The Epoch Times noted in a November article that some experts believe narcissistic parents may be contributing to the rise in children claiming to be transgender. One such professional is Dr. Erica Li, a pediatrician in Spokane, Washington, who “began to question why doctors were advocating for medical procedures to transition children without solid scientific evidence that the procedures came with an overwhelming benefit for their young patients.” While Li is a self-described liberal not necessarily opposed to transitioning children, she nonetheless recognizes from experience that another force is at work — parents with personality disorders. Among these disorders is “Transhausen by proxy,” a term used to describe “narcissistic parents who push gender transitioning on their children.” The Times explains: “‘Transhausen by proxy,’ isn’t an officially recognized psychological condition; it’s a play on an official condition known as Munchausen Syndrome by Proxy (MSBP), a mental illness that’s also sometimes called medical child abuse or factitious disorder imposed on others. It’s exhibited mostly by women seeking attention by exaggerating or making up an illness of children or others in their care.” Experts also blame mental health practitioners for the jump in the number of transgender children, some of whom exploit parents by telling them “it’s better to have a trans child than a dead child.” It appears that both parents and professionals share the blame; narcissistic parents gain welcome attention when their kids transition, and gender-affirming doctors “are often praised as ‘life-saving’ heroes.” In all cases, it’s the kids who lose.

Detransitioner Isabelle Ayala filed a first-of-its-kind lawsuit against the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) and her healthcare providers, charging civil conspiracy, fraud, and medical malpractice. Ayala is a 21-year-old biological female who says the AAP and her doctors “pressured her into undergoing a gender transition when she was a teenager.” The Washington Examiner reports that her legal challenge “alleges the AAP published and disseminated a fraudulent 2018 ‘Policy Statement’ that has been perceived by many as an authoritative guide by medical professionals endorsing the ‘affirmative model’ for gender dysphoria.” This “guidance” titled “Ensuring Comprehensive Care and Support for Transgender and Gender-Diverse Children and Adolescents” was reaffirmed in August 2023. Ayala’s suit charges that the policy “lacked sufficient evidence and used misleading and fraudulent citations to support its conclusions and recommendations” and that it should not have been used as a treatment guide for gender-confused children. One of the doctors named in the suit is Dr. Jason Rafferty, author of the Policy Statement and an advocate of gender-affirming hormones. Also charged is Dr. Michelle Forcier, who allegedly recommended testosterone injections for Ayala after a single meeting. According to the Examiner, when the girl was 14 years old, “she suffered from numerous mental health conditions, including ADHD and PTSD from a previous sexual assault, and was coping with her parents’ marital separation,” along with the social isolation and transition of moving from Florida to Rhode Island with her father.” She then discovered the transgender community online and explored a gender transition. When her mother refused to consent to Dr. Rafferty’s recommended testosterone injections, his team applied pressure by “allegedly suggesting that the child would commit suicide if her mother did not give in.” The suit claims Ayala’s doctors were “testing” this “radical new approach on patients like her.” Later, she moved back to Florida and stopped taking the hormones, only to discover she was suffering from irreversible damage and treatment-related medical problems that have further impacted her mental health. She is one of numerous detransitioners now suing their healthcare professionals who were featured in the documentary series Identity Crisis, produced by the Independent Women’s Forum.

More teachers are quitting government schools as student violence continues to rise. Former eighth-grade teacher Stacey Sawyer of Florida told News Nation Now: “Over the last several years the misbehavior was getting so bad that most of my time in my classroom wasn’t in teaching anymore; I was trying to put out fires. And I got tired of being disrespected.” News Nation says a 2022 study found that one in eight teachers have experienced physical violence and that 84 percent of school administrators blamed the turmoil on the pandemic. Sawyer said the disrespect came not only from students but also from parents. She believes social media is at least part of the problem. “Kids see other kids fighting online and they think it’s cool and say ‘let’s get into a fight’ [at school]. There have been several fights at the schools where I’ve taught and I was afraid of getting caught in the crossfire.” She has witnessed students punching each other and “blood, lots of bleeding from the nose that was just everywhere.” Sawyer knows other teachers who have been physically assaulted by students, “spit on, cussed out, and one even suffered a concussion.” She said the student who caused the concussion was allowed back in school. “They’re not taking care of the problem, and it’s a big problem.” She blames “restorative justice,” the notion that if an unruly student promises to behave, they are rewarded with “a sucker,” as in “everybody gets a trophy.” But in real life, “it doesn’t work that way,” she says. In their November 21 weekly column, John and Andy Schlafly addressed the lack of discipline in the schools. “A third of teachers encounter threats by students annually,” they wrote, “yet effective punishment is not allowed. Instead, liberals are permissive about misconduct until violence occurs, and even then sometimes fail to impose appropriate penalties.” The Schlaflys recommend returning discipline to the classroom, noting that children in schools on U.S. military bases outperform those in other government schools. “The military knows how to discipline its members, without permitting bad behavior until expulsion becomes necessary,” they wrote. They added that the teachers’ unions “should be blamed for turning schools into dens of crime, drugs, and liberal ideology.”

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