The Gadfly

The Gadfly

Essays

The Trans Social Contagion Is Unravelling

The scars remain on bodies that never got a childhood.

Frederick Alexander's avatar
Frederick Alexander
Nov 18, 2025
∙ Paid
Photo by Volan Olmez on Unsplash (adapted)

“Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities.” – Voltaire

When Sophie was 13, she told doctors she wanted to be a boy1. Like millions of teenage girls before her, she was confused, depressed, and uncomfortable in her changing body. Within months, she was on puberty blockers. At 14, testosterone. And at 15, a double mastectomy.

Now 19, Sophie has detransitioned2, but her scarred chest will always be a permanent reminder of a young mind misdirected by those who claimed to care for her. The doctors who rushed her along this path are still practising, and many of the activists who championed her “affirmation” have moved on to more fashionable causes.

Sophie’s case is what happens when adults sacrifice children to ideology – and hers isn’t an outlier but one among thousands of examples of girls and boys who submitted to irreversible surgery in response to a social contagion.

But now, the tide is turning.

New data from surveys…

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