Even a pioneering transgender activist thinks the modern trans movement has gone too far with transitioning children, warning parents of the dangers of therapies and the laxity of care in an interview with Fox News.
Buck Angel, a woman who says she never felt female and began transitioning 30 years ago, told the network that when she began undergoing procedures, there were gatekeepers to ensure an individual was stable and certain about their gender identity.
She then called the current system a “form of indoctrination.”
(This should come as no surprise to those who have watched as the left’s transgender ideology rushes to embrace a minor’s declaration of gender identity, no matter how unstable or uncertain they may be. Here at The Western Journal, we’ve been chronicling the dangers for years now — and we’ll continue to do so, even as tech companies like Google try to starve us of revenue when we do. If you support our work, please consider subscribing.)
Buck Angel, who is now 59, told Fox News she was one of the first hormone-therapy gender transitioning patients in Los Angeles. The outlet noted Angel “became a porn star before becoming an advocate for self-acceptance with a mission to redefine gender.”
“I’m an elder in a community I helped build,” said Angel, who noted she’s faced backlash for speaking out about the current state of transgender therapy. “Now I’m being told that I’m old and antiquated.”
Angel said she’s “a huge advocate for mental health care,” which is what today’s gender dysphoric children aren’t getting. Back in her day, she said, there was a system of checks in place to ensure a person was sure they wanted to go forward with treatment.
“Now we have trans with no gender dysphoria, no need for mental health care, self ID, affirmation therapy,” Angel said.
“That says to me on some level, some form of indoctrination.”
Has the trans agenda become about indoctrination?
While Angel says her parents allowed her to “socially transition” when she was a kid — which involved behavioral changes like dressing more like a man and being addressed by a different name — it wasn’t until her late 20s that she began receiving hormone therapy.
Today’s children don’t have that kind of backstop in place.
“I see a vast, huge desire to fast track, for lack of a better term, these children into this space of trans kids” to put them on drugs like puberty blockers, Angel said. “I personally believe blocking puberty could be disastrous.”
The off-label pharmaceuticals have never been tested for blocking puberty, which prevents a child from developing along the lines of their natural gender. Studies have shown there are significant side effects for long-term use, including thinning of the bones. Hormone therapy can cause fertility problems.
“This isn’t a game, and it’s not something I can pick or choose,” Angel said. “Once you choose this life and do this what I did, there really is no turning back.”
Angel also criticized the lack of rigor when determining how serious a trans child is about their gender identity, instead affirming the child without much questioning.
“If a kid says they’re trans, they’re trans — oh, a kid says they’re an elephant, they’re an elephant? Are you kidding? That’s how ridiculous it is,” Angel said.
“It’s dangerous, and it’s not therapy,” she added. “Therapy is pushback on some level. It’s a pushback, so that you can see, am I making the right choice?”
“I see something as an elder in this community that is not right,” she said. “It’s hurting not only the community, but it’s hurting a bunch of people who should never be in this space.”
She did believe some kids would benefit from puberty blockers, but “it’s very few and far. It’s not the amount of kids that are immediately being put on blockers with no mental health care, no desire to sort of watch this kid kind of find their space.”
And, as for those who push the ideology, Angel said “the dishonesty grows every day.”
Angel isn’t the only one. Last month, the Los Angeles Times published an article on Erica Anderson, a 71-year-old clinical psychologist. He is a transgender woman who, the Times reported, “has helped hundreds of teens transition.”
“But she has also come to believe that some children identifying as trans are falling under the influence of their peers and social media and that some clinicians are failing to subject minors to rigorous mental health evaluations before recommending hormones or surgeries,” the paper noted.
“I think it’s gone too far,” Anderson said. “For a while, we were all happy that society was becoming more accepting and more families than ever were embracing children that were gender variant. Now it’s got to the point where there are kids presenting at clinics whose parents say, ‘This just doesn’t make sense.’”
It doesn’t. It never did. Now, even those who underwent transitioning during a period where it wasn’t widespread are telling parents to hit the brakes — and hard. We need to listen.
