The College Fix

‘She went from hating white males to now wanting to become one’

For years, college officials have told students gender is a choice. They’ve pressured all students to announce their preferred pronouns on name tags and in emails as gender fluidity is normalized. They’ve celebrated students who choose to transition as brave warriors. They’ve provided the medical tools necessary for students to “transition.”

In fact, a recent column in The Wall Street Journal reports that “health plans at 86 colleges—including those of nearly every Ivy League school—cover not only cross-sex hormones but surgery as well.”

The piece featured the phenomenon of “rapid onset gender dysphoria,” described as overwhelmingly afflicting girls who then receive the full support of the medical community.

Many of these cases can be traced to colleges that are just as affirming.

“I am writing to you on behalf of parents who have lost their kids at college to the transgender craze,” one mother, Katherine Cave, recently told The College Fix.

“Many liberal colleges have significant percentages of students suddenly identifying as transgender. And as you may know, all it takes is a simple visit to an informed consent clinic where girls get testosterone injections to help them look like males.”

Cave is among a support-group of mothers who have found each other through the website 4thWaveNow, a left-of-center online community concerned about rapid-onset gender dysphoria and related issues.

Among the issues it covers, 4thWaveNow chronicles the same trend The Wall Street Journal recently reported on as well: “When Your Daughter Defies Biology.”

It led with an anecdote: “The young woman went off to college—which began, as it often does these days, with an invitation to state her name, sexual orientation and ‘pronouns.’ When her anxiety flared during her first semester, she and several of her friends decided their angst had a fashionable cause: ‘gender dysphoria.’ Within a year, the lawyer’s daughter had begun a course of testosterone. Her real drug—the one that hooked her—was the promise of a new identity. A shaved head, boys’ clothes and a new name formed the baptismal waters of a female-to-male rebirth.”

Rapid-onset gender dysphoria, which has been described as a “contagion,” has caught up with more and more mothers who are shocked when their formerly feminine daughters suddenly come from home college with mustaches, acne, different demeanors — even their breasts removed.

MORE: Study finds gender dysphoria can be caused by ‘social and peer contagion’

Cave said these examples are all too common. She reached out to other moms who have found support, advice and information on 4thWaveNow, and asked them to share their experiences with The College Fix.

In emails to The College Fix, several moms described their ordeals. They asked that their full names and the colleges be concealed to protect their daughters’ (sons?) identities.

Pam’s story

Our daughter went off to the college of her dreams. She seemed to do well her first year away. During her second year at college, she experienced a mental health breakdown. We received sketchy details of her struggles from her and a couple of her friends. There was no outreach from her college—due to privacy concerns.

Following much pleading on our part, she came home for a visit. We were met with a very different visage upon picking her up at the airport. Her face was covered in acne, she sprouted an obvious mustache, her entire appearance was disheveled.

After allowing her to settle in at home, we expressed concern about her appearance and demeanor. This was met with hostility. Her voice was somewhat deeper, I might note here. She seemed very disturbed—not at all her old self.

What was she like before this? No, not a tomboy as a child. She was an ambitious student, an animal lover, she loved to spend time in the kitchen baking. As for gender, she was typical (whatever that means). For her high school prom, she had her hair and makeup professionally styled. She wore an elegant gown which revealed ample cleavage. As for her friend group in high school, she aligned herself with social activists.

While our daughter was visiting, we asked her what was wrong. I inquired about the acne and mustache—that is not natural, I said. She insisted that she had always had a mustache. Not true.

Before we knew what had hit us, she returned to her college. We discovered that she had obtained testosterone in the student clinic. And, she refused all contact with her family.

Her college was complicit in all of this.

Emma’s story

Our daughter, who is 19, went off the college last year. Over the next few months, her look began to change toward more masculine, and we made a guess she may be experimenting with sexuality. Little did we know, there was a much bigger bomb she was about to drop. It turned out that during her freshman year, she “socially transitioned’ (going by a boy name and “he” pronouns) and she announced she is ready to start counseling to get hormones followed by top surgery. We are working very hard to hold off the hormones, putting tuition on the line.

Our daughter fits the typical description of a young woman affected by this craze. Very bright, extreme social justice warrior, highly creative, socially awkward/ADHD/Asperger spectrum, OCD/obsessive interests. Never fit in with peers, preferred company of other non-neuro-typical girls and boys, whom she found a lot easier to get along with. While she was not a super girly-girl, she had never any masculine interests (not one) and has all the stereotypical feminine interests and traits (cooking, knitting, babysitting little kids, etc). She went from being a feminist / pro women’s rights to hating white males to now wanting to become one and wanting to chemically and surgically mutilate her body.

And the professionals have no advice other than to support her in making her transition. And of course this is insanity. It makes no sense-other than it started after a close friend transitioned at the end of high school, and she entered college and began to hang out in the dedicated “queer dorm.”

Dorothy’s story

My daughter had met a transperson (female to male, one year younger) online when she was about 14 on the social media site DevientArt. By 16, my daughter declared that she was trans. I didn’t allow her to go on testosterone, change her name or have any surgeries. As soon as she turned 18, she officially changed her name and by the end of her first year in college she was able to get onto testosterone and have both of her healthy breasts removed. It’s very tragic. If she continues to take the testosterone, after some years her internal female organs will deteriorate to a point that they, too, will have to be surgically removed.

Kathy’s story

I have been asked to write and tell you a disturbing story about my own daughter at college. She left for college in the fall of 2016 as a National Merit Scholar, all AP classes, involved in countless activities including bands, orchestra, theater, dance, literary magazine editor, starting women’s studies club, part time job …. She honestly was on top of the world with so much potential. She also happened to be gender conforming. She had a significant merit scholarship at a well respected east coast university in a large city.

Sometime the second semester sophomore year things went horribly wrong. Perhaps there was some build up but since she went away to college we did not notice anything. She called us in a deep voice stating she was transgender and had changed her name. She was unable to even think clearly around this issue and was obviously horribly confused. Within a week she completely severed ties in an email to us. No one in her immediate or extended family can believe what has happened. Within a year she had a double mastectomy. Our family is absolutely devastated by all of this. I wish I could share details (what college in particular) but as you are aware we have to be careful. I also wish none of this were true.

MORE: There’s a sudden surge of trans students coming out at my college

MORE: Parents protest plan by pediatricians to rush sex-change surgery

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