(The following post is a translation from a Brazilian website nocorpocerto.com that was inspired by PEC's Power of Mothers blog post. Mothers around the world are organizing, educating and taking their power back. Mothers know their children. Listen to mothers.)
Dear readers, have you noticed, reading news articles about children and teenagers who declare themselves “trans”, how much the mothers, even more than the fathers, were disempowered? At a time when there is so much talk about female empowerment, they have lost even the most basic right, which is to say that they have a son or daughter, to analyze the issue based on material reality, on what they know about their offspring and to question the transmedicalizing discourse. They were convinced that they are out of date and that they need to be “re-educated” about “gender”; you have certainly seen them say (or you have already said) phrases like "I didn't understand anything about 'gender', but the multidisciplinary team at the clinic taught me everything". "I started following 'trans people', because only they know what 'being trans' is." "I thought I had a gay son / lesbian daughter, but I was taught that 'gender identity' is one thing and sexual orientation is quite another." "My daughter / son researches the subject on the internet and shows it to me." "Questioning someone's identity and pronouns is 'transphobia' and causes suicide."
The mother suspects that there is nothing wrong with her child's body, she knows that he or she is not even a fully trained adult to understand the long-term impact of all these substances and intuits that there are many things that can make us feel confused or unhappy with who we are. She is the one who knows her child best, but has been convinced to give up what she knows and her instincts. The authorities are now individuals who have never seen their children, but who dominate the “gender” jargon: the health professional who sees these patients as a simple market niche, the queer academic, the “LGBTQIA +” activist, the transactivist organization that speaks in “sex work”. Experts are unable to prove the presence of this “gender identity” in a blood test or brain scan of these patients, but they present to the guardians a consent form that will allow them to initiate a kind of chemical castration similar to what some countries perform in rapists:
In the words of the character of Matthew McConnaghey to the young Leonardo DiCaprio in “The Wolf of Wall Street”, “The name of the game: move money from the customer's pocket to your pocket“. The money comes out of the pocket of the parents, the taxpayer, the other doctors who pay for “LGBTQIA + health” courses to also earn money from these patients and their supposed “gender identities”. In fact, the same character as Matthew seems to be defining the “gender identity” smokescreen when he explains to DiCaprio what “fugazi” means: “It's a stupid thing. It's fairy dust. Does not exist. It never arrived on Earth. It is not matter. It is not in the periodic table. Is not real."
But the good news is that there are mothers around the world who are challenging this discourse and resuming their belief in themselves and their children's ability to return to feeling comfortable in their bodies. They are coming together, exchanging information and discovering that they live very similar stories whether in Brazil, in the United States, in Italy, in India: that their boys and girls who experience a variety of conditions that can include depression, anxiety, autism, issues with their sexual orientation, school bullying and also, simply the sufferings and confusions of growth - especially when growing up in a hyperconnected world and increasingly disconnected from reality. They are looking for other professionals. They are wondering what we have said here several times: is this feeling of inadequacy not a symptom of other things rather than a medical condition in itself? They are listening to the untranslated, people who were also convinced that hormones and or surgeries would be the solution for them, like the Brazilian Isabela Aroca - who, in fact, started the “transition” already in adulthood. Isabela said to GQ magazine: “It may seem like an exaggeration, but I can swear I felt my uterus atrophy. For days, my hip region was throbbing and burning with pain, it was unbearable. I knew other people who were going through the same procedure as me at the time, I asked about the pain, but they all told me it was normal - normal? Is it normal to feel so much pain that I can't walk?” If an adult woman couldn't even understand the full impact of testosterone on her body, how could a teenager? And more: did you see this interview echoed by doctors in that specialty? By activists of the acronym “LGBTQIA +”? -intended but misguided "LGBT mothers" who believe they serve a cause when they are simply doing free advertising for doctors and labs to fill their pockets? Did you see these people bringing out the recent news that Sweden was the first country to prohibit the use of puberty-blocking hormones in minors under the age of 16 on the basis of “gender” diagnoses? Mothers are looking for other professionals, other treatments, other readings, other ways to deal with the issue that do not include the use of synthetic hormones, or mutilations, or lies. The text you will read now was published by the Partners for Ethical Care campaign with this same image in English; it is an incredible initiative that generated a book released in April. I invite you to subscribe to the PEC website (which has a podcast) and follow the campaign on Youtube, Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. I also invite you to forward this text to as many people as possible, especially mothers (Power of Mothers Portuguese translation and in English). At some point, we will reach the mother of a son or daughter who also declares himself to be "trans" and can help her rediscover her power. Good reading and a big hug, Eugênia Rodrigues. Spokesperson for the No Corpo Certo campaign