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Since 2018, a term that fuels fear among parents of teenagers has been circulating in media outlets worldwide. “Rapid-onset gender dysphoria” or “sudden onset” is an expression popularized by American psychiatrist Miriam Grossman in her book *Lost in TransNation: A Child Psychiatrist’s Guide to Getting Out of the Madness* . According to the author, she became interested in trans issues after observing that school curricula in the United States were teaching with “gender ideology” and encouraging “transgenderism” (sic). For her, sex education, social media, and pop culture (especially manga and anime) indoctrinate children and adolescents and push them to feel confused about their gender identity suddenly, as if it were an “outbreak.” For her book, she relied on an article that coined the term "Rapid Onset Gender Dysphoria," based on an online survey of parents in the United States.

“Gender dysphoria” is a term that medicine used for four decades to explain the existence of transgender people. This led to the pathologizing of these identities, and transgender people were considered to have psychiatric illnesses. Since 2018, the World Health Organization removed this pathology from its Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM), and now the term gender dysphoria (as used by the American Psychiatric Association, APA) is generally used to describe the emotional distress experienced by people whose gender identity does not correspond to the sex they were assigned at birth and who have not yet transitioned.

Grossman cites and follows the ideas of Canadian psychologist Jordan Peterson —who wrote the foreword to his book—who asserts that gender does not exist and that gender identity is therefore a fiction. In saying this, he reverts to the dismissed notion of trans identities as a psychiatric pathology of people who believe they are something they are not.

For decades, Peterson has been a leading figure among global organizations and local personalities who oppose legislative and social progress for women and LGBTQ+ people, claiming it's "gender ideology" rather than human rights. Some of these organizations in Spain and Latin America include: "El bus de la Igualdad" (against transgender children in Spain); Con Mis Hijos no te Metas (in several Latin American countries); AMANDA (a Spanish organization that lobbies against the rights of transgender children and adolescents); and its counterpart in Argentina: MANADA.

Agustín Laje and Nicolás Márquez are among the Argentine spokespeople for this ideology, which opposes local laws and international human rights standards.
In addition to secular organizations, there are many religious ones, generally evangelical Christian, that promote fundamentalism and even hold positions in government this investigation shows .

What science says 

To date, no scientific literature has been found that has involved children and/or adolescents in research on the alleged "rapid-onset gender dysphoria." The studies typically cited by books and proponents of this theory are based solely on the testimonies and opinions of parents of transgender people. 

The Journal of Pediatrics published a study that sought firsthand information from transgender adolescents . This involved cross-referencing data from 173 medical records of adolescents under 16 years of age who attended specialized health centers. The report concludes that, based on the testimonies of the transgender adolescents, there is no evidence to suggest that social environment or mental health problems can influence gender identity .

“This research is the first to show that more recent gender knowledge was not associated with having online friends, trans friends, or mental health problems,” said Dr. Margaret Lawson, co-principal investigator and professor of pediatrics at the University of Ottawa. “These results are extremely important because they dispel a theory that had been circulating without evidence.”.

“They speak without evidence and create false narratives.”.

Adrián Helien is a doctor and head of transgender health at Durand Hospital. He leads the pioneering team in Argentina that provides care to families with transgender children. “In this country, rights for transgender children and adolescents do exist. These groups pathologize trans identities, drawing attention in a catastrophic and negative way to the support provided to children and adolescents, but there are no trans voices. There are people who oppose trans rights,” he explains. 

Helien asserts that, based on her experience in her practice, the catastrophic consequences predicted by these anti-gender movements are not what they seem. “These people are probably the political vanguard of anti-rights legislation worldwide. They have no interest whatsoever in the health of trans people or in respecting identities. We know that in the United States, many people today have to move to another state to receive treatment, or that professionals who provide trans healthcare have their licenses revoked,” she explains, drawing on her experience with the World Association of Trans Health Professionals. 

“Those of us who work with trans people in multidisciplinary teams have the evidence, based on their treatment,” says Helien. The Trans Health Care Service was created at Durand Hospital in 2005. “The evidence shows that transitions can occur at different stages of life; there are no rules. They can happen in childhood, puberty, adolescence, or later ages.” She is referring to one of the arguments of these groups, who promote a narrative that maintains that, for them, the “true” transition should occur earlier. “This position pathologizes trans identities and attempts to define boundaries with empty rhetoric. They speak without evidence, creating false narratives.”.

The Pack: the Argentine version of international organizations 

On August 5, 2023, the Argentine news outlet Infobae published an article titled “My daughter now says she’s a boy, what do I do?”: harrowing testimonies from mothers of teenagers with sudden gender dysphoria . In this article, a number of mothers (and one father) share their experiences of how their children had a trans “breakout” (the journalist uses this terminology) due to anime, the internet, and pre-existing mental health conditions. According to the journalist, these mothers, desperate in the face of national legislation that protects the right to identity for transgender people (including children and adolescents), formed the organization MANADA (Mothers of Girls and Adolescents with Accelerated Dysphoria) in 2022. 

What journalist Claudia Peiró doesn't mention is that MANADA is an anagram of AMANDA (Agrupación de Madres de Adolescentes y Niñas con Disforia Acelerada), a Spanish organization that also fights against this invented syndrome.

AMANDA was born in Spain in October 2021, when a group of eight families of mothers and fathers publicly presented themselves at the headquarters of the Madrid Medical Association. This occurred within the context of the debate surrounding the Trans Law , which was ultimately passed by Congress in June 2022. They had come together after a mother shared her story on Twitter, and from there they began to systematically compile biased information in an attempt to find "scientific" and biological justifications for their arguments. Many of these arguments were taken from other organizations that have been lobbying for much longer, such as the British organization GESPECT . Under the guise of an organization that promotes diversity, GESPECT disseminates information about the dangers of hormone therapy for transgender adolescents. Furthermore, it promotes "detransition" therapies. These types of treatments are actually called ECOSIG (Efforts to Correct Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity) and are considered torture by the United Nations. The GENSPECT website features testimonials from repentant trans people and even a toolkit for journalists who want to cover trans issues. 

Therefore, the article published by Infobae is not a naive note seeking to listen to concerned mothers, but rather an advertorial from an organization originating in Europe, where there is a strong anti-trans tradition that opposes local legislation on human rights such as the Gender Identity Law, approved in 2012.

“These people are violating the rights of their own children.”

Argentine activist Gabriela Mansilla , founder of the Free Childhoods Association and mother of Luana, the first trans girl to have her ID changed, told Presentes that these are conservative reactions to the legislative advances of several countries for trans people.

“These people should be reported. Because they're not only violating the rights of their own children, but also the rights of all other trans and gender-diverse teenagers and children. People who read articles like the one in Infobae could end up disrespecting and abusing my daughter, for example, right? People—not just adult-centric people, but also anti-rights people, because this is an anti-rights movement, there's no denying it—take what the media shows. And they're using anonymous stories. It's election season, we can't lose sight of this, and it's a clear attack that all of us in the community are going to face if this continues. Because it's about establishing a narrative, sowing doubt, and instilling hatred. This fosters hatred. You read the stories in the article and it's like the anguish and desperation stems from wanting to support and embrace their children, that's the craziest thing.”

Argentina's Gender Identity Law is considered progressive worldwide because it incorporates, among many contributions from LGBTQ+ activism, the Yogyakarta Principles and does not pathologize trans identities. Furthermore, the country has extensive legislation that supports the protection and respectful treatment of trans children and adolescents, such as the Children's Rights Law, Article 26 of the Civil Code, the Convention on the Rights of the Child, the Comprehensive Protection of the Rights of Children and Adolescents Act (2005), and the Comprehensive Sex Education Act (2006), among others.