Stop defaming parents of gender dysphoric kids
Donation protected
Who am I?
My name is Frank Spiegelberg. After my daughter developed gender dysphoria seemingly out of the blue at the onset of puberty, I quickly became dismayed at the current unquestioning gender-affirming model used to guide treatment of gender dysphoric youth, especially those who fit the description currently being called Rapid Onset Gender Dysphoria or ROGD . My wife and I have done our best over the years to support our daughter who has recently desisted, but we are now being defamed as “transphobic”.
Our Story
When our family started this journey with our daughter almost five years ago, we were very affirming in her social transition. We attended the gender clinic at SickKids hospital in Toronto hoping for support and counselling for both our daughter and the family. However, our child was offered no mental health support, nor were we as parents, only hormone blockers to stop her puberty from progressing. I expressed my concerns with the “off-label” use of hormone blockers with side effects that include delayed brain, cognitive, sexual and physical development, and decreased bone density. I explained that I felt these drugs should be a last resort, not used prophylactically, since our daughter had no suicidal or self-harm ideation or behaviour. The clinicians ignored my concerns and advised us that our 14-year-old daughter was old enough to give informed consent to receive them, even if I disagreed. We never returned and our daughter did not ask again to attend any gender clinic or seek out hormones.
For the next several years, we took a watchful waiting approach, affirming our daughter’s dysphoria but not that she was actually a boy. We poured all we had into loving and supporting her emotional, physical, cognitive, and identity development. I pushed back against the community, school, and even other family members to give her time and space to explore her identity without coercive forces foreclosing on her identity and impacting her trajectory.
This past September when our daughter started university, she desisted and started school presenting as a female for the first time in more than four years. Amongst other influences, she has expressed that she was uncomfortable with her developing body and the unwanted attention from males that it brought when she commenced puberty.
We struggled and the road has been difficult, but we have our daughter back. We are fortunate that we did not fall down the gender-affirming rabbit hole, locking our daughter on a pathway to medicalization with irreversible serious side effects. We successfully gave our daughter’s brain enough time to mature (it takes until around age 25) so she could start thinking critically about her own beliefs and choices.
The Case
In 2020, I started to speak out on social media and by having in-person conversations, bringing awareness about the need to protect our vulnerable adolescents and children from unnecessary medicalization until they are old enough to truly consent to experimental hormone treatment. I speak to this issue from a place of compassion bringing to bear my lived experience with my daughter. My wife on the other hand is a private person who is not very active on social media and took no part in any advocacy surrounding these issues – and yet she too has been falsely defamed as “protesting against trans kids”.
On October 27, 2021, Anti-Hate.ca published a poorly written and defamatory article full of misinformation and misrepresentation accusing myself and my wife of “protesting against trans kids” and made the malicious decision to contact our employers. Although, I have spoken out about the medicalization of gender dysphoric children, my wife being a private person, has not been active on social media, nor involved in any advocacy surrounding these issues. This libellous article and the malicious decision to contact both of our employers has caused us an incredible amount of stress and has greatly impacted relationships in both our personal and professional lives.
Why I am seeking to raise funds through this GoFundMe account?
We are taking legal action against antihate.ca for defaming us as transphobic because I had been speaking out and advocating for a more fulsome approach to supporting and treating gender dysphoric children and youth. We are seeking to vindicate our reputations in court, but require some financial support to push back against antihate.ca that is partially funded by a grant from the Canadian government. I believe that no parent should be defamed for speaking out about the need for better psychological and medical healthcare and protection of our children and youth.
For the next several years, we took a watchful waiting approach, affirming our daughter’s dysphoria but not that she was actually a boy. We poured all we had into loving and supporting her emotional, physical, cognitive, and identity development. I pushed back against the community, school, and even other family members to give her time and space to explore her identity without coercive forces foreclosing on her identity and impacting her trajectory.
This past September when our daughter started university, she desisted and started school presenting as a female for the first time in more than four years. Amongst other influences, she has expressed that she was uncomfortable with her developing body and the unwanted attention from males that it brought when she commenced puberty.
We struggled and the road has been difficult, but we have our daughter back. We are fortunate that we did not fall down the gender-affirming rabbit hole, locking our daughter on a pathway to medicalization with irreversible serious side effects. We successfully gave our daughter’s brain enough time to mature (it takes until around age 25) so she could start thinking critically about her own beliefs and choices.
The Case
In 2020, I started to speak out on social media and by having in-person conversations, bringing awareness about the need to protect our vulnerable adolescents and children from unnecessary medicalization until they are old enough to truly consent to experimental hormone treatment. I speak to this issue from a place of compassion bringing to bear my lived experience with my daughter. My wife on the other hand is a private person who is not very active on social media and took no part in any advocacy surrounding these issues – and yet she too has been falsely defamed as “protesting against trans kids”.
On October 27, 2021, Anti-Hate.ca published a poorly written and defamatory article full of misinformation and misrepresentation accusing myself and my wife of “protesting against trans kids” and made the malicious decision to contact our employers. Although, I have spoken out about the medicalization of gender dysphoric children, my wife being a private person, has not been active on social media, nor involved in any advocacy surrounding these issues. This libellous article and the malicious decision to contact both of our employers has caused us an incredible amount of stress and has greatly impacted relationships in both our personal and professional lives.
Why I am seeking to raise funds through this GoFundMe account?
We are taking legal action against antihate.ca for defaming us as transphobic because I had been speaking out and advocating for a more fulsome approach to supporting and treating gender dysphoric children and youth. We are seeking to vindicate our reputations in court, but require some financial support to push back against antihate.ca that is partially funded by a grant from the Canadian government. I believe that no parent should be defamed for speaking out about the need for better psychological and medical healthcare and protection of our children and youth.
The international evidence is increasingly supporting our viewpoint. This fall, several whistleblowers have exposed the complete lack of assessment in North America for gender-questioning youth, with publications in the Washington Post (USA), the Economist (UK), Canada’s National Post and CTV . Moreover, in 2020, Finland broke from the WPATH Standards of Care to prioritize psychotherapy for gender-questioning Finns under the age of 25, while in 2021, all of Sweden’s youth gender clinics have stopped the use of puberty blockers and cross-sex hormones under age 18 except for clinical trials. Additionally, about a year ago, the UK National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) undertook comprehensive reviews of both puberty blockers and cross-sex hormones and found that evidence to support their use to be “very low” (their words).
How much are we looking for?
We are starting our goal at $50,000 to facilitate our ability to get through the subsequent portions of this legal action.
Should there be any funds remaining over and above our legal expenses, they will be donated to organizations and people that support the advancement and care for gender dysphoric children and adolescence and those that give a voice to these children, their parents/family and desisters.
For more information and resources, go to:
https://genspect .org/
Organiser
Frank Spiegelberg
Organiser
Wasaga Beach, ON