TERF is the abbreviation for “Trans-Exclusionary Radical Feminist”.412 There is no clear identifying feature for TERFs; it is usually sufficient to distinguish between biological women and trans women.
Trans persons identify with a gender that differs from their biological sex. In recent years, the number of young trans persons has increased massively, the majority of them girls.422 The reasons for this increase are not yet clear; a connection with the mainstreaming of queer ideology seems plausible.
Parallel to the increase in young trans persons, there is a growing number of detrans persons. Detrans persons are former trans persons who have reconciled themselves again with their biological sex, whereby the process of detransition often only occurs post-puberty. A relevant proportion of detrans persons live homo- or bisexual in adulthood.423 424
So-called “trans-affirming” treatments with hormones and operations are, however, almost always irreversible. The partly far-reaching damages (including sterilisation, amputations, bone damage, and impotence) lead to many detrans persons regretting the medical experiments in which they were promised that they could “align” with their desired sex.425 The actual risks and consequences are, however, often downplayed in official gender medicine.426
For trans activists, it is considered transphobic discrimination to question a person’s claimed gender identity (see TERF). Trans activists claim that medical concerns regarding hormone administration or amputations for minors would amount to “conversion therapy” and cause increased suicidality. The alleged protection from suicide is, however, a refuted myth.427 By defaming alternative treatment methods as transphobic, “trans-affirming treatments” represent a lucrative source of income for the medical industry.
Anyone who criticises “trans-affirming treatments” for minors is considered transphobic. In some US states, parents can even lose custody if they oppose the “trans-affirming treatment” of their children.428