Trans people are 4-6 times as likely as normal people to experience a mental health condition.[1] A 2019 study found that 58% of trans people have at least one mental health issue, so why do we take them seriously when they claim they are a different gender?[2]
Remember, transgenderism is a mismatch between the mind and the body. Trans advocates claim that when the two conflict, the mind is right and the body is wrong. But why should we trust the minds of people that are known to have problems with their mind? The fact that so many transgender people have mental health issues is the best reason to conclude that the problem is with their mind, not their body. Thinking that we should trust the judgment of mentally unhealthy people regarding their gender is like thinking we should trust the judgment of those on psychedelic drugs. Neither is capable of accurately assessing reality. Trans people need mental help, not affirmation of their mental delusion.
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[1]Jonathon W. Wanta, Joshua D. Niforatos, et al, “Mental Health Diagnoses Among Transgender Patients in the Clinical Setting: An All-Payer Electronic Health Record Study,” Transgender Health, Vol 4.1, 2019; available from https://www.liebertpub.com/doi/pdf/10.1089/trgh.2019.0029; Internet; accessed 28 November 2023. R Bränström and J Pachankis, “Reduction in Mental Health Treatment Utilization Among Transgender Individuals After Gender-Affirming Surgeries: A Total Population Study,” The American Journal of Psychiatry, Oct. 4, 2019; available from https://ysph.yale.edu/news-article/transgender-individuals-at-greater-risk-of-mental-health-problems/; Internet; accessed 28 November 2023. See also Bishoy Hanna MD, Rupak Desai, et al, “Psychiatric disorders in the U.S. transgender population,” Annals of Epidemiology, Vol. 39, Nov. 2019, pages 1-7; available from https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S1047279719302832; Internet; accessed 28 November 2023.
[2]Jonathon W. Wanta, Joshua D. Niforatos, et al, “Mental Health Diagnoses Among Transgender Patients in the Clinical Setting: An All-Payer Electronic Health Record Study,” Transgender Health, Vol 4.1, 2019; available from https://www.liebertpub.com/doi/pdf/10.1089/trgh.2019.0029; Internet; accessed 28 November 2023.
Thinking to Believe 
November 28, 2023 at 7:18 pm
I agree, but I take it further than that study. It is clear to me that “all” trans people suffer from mental issues of one kind or another. And those who campaign for their affirmation rather than their mental care, are exposed to have an agenda of one sort or another that does not have their best interest at heart. God haters, America haters, deviants, political demons and pharmaceutical greediest all use such people for their own devious goals. And ignorant people follow their madness out of all kinds of foolish reasons. Only a consistent counter with intelligent rebuttals, and exposures of document-able agendas will weaken their plots in the public eyes. We can’t rest on these people or they will create laws to twist our society into a Sodom and Gomorrah.
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November 29, 2023 at 8:53 am
This really isn’t the sound argument you try to make it seem in the blog post. In the article you’re referencing, nearly half of the mental health diagnosis’ were depression or anxiety. From the Abstract:
“Transgender patients had a statistically significant increase in prevalence for all psychiatric diagnoses queried, with major depressive disorder and generalized anxiety disorder being the most common diagnoses (31% and 12%, respectively)”
Digging further into the study, the indicators used to measure the increase in mental health issues were “mood and anxiety disorder health care visits, antidepressant and anxiolytic prescriptions, and hospitalization after a suicide attempt.”
The actual results found were “Compared with the general population, individuals with a gender incongruence diagnosis were about six times as likely to have had a mood and anxiety disorder health care visit, more than three times as likely to have received prescriptions for antidepressants and anxiolytics, and more than six times as likely to have been hospitalized after a suicide attempt”.
Nothing in this study indicates that these people are suffering from a mental health diagnosis that impairs their judgment or perception of reality. They are demonstrating the same increase in these specific mental health conditions that anyone with serious or chronic physical health issues also demonstrate. Diabetics are 2-3 times more likely to suffer from depression (https://publichealth.jhu.edu/2021/the-intersection-of-mental-health-and-chronic-disease), should we start assuming any diabetic’s perception of reality is wrong?
If you want to argue that gender incongruence diagnosis’ are fundamentally flawed, this isn’t the approach to take from a logical and ethical standpoint.
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November 29, 2023 at 8:58 am
This really isn’t the sound argument you try to make it seem in the blog post. In the article you’re referencing, nearly half of the mental health diagnosis’ were depression or anxiety. From the Abstract:
“Transgender patients had a statistically significant increase in prevalence for all psychiatric diagnoses queried, with major depressive disorder and generalized anxiety disorder being the most common diagnoses (31% and 12%, respectively)”
Digging further into the study, the indicators used to measure the increase in mental health issues were “mood and anxiety disorder health care visits, antidepressant and anxiolytic prescriptions, and hospitalization after a suicide attempt.”
The actual results found were “Compared with the general population, individuals with a gender incongruence diagnosis were about six times as likely to have had a mood and anxiety disorder health care visit, more than three times as likely to have received prescriptions for antidepressants and anxiolytics, and more than six times as likely to have been hospitalized after a suicide attempt”.
Nothing in this study indicates that these people are suffering from a mental health diagnosis that impairs their judgment or perception of reality. They are demonstrating the same increase in these specific mental health conditions that anyone with serious or chronic physical health issues also demonstrate. Diabetics are 2-3 times more likely to suffer from depression (https://publichealth.jhu.edu/2021/the-intersection-of-mental-health-and-chronic-disease), should we start assuming any diabetic’s perception of reality is wrong?
If you want to argue that gender incongruence diagnosis’ are fundamentally flawed, this isn’t the approach to take from a logical and ethical standpoint.
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December 6, 2023 at 12:46 pm
Abrimetus,
If I’m understanding you correctly, you seem to be interpreting me as saying the mental health issues that transgender people suffer from (as identified in these studies) is what’s causing their transgender ideas. That’s not the case. If I were making such a claim, then I would be unable to explain why the ~42% of trans-identifying individuals who do not suffer from any mental health issues are trans. You’re absolutely right that there is no necessary connection between suffering from anxiety and feeling like one is trans. Many people suffer from anxiety without also suffering from trans-identifying feelings.
The point I am trying to make is about the reliability of and trustworthiness of people’s mental perceptions. Why should we trust the mental perceptions of a group of people who are known to have a high rate of mental problems? We are being told that we should trust trans people’s mental assessment that their gender is different than their sex, but generally speaking, regarding any other topic, we would be less inclined to trust the assessment of those with mental health issues. For example, would you trust a president who suffers from major depression or anxiety with the nuclear codes? Would you trust a suicidal person to make accurate assessments about reality? I hope not. So why trust the assessment of trans people when they say that they are something different than their biological sex? If a person suffering from paranoia told you that aliens were invading Earth, you would reject their assessment because it conflicts with the reality you see before you. So, when a trans person tells you that while they appear to be a man, they are, in actuality, a girl, why would you believe them?
The fact that trans people suffer from mental health conditions at a rate that is 4-6x higher than normal people should give us reason to question whether or not their thoughts about their gender are trustworthy. We don’t affirm the anxious person’s false belief that (for example) the government is trying to kill them because we know that their anxiety messes with their ability to accurately assess reality, so why should we trust their assessment of reality when they think their gender is not the same as their sex? When trans-identifying people, as a group, have been shown to have such high rates of mental health issues, that should give us reason to think that their assessment of their gender could be mistaken and the result of a mental health issue. As I have argued elsewhere, when the mind does not match the body, there is obviously a problem. The question is where the problem lies: with the mind, or with the body. If the body is healthy, then clearly the problem is with the mind. That’s why I think transgenderism is itself a mental illness. A person who experiences trans-feelings is suffering from a mental health condition, even if they have no other mental health issues.
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January 13, 2024 at 8:02 am
“Trans people are 4-6 times as likely as normal people to experience a mental health condition.”
Sure, which is exactly what we would expect from a marginalized, demonized and discriminated against segment of the population. After all, until atheism became socially acceptable and theists could no longer attack and abuse atheists, they too suffered psychologically. We are a social species, and to be rejected by one’s own friends, family and other community virtually guarantees depression, anxiety and other results from rejection and abuse. To test if this is a valid point, one needs to observe the mental health statistics of transgender people who are ACCEPTED by their communities.
And scientific studies show that trans people who are accepted do indeed have reduced mental health problems and higher life satisfaction. From https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6186454/: “Experiences like these of marginalization, discrimination, and stigmatization can lead to mental health problems, disruption of general well-being, and suicidality, as described by the concept of minority stress (Meyer, 2003). *Minority stress, as applied to transgender persons, suggests that stigma, prejudice, and discrimination create a hostile social environment, which leads to internalized transphobia and disturbances in mental health, including depression, anxiety, post-traumatic stress, and suicidality* (Gamarel, Laurenceau, Reisner, Nemoto, & Operario, 2014; Hendricks & Testa, 2012; Testa et al., 2012). In support of this model, one study found that *transgender youth who had “strong parental support for their gender identity and expression reported higher life-satisfaction, higher self-esteem, better mental health including less depression and fewer suicide attempts, and adequate housing compared to those without strong parental support*” (Travers et al., 2012, p. 2). Another study found that *suicide risk decreased when transgender persons had completed desired medical transitions (e.g., hormones, surgeries), had social support, experienced decreased transphobia, and had personal identification documents changed to reflect their true gender* (Bauer, Scheim, Pyne, Travers, & Hammond, 2015). These studies suggest that when transgender persons receive both emotional support and support for their needs, they appear to have increased well-being and mental health, as well as decreased suicidality.”
One other thing to keep in mind is that we don’t attack or legislate against people who are born with chromosomes that don’t match the standard 46,XX (female) and 46,XY (male) chromosome combinations. There also exist 45,X; 47,XXY; 47,XYY; 47,XXX; 48,XXYY; even 46,XX-XY (caused when two fraternal twins merge in the womb), and more. The appearance of genitalia varies across the entire spectrum, and some people are born with BOTH male and female genitalia. And some people born with XY chromosomes also have androgen insensitivity, which causes those with to develop ALL FEMALE characteristics, including breasts and genitalia, so you can only tell that they’re biologically male by using a DNA test.
Furthermore, people on the autism spectrum are 7x more likely to be gender variant, and 70% of autistic people are NOT cisgender. That’s further evidence that there are physiological components to gender differences that we are not aware of.
It’s also perhaps worth pointing out that some cultures recognize more genders than male or female. The Native Americans recognize “two-spirited” people. The Hawaiians recognize the māhū (“a place in the middle”), Ojibwe’s ikwekaazo (“men who function as women”) and ininiikaazoo (“women who function as men”). There’s also the hijra in India and Pakistan, and muxe in southern Mexico.
We don’t force burn schizophrenic people for being possessed by demons anymore, nor do we force left-handed people to conform to right-handed use, because the more we know, the more we learn how much natural variation there is to humans. Transgenderism is no different.
Finally, since nobody is given gender reassignment surgery or any other permanent physiological changes until they have undergone extensive psychological evaluation, and only about 1% of transgender people end up regretting their transition, there seems little risk in following the recommendations of the scientific community.
So if there are chromosome combinations and other subtle physiological factors that don’t match the standard male-female dichotomy, why is it such a stretch to also accept the evidence that brains can be wired differently as well? And if we don’t force those with chromosomal and other variations to adhere to the standard male-female dichotomy, why do some people feel the need to demonize and marginalize those whose gender doesn’t match their sex?
I really don’t get why religious people have turned transgenderism into a culture war issue. I would think they would be SUPPORTIVE of trans people, since everyone has different burdens to bear in life, and isn’t it reasonable theologically to consider gender identification and orientation just one of the burdens some people experience?
Furthermore, Jesus railed often against divorce and remarriage, but he said absolutely nothing against transgenderism. Yet today few Christians talk about banning divorce or shunning divorcees. Shouldn’t transgender people deserve the same respect and consideration? What happened to the whole love your neighbor, and take the speck out of your own eye before paying attention to the speck in your brother’s (or sister’s, perhaps) that Jesus taught? Shouldn’t THAT be far more important to Christians than whether a 46,XX person identifies as a male?
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