https://youtubetranscript.com/?v=djFHxbE5rl4
We didn’t finish our discussion of the impact on you personally so you said that you were continually shocked so it was i imagine somewhat demanding psychologically to do the research that was necessary to write the book. What then there’s also the consequence of publishing it and and the notoriety or unpopularity that that might have produced. Right so I suppose you know I suppose I would fall into disagreeable as my personality category that I learned from you. In the sense that you know i’m not someone who you know things lies really bother me they just bother me on a moral intuition level. So I really sort of wrote this not looking to make friends but just because gosh the truth seemed obvious it was fairly horrifying and it didn’t affect me personally or my family personally so if it had I think I would have had trouble writing it. I don’t think I would be enabled to women who’s who’s and fathers mothers and fathers who watch their daughters go through this are absolutely devastated and it’s not something I would have been able to do if this had been a personal issue but. I wrote the book I thought it was a very fair treatment makes you wonder to win when you’re doing analysis of the outcomes of surgery. If you take into account the effects of that on the immediate family members if that’s a valid scientific question. You know what I mean like you could say look the only person who’s ever affected by a surgery is the person upon whom the surgery is performed. Perhaps that’s the case and perhaps that’s a reasonable perspective but we are embedded in meal structures and if if a surgical procedure makes person a temporarily happy or even maybe happy over the long run but devastates five other people it seems to me that it’s at least worth. Asking the question of whether that should be taken into account especially when you’re talking about teenagers. Right I don’t think it’s that it devastates the parents because they they can’t stand the thought of having a transgender son or daughter in fact they were overwhelmingly politically progressive and supported and they were big how they considered themselves allies. Long before gay rights was was was possible you know sorry gay marriage was possible in America so legal in America so. The it wasn’t that it’s they were so miserable and so devastated because they thought their daughters were so miserable and likely to end regretting this already or likely to regret it because they saw the lives their daughters were leading so. I think while I was writing the book I just thought this is so obviously true you know everything there’s everything in the book is true. Nobody has pointed to a single factual error and the book has been under a tremendous amount of fire now for six months so. How have you withstood that. So I think that the hardest thing about the fire in a certain sense is all the to be honest you know is all the polite people out there who who won’t even you know who are willing to to to say oh you know you’re you’re effectively provide what you wrote that provocative book. As if as if they don’t they almost don’t seem not to know that it’s a journalist job to go out and investigate phenomena especially cultural ones that seem to be real. I didn’t go looking for trouble trouble is all around us in America today I mean you know I mentioned the you know states are lowering the age of medical consent across the country so that so that kids can get all kinds of surgeries I mean in Oregon the age of medical consent is fifteen. So a fifteen year old in Oregon can get her breasts removed without her parents permission now you don’t need to be a religious person to find that disturbing or alarming you don’t need to be conservative for sure but just a thinking person who says gosh that seems really young I know I had a lot of crazy ideas at fifteen you know I’m glad no one would have given me that option. Who do you want to read your book. Oh you know. I mean and the books for for anyone to read but I suppose parents parents have been very helped by it or they felt you know they felt it was very useful clinicians have told me it’s very useful. In in in just helping them sort of develop a you know sense that they’re not completely insane when they think this is a whole lot of kids suddenly decide their transgender out of the blue this can’t be right there’s no oversight you know feeling that they’re not alone. But you know I’m happy for people who are affirmative therapist to read the book I mean I’m happy for anyone to read the book you know I unlike those who have called for my book to be banned and burned I’m not in favor of those things there you know I would have to be happy for anyone to read it and of course I would never want another book banned or burned. And so you’re you remain. Please with your decision to write it. The truth is I’m not sure I could have done anything else I mean once I was aware of what was going on I wrote an article about it for the wall street journal. And it’s got a huge amount of traction I mean people were writing to me across the country even across the West to say yes this is going on in their daughter school yes let me tell you my story. I mean I’m sure there are people who could have walked away from that but I’m not one of them I thought gosh there’s something worth investigating here and how could I just walk away from that and not look into it. Well you know I think that’s probably. A reasonable place for us to end what do you think do you have anything else that you’d like to say. No I just thank you very much for having me on and and you know big admirer of yours and I really appreciate the opportunity to talk about well. I’m pleased that you were willing to discuss your book and it’s I’m hoping that. Many people will read it and think about what it. And think about it. There’s lots to think about. The transgender surgery being part of that but by no means the necessarily the larger the largest part so. Thank you very much. Can I just say one more thing yes just say one last thing look. The lies have to stop somewhere I could have walked away from this I’m not saying it’s been fun and I’m not saying it’s been easy since the book came out there have been plenty of times when I thought I really don’t know if I have I chose the right path here. I have to tell you something the lies have to stop somewhere don’t they I mean they’re just were right now we’re living through a blizzard of them and at some point someone has to say you know a few of us who are just you know willing to need to say enough we have to subject this to the same medical scrutiny. And this yes well this is a system that we would subject anything else to any other medical phenomenon. Yes well terrible as objecting to the lies might be. I suspect that it’s not as terrible as the consequences of letting them flourish unchallenged. I mean that’s right I mean a lot of young women are getting badly hurt and at some point somebody has to be willing to say something. Yeah well I I hope I hope that your book helps. That would be it would be. That would be what anyone who is thinking clearly would hope.