LGBT

New Research: 50-Fold Increase in ‘Gender Dysphoria’ in UK

New research out of the University of York has found a 50-fold increase in “gender distress” in children and young people in the United Kingdom in just 10 years. Social contagion and mental illness may play a role in the large rise.

The BMJ reported the results, which were originally published online in Archives of Disease in Childhood on January 24, 2025.

The study looked at primary care data in England, and suggests that “1 in every 200 17-18 year olds are affected” by “psychological distress caused by a mismatch between birth sex and gender identity.” The BMJ reported that “from 2015 onwards, the numbers of cases rose more rapidly in those recorded as female than those recorded as male by their family doctors, and were around twice as high by 2021.”

The researchers also found that 53% of the children “had concurrent anxiety, depression, or self-harm recorded.”

Such a large increase in a significant mental health disorder doesn’t happen naturally, societal factors must play a role.

While the York researchers didn’t study the issue of causation, they suggested some possible contributing factors to explain the dramatic increase in children struggling with sexual identity confusion:

Recent increases in incidence of gender dysphoria/incongruence have a range of potential explanations, including social factors (for example, changes in public attitudes towards gender differences, greater awareness and acceptance of gender dysphoria/incongruence, increasing use of social media and networking); [and] increasing rates of emotional distress and poor mental health in this age group, particularly for females. …

Here in the U.S., the number of minors with gender dysphoria diagnoses have also surged, with one report showing an increase from 15,175 children in 2017 to 42,167 in 2022.

Those numbers don’t count the growing number of children and young adults identifying as something other than their biological sex. As reported in the Daily Citizen, a 2023 Gallup study of 18 to 25-year old members of Gen Z showed almost 20% identifying as lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender, with 3.3% identifying as “transgender” or “other LGBT.”

In 2024, Mia Hughes published a devastating exposé of the World Professional Association of Transgender Health’s (WPATH) “Standards of Care for the Health of Transgender and Gender Diverse People.”

WPATH supports dangerous, experimental and body damaging “gender-affirming care” for children and adults, including puberty blockers, opposite-sex hormones and surgeries.

Hughes’ report, The WPATH Files: Pseudoscientific surgical and hormonal experiments on children, adolescents, and vulnerable adults, demonstrated “the world-leading transgender healthcare group is neither scientific nor advocating for ethical medical care.”

In a post about the new study on X, Hughes stated, “There has never been a more obvious social contagion in all of history.”

Executive Director and Founder of Genspect Stella O’Malley said of the increase: 

I put it down to social contagion, I put it down to social media, and I put it down to an extraordinary politicization of the trans identity. So that people who are lost, and people who are vulnerable, and the children in this study are shown to have a disproportionately high level of maybe autism, mental health problems.
People are lost and lonely, they look for solutions, and the idea that they can be a different person with a different identity is very alluring to a lost and lonely person, especially a young person who hates their body and is going through an exploration of who they are.

She added that she could understand children struggling, adding that clinicians and other “adults in the room need to exercise caution and be very careful with the treatment they give” children.

Indeed. Children who struggle with this intense self-hatred, along with the fantasy that they can become a different sex, deserve compassionate, loving care to embrace their bodily sex.

What they don’t need are harmful, experimental medical interventions that top their natural body and brain development and growth; disfigure and sterilize them; and risk major medical complications such as low bone density, high blood pressure, breast cancer, liver disease, thrombosis, and cardiovascular disease.

Related articles and resources:

British Lawsuit Says Children Are Too Young To Consent To ‘Transgender’ Medical Procedures

Counseling for Sexual Identity Concerns: A Measured, Careful, and Compassionate Approach

Focus on the Family: Transgender Resources

Important New Journal Article Calls Out Doctors for Harming Youth with Medicalized Gender Ideology

Questioning Drugs, Hormones and Surgery for Youth Confused about Their Sexual Identity

Rapid Onset Gender Dysphoria – Researcher’s Work Vindicated

Transgenderism and Minors: What Does the Research Really Show? ‘Trust the Science’ About ‘Gender-Affirming Care.’ What Science?

Image from Getty.

Watch This Perfect Response to Gender Ideology

Pierre Poilievre, a current Canadian MP and soon-to-be Prime Minister, gave the world the perfect response to the gender madness being forced upon all of us.

He was recently asked by a Toronto reporter if he would follow President Trump’s lead in having the government recognize only two sexes. The reporter had no idea what he was stepping into.

Poilievre calmly and kindly responded, “Well, I don’t know. Do you have any other genders you’d like to name?”

Poilievre confidently continued, “Well, I am not aware of any other genders than men and women. If you have any others you want me to consider, you can tell me right now.”

Of course, the reporter could not because there are no others. You can see the brilliant exchange below:

Strong, common-sense leaders who are not afraid to dismantle nonsense in such a manner are the order of the day. We need more leaders to stand up.

Remember: If we can’t speak sensibly about male and female, we can’t speak sensibly about the family.

Related articles and resources:

What Does it Mean to Be Trans, Anyway?

Yes, Transgenderism is a False Belief System

The Embarrassing Crack-Up of the LGBT Project

Do Not Fall for the ‘Affirm Them or They Will Die’ Lie

How to Defeat Gender Ideology, Protect Children and End ‘Trans America’

New Research Confirms Previous Findings: Most Gender Confused Kids Desist

The Shifting Ground of ‘Gender-Affirming Care’

How the “Trans” and Gender Redefinition Issue Attacks the Family

How to Respond to “Trans” and Gender Ideology? Simple: Live Not by Lies

Are Sex and Gender Different Things?

No, Trans Rights Are Certainly NOT Human Rights

Image from Shutterstock.

President Trump: ‘There are Only Two Genders: Male and Female’

During his inaugural address, President Trump stated, “As of today, it will henceforth be the official policy of the United States government that there are only two genders: male and female.”

The simple declaration of truth brought resounding applause from the audience in the Capitol Rotunda.

Focus on the Family President Jim Daly issued a statement agreeing with Trump’s pronouncement, saying:

In the very first chapter of Genesis, we read that “God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.” Any revolution of common sense must include an acknowledgement of this fundamental truth.
While we’re disappointed that it’s even necessary, we’re grateful that on his first day in office, President Donald J. Trump has prioritized this reality by issuing an executive order restating the obvious.

Daly referenced the order signed by Trump later on Inauguration Day: Defending Women From Gender Ideology Extremism And Restoring Biological Truth To The Federal Government, adding, “We are long overdue in this effort to reestablish the exclusivity of two genders, thereby protecting our children and serving America’s families.”

The order first explains:

Across the country, ideologues who deny the biological reality of sex have increasingly used legal and other socially coercive means to permit men to self-identify as women and gain access to intimate single-sex spaces and activities designed for women, from women’s domestic abuse shelters to women’s workplace showers. This is wrong.  
Efforts to eradicate the biological reality of sex fundamentally attack women by depriving them of their dignity, safety, and well-being. The erasure of sex in language and policy has a corrosive impact not just on women but on the validity of the entire American system.  

The directive goes on to state, “Basing Federal policy on truth is critical to scientific inquiry, public safety, morale, and trust in government itself,” adding:

Invalidating the true and biological category of “woman” improperly transforms laws and policies designed to protect sex-based opportunities into laws and policies that undermine them, replacing longstanding, cherished legal rights and values with an identity-based, inchoate social concept.

Indeed. As men who “identify as women” take opportunities from women in education, sports and other arenas, women’s legal rights are trampled. In addition, their privacy and safety are at risk when men who claim to be women enter women’s private spaces, such as restrooms, locker rooms, showers and dressing rooms.

Gender ideology has caused untold damage to individuals and families, as transgender medical interventions cause great harm to the healthy bodies of those suffering from sexual identity confusion.

Young children are regularly sexualized and confused in schools that promote this ideology. And free speech and religious freedom have been assaulted by laws promoted by gender activists and their allies.

Trump stated that his administration “will defend women’s rights and protect freedom of conscience by using clear and accurate language and policies that recognize women are biologically female, and men are biologically male.”

The executive order clearly states what the president articulated in his speech:

It is the policy of the United States to recognize two sexes, male and female. These sexes are not changeable and are grounded in fundamental and incontrovertible reality. …
“Sex” shall refer to an individual’s immutable biological classification as either male or female. “Sex” is not a synonym for and does not include the concept of “gender identity.”

Federal agencies are directed by the order to “enforce laws governing sex-based rights, protections, opportunities, and accommodations,” adding:

Each agency should therefore give the terms “sex”, “male”, “female”, “men”, “women”, “boys” and “girls” the meanings set forth in … this order when interpreting or applying statutes, regulations, or guidance and in all other official agency business, documents, and communications.

The directive forbids federal funds from being “used to promote gender ideology” and it directs agencies to “ensure that males are not detained in women’s prisons or housed in women’s detention centers.”

It directs the attorney general “to ensure that no Federal funds are expended for any medical procedure, treatment, or drug for the purpose of conforming an inmate’s appearance to that of the opposite sex.”

Activists fighting gender ideology and its harmful effects were quick to applaud the president’s statements and actions. In a post on X, women’s rights activist Riley Gaines noted that Trump was keeping promises made during his campaign.

Dr. Colin M. Wright, an evolutionary biologist who has written widely on the scientific and logical problems with current gender ideology, posted that the new administration’s actions will likely bring opposition. Then he stated, “But when they put reality on trial, it won’t end well for them.”

Gender ideology doesn’t change the truth that there are only two sexes – male and female. We’re grateful for this administration’s return to sanity and common sense.

Related articles and resources:

ADF: Victory for women, girls: Federal court rejects Biden admin redefinition of ‘sex’ in Title IX across country

Biden Becomes Nation’s Most Powerful Trans Activist With Executive Order

Court Rules Against DOE’s Title IX Rewrite, Saving Women’s Sports & Spaces – For Now

Even Hard-Boiled Evolutionists are Standing Strong Against Gender Madness

How to Respond to “Trans” and Gender Ideology? Simple: Live Not by Lies

How the “Trans” and Gender Redefinition Issue Attacks the Family

How Science and Faith Can Defeat Gender Ideology – Parts One and Part Two

Transgender Resources

Why Christians Can’t Avoid the “Trans” and Gender Redefinition Issue

What Does it Mean to Be Trans Anyway?

Image from Getty.

Elon Musk, Britain’s Rape Gangs, ‘Multiculturalism’ and Cowardice

(Caution: This article deals with sexual assault, with links to some graphic articles and posts.)

Elon Musk has been calling attention to the horrors that took place in towns and cities across England – for decades – as gangs of men, mostly Muslim Pakistanis, groomed, raped, abused and sexually trafficked young girls.

Musk’s posts spotlighted not just the crimes, but also the scandalous coverup of the assaults and trafficking, which were ignored or concealed for years by the media, police, social workers and local and national government officials.

Many who failed to act were fearful of being labeled “racist” or “Islamophobic.” Those fears – and kowtowing to ”multiculturalism” and “diversity” ideology over truth and justice – led to gross injustice and grave harm to young children.

The assaults on thousands of girls have reportedly been taking place since the 1960s, wrote Dominic Green in The Free Press:

The grooming and serial rape of thousands of English girls by men of mostly Pakistani Muslim background over several decades is the biggest peacetime crime in the history of modern Europe. It went on for many years. It is still going on. And there has been no justice for the vast majority of the victims.
British governments, both Conservative and Labour [sic], hoped that they had buried the story after a few symbolic prosecutions in the 2010s. And it looked like they had succeeded — until Elon Musk read some of the court papers and tweeted his disgust and bafflement on X over the new year.

There’s no knowing how many thousands of young girls were abused and raped across England. The Jay Report, an independent inquiry into gang rapes in Rotherham, stated that more than 1,400 girls were victimized from 1997-2013. That number can be multiplied many times over, as similar grooming gangs raped and abused children in dozens of other British towns, including Aylesbury, Blackpool, Bristol, Oxford, and Rochdale.

After reading court transcripts of some of the cases, Musk said, “What was done to thousands of defenseless little girls in Britain was vile beyond belief.” He also called for a new inquiry into UK Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer, who headed up the Crown Prosecution Service from 2008-2013, and his role in the scandal.

The Prime Minister and other leaders then attacked Musk for “interfering” in England’s affairs, with Starmer saying his accusers were “spreading lies and misinformation.” Opposition leader Kemi Badenoch also called for a national inquiry, but Parliament voted against it, 364-111.

InThe Daily Telegraph, Sam Ashworth-Hayes and Charlie Peters explained that “the government seems curiously reluctant to dig into the failings of officials.” They added,

This reluctance is not new. Across the country, in towns and in cities, on our streets and in the state institutions designed to protect the most vulnerable members of our society, authorities deliberately turned a blind eye to horrific abuse of largely white children by gangs of men predominantly of Pakistani heritage.

They opined that officials reluctance to address the issue is because “the government’s approach to multiculturalism is not to uphold the law, but instead to minimize the risk of unrest between communities.”

Rather than protecting children and pursuing justice, police and government officials buried the story.

“Britain now stands shamed before the world,” Green wrote, adding:

The scandal is already reshaping British politics. It’s not just about the heinous nature of the crimes. It’s that every level of the British system is implicated in the cover-up.

Julie Bindel, an English radical feminist who works to stop violence against women, was one of the first to begin researching and writing about this issue. She began investigating reports of grooming gangs in the early 1990s, through her involvement with The Coalition For the Removing of Pimping.

But “police and social services appeared to be scared of intervening in these particular grooming gangs” because they “did not want to be labelled as racist,” she said. Similarly, “because some editors feared an accusation of racism,” her first story on the subject was not published until 2007.

She wrote in The London Times,

Schoolgirls in Lancashire and Yorkshire are falling prey to sinister gangs of pimps. Two men have been sent to jail, but the girls’ mothers, not the police, are at the forefront of the crackdown. Why are the authorities so reluctant to get involved?

While sitting in a mall in Lancashire, Bindel watched “well-dressed Asian teenage boys … on the lookout for young white girls,” many of whom “are from disadvantaged backgrounds.

The boys would develop relationships with young girls, hungry for attention and affection, and then hand the girls over to older men, pimps who gave the girls drugs and alcohol – then threatened, raped and abused them. The girls were then sold for sex to other men in the town and often taken on a circuit to other cities.

“If anyone has sex with a girl under 13, there is a strong risk of being arrested for having sex with a minor. Once they reach 13, however, unless the victim makes a complaint to the police, nothing will happen,” Bindel wrote.

She continued, saying, “Pimping is lucrative. According to the Metropolitan Police Vice Squad, a pimp can make £300,000 to £400,000 a year selling a 16-year-old girl. There is, appallingly, no shortage of men who wish to buy them.”

She also pointed out the spinelessness of those who refused to act on behalf of these children, “The ethnic origin of the men was irrelevant, but many of them were allowed to get away with the rape and abuse of young girls because of the cowards who would do anything for a quiet life.”

While she’s right about the cowardice, she’s wrong about the ethnicity not mattering. Apologists for the state claim that white men commit most of the rapes in England, not Pakistani Muslims.

But as reporter Charlie Peters explained in a thread on X, that explanation misses the point. He wrote:

The contention had always been that those of Pakistani heritage were over-represented as abusers, not the majority of abusers. …
Only around 2-3% of the population of Rotherham during the period examined by the Jay Report came from a Pakistani ethnic background. Most abusers of the 1,400 girls therefore came from a population of only around 8,000 people. Clearly they were hugely over-represented.

In addition, since many men were never arrested and prosecuted, it’s impossible to know how many more assaults were committed by this small segment of the population. And why were they not arrested and prosecuted? Officials were afraid of being accused of racism and Islamophobia.

These girls were sacrificed on the altar of multiculturalism; diversity, equity and inclusivity; and political correctness. They deserve better.

Thankfully, as Musk and a few intrepid reporters have brought worldwide attention to this scandal, the British people are clamoring for a full inquiry. A poll from GB News found 73% want a national inquiry, 79% said officials who failed these girls should be prosecuted, and 81% want foreign national groomers deported.

Focus offers resources, help and support for victims of assault, including a free, one-time counseling consultation with a licensed or pastoral counselor. To request a counseling consultation, call 1-855-771-HELP (4357) or fill out our Counseling Consultation Request Form. For Christian counseling referrals nearest you, you may also visit the Focus on the Family Christian Counselors Network.

Related articles and resources:

Equipping Your Church to Respond and Prevent Abuse

Finding Healing From Sexual Assault

Focus on the Family Resources: Healing From Sexual Abuse

Focus on the Family Resources: Abuse

How to Help a Victim of Sexual Assault

Protecting Your Child From Sexual Abuse

Resources: Overcoming Sexual Brokenness

Sexual Assault and Rape: Help for Teens

We Need to Talk About It: Child Abuse Prevention

DEI Not Dead Yet – HRC’s LGBT ‘Corporate Equality Index’

The Human Rights Campaign (HRC) released it’s annual “Corporate Equality Index,” a report measuring business support for LGBT activism.

Despite recent reports of some companies backing away from “Diversity, Equity and Inclusion” (DEI) policies, “Corporate Equality Index 2025” (CEI) shows more companies than ever promoting homosexuality and transgenderism, both of which are a big part of this woke agenda.

HRC, the largest LGBT activist group in the U.S., reported the growth in corporate participation in a statement:

A record 1,449 businesses were rated this year, including 72 first-time CEI participants.
In total, 765 companies – a 28 percent increase from last year – earned a score of 100 and will be honored with HRC Foundation’s Equality 100 Awardas Leaders in LGBTQ+ Workplace Inclusion. 

The radical group said this represents a 5% increase over the previous year, adding that this was “despite anti-LGBTQ+ attacks on businesses.”

That quote demonstrates the way HRC tries to have it both ways: On the one hand, they portray themselves as a powerless, oppressed minority; on the other hand, they are able to strongarm hundreds of companies, “employing more than 22 million Americans,” into supporting LGBT activism.

They can’t have it both ways.

The CEI proudly touts the growing number of LGBT-identified individuals and their combined financial clout, warning employers:

With nearly 30% of Gen Z identifying as LGBTQ+ and the community wielding $1.4 trillion in spending power, retreating from [activist LGBT] principles undermines both consumer trust and employee success.

Of the 1,449 companies surveyed, HRC reported that 376 are Fortune 500 employers, from Fortune magazine’s list of the 500 largest publicly traded businesses, and 162 are from American Lawyer’s list of 200 law firms.

In 2002, with much less stringent requirements, HRC’s first CEI included 319 companies and reported only 13 top-rated companies. The activist group has upped the ante several times since this initial report, creating more stringent requirements for businesses.

It is no longer enough to be nondiscriminatory: Corporations must actively affirm, support and celebrate homosexuality and transgenderism.

HRC explains that its Index uses four criteria to rate companies on their support for LGBT ideology:

  • Nondiscrimination policies across business entities
  • Equitable benefits for LGBTQ+ workers and their families (including coverage of transgender medical interventions)
  • Supporting an inclusive culture
  • Corporate social responsibility

The last two areas are worth exploring a bit.

“Supporting an inclusive culture” means a company has diversity training programs, integrates the ideas of “intersectionality” into professional development, provides LGBT Employee Resource Groups and tracks LGBT data within the corporation.

The final category, “corporate social responsibility,” demonstrates that, to receive a perfect score, HRC expects businesses to become activists.

Corporations must actively recruit LGBT-identified employees, utilize LGBT-owned suppliers, market and advertise to gay- and transgender-identified consumers, provide financial support for LGBT events and organizations, weigh in on public policy issues, and provide “LGBTQ+ inclusive products and services.”

The 765 corporations which received a perfect score from HRC include familiar names such as:

You would be right to wonder what producing and selling computers, shoes, petrol, soft drinks, coffee and entertainment has to do with LGBT ideology and politics. Yet all these businesses – and many more – are supporting and promoting the work of groups like HRC.

While we strongly believe all people should be treated fairly, with kindness and compassion, we oppose the efforts of activists and allies to inculcate homosexuality and transgenderism into every area of our culture.

In addition to transforming the corporate world, HRC, other activist LGBT groups and their allies have successfully redefined marriage and family in our country. Through legislation and litigation, they work to deny individuals – bakers, florists, teachers, web designers and students – their free speech and religious freedom.

HRC’s Welcoming Schools Program sexualizes and confuses schoolchildren by providing and reading them books about homosexuality and transgenderism, bringing LGBT issues into core subjects like English and Social Studies, and training more than 133,000 educators “for creating LGBTQ+ and gender inclusive schools.”

Daily Citizen has reported that several major corporations, such as Walmart, Harley-Davidson, Tractor Supply, John Deere, Ford, Coors, Stanley Black & Decker, Jack Daniels, Craftsman, Caterpillar, Boeing and Toyota have recently announced they are pulling away from DEI and “woke policies.”

Yet it remains to be seen if those corporations are backing away from the LGBT activist agenda. While we’re happy about this growing trend, the Human Rights Campaign’s “Corporate Equality Index 2025” leaves us skeptical about the business world stopping its support and promotion of sexual sin.

Related articles and resources:

Disney and Other Corporations Find Wokeness Bad for Bottom Line

Human Rights Campaign Releases Report Showing Enormous Corporate Support for LGBT-Identified Individuals

Hurray for Walmart Abandoning DEI Programs and Policies: ‘Biggest Win Yet’

LGBT Activists, NEA and Librarians Promote Annual ‘Transgender’ Reading Day in Schools

Oklahoma Bans DEI in Universities and Government Agencies

So Which Is True: The LGBT Community is Under Siege, Or Powerful Enough to Coerce Corporate America?

Three Cheers for Harley-Davidson Dismounting From Corporate Wokeness

Three Cheers for Tractor Supply Unhitching from Corporate Wokeness