00:05:11.240I actually have, you know, in the book, I interviewed many, many transgender adults.
00:05:15.640And I am someone who believes, you know, very much and has been I've been convinced, absolutely, that the transition can be very helpful for mature adults who have lived with gender dysphoria, as you mentioned, your guest did from a very young age.
00:05:31.040That's what gender dysphoria has always looked like.
00:05:33.480It's young. It starts in early childhood and it's young. It's overwhelmingly has been young boys saying, no, mommy, I'm a girl. I know I am. And it's persistent, insistent and consistent throughout their lives. And so as adult mature adults, they make this decision for themselves. My book really has nothing to do with that.
00:05:49.920It's a copycat phenomenon among teenage girls who fall for virtually every major hysteria, who with their girlfriends, they're in terrible pain.
00:06:00.100And what they do is they convince themselves that, no, their problem isn't that they're too fat, as they might have said in an earlier generation.
00:06:07.840But the problem is that they're really supposed to be boys.
00:06:41.360about their long-term future in this way?
00:06:44.180You know, there are a lot of lies told around this.
00:06:46.380And one of the most disturbing really is that that a young child could consent.
00:06:52.760You know, in America, a young minor is is invited to give assent to their, you know, for instance, elimination of the risk that they will eliminate future fertility by undergoing these treatments as if a child could possibly gauge that loss.
00:07:08.820It is a lie. We know that. And that's what the High Court of Justice said in Britain when they you know, in the Kira Bell case,
00:07:15.580when they looked at it and they said basically minors under 16 have no way of evaluating
00:07:21.500what it is to lose potential sexual function and fertility. There's no way for a child to
00:07:30.180understand that. But how have we got to this place where you have not even just adults but
00:07:38.580professional people, doctors, psychiatrists agreeing that a six-year-old should be able
00:07:45.480to take puberty blockers? That's right. We have a terrible problem with both, you know,
00:07:52.320bullying and unfortunately cowardice in its face in our medical professions. In America,
00:07:58.680the standards of all of the major medical professional accrediting organizations have
00:08:03.220being rewritten to tell the medical professionals that they must affirm. This is affirmative care.
00:08:09.320So whatever the patient self-diagnoses, whenever a patient self-diagnoses with gender dysphoria,
00:08:14.300the doctor's job is to agree, not to use their independent judgment, but to agree with the
00:08:19.900patient's self-diagnosis. This is sort of the sort of Damocles that hangs over all medical
00:08:24.940professionals today. And if they don't really have the courage to speak up, they just go along
00:08:32.140with what, you know, out of fear of repercussions and loss of their license.
00:08:39.320And we'll get to the fear of repercussions because it's not in any way unjustified. The fear is
00:08:45.100genuine because as you yourself know, and I say we'll get onto it, there are quite a lot of
00:08:49.280repercussions. But where's this, I mean, where's this come from though? Who is, who are the people
00:08:56.020who are rewriting these rule books and who are the people who are advancing this worldview?
00:09:01.020you? Well, the activists in this area are particularly aggressive. But I will say in
00:09:06.920America, I think one of the reasons we've been remarkably sort of immune to all evidence to the
00:09:13.680contrary, to all evidence that girls are being hurt, I think that Britain's done a much better
00:09:17.560job here of being at least open to that conversation, is in America, we have a real
00:09:21.880weakness for the idea that you can be anything. And, you know, even if you want the opposite
00:09:28.740sex. Now, of course, you can present as the opposite sex, but we've actually completely
00:09:33.840swallowed the lie that you can become the opposite sex. And of course, the problem with swallowing
00:09:40.180any lie in public like that is it leads to more and more lies. So in California, just this week,
00:09:47.240the California Insurance Commissioner just announced that breasts in transgender-identified
00:09:53.400females, including minors, would be considered abnormal developments. They would be considered
00:09:59.100abnormal structures that need repair. And of course, the problem, there are many problems
00:10:06.160with this. But once you have the lie in place that anyone who believes they're a man truly is,
00:10:13.080then you have to look at breasts and say, well, that's an abnormal structure. I guess we need to
00:10:17.600remove it regardless of age. And Abigail, this is a question that I find myself asking many of our
00:10:23.280I guess, right across the political spectrums
00:10:25.800when they're talking about issues such as these.
00:10:27.960But you do think, you know, we talk about a lie.
00:10:31.740We talk about, you know, the lie that becomes the truth.
00:10:33.900But what happens to adults watching this,
00:10:37.480not standing up, not saying what they think,
00:10:40.660and letting children be irreversibly damaged?
00:14:17.660And they are amazingly immune to the burgeoning stories of regret that are out there.
00:14:23.140If you look on YouTube week to week, the number of young women coming forth and saying, listen, I was convinced I was trans.
00:14:30.000but now I see I'm not, and look what's been done to me. They're all over YouTube.
00:14:35.360And as you say in the title of the book, it's Irreversible Damage. One of the arguments that
00:14:41.860people often talk about is, you mentioned suicidality in general, but one of the arguments
00:14:48.180that's used very specifically in this context is that if you don't allow people who claim they need
00:14:53.160to transition, you're causing them to think about suicide, you're causing them harm,
00:14:59.780in that way, they're going to kill themselves. What do you make of that argument?
00:15:05.220You know, unfortunately, I don't think it's a good argument, and I'll explain why.
00:15:09.280Unfortunately, science and medicine have become so thoroughly politicized in the United States
00:15:13.640and throughout the West, but particularly in the United States, that people recite these mantras
00:15:19.280without looking at any evidence. It's incredible. Even scientists and doctors, especially the younger
00:15:24.980generation are so woke, as they say, they're so activists, they're not interested. And the truth
00:15:31.720of the matter is we have no proof that gender dysphoria causes suicidality, and we have no
00:15:39.020proof that medical transition cures it. And especially not for this population, which we've
00:15:45.320never before seen experiencing gender dysphoria. They seem to be experiencing an atypical form of
00:15:51.900gender dysphoria that comes on suddenly in adolescence, often with their peers, and as a
00:15:57.020result of social media influence. It doesn't look like typical gender dysphoria. And we have no proof
00:16:02.880that transition will cure it. And in fact, if you look at the numbers, we're seeing more and more
00:16:07.200people not being helped by transition who fall into that demographic. And what responsibilities
00:16:13.480do these social media companies have to take? Because we've touched on it a few times now.
00:16:17.900you look at some of these transgender YouTubers, some of whom have got hundreds of thousands of
00:16:23.160followers on YouTube. How much responsibility do they have to take for what is happening?
00:16:28.540Well, they're not taking any now. They certainly aren't claiming any responsibility. Look,
00:16:32.680I think it was Instagram removed thinspiration sites, so sites that encouraged other girls in
00:16:38.940anorexia, because we all know encouraging someone to starve themselves is a bad thing.
00:16:43.880But apparently, encouraging young girls to remove their breasts or take a course of testosterone that will permanently alter their bodies in all kinds of dangerous ways, that's not considered a bad thing.
00:16:55.920In fact, it doesn't even come with a warning.
00:16:58.640And that's really, in some sense, that's the fault line here.
00:17:03.320My book does not say, and I have never said that no one should transition.
00:17:06.920My book does not say that transition can never help.
00:17:09.920My book says that there are risks here, that these are serious interventions and there are risks.
00:17:15.980And if you believe those risks are worth exploring and discussing,
00:17:19.620like every other medical treatment and procedure, then you're on my side.
00:17:25.120You talk about, I mean, Francis brought up the issue of YouTubers,
00:17:28.420and it's very frustrating for us because they have more subscribers than us.
00:17:31.400But seriously, the concern there is, you know, we believe in free speech.
00:17:38.140you have that is enshrined in the American constitution so people should be able to say
00:17:42.920what they think right I guess it's more a question of protecting children isn't it like how do you
00:17:48.820protect children from the things people say online about how great transition is or whatever else it
00:17:54.260might be um I don't know that we have that our speech is so free right now in America you know
00:18:00.880yeah touche yeah i mean parents who were you know dug into their own pockets to try to promote my
00:18:08.320book because amazon barred ads and there were so many suppression efforts and instant from from
00:18:13.540from social media youtube has taken certain of my interviews off and whatnot and um um parents
00:18:19.700dug into their own pockets to put up billboards parents who believed my book was helpful to them
00:18:24.120and correct and had watched their daughters gone through this put dug into their own pockets and
00:18:28.320put up billboards and there was a campaign to do it across the country. And the billboards were
00:18:33.360taken down because someone claimed that a billboard which said, know the facts before
00:18:42.540making life altering decisions. They said that constituted hate speech in America. So the
00:18:49.360billboards were taken down. Know the facts. Now you have to know, to know something about America,
00:18:54.140you know that every drug requires an announcement and of every possible risk. We're not allowed to
00:19:01.000prescribe Tylenol, you know, acetaminophen in America without alerting everyone to every
00:19:05.560possible risk. But irreversible gender surgery, you're not allowed to talk about the risks.
00:19:11.600Francis, how is your cyber security? I've got a virus from an unnamed website. Of course you do.
00:19:17.500You're not alone, Francis. During the pandemic, British online infrastructure has faced an
00:19:22.720astronomical rise in targeted cyber attacks which is what i'm sure happened to you that is dreadful
00:19:28.520what can i do to defend myself that is where pocket seam come in they offer businesses like
00:19:34.500ours a special solution that alerts us to hackers crackers and malicious employees like anton not
00:19:41.280only that they are the only seam provider to offer pay as you go cyber defense for companies
00:19:47.520they're british based absolutely and they're from doncaster so they need the work i mean you say
00:19:52.720that actually they have kept their prices flat during the pandemic to make sure companies can
00:19:57.480get the protection they need pocket seem are offering trigonometry fans a 10 discount all
00:20:03.700you got to do is hit them up by email at info at pocket seem.co.uk and make sure the subject of
00:20:10.480that email is trigonometry and they will give you your 10 discount for managed cyber security
00:20:15.380That email again is I-N-F-O at P-O-C-K-E-T-S-I-E-M.co.uk.
00:20:25.620And don't forget to have trigonometry in your subject line so you get your 10% discount.
00:20:31.040Can I just say, if you needed that spell, you really shouldn't be running a business.
00:20:35.140But surely there's going to be a backlash to this, as we have seen in the UK,
00:20:40.060where people who were told that they could transition
00:20:43.120as prepubescent little girls or pubescent girls
00:20:46.640will suddenly find that they're in their early 20s,
00:20:48.940their mid-20s, they have been let down
00:20:51.000by health professionals, the authorities, et cetera, et cetera,
00:20:54.120and they are going to inevitably sue, and so they should.
00:20:58.100You know, I expect the lawsuits to come,
00:21:01.060but right now in America, this whole, you know,
00:21:04.720machine of fast-tracking young girls to transition
00:21:08.180shows no signs of slowing down, and it shows no signs of sobriety. My book was pulled from
00:21:14.260target.com because of two complaints by Twitter users. My book was, I mean, the number of, I'm
00:21:22.360constantly facing all kinds of censorship, and all I've ever wanted to do was discuss the risks.
00:21:28.920That was it. Well, let's talk about the censorship part of it, because something we've dealt with,
00:21:34.440When we had Posey Parker on the show, that video, it was doing very well.
00:21:39.480It got deleted as hate speech by YouTube, eventually reinstated.
00:21:43.180And thanks to them, it's now nailed on a million views.
00:24:09.600But he was only allowed to collect his teenager if he agreed that the teenager had this new identity. And even then he had to fight to get his teenager back. That's the world we're living in.
00:24:24.460That's the world no one wants to talk about, that parents who have spent, I don't know, hundreds of thousands of hours with these people, with these kids, and all of a sudden a mental health professional comes in, spends one 45-minute session with him or her and thinks she knows better.
00:24:42.980And everyone has to listen to that so-called professional or parents risk losing custody.
00:32:54.880from being swayed in this way, let's say?
00:32:59.700Well, one is get them off social media.
00:33:01.780I do think it's causing a lot of mental health problems.
00:33:04.960Do whatever you can to keep them off it.
00:33:06.940But the other thing, you know, if you haven't introduced it, don't.
00:33:10.120The other thing is, I would say, absolutely oppose gender ideology in the schools.
00:33:15.200We are confusing an entire generation of young people in the idea that if they don't feel
00:33:20.720perfectly comfortable in their bodies, they're probably a boy.
00:33:25.060That is a very confusing message, and it's completely untrue.
00:33:29.160And, you know, kids are being taught this, and then the moment they experience distress,
00:33:33.100the solution readily, you know, bobs to the surface of their minds.
00:33:36.940So I would say we can show absolutely can show trans compassion for transgender individuals of all ages without indoctrinating an entire generation in gender confusion.
00:33:48.580All right. Well, let me just put one another attempt at a counterpoint. The argument that people sometimes talk about is, you know, gay marriage and gay rights, et cetera. We as a society didn't do well on that.
00:34:02.300let's say. It took a very long time for gay people to get equality. And, you know,
00:34:08.220the three bigots like us are just here sort of doing the same thing with trans people.
00:34:14.100Gay experimentation, being gay, comes with no irreversible harm. There is nothing, if this
00:34:23.260were about a generation of girls declaring themselves lesbian or declaring themselves
00:34:28.420pansexual, I would not have written the book. Okay. We wouldn't oppose it either. Right. I mean,
00:34:36.300that's not what this is about. There is no harm in gay experimentation. There is irreversible harm
00:34:42.480in young girls, teenage girls rushing to medical transitions. They are likely to regret
00:34:47.960because they have misdiagnosed themselves with gender dysphoria and no adult, no medical
00:34:53.600professional, you know, used any medical judgment to evaluate if that was an accurate diagnosis.
00:35:00.040And Abigail, isn't part of the problem, and you touched on this in your book,
00:35:03.880that we have a generation that we have mollycoddled, we have protected them from every
00:35:09.920single thing that life could have to offer because we want to protect them, we want the best for them.
00:35:14.040We have a very, very immature generation, you've just touched on that now, who are even more
00:35:19.660malleable than before because they haven't come into real world crises. That's right. And they
00:35:25.800haven't had sex or even a kiss. These are young girls who have never kissed a boy through their
00:35:32.600teenage years going online to discover who they are and what they want. They have no idea. But
00:35:38.780from a very young age, they've been presented with a buffet of gender options and a buffet of
00:35:44.280sexualities that they choose online like they choose a sweater. They have no idea who they are
00:35:50.400or what they want. They've never, as you said, they've been so mollycoddled and so protected by
00:35:54.320mom. They've never had the opportunity to discover any of their feelings for themselves. So when they
00:36:01.780try to break free of mom, when they try to individuate, they go online, they do it there,
00:36:06.100they get celebrated and they choose very extreme options because they really just don't know
00:36:13.160themselves. Let's move on and talk about the political side of this and the censorship side
00:36:20.060of this, because this is something you've experienced. First of all, just before I get
00:36:23.380into my question, tell everybody what has happened to you and your book as a result of you publishing
00:36:29.220it. It's just been a nonstop, you know, smearing and libeling, but also censorship attempts. First
00:36:36.800from, you know, Amazon refused to allow my publisher to sponsor ads for the book. So if you
00:36:43.580typed in the words for my book or search terms, they would suggest another book, one of the
00:36:50.080hundreds of gender books that celebrate teenage gender transition. Target removed the book after
00:36:56.940two users claimed it was, you know, transphobic. You know, billboards, parents dug into their own
00:37:03.760pockets to play for billboards to advertise my book. The GoFundMe they used to create a fundraiser
00:37:10.160to pay for these billboards was shut down, even though over 30,000 fundraisers are allowed on
00:37:16.300GoFundMe to pay for top surgery, for breast surgery. But a fundraiser for parents who just
00:37:22.700want awareness of the risks, that was shut down. The billboards themselves were taken down. It has
00:37:28.740truly been endless. Why do you think people feel so strongly, or maybe not so strongly,
00:37:36.400but why do companies like Target, Amazon, etc., why are they so fearful of a book like yours?
00:37:44.220Well, I think that the, you know, people underestimate the sort of two questions,
00:37:49.640okay? First of all, we're seeing the same woke reaction among a lot of a fearful reaction to
00:37:55.700these, you know, young activists, these young far left activists in all our mainstream institutions
00:38:01.320in America now and in corporations. Okay. They're, they're terribly fearful. We're constantly doing
00:38:07.520anti-racism training and whatnot. So you can see it as, as part of that. But, but the question is
00:38:12.880why this book in particular, why, why this issue in particular? And I think that's the reason is,
00:38:20.020is because look, my book's not political. It's just a journalist's investigation into this,
00:38:25.120you know, sudden epidemic, what's going on here and why. And I think that if you take an honest
00:38:30.400look at the book, if you dare have the opportunity to read it, you will be so horrified by what's
00:38:36.420been allowed to go on that you will immediately be, you know, extremely concerned. And you
00:38:43.800certainly want more safeguards for these teenage girls. And I think that the interests that are
00:38:49.320committed to fast-tracking as much transition as possible for as many as possible, they're
00:38:55.860pretty upset that anyone would question them.
00:38:59.400And Abigail, why is it that this topic inspires such vitriol and the bullying and the anger
00:39:07.140and the harassment and all these tactics that are used?
00:39:10.580Why is this particular issue so toxic?