Today in things you didn’t ask for and never wanted: A transphobic billboard campaign could soon be coming to your city.
After a newly-erected billboard in Los Angeles warned of the alleged dangers of gender-affirming care for trans youth, a GoFundMe campaign hopes to bring a copycat display to an unspecified American metro area. The L.A. billboard claims that “puberty is not a medical condition” and alerts parents that their children are “learning about gender identity in school.”
Created by a group which identifies themselves only as “Concerned Parents,” the crowdfunding effort urges donors (in all caps, naturally) to “contribute what you can” to stop trans children from being affirmed in their gender.
“We are raising money ASAP to put up another billboard to inform the public,” reads the group’s plea, although it does not specify what the public is being informed of.
The GoFundMe page goes on to quote the Amazon description of Irreversible Damage: The Transgender Craze Seducing Our Daughters, a book that was the subject of controversy earlier this year when the online retailer banned its author, Abigail Shrier, from purchasing advertising to promote it. Taking a page from the “Reefer Madness” playbook, the book bemoans that “unsuspecting parents are awakening to find their daughters in thrall to hip trans YouTube stars and ‘gender-affirming’ educators and therapists who push life-changing interventions on young girls.”
“A generation of girls is at risk,” the description reads. “Abigail Shrier’s essential book will help you understand what the trans craze is and how you can inoculate your child against it — or how to retrieve her from this dangerous path.”
The L.A. billboard, which is located at the corner of La Cienega and Rosewood near West Hollywood, was also intended to hawk Shrier’s book. Its creator, who has remained anonymous, said he was inspired to buy it after his child became “mired in gender identity confusion through a combination of a trans-identifying friend, extended amounts of time on the internet, and a trans-affirming school curriculum,” as the Christian Post claimed in a recent interview with him.
“I believe that around the country and certainly in Los Angeles, people are not taking the time to see the other side of the coin,” he claimed. “They have no idea what’s going on. It’s 100% blanket sympathy to the transgender ideology.”
But despite allegations that gender affirmation is an out-of-control fad destroying America’s youth, the overwhelming body of research shows that providing affirming care to young people is beneficial for their overall health. A study published in the Lancet journal in September, for instance, found that early intervention for youth experiencing gender dysphoria were correlated with reduced depression and anxiety, while those who received care at later ages reported higher rates of mental health issues.
