Penna Dexter

A recent Wall Street Journal op-ed asks a difficult question. Writer Abigail Shrier addresses mothers of teen girls, asking them: what will you do “When Your Daughter Defies Biology.”

She relates the experience of a woman, a prominent attorney, who has a college age daughter, whom the mom describes as a “girly girl”. The young woman was sometimes anxious, even depressed over being excluded from certain cliques in high school and from other pressures a college freshman faces.

She and some friends decided “their angst had a fashionable cause: ‘gender dysphoria’.” This girl had never before been confused about her gender. But, suddenly she and her friends experienced what Brown university public-health researcher Lisa Littman identifies as “rapid onset gender dysphoria”, or ROGD. Ms. Littman says ROGD is a social contagion that mainly affects girls.

Ms. Shrier’s article describes the terrible dilemma this presents to the mothers of these girls. These moms are often political progressives, open to other aspects of the LGBT agenda. Many support same-sex marriage. Others are fine with their daughters coming out as lesbians. But, Ms. Shrier writes, “when their daughters suddenly decided that they were actually men and started clamoring for hormones and surgery, the mothers begged them to reconsider, or at least slow down.” Yet these moms are afraid of being cut off from their daughters if they push too hard. They want to retain some influence over the decisions that could further damage or disfigure their daughters.

They get little help from society. Sadly, the medical community has adopted immediate “affirmative care” as the standard for teens, granting them what’s needed to transition to their stated gender. The psychological and educational communities have mostly fallen into line. And so, in the name of inclusiveness, have some churches.

These moms find themselves powerless to protect their daughters who are victims of the left’s shameful quest to destroy the distinction between male and female.