Why I fear the gender agenda is harming our children – after a 4,415% rise in girls wanting to change sex last year
by Sarah Vine, Mailonline:
About time, too. This week Penny Mordaunt, the Equalities Minister, finally ordered an inquiry into one of the great mysteries of our age: why so many young people are seeking to change their gender.
Ten years ago gender dysmorphia in children was a vanishingly rare condition. Even in 2009, for example, the number referred for gender treatment was 97.
Last year it was 2,519. By far the steepest rise has been among girls: up from 40 to 1,806, the equivalent of a staggering 4,415 per cent increase.
And, of course, those numbers do not include those ‘self-identifying’ without medical supervision, of which there are many more.
I am not saying that many of these cases are not genuine — those that are deserve wholehearted support.
But can such numbers really be down to better awareness of the condition, and the lifting of stigma surrounding it? Or might there be other factors at play?