Liberal filmmaker anonymously condemns gender-affirming care: ‘I saw what happened to my son’

A San Francisco-based filmmaker anonymously condemned gender-affirming care after seeing what happened to her own son and urged fellow liberals not to allow kids’ transgender identities to go unquestioned. 

A Dallas Morning News column published last week that was penned by the filmmaker began with an editor’s note explaining that a pseudonym was used for the writer to "protect the identity and safety of her child." The paper noted that her identity was verified and she is "one of several parents of trans children who have shared their stories with The News but who aren’t willing to be named publicly because of concern for the health and safety of their children."

The column, bluntly headlined, "I believed in gender-affirming care. Then I saw what happened to my son," noted that the documentary film community is left of center. "Very left," in fact, according to the anonymous author, which was flagged by Townhall.

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"Over the last 10 years, I fit right in. I made films about women and children of diverse identities coping with sexual assault trauma, racism, homophobia and mental illness. Then in 2020, after I had sold my last film to Netflix and was wrapping primary photography on my next feature, I chose to begin a new film, one that I was driven to make despite my community’s disapproval," the anonymous author wrote. 

"It’s a film that is full of viewpoints that may be mistakenly characterized as conservative. I’ve done my best to ensure my work does not become fodder for right-wing hit pieces. But I need to tell the truth, and truth doesn’t always align with a political side," she continued. "COVID-19 had been hard on my youngest. Previously an extroverted, active and affectionate boy, over the lockdown he became quiet, easily agitated and withdrawn. He spent most of his time online. Then he told us he was transgender."

The filmmaker said her newly transgender son "wanted puberty blockers and then he would go on estrogen" and "matter-of-factly stated that he didn’t plan on getting ‘bottom surgery,’ but would probably want electrolysis, voice training and facial feminizing surgery such as a tracheal shave."

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She explained that her son wanted to play with toy guns, dressed as Spider-Man for Halloween, spent a lot of time shirtless and found humor in fart jokes. As a result, her son’s decision stunned the family but as "liberal California parents" they decided to support him. 

The filmmaker then started using she/her pronouns, calling her son by a new female name, offered to take him shopping for new clothes and to do his nails, and even offered a makeup tutorial. 

"We called three local adolescent gender clinics, but in 2021, we could not get an appointment. The clinics had seen such a huge increase in new patients, they couldn’t even put us on a waitlist," the filmmaker wrote. "That’s when we realized we are not rare. Transgender identities were spreading rapidly, often within social networks. Five of the 10 kids in our son’s closest friend group are now identifying as trans or nonbinary. Our neighbors on both sides each have a trans kid."

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The filmmaker noticed how many children were in the same boat, and felt "something other than kids finding their authentic selves was going on here." She wrote that her son was fixated on the medical transition and continued to dress and act like a teenage boy because he wanted to transform physically first. 

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"You’d think a therapist or a gender clinic would be able to assess if this is the right or wrong thing for him. But I’ve listened to enough parental accounts and interviewed enough detransitioners, doctors and therapists to now know that this is not true," she wrote. "Therapists are not free to explore teens’ transgender self-diagnoses for fear of losing their licenses. They, like gender clinics, operate under the American Academy of Pediatrics’ policy that any kid who says they are trans is affirmed."

The filmmaker then noted that her new documentary "Affirmation Generation" informs viewers that essentially every kid sent to a gender clinic is transitioned. 

"Without comprehensive assessments, while other mental illnesses are ignored, these kids are put on lifelong invasive, experimental and costly medicine," she wrote before offering multiple examples from her film of people who have spoken out. 

"That is where the course correction must come from: Progressives willing to ask hard questions and speak hard truths," she wrote.

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"I made this film because too many parents believe what I used to believe: That kids’ trans identities should not be questioned, and that medical transition is the only path. The truth is so much more complicated than that," the filmmaker continued. "Being liberally minded means keeping an open mind. Give me and the 12 experts, six detransitioners and more than 40 articles and scientific studies cited in the film a chance to present the evidence."

Fox News’ Nikolas Lanum contributed to this report.