The Peer Pressure to Change Genders

Last week our friends at the Colson Center for Christian Worldview released a commentary highlighting the role peer pressure plays in a teenager’s decision to change genders.

John Stronestreet writes,

The Economist recently reported a flood of adolescent girls seeking treatment for gender dysphoria over the last eight years. In 2009, less than half—41  percent—of teens walking through the doors of gender clinics in the U.K. were female. But by 2017, that number jumped to almost 70 percent.

Now, if gender dysphoria—feeling yourself to be the opposite gender from your biological sex—were actually something innate to the human condition as trans activists claim, we’d expect these numbers to remain consistent and roughly balanced between boys and girls. But they’re not. According to Dr. Lisa Littman, who teaches behavioral and social sciences at Brown University, transgender identity . . . has become a trend.

According to Littman, droves of adolescents, with no prior history of gender confusion, are suddenly announcing they’re transgender after “immersing themselves in niche websites,” or “after similar announcements from friends.”

Naturally, it makes sense that there would be a link between peer pressure and transgender feelings. After all, transgender ideology is entirely about feelings — not biology. According to LGBT activists, a person’s gender is the one he or she feels comfortable with. By its nature, peer pressure manipulates feelings in other people. So if transgender behavior is rooted in feelings, then it makes sense peer pressure could promote or manipulate those feelings just like any others.

You can read or listen to Stonestreet’s entire commentary here.