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Wow, wow, wow.... the first article that so articulately pinpoints the source of the desperate nature of trans activism: how it is necessary for trans activists to cultivate and breed a generation of young trans adults in order to justify their own existence. Yes, our gay and lesbian children are sacrificial lambs.

And so many of us "social justice progressives" were completely hoodwinked by it.

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This is a well-articulated article, pulling important strands from the trans-tangle that still confuses so many. Kudos to Jeff Cleghorn for speaking the truth and to you for framing his testimony in the correct light: as simply another brave step in his long path working for gay liberation. May more self-LOVING gays and lesbians who care about all children in the next generations muster the courage to speak up.

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And yet, and yet... yes, the AGP hetero males.

But my whole (formerly LG and a few Bs in same-sex relationships) world is now littered with those those homosexual women who now deny their sex and sexual orientation - to say they are men or "non-binary," and "queer," etc... The call is definitely coming from inside (or at least wired through) the house.

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I believe that most of the girls and women claiming to be gay men (disclosure: my daughter is one of them) are also victims of aggressive AGP activists who are actively targeting vulnerable people to convince that they are transgender. Since the trans activists believe that womanhood is defined by a love of sexy, revealing clothing, being treated as a sex object, having long hair, liking makeup, and being excessively concerned with one’s appearance, they are also convincing women who don’t conform to that definition that they are not actually women. Add that to the unfortunate psychology that’s more common in women to try to appease aggressive men, and a lot of women are identifying as men. Of course that doesn’t actually change their sexual orientation, though, so now they call themselves gay men. The ironic part is that it’s largely female psychological characteristics such as a tendency to be self-critical and a tendency to appease when faced with aggression that led them to call themselves men, not recognizing how very female this reaction is and how little they understand about what it actually means to be a man, gay or otherwise.

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I agree... my dtr was caught in this also. She is very supportive of her gay and lesbian friends, a couple of whom have now taken a step toward calling themselves trans. And in her angry teen righteousness she stands up for her friends, lumping them all in the same basket without knowing what I know (I don't 'discuss' anymore, because I'm 'xyz-phobic' , and don't want to risk falling off the tightrope and pushing her straight back in the trans mess.)

So...

I wonder if part of the way out of this growing harm to young people is actually getting into their forums and 're-educating' them in the same way they were inductive in the first place.

They have fury, fight and energy for causes.... imagine the support of the truth ifthey were actually part of the push back?

Could this be possible?

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Oh, if only all those vocal knee-jerk trans "allies" in the liberal mainstream media - Nicolle Wallace, Rachel Maddow, Charlie Sykes and Molly Jong-Fast come to mind - could read this! I have to think their understanding of the trans thing is much more rudimentary than what you've laid out here.

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It annoys me no end when a woman claims to be a gay man. Actual gay men have a lifetime of experience - emotional, physical, visual, etc. - with their own physical male bodies that no one born in a female body can ever know. That history must inform gay men's response to and experience of other men's bodies. Add the effects of a lifetime of male socialization - first as a male in one's family of origin, then as a closeted gay and finally hopefully as a fully out gay - and the idea of a trans gay man becomes utterly untenable and worthy only of pity.

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Another variation among lesbians who transition is that they form a relationship with another lesbian who has also transitioned. By the logic of trans ideology, since both women identify as men, they are now a gay male couple. (By the logic of human sexuality, they are a lesbian couple, albeit largely neutered depending on how far they’ve gone with surgeries.)

This is a tragic attempt to resolve two problems: internal and external homophobia and the desire to relate intimately with another woman.

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"By the logic of trans ideology, since both women identify as men, they are now a gay male couple."

What a travesty!

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Indeed.

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Part of what is happening, probably a very small part, is that women who were always very masculine could find refuge as butch lesbians in the women’s community. Some of these women were actually bisexual or heterosexual. They decided to live as men because of their masculinity, and subsequently became aware of their preference for male romantic partners. I have known some such people and read about others, such as the late Rex Cameron. And yes, this is a miserable predicament.

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Thank you for your helpful and informed insights!

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Yep - socially and in academia, corporate HR departments, schools and the white-collar world in general, those most active in pushing gender ideology are straight women obsessed with being "allies", not AGP men. https://open.substack.com/pub/kaeleytrillerharms/p/dear-white-liberal-women

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The list of studies you give is useful but OLD! There is lots more where that came from and i suggest you curate them and have them avaiable as references. Keep up the good work.

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Please feel free to go to https:// greenalliance.sexbased rights.org for additional resources

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Thank you very much for this and thank you to Jeff Cleghorn!

The typology from the 1980's and 1990's has not been shown to hold right now, since the rise of ROGD (the Tavistock had a handful of kids presenting each year in the early 2000's, by 2009 there were 34 boys, 17 girls, by 2016, there were 557 boys, the boys rose very quickly too, but the rise of the girls was ~4 times faster, there were over 1000 in 2016). There are a lot of ROGD boys it seems given what many of the desisters and detransitioners are saying. So it is not necessarily the case that if the person is heterosexual and male and has gender dysphoria that they are AGP.

https://www.rogdboys.org/

My understanding is that no one actually knows the breakdown of what fraction of young people with gender dysphoria have what "kind" of gender dysphoria right now.

There are also many AGP males who are not doing these destructive things. Joe Burgo sees many as patients I believe. Again, no one has numbers. But being AGP doesn't mean one is compelled to harm others.

Those people who are causing harm have a choice.

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Phil Illy is right about one thing, the silencing of discussion about AGPs hurts everyone, even the AGPs.

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As a gay Oregonian and a gender critical moderate Democrat, I am a little envious of Mr. Cleghorn for living in a state where the legislature will entertain a bill that would prohibit teachers from exposing their students to ideas about gender without prior parental approval. That is because progressive Democrats control the legislative agenda here in Oregon. It is unthinkable today that such a bill would even receive a hearing. It's almost as if progressive legislators are trying to outdo one another in finding ways to put minors at risk. In the most recent regular session, for example. progressives gave minors who are 15 years of age or older permission to go forth and subject themselves to gender affirming medical care.

Mr. Cleghorn's story illustrates an unfortunate consequence of America's extreme political polarization. Gender critical gay activists who seek to curb the excesses of trans activism through legislation are in the unenviable position of having to work with unreliable allies in Republican-led statehouses. In Georgia the legislature has embraced Trump's Big Lie and has sought to disrupt the prosecution of the fake electors scheme. Such a Trumpy political environment is the natural habitat of far right Christian operatives who are not going to make a nuanced distinction between trans and gay. As far as they're concerned, marriage equality and laws prohibiting discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation are as rich a target as men in women's bathrooms.

Of course, such a political climate makes it even more important for gay men like Mr. Cleghorn to monitor the bills that are being introduced in the legislature of his home state and testify against anti-gay measures. In any case, blue-state America can wail until the cows come home about "anti-trans" legislation in red states. Unless the courts overturn laws protecting youth against trans indoctrination and gender affirming policies and medical care, over time such measures will become accepted and their objectives normalized in their home states. At some point it will become obvious that trans activists' horror stories about "trans genocide" and other catastrophes will prove to be just that - fictional stories with no connection to the real world. That realization could make it more difficult for trans activists to defend their agenda in the face of the harm it causes confused young people, their loved ones and society.

Changing subjects, is there peer-reviewed literature supporting the contention that the "homosexual transsexual" (HSTS) component of Ray Blanchard's typology of male transsexuals remains valid? Have any subsequent researchers tested Blanchard's idea that some same-sex attracted men "[feminize] with hormones and surgery to blend into homophobic society as a 'straight woman'? What is the incidence of such individuals in the population? What demographic and socioeconomic characteristics do they have in common? How successful are HSTS in forming stable and fulfilling relationships with men? Do the male partners of HSTS share any characteristics? If gender critical people take the position that trans women are men in the case of AGP, is there any reason to take a different position with respect to HSTS?

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Well said. Thank you.

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Thank you! Although I hear plenty of gay men and lesbians who agree with this point of view, most of us are older and not that into activism. I have, however, completely cut off the official « LGBT » organizations from my support and no longer have any interest in Gay Pride parades — not because I’m not proud to be gay, but because I’m not proud of the crazy ideologues who are running those organizations.

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Great writing Ben

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Stay the fuck away from other people’s kids. Stop grooming them in your tranny fashion cult ideology. That’s the best way to protect youth. And stop cutting parents out. Just stay the fuck away from kids. Do whatever you want with your adult orgy fetish parties. Leaves kids alone.

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There's a lot in here that I wouldn't argue with, but I don't believe Blanchard's typology holds up at all well. 'HSTS' aren't real transsexuals if they only get SRS so as to conform and AGP is only an adult form of transvestism which gets carried away. There's no mention of transsexuals who are clear in their feelings from their earliest age. I completely reject the suggestion that people who have had transsexual feelings since their earliest memories have a sexual paraphilia.

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Whether a man who fetishizes women’s clothing is a “true transsexual” has become besides the point, unfortunately. The political advocacy of these men has been very successful in enabling them to access women’s sports and prisons and generally break down the barriers of women’s sex-based rights through Title IX. This is why we have to talk about the AGPs.

The stereotype of aggressive male felons who identify as lesbians because they’re attracted to women is a reality. Open Reduxx.info any day of the week and it’s impossible not to come away with horrifying and shocking images and descriptions of atrocities committed by AGPs against women and children. The thing to remember is that this cohort of AGPs does not represent this population as a whole. They are convicted felons with severe mental illnesses. The identity marker that is most important about them is that they are MEN. With or without AGP, statistically speaking, men are far more violent than women, and women and children are their typical targets. It’s not about “gender,” it’s about sex.

But to the unsuspecting population at large, all trans-identified men fit the stereotype of a Ru Paul style drag queen: flaming, funny, and harmless, because they’re gay gay gay. When I mention to the uninformed that Bruce Jenner fathered six children with three different women, their jaws drop.

The conversation about AGP has to happen, and the best ones to educate the public would be those AGPs who, rather than denying that they exist, are willing to speak publicly against the transitioning of children and in favor of actual women’s sex-based rights.

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I don't contest that AGP and HSTS types exist, but the typology isn't complete. There are neurological intersex transsexuals who don't fit these profiles and have nothing to do with the things that bother you.

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Yes, I get that. No group is a monolith. I tried to make that point.

Intersex is in a separate category. If Blanchard didn't take that into account, he missed a big piece of the puzzle.

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To whom you are attracted sexually is purely subjective and therefore cannot reasonably be contested by an outside observer.

Where you decide to live your life on a spectrum of superficial, stereotypical male to female attributes (and we all do) is also purely subjective and similarly cannot be questioned.

However, your biological sex reflects an objective reality which cannot be changed by your subjective personal view and futile attempts to do so can result in serious health impacts to you as well as actual harms to members of the sex you are impersonating (especially women).

Finally, others who are grounded in objective reality should never be forced to accept your subjective version of your actual biological sex.

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I found this article after clicking around the discovery section on Substack, and I am surprised that the sole ethos in the comments is celebratory. Blanchard's theory is very reductive of trans identity to begin with, which is why many trans activists denounce it. The way it is used in this article is a bit self-serving. The arguments you present also seem to demonize trans activists, similar to how Cleghorn has been demonized by sources like Queerty.

What the youth need is holistic education around gender identity, body dysmorphia, and basic tools to navigate both (cognitive behavioral therapy techniques, etc.) so that they can explore their understanding of gender and their relation to it throughout their youth. A great deal of the "protect kids" legislation we are seeing does not protect kids who may be trans, it is pinpointing the absolute worst scenarios of incorporating gender/sexual identity education into schools and attempting to prevent them—which, in the end can harm trans kids and any youth in general who do not identify with the rigid gender constructs we so often see dominate..

Furthermore, the entire phrase "most of whom will grow up to be gay or lesbian if left alone" seems to miss the point—the same could have been (and probably was) about gay/lesbian kids several decades ago, e.g.:

“This is about much more than helping kids with sexual confusion, most of whom will grow up to be straight if left alone, according to every study ever conducted on the subject,” ___ said. “This is about indoctrinating kids into a belief system that is not real.”

There are so many people who never explored their queer identities *because* there was no education or representation in schools, towns, or cities. In fact, I could see this entire article be reframed in that perspective: "How to Protect the Straight Youth," using much of the same reasoning.

Gay and lesbian communities are *not* the most vulnerable communities under the queer umbrella. We need these conversations to address the following: How can we protect youth *and* how can we protect queer youth, especially the most vulnerable populations. Right now, you are only contemplating the first—and you are only contemplating it from the perspective of a cis, gay male.

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You're using calm, warm fuzzy language but you're still pushing the whole gender ideology as if it has any validity at all, and repeatedly throw around the vile slur "queer" like it's blowing bubbles on a summer day. You clearly have the single motive of forcing more youth into the cult and didn't hear or respect a word that was written by the author. There's no such thing as a "trans" or "queer" kid. Just kids. It's recent made up garbage to manipulate them into validating the adult agp and other "queer" theory believers. And you need to stay the hell away from them. They clearly aren't safe with you.

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Excellent!❤️

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I’ve had lesbians pursue me for gay night life for around 4 decades, it’s not new. Honestly. Backroom and front room clubs in New York, Paris, LA, Houston, SF, I had a pair not two months ago in SF who were fascinated by the idea.

This is all starting to sound so self-parodying and hygienic - “minors at risk” (ominous sounds) is the language which used to instantly attract me.

We need to make gay sex dangerous and not-to-be-done, hidden and shameful (as most sex is) in a way you get over it, a kind of delicious right you earn.

Perhaps we have it all wrong: kids need _less_ protections.

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