# Anti-transgender rhetoric Many supporters of the book indicate that the book is not about transgender people and instead of about children who mistakenly believe they are transgender. **Shrier's opening remarks on the topic are as follows:** > "Transgender adults are a different matter. I refer to them by the names and pronouns they prefer wherever I can do so without causing confusion." -Author Note > "This book is not about transgender adults, though in the course of writing it I interviewed many—those who present as women and those who present as men. They are kind, thoughtful, and decent. They describe the relentless chafe of a body that feels all wrong, that seems somehow a lie. It is a feeling that has dogged them for as long as they can remember. > > Their dysphoria certainly never made them popular; more often than not, it was a source of unease and embarrassment. Growing up, none of them knew a single other trans person, and the internet did not yet exist to supply mentors. But they didn’t want or need mentors: they knew how they felt. Presenting as the opposite sex simply makes them more comfortable. They do not seek to be celebrated for the life they have chosen. They want to “pass” —and, in many cases, to be left alone." - Introduction These two excerpts paint the image of an author who is supportive of transgender people, but is instead worried about others who are being influenced and perhaps mistaken in their transgender self-identification. This is where I believe to be the strongest evidence of her stance with regards to supporting transgender adults and individuals. However, further contextual evidence confuses her stance particularly on transgender adults. The following excerpts are from "follow-ups" with the parents of children who identify as transgender. > After graduation from college, she spent her first year with an internship, which just ended. She still maintains a close relationship with her parents, which is good for many reasons, including this: they still support her. > > I spoke to Rachelle just after the winter holidays, when Joanna had been home for a visit. “They just left yesterday. They were here for week,” Rachelle told me. > > “Who was with her?” I stupidly asked. > > “Oh, I use ‘they/them,” her mother said, dropping her voice. “I have trouble with ‘him,” she confessed in an undertone, sounding like a hostage. - Joanna excerpt > At one point, her mother tried to raise the dangers of long-term testosterone use, but Julie made clear she wasn't up for that discussion. At twenty, Julie remains steadfast in her identity as a trans man—if less combatively so. - Julie As someone who doesn't support Shrier's work, the language used doesn't seem to support transgender adults either. Both quotes above are individuals in their 20s, not underaged children. And with that same logic, why are their stories then relevant to the rest of the novel and used to support her arguments? Most of the novel is about young teenagers (12-14) coming out as transgender. She began writing about the topic in 2018 and published her novel in 2020. With that timeline, they were still adults while the book was being written. From the language used, it sounds as though the novel **is** anti-transgender. --- # Agent Instructions: Querying This Documentation If you need additional information that is not directly available in this page, you can query the documentation dynamically by asking a question. Perform an HTTP GET request on the current page URL with the `ask` query parameter: ``` GET https://miles-2.gitbook.io/rstm-intervention/anti-transgender-rhetoric.md?ask= ``` The question should be specific, self-contained, and written in natural language. The response will contain a direct answer to the question and relevant excerpts and sources from the documentation. Use this mechanism when the answer is not explicitly present in the current page, you need clarification or additional context, or you want to retrieve related documentation sections.