transgender

Aug 26 2025

New Research Shows ‘Transgender’ Identity Dramatically Driven by Immaturity

It is well established that being “transgender” is a not an objective medical condition. It is not something that can be objectively determined by science; it exists in the very subjective feelings and claims of the individual.

Research continues to document how identifying as “transgender” is a function of age and developmental immaturity. The fact is: The older one becomes, they are markedly less likely to identify as “trans.”

It has been well documented that “trans” youth tend to strongly desist in their gender confusion as they grow into puberty and young adulthood.

A 2024 Dutch study published in the highly respected Archives of Sexual Behavior found that “gender non-contentedness is most common around the age of 11 and that the prevalence decreases with age.”

Conducting research in both clinical and general population samples, this research team found that 11% of early adolescents reported “gender non-contentedness” but this “prevalence decreased with age and was only 4% at the last follow-up (around age 26).” Only 2% reported increasing discomfort with their biological sex as they aged. The study concludes, “Gender non-contentedness, while being relatively common during early adolescence, in general decreases with age and appears to be associated with a poorer self-concept and mental health throughout development.”

A 2021 study examining Taiwanese youth struggling with gender dysphoria showed that only 0.9% were still struggling with gender contentedness by the time they exited their teen years. Some 13% of Taiwanese youth struggled in their teen years, marking a 93% desistence reduction. The research population came from the Taiwan Youth Project and is the first research project tracking gender issues across adolescent development in that nation.

A 2023 British Medical Journal publication found that patients being diagnosed with gender dysphoria are getting younger with those in older age groups increasingly desisting. They chart the rise in gender dysphoric feelings rocketing in early adolescence and then declining sharply in late adolescence and early adulthood.

These scholars conclude that “GD [gender dysphoria] is not a permanent diagnosis” as the “concept of gender is a cultural construct rather than a genetic fact.” It is highly influenced by subjective issues of self-perception, social influence and personal expressiveness.

Additional research by the decidedly pro-gender ideology Williams Institute at the UCLA School of Law finds much the same thing.

“Transgender” identity is highest among teen-age individuals and then starts to drop precipitously from there with age and maturity. Table one on page seven of their report demonstrates just how stark the decline by maturing age is.

Only 0.8% of Americans age 18 and older identify as “transgender” while 3.3% of youth age 13 to 17 do. This is true across the large, diverse populations and geographical locales in the United States. The population of “transgender” identified individuals age 13 to 17 is three times higher across the West, Midwest, Northeast and Southern United States than those aged 18 and older.

Being “transgender” is certainly not something someone objectively is. It is most often a psychic phenomenon, increasingly driven by social influence and immaturity. The older and more mature people get physically, mentally and psycho-sexually, the more likely they become comfortable with their biological sex. Maturity and a rejection of “trans” identity largely follow the same trajectory.

This fact is very telling. We are wise to be mindful of it.

Related Articles and Resources

If you or someone you know is struggling with transgenderism or other sexuality issues, and you don’t know where to turn, Focus on the Family is here to help.

Focus offers a one-time counseling consultation with a licensed or pastoral counselor free of charge thanks to generous donor support. If you would like to request a consultation with Focus’ Counseling Department, call 1-855-771-HELP (4357) weekdays from 6:00 AM to 8:00 PM (Mountain Time) or complete our Counseling Consultation Request Form.

‘Transgender’ Means Many Different Things — and Nothing

American Academy of Pediatrics Captured by Gender Ideology; Mainstream Professionals Are Calling Them Out

Transgenderism and Minors: What Does the Research Really Show?

What Does it Mean to Be Trans, Anyway?

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

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

The Embarrassing Crack-Up of the LGBT Project

Yes, Transgenderism is a False Belief System

Image from Shutterstock.

Aug 21 2025

Loudoun County Boys Win Reprieve from Unjust Suspension

Loudoun County Public Schools (LCPS) has temporarily lifted its wrongful suspension of the two boys who asked, “Why is there a girl in the boys locker room?”

Founding Freedoms Law Center, which represents the boys and their families, won the reprieve on Tuesday after formally disputing the district’s conclusion that the boys’ efforts to protect their privacy constitute sexual harassment and sex-based discrimination.

The 10-day suspension will be delayed until LCPS’ adjudicates the appeal, which means the student who remains in Loudoun County can start school with his peers on August 25.

The other victim no longer lives in the state. His family moved to North Dakota to escape LCPS’ judgement.

Josh Hetzler, Senior Legal Counsel at Founding Freedoms, doesn’t expect the break to last.

“At every point along the way, LCPS has made it clear, frankly, that they were going to find these boys guilty,” he spoke plainly at yesterday’s press conference.

“So we don’t expect them to do the right thing — though we hope they do.”

If LCPS refuses to acquit the boys, Hetzler promises Founding Freedoms will take the district to court.

The boys are the latest in a long line of students and teachers victimized by Policy 8040, the district’s policy equating “gender identity,” a person’s subjective feeling of being male or female, with biological sex.

Policy 8040 effectively eliminates single-sex spaces. Students can use whichever bathroom or locker room aligns with their “gender identity.” Critics of the policy can be accused of “sex discrimination.”

In 2021, under Policy 8040, a “gender fluid” boy in a skirt sexually assaulted a fifteen-year-old-girl in the girl’s bathroom. LCPS subsequently tried to hide the attack, threw the victim’s father out of a school board meeting and transferred the perpetrator to another high school, where he offended again.

LCPS’ history with legitimate, atrocious Title IX violations makes its allegations of sexual harassment and sex-based discrimination against the boys seem particularly laughable.

Per Hetzler:

What they’re alleged to have done is to use [protected] speech to complain about a girl in the locker room.

[It] was all confined to speech among boys — never directed at the girl — inside the locker room. [It included] asking questions like, “Why is there a girl in the locker room?” and [making statements like,] “Hey, there’s a girl in the locker room.”

That’s the extent of it.

The boys’ actions aren’t in the ballpark of harassment or discrimination. But Renee Smith, the mother of the victim who lives in North Dakota, says the label itself is damaging, regardless of its veracity.

“Loudoun County Public Schools branded my son with one of the most damaging labels you can put on a young man — sexual harassment,” a proxy read from Smith’s remarks Wednesday.

“And for what? Referring to a biological girl as a girl? That’s not harassment, that’s truth.”

Smith continued:

The damage is already done. That false label will follow [my son], threatening his reputation and his mental and emotional wellbeing.

Happily, LCPS may not get away with its treatment of these boys. On Tuesday, the Department of Education (DoEd) came down on LCPS and four other Virginia school districts for repeatedly and willfully violating Title IX.

The order put LCPS and its compatriots on “reimbursement only” status while DoEd works to terminate the districts’ annual federal funding, totaling some $50 million.

That means the district will get no more federal money up front. Instead, it has to pay its own bills and submit them for reimbursement.

The DoEd is also investigating LCPS’ treatment of the boys.

“I’ve been informed by the Department of Education that they have opened a formal investigation over [this] case,” Hetzler confirmed Wednesday.

The case is ongoing.

LCPS’ has terrorized parents and students for years. The Daily Citizen fervently hopes its reign of terror will soon come to an end.

Additional Articles and Resources

Poetic Justice: Virginia school district loses federal funding day after bogus suspension.

Loudoun County Schools Defy Education Department Over Multiple Title IX Violations

DoEd Finds Northern Virginia School Districts Violated Title IX

Irate Parents Excoriate Loudoun County Schools Superintendent and Board Over Sexual Abuse Coverup

Virginia School District Ignores Parents’ Opposition, Implements ‘Gender Identity’ Lessons

‘Equipping Parents For Back-To-School’ – Updated Resource Empowers Parents

Department of Education Launches Multiple Investigations Into Title IX Violations

Department of Education: Schools Embracing DEI Will Lose Funding

Department of Justice Launches Title IX Task Force to Protect Women’s Sports

New Education Secretary Linda McMahon: ‘Send Education to the States’

Trump Signs Executive Order Protecting Women’s Sports and Spaces

What’s Your School District’s ‘Transgender’ Policy?

Aug 19 2025

Poetic Justice: Virginia school district loses federal funding day after bogus suspension.

The Department of Education (DoEd) put five Northern Virginia school districts on “reimbursement payment status” Tuesday pending full termination of their federal funding.

The decisive edict follow the districts’ continued violations of Title IX, which prohibits sex discrimination in federally funded educational programs and institutions.

Alexandria City, Arlington, Fairfax County, Loudoun County and Prince William County Public Schools allow students to use bathrooms, locker rooms and other sex-segregated facilities consistent with their subjective “gender identity,” rather than their biological sex.

Late last month, DoEd’s Office of Civil Rights found these policies violate Title IX. It ordered the districts to segregate bathrooms, locker rooms and sports by biological sex — or risk forfeiting a combined $50 million in annual federal funding.

None of the districts complied. Loudoun County Public Schools (LCPS), per usual, actually made a show of failing to comply.

Last week, the school board formally voted to refuse DoEd’s order. Yesterday, it suspended two high school boys for expressing discomfort with a girl in their locker room.

Of LCPS’ laundry list of wrongs, its failure to protect single-sex sports and spaces are some of the most egregious.

In 2021, shortly after LCPS passed its policy equating “gender identity” and “sex,” a “gender fluid” boy in a skirt sexually assaulted a fifteen-year-old girl in the girl’s bathroom..

Subsequently, the Daily Citizen writes:

LCPS’ Superintendent and Board dragged the [assaulted] girl’s father out of a board meeting, tried to cover up the incident and transferred the boy to another school — where he assaulted a second girl.

Then, in May, a female student filmed two boys in the boys’ locker room asking, “Why is there a girl in the boy’s locker room?”

Though the female had violated school policy by filming in the locker room, it was the boys, not her, who faced punishment.

On Monday, the district concluded the boys had committed sexual harassment and sex-based discrimination by asking why a girl had violated their privacy. They will serve a ten-day suspension and establish an additional “corrective action” plan with administrators upon their return.

Though both boys were sanctioned, only one will serve his unjust punishment. The other moved away from Virginia entirely, taking refuge in North Dakota, after district investigator Christopher Moy indicated he could choose to drop cases if the subjects left the district.

But Moy didn’t drop the investigation. Instead, he informed the family if their son ever re-enrolled in Loudoun County, he would first have to serve his suspension.

Now, the high school junior’s school record includes accusations of sex discrimination and sexual harassment — just in time to start applying for colleges.

The Daily Citizen asked Victoria Cobb, President of the Focus on the Family-allied Family Foundation, how LCPS could come to such an unjust conclusion.

“LCPS is targeting these boys, plain and simple,” she said. “Punishing boys who complain that a biological girl is in their changing area is a top-down effort to normalize unacceptable privacy invasions by the opposite gender.”

Family Foundation’ legal affiliate, Founding Freedoms Law Center, represents the boys and their families. Cobb says they plan to hold LCPS accountable for their radical policies:

To allow this punishment to stand is to allow a school system to force children to bow to a woke ideology that defies reality, science and God’s created order.

Cobb and the Family Foundation are far from the only ones to question the validity of LCPS’ “investigation.” In June, Virginia Attorney General Jason Miyares released a report finding:

LCPS is utilizing an unlawful, discriminatory and retaliatory Title IX investigation to silence students’ sincerely held religious objections to [LCPS policies equating sex and “gender identity.”]

Miyares referred the report to DoEd for further investigation.

Now, the writing is on the wall for LCPS and its compatriots. DoEd has “commenced administrative proceedings seeking suspension or termination of federal financial assistance to [the districts].”

In the meantime, the districts will get no federal money up front. Instead, while on “reimbursement status,” they will have to foot their own bills and submit them for federal reimbursement.

“States and school districts cannot openly violate federal law while simultaneously receiving federal funding with no additional security,” U.S. Secretary of Education Linda McMahon explained in a press release.

“The Northern Virginia School Divisions that are choosing to abide by woke gender ideology in place of federal law must now prove they are using every single federal dollar for a legal purpose.”

The Daily Citizen heartily praises DoEd for its unflinching enforcement Title IX. As Craig Trainor, Acting Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights at DoEd, said in July:

It’s time for Northern Virginia’s experiment with radical gender ideology and unlawful discrimination to come to an end.

Additional Articles and Resources

Loudoun County Schools Defy Education Department Over Multiple Title IX Violations

DoEd Finds Northern Virginia School Districts Violated Title IX

Irate Parents Excoriate Loudoun County Schools Superintendent and Board Over Sexual Abuse Coverup

Virginia School District Ignores Parents’ Opposition, Implements ‘Gender Identity’ Lessons

‘Equipping Parents For Back-To-School’ – Updated Resource Empowers Parents

Department of Education Launches Multiple Investigations Into Title IX Violations

Department of Education: Schools Embracing DEI Will Lose Funding

Department of Justice Launches Title IX Task Force to Protect Women’s Sports

New Education Secretary Linda McMahon: ‘Send Education to the States’

Trump Signs Executive Order Protecting Women’s Sports and Spaces

What’s Your School District’s ‘Transgender’ Policy?

Aug 19 2025

Girls Volleyball Team Forfeits Game to Avoid Playing Boy

A high school girls volleyball team in California chose to forfeit a game against a male competitor last Friday, Fox News reports.

The girls’ bold sacrifice, and the support of their parents and educators, reflect Californians’ growing intolerance for boys playing girls sports.

Riverside Poly High School recorded a loss Friday after refusing to play against Jurupa Valley High School. Though the school did not provide a reason for the forfeit, parents and a Riverside Unified School District board member told Fox the team did not want to play Jurupa Valley’s AB Hernandez – a boy.

Hernandez is no stranger to winning girls events; he took first in the triple and high jumps at the California girls high school track and field championship in May.

His participation in girls’ volleyball isn’t just profoundly unfair — it’s dangerous.

Riverside Unified School District board member Amanda Vickers told Fox on Friday:

This is about [the] difference between biological girls and biological boys. And, tonight, the girls of Riverside Poly High School, they’re not going to end up like Payton McNabb.

McNabb suffered serious head trauma in 2022 after a male opponent spiked a ball into her face. The blow left the then-17-year-old with a severe concussion. She still struggles with partial paralysis and vision problems.

“I applaud these girls!” McNabb told Fox Digital in a statement of support for Riverside Poly. “They were put in a situation no young athlete should ever face — choosing between their safety and their sport.”

She continued:

What these girls did took real courage, and it’s devastating that they’re the ones paying the price for a decision made by adults.

California Family Council Outreach Director Sophia Lorey, who was escorted out of the state track and field championship for distributing “Save Girls Sports” bracelets, echoes McNabb.

“For high school girls to boldly say, ‘I will not put my safety at risk and aid in the erasure of girls sports’ is an incredibly difficult stand to take,” she told the Daily Citizen.

“I am both proud of and inspired by [these girls’] courage.”

The Riverside Poly girls volleyball team is just one group of many young California women standing up against boys in girls’ sports and private spaces. Their efforts have helped sour Californians on gender ideology in sports. A recent survey of nearly 3,000 California adults found most supported requiring students to participate on sports teams consistent with their biological sex, including:

65% of adults surveyed.
64% of likely voters.
71% of parents with children in public schools.

But California institutions like the California Interscholastic Federation (CIF) remain unwilling to protect girls’ rights.

CIF not only allows students like Hernandez to compete in sports consistent with their subjective “gender identity,” rather than their biological sex, but also:

Prevents school officials from asking for documentation of a student’s “gender-related identity” unless they have “credible information” indicating it is false.
Allows students to change their “identity” at will, such that they can compete in a girls’ league one semester and a boys’ league the next.
Prevents coaches from preemptively moving a boy on a girls’ team to a separate changing area.
Encourages coaches to prepare girls for a boy to join their team.
Will not tell parents when a “transgender” athlete joins their child’s team.

Lorey concludes:

The continued dominance of [Hernandez] exposes the bigger problem: California’s leaders continue to allow males to invade girls’ sports, erase female athletes and compromise safety.

From track and field to volleyball, males are dominating girls’ sports across the state, and unless something changes, more girls will lose out as more males take over.

Happily, something is changing. More girls, parents and educators are standing up for equality, safety and biological reality in sports — often at great personal cost.

Please join Daily Citizen in praying for the protection and continued boldness in girls defending their rights.

Additional Articles and Resources

California Interscholastic Federation ‘Gender Diversity Toolkit’ Reveals Extent of Radical ‘Transgender’ Participation Policies

Feds Sue California Department of Education, Interscholastic Federations for ‘Illegal Sex Discrimination’

DOJ Lawsuit Describes California Department of Education’s Infuriating Treatment of Girls

Feds Pressure California After Boy Wins in Girls Track and Field Championship

Yes, Girls Care When Boys Take Their Trophies

Girls Sports Coaches are Incentivized to Recruit Men — Parents Shouldn’t Let Them

Gavin Newsom and the Dead-End Politics of the Sexual Revolution

Trump Signs Executive Order Protecting Women’s Sports and Spaces

Aug 13 2025

Court Upholds Arkansas Ban on Harmful ‘Transgender’ Procedures for Children

A federal appellate court upheld an Arkansas law protecting children from experimental and destructive “transgender” medical procedures.

Arkansas was the first state to pass a law shielding minors with sexual identity confusion from harmful puberty blockers, opposite-sex hormones and surgeries used to make them look more like the opposite sex, enacting the “Save Adolescents From Experimentation Act” (SAFE Act) in 2021.

After several court battles over the law, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 8th Circuit ruled in favor of SAFE Act on Tuesday, overturning a lower court’s decision blocking it from taking effect.

The SAFE Act also prohibits public funds from going to organizations that provide these procedures for minors, bans insurance companies from providing coverage for them, and allows those harmed by these procedures to file lawsuits against providers.

The Arkansas Family Council, a Focus on the Family-allied organization, applauded the decision from the 8th Circuit. In a press release, Family Council President Jerry Cox stated:

“This is amazing news. The SAFE Act is a good law that protects children from puberty blockers, cross-sex hormones, and sex-change surgeries. It has been blocked in court for the past four years.”

“Now the State of Arkansas can finally enforce this good law protecting children. That’s something to celebrate.”

Federal Court Says Arkansas Can Enforce the SAFE Acthttps://t.co/3qjFkD1ZKx #Arkansas #ARnews #ARpx #ARleg pic.twitter.com/t3Q0VsEo07
— Family Council (@FamilyCouncil) August 12, 2025

Cox explained that other countries have found that such medical interventions don’t work and are harmful, saying, “Over the past four years, public health experts in the U.S., the U.K., Sweden, Finland and other nations have found that science simply does not support performing these procedures on kids.”

The family policy council president added,

The SAFE Act is common sense legislation that protects children. That’s why the Arkansas Legislature voted overwhelmingly to pass it in 2021. That’s why more than half the states in America have passed similar laws since then. And that’s why the U.S. Supreme Court upheld a similar law in Tennessee earlier this year. Most people agree it is not right to perform [such] procedures on kids.

Shortly after the SAFE Act was passed, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) sued the state to allow disfiguring, body-damaging transgender procedures to continue. The lawsuit was filed on behalf of four families and two doctors.

In 2023, after an eight-day hearing, U.S. District Judge James “Jay” Moody struck down the Act. Judge Moody was nominated to the court by former President Barack Obama.

Arkansas’ attorney general and the State Medical Board appealed the decision, and the 8th Circuit ruled in their favor, reversing Judge Moody’s decision and citing the recent U.S. Supreme Court decision upholding a similar law in Tennessee.

The 8th Circuit stated in its opinion:

Arkansas has a “compelling interest” in protecting the physical and psychological health of minors. …

By prohibiting healthcare professionals from referring “any” minors to “any healthcare professional for gender transition procedures,” the Act prohibits the procedures that the state deems unsafe for minors.

Arkansas Attorney General Tim Griffin commended the decision, stating in an X post, “I applaud the court’s decision and am pleased that children in Arkansas will be protected from experimental procedures.”

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit has reversed the injunction in Brandt v. Griffin, which means the SAFE Act, which bans gender transition procedures for minors, can be enforced once the mandate issues.

I applaud the court’s decision and am pleased that children… pic.twitter.com/W3fgqIwRxV
— Attorney General Tim Griffin (@AGTimGriffin) August 12, 2025