The trend is obvious in most left-wing issues, from pro-Palestinian attacks to Black Lives Matter riots to Tesla burnings. Nowhere, though, is it more salient than within the transgender movement. One transgender-identifying male threatened to assassinate Rep. Nancy Mace (R-SC) last month. Another, a boy, beat a 15-year-old girl in a high school bathroom in 2022, before which, similar cases of sexual assault abounded. Violent transgender protests from just this year are too many to count.
The examples are continuous, because despite all of the social liberalism extended to the transgender movement — things such as “woke capital,” but also genuine leftward social and legal shifts — activists still don’t feel acceptance. Recent Pew Research surveys on “The Experiences of LGBTQ Americans Today” indicate that only 13% of transgender adults feel even “a fair amount” of social acceptance, while 52% feel “not much” or “none at all.” Compare that with the gay and lesbian category, which flips those statistics to 61% and 8%, respectively.
Society moved slightly rightward on transgenderism after enough momentum built within women’s sports, resulting in a reinvigorated movement. That’s reactionary. The deeper part of their delusion has to do with how unconvincing the transgender position is: It simply can’t be made to seem natural. No amount of feigned acceptance will make transgenderism a working concept, so they have their guards up at every moment. This truth sits deep in the heart of the radical transgender activist.
Given the chasm between that reality and various shows of transgender acceptance, there is severe cognitive collapse. It is just an exacerbation, though, of the existing mental health struggles that bring one to transgenderism.
Even left unidentified as gender dysphoria, the fact of progressives’ poor mental health persists. Data from the U.S. General Social Survey of 2024 assert that 56% of “extreme liberal” people under 30 are diagnosed with a mental health problem. In the ideological gradient, that number declines steadily to a mere 10% of “extreme conservatives” under 30. The same numbers for people over 30 hit 28% for liberals and 17% for conservatives.
We are aware of these patterns as stereotypes, but they are confirmed statistically year after year. The fact that young “extreme liberals” see such a huge percentage of mental health diagnoses is significant given Pew’s findings that 66% of transgender-identifying adults are likewise under 30 years old.
One way that mental insecurity expresses itself is through perceived threats, a position much in line with the impression of low social acceptance. Pew reports also that 70% of transgender-identifying adults have “feared for their personal safety” because of their identities, with 52% of gay or lesbian participants saying the same.
The heightened sense of fear among those transgender-identifying makes perfect sense: Not only are they, rightfully, extremely pessimistic about the likelihood of positivity toward their choices, but they have felt fear from the start. The premise of a transgender identity relies on feeling threatened by one’s very self, in the form of one’s biological sex. If the measure of the movement is fear, of course, they are more disposed to threatening behavior.
Most of this goes for common gay pride activists, as well, for whom many of the same mental health or trauma experiences are primary influences. This is especially so when all leftist issues make up one, single struggle. Not all joy and relief for today’s Pride movement, then, despite the appearances of the month.
This article was originally published at www.washingtonexaminer.com
