long before the labels of 'gifted and talented' moved my child to the periphery of social life at school. It used to be a delight until tween and teen years.
Until the 'YA' fiction years.
Which were premature for my child, who had started reading very well as a toddler, and had asked library staff to break the age rule on YA at 9 or 10yo.
I've been distressed by the library doing that. They knew my child had long read most of the books in the children's section. I haven't been distressed that my child asked, and they said yes, but that the content in most of the books was completely unsuitable. It wasn't at all like the material I'd been used to, growing up.
When I sampled idly through the 'YA' section, I couldn't believe what was being peddled. I couldn't get my head around the fact the vast majority were 'trash' reading, poorly written, and including extremely heavy themes- glamorizing the gritty details of trans ideology, sci'-fi and fantasy romance where species and interspecies mating was discussed, multiple books of graphically described gay male romance, which amounted to what would have been called pornography in my day. And comic 'novels' picturing similar.
I used to vet the books.
And thinking- how the hell can all these books be here... openly available... to CHILDREN?!?
Until being heavily shamed by peers, colleagues, teachers at school, the gp and therapists. It was logistically difficult to screen what came home, and consensus seemed to be 'you're being overprotective'.
So it turned into years of silently thinking it's just me, and maybe I'm completely out of touch, hypersensitive.
So I just slink in there each week, holding my secret sense of being at best an outdated prude, or at worst transphobic/homophobic and a pathologically unfit, overbearing parent.
I feel physically nauseous, uncomfortable, wondering if I can vet every book but knowing I'm nothing against the tsunami of influences on my child's developing psyche. Wondering what it is about me and my particular child that there is this non- neutral effect. That I'm alone in seeing the wrongness of the ideology and its affects on my child, the potential damage it could do.
And wishing from the depths of my being that the government/ council reps/ library officials would actually READ the books they're giving young people... wonder if i'm the only nutter privately wanting all the YA books to disappear. Thinking it might just be me- would they even get it that the rubbish they provide is really very dangerous.
But wincing in turmoil weekly, going in, and keeping my mouth shut.
So.... WOW... here you are putting voice to my deep, never-quiet niggles!
I even judge myself as I write these comments... 'I'm glad I'm anonymous...I must sound so paranoid/ ridiculously oversensitive/ like a conspiracy theorist'!
But your words have opened a new door in my mind to a space that is now feeling amazed and validated.
AND- Of Course!!! I never thought of the publishing of those books. I wish they had never been published. If they'd never been published they'd never have found influential position in a place that gives authority to their 'rightness'.
The public library, an institution that I've always trusted. That I see now, by them just providing this 'literature' as suitable reading- even 'recommended' reading, this wordlessly ridicules my parental authority. When my guidance is trying to teach otherwise, just because all those books are there, I feel lambasted in being respected in my opinion.
Your writing is a revelation to me...
LoobyLou you have given me a gift in writing this.
You have clarified my uncomfortable knowing, that I've been in real puzzlement about, unknowingly attempting to deny to myself.
But you're seeing what I see... the emperor has no clothes! I'm maybe not mad, overly zealous, or twisted in my feeling that something is very, very wrong in youth/ children's literature currently.
Oh but right now I DO feel zeal... It's too late for my now teenage book-lover... but this would save so many other socially awkward, quiet, bright, precocious and voracious readers, whose safety at school is often the library or a book, from being tainted/groomed/psychologically messed with by this movement.
I'd go so far as to say that the material kids have access to... no- are pushed towards- could even be the cause of some of the GD that socially uncomfortable and sensory sensitive, vulnerable children are finding.
I'd guess many are like my own child... (with the growing cruelty of childhood play in the playground, losing the safety of parallel play as peers mature, unable to withstand unkind and isolating manipulation of more socially agile girls, entering the changes of puberty, dealing with being teased by hormonally awakening boys fuelled by access to dubious content , unable to skillfully process the highly complex communication of teenagers, struggling to find their place....)
My child would ALWAYS escape to books for peace and safety.
Bright, reading since a very young age, HFASD... this is extremely common for this new cohort of young girls, falling in to the clutches of that element of gender ideology that is activistic.
And I would say that my child was distressed ONLY after reading about the existence of trans ideology, being devastated that this might be the cards dealt- the underlying reason for not fitting in. For school life being unpleasant.
And in my child's case I do say devastated- like the devastation of a person finding they might have cancer. Not wanting it. Then looking to a person of authority (Dr, GD clinician, psych) to do tests, then diagnose or rule it out. Which the professionals haven't done.
(None of the professionals really are in much of a position to have the courage of their conviction, having had this brand new field and it's biased education thrown at them, and apparently being outnumbered by all the believers(or those too frightened to state otherwise).
So I'm thinking many professionals are like me- wincing, thinking they are the ones in the wrong somehow, and keeping their mouth shut with self- doubt.
So much tells us we're wrong and not to listen to our convictions.
Plus children themselves- having SO MUCH reading material on this subject- how could a child possibly listen to their parent saying- ' No.... it's really not that common, so that doesn't apply to you.'
Maybe the child might hold their breath for a bit... hold the exquisite devastation of finding an awful diagnosis ('self' diagnosed... although having read your work I now see not 'self' diagnosis as much as diagnosed by reading material and peers ie ditto...)
So the children (mine at least) hold their breath in exquisite emotional pain, essentially isolated from those around them, until the parents find an authority equal or greater-than, ( ie MORE authority than ALL the material and peer influence the child has been exposed to. ie the doctor/psychologist/SW/OT. To 'run the tests' , subsequently give them a clean bill of health.
I thought- ok- I'll just get the doctor to have a quick word- set it straight that the scary life sentence they think they have isn't what they've got- " you're most likely not trans "- allow the breath-holding to be released in releif-explain adolescence is horrible, and "there are some things to iron out in your particular emotional discomfort, but largely... all the stuff you've read about- you'll be ok in the long run- it's not exactly your lot in life. "
In my child's case, I had no fear of any other outcome. Although I did know something was needing to be addressed, I expected the Dr would discover this- in his tests, and with the overall clean bill of ' you're not trans', would go on to explain what to do about the emotional discomfort.
Of course, as you know; that doesn't happen.
I'm sorry to have written all this here.. it's just that it's the clearest I've seen it all. You've basically allowed me to very clearly see a part of the jigsaw that I found my child lost in.
Thank you, THANK YOU.
What can be done for stopping these books being published, as you say?
What can be done to help publishers really look with open eyes into the @#$% they are feeding our kids?
Can they see it in the same way as all of us parents with skin in the game?
Look- THANK YOU.
What you're doing is extremely important.
Do the big names in gender critical care know you and what you are saying here?
I think this is a critical part in how my ROGD child became uncomfortable and distressed, and with all the research I've done to try to help my child, I've only now come across your voice.
I do hope you reach a vast and influential audience.
Absolutely spot on. This should be published far and wide.
An unequivocal take-down of authors, publishers, libraries and schools for promoting this vile cult of transgenderism. The QT+ is the real author of this anti-human ideology which wants control over language, women, lesbians & gays. I can’t believe that it’s taken so long for the warning voices to be heard; we’ve been howling into the wind, it seems, for serious people to take our warnings seriously. Thank you so much for this article, LooobyLou. Will post it on X.
Oh wow. This is so profoundly en pointe.
I've been parenting through this nightmare for more years than I should be capable of carrying the strain of +T in my family. I've researched so much for 4+years, night after long night, and found material that has told me that my intuition was never wrong.
And NOW I find your voice.
Oh my.
What i've secretly felt (even secret from myself) has been a sick feeling going to the library/ book shops with my child in the last 5 years.
So many weeks I've repeated our visits to the holiest of holy places in my avid, precocious, early reading child's life. The library. A good reader since 3yo, the hallowed hush of our most loved and looked forward to outings together. Long before the labels of 'gifted and talented' moved my child to the periphery of social life at school. It used to be a delight until tween and teen years.
Until the 'YA' fiction years.
Which were premature for my child, who had started reading very well as a toddler, and had asked library staff to break the age rule on YA at 9 or 10yo.
I've been distressed by the library doing that. They knew my child had long read most of the books in the children's section. I haven't been distressed that my child asked, and they said yes, but that the content in most of the books was completely unsuitable. It wasn't at all like the material I'd been used to, growing up.
When I sampled idly through the 'YA' section, I couldn't believe what was being peddled. I couldn't get my head around the fact the vast majority were 'trash' reading, poorly written, and including extremely heavy themes- glamorizing the gritty details of trans ideology, sci'-fi and fantasy romance where species and interspecies mating was discussed, multiple books of graphically described gay male romance, which amounted to what would have been called pornography in my day. And comic 'novels' picturing similar.
I used to vet the books.
And thinking- how the hell can all these books be here... openly available... to CHILDREN?!?
Until being heavily shamed by peers, colleagues, teachers at school, the gp and therapists. It was logistically difficult to screen what came home, and consensus seemed to be 'you're being overprotective'.
So it turned into years of silently thinking it's just me, and maybe I'm completely out of touch, hypersensitive.
So I just slink in there each week, holding my secret sense of being at best an outdated prude, or at worst transphobic/homophobic and a pathologically unfit, overbearing parent.
I feel physically nauseous, uncomfortable, wondering if I can vet every book but knowing I'm nothing against the tsunami of influences on my child's developing psyche. Wondering what it is about me and my particular child that there is this non- neutral effect. That I'm alone in seeing the wrongness of the ideology and its affects on my child, the potential damage it could do.
And wishing from the depths of my being that the government/ council reps/ library officials would actually READ the books they're giving young people... wonder if i'm the only nutter privately wanting all the YA books to disappear. Thinking it might just be me- would they even get it that the rubbish they provide is really very dangerous.
But wincing in turmoil weekly, going in, and keeping my mouth shut.
So.... WOW... here you are putting voice to my deep, never-quiet niggles!
I even judge myself as I write these comments... 'I'm glad I'm anonymous...I must sound so paranoid/ ridiculously oversensitive/ like a conspiracy theorist'!
But your words have opened a new door in my mind to a space that is now feeling amazed and validated.
AND- Of Course!!! I never thought of the publishing of those books. I wish they had never been published. If they'd never been published they'd never have found influential position in a place that gives authority to their 'rightness'.
The public library, an institution that I've always trusted. That I see now, by them just providing this 'literature' as suitable reading- even 'recommended' reading, this wordlessly ridicules my parental authority. When my guidance is trying to teach otherwise, just because all those books are there, I feel lambasted in being respected in my opinion.
Your writing is a revelation to me...
LoobyLou you have given me a gift in writing this.
You have clarified my uncomfortable knowing, that I've been in real puzzlement about, unknowingly attempting to deny to myself.
But you're seeing what I see... the emperor has no clothes! I'm maybe not mad, overly zealous, or twisted in my feeling that something is very, very wrong in youth/ children's literature currently.
Oh but right now I DO feel zeal... It's too late for my now teenage book-lover... but this would save so many other socially awkward, quiet, bright, precocious and voracious readers, whose safety at school is often the library or a book, from being tainted/groomed/psychologically messed with by this movement.
I'd go so far as to say that the material kids have access to... no- are pushed towards- could even be the cause of some of the GD that socially uncomfortable and sensory sensitive, vulnerable children are finding.
I'd guess many are like my own child... (with the growing cruelty of childhood play in the playground, losing the safety of parallel play as peers mature, unable to withstand unkind and isolating manipulation of more socially agile girls, entering the changes of puberty, dealing with being teased by hormonally awakening boys fuelled by access to dubious content , unable to skillfully process the highly complex communication of teenagers, struggling to find their place....)
My child would ALWAYS escape to books for peace and safety.
Bright, reading since a very young age, HFASD... this is extremely common for this new cohort of young girls, falling in to the clutches of that element of gender ideology that is activistic.
And I would say that my child was distressed ONLY after reading about the existence of trans ideology, being devastated that this might be the cards dealt- the underlying reason for not fitting in. For school life being unpleasant.
And in my child's case I do say devastated- like the devastation of a person finding they might have cancer. Not wanting it. Then looking to a person of authority (Dr, GD clinician, psych) to do tests, then diagnose or rule it out. Which the professionals haven't done.
(None of the professionals really are in much of a position to have the courage of their conviction, having had this brand new field and it's biased education thrown at them, and apparently being outnumbered by all the believers(or those too frightened to state otherwise).
So I'm thinking many professionals are like me- wincing, thinking they are the ones in the wrong somehow, and keeping their mouth shut with self- doubt.
So much tells us we're wrong and not to listen to our convictions.
Plus children themselves- having SO MUCH reading material on this subject- how could a child possibly listen to their parent saying- ' No.... it's really not that common, so that doesn't apply to you.'
Maybe the child might hold their breath for a bit... hold the exquisite devastation of finding an awful diagnosis ('self' diagnosed... although having read your work I now see not 'self' diagnosis as much as diagnosed by reading material and peers ie ditto...)
So the children (mine at least) hold their breath in exquisite emotional pain, essentially isolated from those around them, until the parents find an authority equal or greater-than, ( ie MORE authority than ALL the material and peer influence the child has been exposed to. ie the doctor/psychologist/SW/OT. To 'run the tests' , subsequently give them a clean bill of health.
I thought- ok- I'll just get the doctor to have a quick word- set it straight that the scary life sentence they think they have isn't what they've got- " you're most likely not trans "- allow the breath-holding to be released in releif-explain adolescence is horrible, and "there are some things to iron out in your particular emotional discomfort, but largely... all the stuff you've read about- you'll be ok in the long run- it's not exactly your lot in life. "
In my child's case, I had no fear of any other outcome. Although I did know something was needing to be addressed, I expected the Dr would discover this- in his tests, and with the overall clean bill of ' you're not trans', would go on to explain what to do about the emotional discomfort.
Of course, as you know; that doesn't happen.
I'm sorry to have written all this here.. it's just that it's the clearest I've seen it all. You've basically allowed me to very clearly see a part of the jigsaw that I found my child lost in.
Thank you, THANK YOU.
What can be done for stopping these books being published, as you say?
What can be done to help publishers really look with open eyes into the @#$% they are feeding our kids?
Can they see it in the same way as all of us parents with skin in the game?
Look- THANK YOU.
What you're doing is extremely important.
Do the big names in gender critical care know you and what you are saying here?
I think this is a critical part in how my ROGD child became uncomfortable and distressed, and with all the research I've done to try to help my child, I've only now come across your voice.
I do hope you reach a vast and influential audience.
Thank you once again.
Yes! Thank you so much for writing this!
Excellent post! Just catching up.
Here from TFP via Opinionated Styles. More power to your elbow. We have not BEGUN to fight!