Advocates Protecting Children (hereafter “Advocates”) is a non-profit (501c3) organization dedicated to fighting the gender industry, and especially its predation on children in the form of unethical social and medical transition for the sake of political and financial profit. We serve and support churches, schools, organizations, families, and individuals who seek facts and guidance on responding to gender ideology and activism.

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The Advocates Protecting Children team are moms and teachers. We have eight children ranging in age from 14 to 32, and we just welcomed our first grandchild to the Advocates family! We are practicing Anglican, Methodist, and non-denominational Christians. We hold B.A. degrees in education, professional writing, and communication, and a B.S. in cognitive science; M.S. degrees in education and educational psychology; and a Ph.D. in instructional technology and learning science.  Collectively we have over 70 years of teaching experience ranging from preschool through adult instruction, from homeschool to private school to public school, and we share 80 years worth of parenting experience.

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We believe:
 

• There is no such thing as “true trans,” and specifically there is no such thing as a transgender child. People who struggle with their sense of personal sex identification suffer from gender dysphoria, formerly called gender identity disorder in the DSM-V, prior to political activists’ pressure on the medical establishment to de-pathologize and normalize what is inherently a psychological condition.
   

• Sex is binary; it is neither tertiary nor on a continuum. Human beings are categorized as females or males based upon their chromosomes, reproductive function, sex gametes, and secondary sexual characteristics such as genitalia. No third type of sexed person is necessary for reproduction, nor does it exist.
   

• Intersex people, or those who have a disorder of sexual development, comprise a very tiny percentage of the population and are neither representative nor proof of sex or gender diversity, nor a continuum of sex or gender. Disorders of sexual development are, as stated in their name, disorders, akin to other conditions wherein something went awry in development, such as cystic fibrosis, physical birth defects, Down syndrome, etc.
   

• Terms such as “transphobe,” “TERF,” and “truscum” are abusive words, and are slurs used to silence and malign anyone who dissents from gender ideology’s tenets. We do not use these terms, or others like them, nor do we endorse those who do.
   

• The term gender is meaningless, and until the unethical, abusive, and long discredited psychologist John Money first applied it to people in the 1960’s, gender belonged only to the field of linguistics. Whereas gender came to be used synonymously with sex on documentation like birth certificates and drivers’ licenses, gender has today become redefined as one’s inner sense of sex (maleness/femaleness). Advocates understands that what the gender industry refers to as gender is better identified as personality, which is individual and personal, and bears no relation to nor subservience to one’s physical sex.
   

• Gender ideology is based entirely upon regressive sex-role stereotypes, such as “Boys play with trucks,” and “Girls like pink.” In the past, children were taught, for example, that if one is a boy, he must like and play sports, and if one is a girl, she must like to cook and play house. Today the gender industry has flipped this already unacceptable pigeon-holing, and created an even worse situation. Now children are told that if a girl likes and plays sports, she must actually be a boy inside, and if a boy likes to cook and play house, he is actually a girl who was born in a boy’s body. Advocates does not agree with these kinds of labels. Likewise, we do not give high value to the term gender-non-conforming because it assumes that certain attributes and preferences exist which are representative of females and others which are representative of males. We prefer to see all people given the freedom to express themselves and their talents/preferences irrespective of their sex category.
   

• “Conversion Therapy" bans are misnamed for the purpose of deceiving legislators and the public. These bans prevent therapists and caregivers from doing anything except agreeing with a gender dysphoric person’s wrong belief that they were “born in the wrong body,” and pressing them into medicalization. There should not be only one treatment permitted for every single person who suffers from gender dysphoria. Each person is an individual and should be given the care and therapy that is most appropriate for him or her, including but not limited to talk and behavioral therapies.
   

• Accurate sex categorization is paramount for appropriate medical treatment, to preserve the rights and protections of women and girls, and for the collection of meaningful demographic data. Self-identification of transgender status is unethical, dangerous, and must be stopped.
   

• Science and research support a gender-critical stance on gender ideology.
   

o    The World Professional Association on Transgender Health agrees that research shows that 74-92% of children will align with their birth sex if allowed to pass through puberty naturally.

o    A 30-year longitudinal study out of Sweden, one of the most LGB- & TQ-friendly countries in the world, reveals that individual’s wellness post-sex-transition is abysmal, with subjects being 19 times more likely than the general population to commit suicide.

o    Puberty blockers (such as Lupron) and cross-sex hormones (estrogen given to boys and testosterone given to girls) have long-term and harmful effects on development, health, and well-being. Medical providers and pharmaceutical companies are failing to communicate or minimizing these well-known side-effects for the sake of financial gain.​

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o    The side-effects and potential negative outcomes of interfering with a healthy child’s endocrine system are potentially so catastrophic, it is unlikely that any researcher could get approval to study the efficacy of puberty-blockers and cross-sex hormones on children with gender dysphoria. 

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o    Dr. Robert Garofalo from the Center For Transgender and Sexuality at Lurie Children’s Hospital in Chicago says “We don't know with regard to some of the long-term consequences of these medications. If you look at our consent forms, there are fraught with like vague language and like may, could. We know very little about things that are really important to families like fertility, like cancer potential or oncologic potential of these agents, cardiac risk.”

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o    Dr. Kevin Stuart, executive director of the Austin Institute for the Study of Family & Culture reports, “multiple studies have shown that over the long run, those who transition have increased rates of suicidality, not decreased.”

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o    One of the hallmarks of good research is that participants are randomly selected. In all too many studies presented by transgender activists, participants are recruited in ways that systematically target those who are sympathetic to the results the activists are seeking.  They contact LGBTQ groups and ask for participants or post in LGBTQ forums online. Results from any study where the participants are self-selected are biased.

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o    Loss to follow-up is a term used to describe the situation when a study losses participants. For example, if a study started out with 100 participants but ended up with 50, that would be a significant loss. Any loss to follow-up can compromise results of a study, however the higher the loss, the more results need to be questioned.  Anything higher than 20% poses serious threats to validity. The high rates of loss to follow-up in many of the studies cited by transgender activists is shocking. For example Rehman’s study had 40.4% loss to follow-up.  Ruppin’s study had 49.3% loss to follow-up, while Pimenoff had 56.7%  and van der Sluis lost more than half at 62.5%.  Lindqvis had a shocking 69.5% loss to follow-up.**

 

• People who suffer from gender dysphoria—including those on the autism spectrum, people who have suffered prior trauma/abuse, those with comorbid disorders such as depression, those who have been pathologized by saturation with pornography, and men who are autogynephiles—deserve compassion, and should be provided adequate and ethical mental and physical health services in order to restore them to wholeness and healing.
   

• Sexuality and gender identity are not innate, fixed traits, but are most likely a combination of inborn tendencies (nature) and environmental effects and experiences (nurture). Given the numbers of people who have adopted a change in sexual preference or gender identity later in life, or who have successfully given up unwanted sexual attractions or gender identification following appropriate therapy, Advocates believes that attractions and self-identifications can and do change throughout one’s lifetime.

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Rehman J, Lazer S, Benet AE, Schaefer LC, Melman A. The reported sex and surgery satisfactions of 28 postoperative male-to-female transsexual patients. Arch Sex Behav. 1999 Feb;28(1):71-89. doi: 10.1023/a:1018745706354. PMID: 10097806. 

 

Ruppin U, Pfäfflin F. Long-Term Follow-Up of Adults with Gender Identity Disorder. Arch Sex Behav. 2015 Jul;44(5):1321-9. doi: 10.1007/s10508-014-0453-5. Epub 2015 Feb 18. PMID: 25690443.

 

Veronica Pimenoff & Friedemann Pfäfflin (2011) Transsexualism: Treatment Outcome of Compliant and Noncompliant Patients, International Journal of Transgenderism, 13:1, 37-44, DOI: 10.1080/15532739.2011.618399