At Townhall, Jeff Davidson asks the question that will still probably get you thrown off of some social media platforms and canceled in impolite leftist society. But it’s one that has been raised before, including among less politically driven medical professionals. To listen to all of the activists and read the figures being tossed around, you could easily be led to believe that we are in the midst of a pandemic of gender dysphoria cases around the country and much of the Western world, particularly among youths. Young people are “coming out” and “identifying” as the opposite sex, nonbinary, genderqueer, or whatever the flavor of the week is at the moment. How is this spreading so quickly when actual, diagnosed cases of gender dysphoria were as rare as hen’s teeth barely a decade ago? What if most of these young people aren’t actually gender dysphoric at all? What if the majority of them are just gay and they either haven’t realized it yet or haven’t come to terms with it? A new study in the Wall Street Journal demonstrates that many responsible doctors believe that to be the case.

Evidence is now emerging that our medical establishment is influencing children to undergo drastic procedures that might not be justified. The notion of gender-affirming care ignores a critical issue. Are children who are confused about whether they should be boys or girls actually homosexuals? It’s a vital question that few within medicine or politics are willing to confront.

Long before any massive procedure to extract, diminish, or otherwise irrevocably alter children’s sexual development, sex characteristics, and genitals, the possibility of being gay needs to be explored. In one study, nearly 80% of children who had shown signs of gender dysphoria didn’t comprehend the disorientation and resulting confusion that they felt. In a 2021 research project among young boys, nearly two out of three eventually realized that they did not seek a sex change but, in fact, were gay.

The transgender movement’s current grip on America and the world invariably professes that feminine boys and tomboy girls have been born into the wrong bodies. A more logical view is that gay children do not conform to what is regarded as traditional sex roles. Thus, physicians, hospitals, health centers, and the entire medical industrial complex, in many regards, miss the boat on this topic.

As I said, the question has been raised before. In Matt Walsh’s essential 2022 film “What is a Woman?” a child psychologist addresses the question. But you don’t need a degree in medicine to wrap your head around the fundamental idea behind this if you’ve spent any time around children or can recall your own childhood.

Think about this for a moment. When children reach the age where they and their peers are approaching puberty, many confusing changes begin to take place in both genders. If you are, for example, a young boy and all of your pals are suddenly growing very interested in the girls in your class and the changes taking place in their bodies, that quickly becomes a hot topic. But what if you aren’t having the same experience? What if you begin to realize that your fascination is with the other boys?

In most populations, that puts you in a distinct minority, so you might be feeling confused and out of place. The most logical explanation, assuming you have anyone around willing to explain it all, is that you might be gay or at least bisexual. But children can be very cruel toward anyone who doesn’t “fit in,” even in this day and age. Depending on your social circle, that might not be the sort of thing you would be comfortable sharing.

But what if someone came along with a different explanation? Particularly if that person is an adult authority figure such as a teacher or school counselor, you might be open to listening. What if they told you that there’s nothing wrong with your attraction to other boys? The only problem is that you’re actually a girl who was “born in the wrong body.” Of course you would be attracted to boys. It’s only natural! And what if the entire group was showering positive attention on the other kids coming out as trans or nonbinary or whatever? Rather than facing stigma, you would be celebrated! What’s not to like? Of course, as the linked reports point out, the real tragedy comes after you’ve been pumped through the pipeline of hormones, puberty blockers, and, eventually, surgery and you’ve destroyed your body by the time you realize that you were simply gay or bisexual.

So why would so much of the current medical profession keep pushing the trans agenda if this completely plausible alternate explanation is out there to be explored? Jeff sums it up by simply saying… “Ka-Ching!” Transgender transition “therapy,” drug treatment, and surgery have rapidly grown into a very profitable industry. There really isn’t much money to be made by counseling gay children early in life aside from steering them toward some helpful counseling and LGB support groups. I’m sure that sounds like a very cynical attitude to have, but the world has made me much more cynical these days, as I will freely admit. And for good reason. But it’s not the doctors or the lawyers paying the true price for all of this. It’s the kids.