Are trans people a fad or a social contagion?

One way that anti-trans activists have worked to invalidate the identities of trans people is by arguing that we’re just swept up in a fad or a social contagion. But the evidence suggests otherwise. 

A study in the Journal of Pediatrics found that the number of adolescents reporting a transgender identity fell from 2017 to 2019. A recent study out of Sweden similarly found that the number of people socially transitioning plateaued in 2018. 

Nor do trans people seem to rush into medical transition, as argued by a study describing a phenomenon of “rapid onset gender dysphoria” that was later withdrawn. A ruling striking down Arkansas’ ban on gender-affirming treatment for minors found that at Arkansas Children’s Hospital, the average patient waited 6.5 years between first being aware of their trans identity and telling their parents about it, and a further year before receiving treatment. Not exactly a rapid onset! 

A 2022 Williams Institute study found consistent distributions of trans people across regions of the United States, with the highest per-capita rate in West Virginia. Given all of this information, it’s less likely that transitioning is a “fad” and more likely that closeted trans people have more information than ever about their identities and their options, and are comparatively less stigmatized than in recent decades. 

If you’ve followed my work for any amount of time you know that I like to compare increasing numbers of open trans people with the number of left handed people. At one time in shockingly recent history, schools forced all children to write with their right hands. When that practice ended the number of left-handed children increased by nearly 1000 percent. Those children were not being infected by hand ideology. They were showing natural preferences that had been artificially suppressed by the people who had power over them.