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Since 2018, a term that fuels fear among parents of adolescents has been circulating in the media around the world. “Rapid-onset” or “sudden-onset” gender dysphoria is a term 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 seeing that American school curricula offered “gender ideology” and encouraged “transgenderism” (SIC). For her, sex education, social media, and pop culture (especially manga and anime) indoctrinate children and adolescents and lead them to suddenly feel confused about their gender identity, as if it were an “outbreak.” Her book was based 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 terminology used by medicine for four decades to explain the existence of trans people. This led to the pathologization of these identities and the classification of trans people as psychiatrically ill. Since 2018, the World Health Organization removed this condition from its Manual of Psychiatric Diseases, and gender dysphoria is now commonly used (as does the American Psychiatric Association (APA)) to describe the emotional distress experienced by people when their gender identity does not correspond to their gender assigned at birth and they have not yet transitioned.

Grossman quotes and follows the ideas of Canadian psychologist Jordan Peterson —who provides the prologue to his book—who asserts that gender doesn't exist and that gender identity is therefore a fiction. In saying this, he returns to the discarded ideas about trans identities as a psychiatric pathology of people who believe they are something they are not.

For decades, Peterson has been a leading figure for global organizations and local figures fighting legislative and social advances for women and people of color, arguing that these advances are a matter of "gender ideology" rather than human rights. Some of these organizations in Spain and Latin America include: "El bus de la Igualdad" (against trans children in Spain); " Con Mis Hijos no te Metas " (in several Latin American countries); AMANDA (a Spanish organization that lobbies against the rights of trans children and adolescents); and its sister organization in Argentina, MANADA.

Agustín Laje and Nicolás Márquez are some of the Argentine spokespersons for this ideology, which opposes local legislation and international human rights standards.
In addition to secular organizations, there are many religious organizations, generally evangelical Christians, that encourage fundamentalism and even form part of governments this investigation shows .

What science says 

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

The Journal of Pediatrics published a study that sought firsthand information from trans adolescents . To do this, it cross-referenced data from 173 medical records of adolescents under 16 who attended specialized health centers. The report concludes that there is no information, according to the accounts of trans adolescents, that suggests that social environment or mental health issues 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 circulated without proof."

“They speak without evidence and create false narratives.”

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

Helien asserts that, based on her experience in the clinic, the catastrophic consequences proposed by these anti-gender movements are not so. “These people are probably the political vanguard of anti-rights legislation around the world. They have no interest in the health of trans people or in respecting their identities. We know that in the United States today, many people have to move to another state to receive treatment or from professionals who provide trans health care, and their licenses are revoked,” she describes, based on her participation in the World Association of Trans Health Professionals. 

“We, those of us who work with trans people in multidisciplinary teams, have the evidence, starting with treatments,” says Helien. In 2005, the Trans Health Care Service was created at Durand Hospital. “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 refers to one of the arguments of these groups, which embrace a narrative that maintains that, for them, the “true” transition should occur earlier. “This position pathologizes trans identities and attempts to stake out the ground with empty rhetoric. They speak without evidence, creating false narratives.”

The MANADA: Argentina's version of international organizations 

On August 5, 2023, the Argentine media outlet Infobae published an article titled "My daughter now says she's a boy, what do I do?": Hard testimonies from mothers of adolescents with sudden gender dysphoria . In this article, several mothers (and one father) testify about how their children had a trans "breakout" (the journalist uses this terminology) due to anime, the internet, and preexisting mental health conditions. According to the journalist, these mothers, out of desperation in the face of national legislation that defends the right to identity of trans people (including children and adolescents), had to form 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 (Group of Mothers of Adolescents and Girls with Accelerated Dysphoria), 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 presented themselves publicly at the headquarters of the Madrid Medical Association. It was in the context of the debate on the Trans Law , which Congress finally passed (in June 2022). They had come together following a tweet in which a mother shared her story, and as a result, they began to systematize biased information in an attempt to find "scientific" and biological foundations for their arguments. Many of them were taken from other organizations that have been lobbying for many more years, such as the British GENSPE CT. Under the guise of an organization that promotes diversity, GESPECT provides information on the dangers of hormone therapy for trans adolescents. It also promotes "detransitioning" 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 testimonies 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 advertisement from an organization based in Europe, where there is a strong anti-trans tradition, which opposes local human rights legislation such as the Gender Identity Law, passed in 2012.

"These people violate the rights of their own children."

Argentine activist Gabriela Mansilla , founder of the Asociación Infancias Libres and mother of Luana, the first trans child to have her ID changed, told Presentes that these are conservative reactions to the legislative advances in several countries for trans people.

“These people should be reported. Because they not only violate the rights of their own children, but they also violate the rights of other transgender adolescents and children. People who read articles like the one in Infobae could end up disrespecting and violating my daughter, for example, right? What the media shows is taken up by people, obviously not only adult-centered but anti-rights, because this is an anti-rights movement, there's no denying it. And with anonymous stories. It's election time, we mustn't lose sight of this, and it's a clear attack that all people in the community will face if this continues. Because it's instilling a narrative, instilling doubt, instilling hatred. This fosters hatred. You read the stories in the article, and it's as if the anguish and desperation is caused by the desire to accompany and hug their children. That's the craziest thing.”

Argentina's Gender Identity Law is considered globally advanced because it embraces, among many contributions from sexual diversity 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 Law on the Comprehensive Protection of the Rights of Children and Adolescents (2005), and the Comprehensive Sexual Education Law (2006), among others.