Irreversible Damage: the Transgender Craze Seducing Our Daughters by Abigail Shrier
The Wall Street Journal's Abigail Shrier has released an exhaustively researched book on what transgender ideology is, where it came from, and how it is harming young women and their families in America. "The affirmation of trans-identified students is so essential to their welfare and safety, according to educators, that it is the policy of the National Education Association and many public schools, including those in California, New York, and New Jersey, that when a trans-identified student 'comes out' at school, the parents not be informed. In cases where the student claims to have unsupportive parents... school administrators and staff even go so far as to conceal the student's newly announced identity from the parents, while surreptitiously changing the child's name and pronouns on all school forms." (p. 74, Chapter 4: The Schools) Parents and citizens in Arlington (VA) may remember July 1, 2019, when the Arlington Public Schools school board put into action the Transgender Student Policy Implementation Procedure (J-2 PIP). Arlington Parent Coalition members succeeded in getting the following clause amended before the PIP was ratified: "Ensure that all identifiable and medical information relating to transgender and gender non-conforming students will be kept confidential in accordance with applicable laws. (Refer to GLSEN Model Policy, page 4.)" [Link to proposed policy dated March 2019.] The GLSEN Model Policy states:
APC has no doubt that left unchecked APS will continue to capitulate to unacceptable and unethical demands of those who do not necessarily have our children's best interests at heart.
About Irreversible Damage: the Transgender Craze Seducing Our Daughters:
"Until just a few years ago, gender dysphoria—severe discomfort in one’s biological sex—was vanishingly rare. It was typically found in less than .01 percent of the population, emerged in early childhood, and afflicted males almost exclusively. "But today whole groups of female friends in colleges, high schools, and even middle schools across the country are coming out as 'transgender.' These are girls who had never experienced any discomfort in their biological sex until they heard a coming-out story from a speaker at a school assembly or discovered the internet community of trans 'influencers.' "Unsuspecting parents are awakening to find their daughters in thrall to hip trans YouTube stars and 'gender-affirming' educators and therapists who push life-changing interventions on young girls—including medically unnecessary double mastectomies and puberty blockers that can cause permanent infertility. "Abigail Shrier, a writer for the Wall Street Journal, has dug deep into the trans epidemic, talking to the girls, their agonized parents, and the counselors and doctors who enable gender transitions, as well as to 'detransitioners'—young women who bitterly regret what they have done to themselves. "Coming out as transgender immediately boosts these girls’ social status, Shrier finds, but once they take the first steps of transition, it is not easy to walk back. She offers urgently needed advice about how parents can protect their daughters. "A generation of girls is at risk. Abigail Shrier’s essential book will help you understand what the trans craze is and how you can inoculate your child against it—or how to retrieve her from this dangerous path." (Amazon.com) (Read APC co-founder Maria Keffler's review of Irreversible Damage: the Transgender Craze Seducing Our Daughters.)
Cancel Culture Strikes Again
Regnery, Shrier's publisher, says that Amazon has suspended paid ads for the book, contending that the ad and/or book "may not be appropriate for all audiences,” because it claims to “diagnose, treat, or question sexual orientation.”
Shrier neither covers nor critiques sexual orientation in the book, beyond interviewing a number of homosexual people regarding their views on and experience with transgender ideology. An Amazon search for "transgender" returned these three sponsored books:
Evidently one can promote and endorse transgender ideology at Amazon and still get ad spots, but one may not investigate or question it. "Affirmation-only"? That sounds familiar. APC hopes you'll purchase and read this outstanding book today. If you know a family who is dealing with this issue, maybe send them a copy too.
We hope that your summer is going well. If you're a parent in Arlington Public Schools, don't forget that July 20 is the deadline for submitting your family's preference about hybrid or distance-only education for 2020-21. As always, thank you for being an advocate for children in Arlington and around the nation. Yours, the APC team