FAQ ON GENDER IDENTITY & TRANSGENDERISM
1. How are transgender identities diagnosed?
​
Transgender status is self-declared; there is no scan or test that a medical professional can administer which can diagnose or even observe a gender identity.
​
2. Do ‘sex’ and ‘gender identity’ mean the same thing?
​
No. Sex is unchangeable and has natural limitations and advantages linked to one’s status as male or female. Conversely, gender identity is an individual’s self-perceived or desired status as male, female, both or neither. Gender identity is self-asserted, based on feelings, and is subject to change over time. It is important to note that gender identity is based entirely on subjective claims that do not depend on a physical or mental health diagnosis. Because gender identity is totally unrelated to sex, there are an infinite number of possible gender identities, such as “agender”, “non-binary”, and “genderqueer”.
The concept of gender identity is used to justify as “medically necessary” the often irreversible body modifications known as “sex reassignment” in both children and adults, and this concept also shapes “gender identity” laws, which grant individuals the unqualified right to assert themselves as the opposite sex or of no sex at all, regardless of how they dress or act.
​
3. Is transgender-identification being used to justify medical treatments in some children?
​
Yes. Though there is no objective biological criteria for diagnosing a transgender identity, and despite
the fact that the majority of young children identifying as transgender accept their sex by adulthood, medical interventions are promoted by transgender advocacy groups that operate in schools. A medical treatment protocol called the “gender affirmative model” includes puberty blockers, cross-sex hormones at 16, and various surgeries to that damage or destroy healthy sexual organs. According to the Gender Centre (Getting treatment- what to do if you are trans and under 18 (gendercentre.org.au): “Treatment can commence when the child’s treating medical team considers it appropriate.” Some of the known side effects of the 'gender affirmative model' include osteoporosis in early adulthood, life-threatening cardiovascular disease, and permanent sterility.
​
4. Are schools legally prohibited from informing parents when their child asserts a transgender identity?
​
Click on the education policy for your state. For example in Victoria, parental consent, knowledge or involvement can be ignored if the parents do not consent to their child’s new ‘gender identity’ and the schools therefore can determine that the children may be “mature minors” for the purposes of transitioning with the support of controversial gender clinics like the Royal Children’s Hospital in Melbourne who perform the medical and surgical transitioning.
i.e., “If a student is considered a mature minor, they can make decisions for themselves without parental consent and should be affirmed in their gender identity at school without a family representative/carer participating in formulating the school management plan.” (https://www2.education.vic.gov.au/pal/lgbtiq-student-support/policy)
​
5. Is there significant risk of self-harm or suicide if puberty blockers, hormone treatment or gender surgery is not given to young people to transition to the appearance of the opposite sex?
No. Many parents have been told if they do not comply with 'gender affirmation care' their child will commit suicide. This trans rights narrative causes much concern but is not supported by facts. Every suicide is a tragedy, and one suicide is a suicide too many. However, with such a serious issue, accuracy is critical.
Please refer to Suicide Facts and Myths and https://www.statsforgender.org/suicide/ for succinct statistics on the following key facts on suicide for gender dysphoric youth:
-
One long-ranging study estimated a suicide rate for gender dysphoric people of 0.6%.
-
There is no high quality evidence to suggest that the overall attempted suicide rate of transgender youth is 41%
-
People with psychiatric conditions – and sometimes neurodiverse conditions – are much more likely to die by suicide than gender dysphoric people.
-
Suicide rarely has one cause: it is difficult for statistical studies on suicide to extricate gender dysphoria from other factors.
-
There is little evidence that medical transition decreases suicidality.
6. Are there more than two sexes?
"No. There are only two sexes. Human sex is determined at conception by the sex chromosomes and
their contents, which direct the development of either male or female anatomy. In 99.98% of births, a
baby’s sex is clearly male or female. However, in fewer than 2 out of every 10,000 births, a baby is born
with ambiguous genitalia. This is a disorder of sexual development (DSD), sometimes referred to as an
intersex condition. The majority of DSDs are sex-specific disorders, occurring in one sex or the other
and are often the result of atypical chromosomes or hormonal irregularities that interfere with the
development of sexual anatomy.
It is often argued that individuals with DSDs represent a third sex, or prove the existence of a spectrum of
sexes. In reality, they are individuals with conditions that prevent the normal development of either male
or female reproductive structures. In the same way that those born with six fingers do not disprove the
norm of five-fingered hands, DSDs do not disprove the norm of two sexes.
Finally, consider that conception is always the result of the uniting of two sex cells—an egg from a woman
and a sperm from a man; there is no third sex cell. Nor is there a third type of gonad that plays a role in
reproduction; eggs are only produced in ovaries and sperm are only produced in testes. Sex is not a
spectrum and congenital disorders are not additional sexes.
Furthermore, “most people with a DSD do not identify as transgender, and most people who do identify as
transgender do not have a DSD.” Transgender-identified people feel that they are something other than
their sex, while typically possessing normal sex chromosomes and sexual anatomy."
​
7. Are puberty blockers and hormones totally reversible?
No, they are not. Go to "Puberty blockers and harmful and experimental"
8. Are doctors ignoring mental health issues in those who want to transition?
Yes, mental health practitioners are required to, as treating mental health issues in patients that lead to the patient ceasing to identify as gender diverse can be construed as illegal "conversion therapy" in States such as Victoria, Queensland and ACT.
​
9. Do children who want to be the opposite sex grow out of it?
A review of 10 studies by Ristori and Steensma found that 61% - 98% of children diagnosed with gender dysphoria (GD) desisted (did not continue to experience dysphoria at follow-up): “The conclusion of these studies is that childhood GD is strongly associated with lesbian, gay or bisexual outcomes and that for the majority of the children...the gender dysphoric feelings remitted around or after puberty” (Ristori 2016)
​
10. Are youth under 18 having gender related surgery in Australia?
10. Doesn’t medical transition help transgender-identified people?
This isn't a black and white area, these days for the most part no, as its a one size fits all solution of mandatory gender affirmation rather than wholistic and personalised care. The best information on this can be found at https://segm.org scroll down the home page to Benefits, Harms and Uncertainties of the Gender-Affirmative Treatment.​
​
11. What is Rapid Onset Gender Dysphoria (ROGD)?
"Rapid Onset Gender Dysphoria (ROGD) is a term that was developed by obstetrician/gynaecologist turned public health researcher Dr Lisa Littman, whose interest was piqued when, in 2016, she noticed a high number of teenage girls suddenly identifying as transgender on social media in her small home town in Rhode Island. When she began researching this phenomenon, she observed that this trend was echoed around the US and in other Western countries: a sudden surge of adolescents identifying as trans, the majority of them girls. Not only were record numbers of girls presenting to gender clinics – in the UK the number had increased by 4,415 per cent over 10 years – but almost all of them had no prior history of gender dysphoria, hence the additional term “rapid onset”. Please read further:
12. What is the difference between the Gender Affirmation Model and the Standard Evidence Based Care Medical Model?
​
​
​
​
​
​
​
​
​
​
​
​
​
​
​
​
Click on Table
to Exand.