Navigation Out of Trans Nation

• Post by: Emily Morales
• December 13, 2023

Lost in Trans Nation: A Child Psychiatrist’s Guide Out of the Madness Miriam Grossman, MD Skyhorse Publishing, 2023; 360 pages, $32.50   Dr. Miram Grossman has long been a warrior on the frontlines of the culture wars surrounding sexuality and gender identity. As the proverbial battle-hardened general—having witnessed firsthand the lying dead, the maimed and wounded—she disquietingly remarks that at the time she graduated from medical school she expected to “go to war against cancer and schizophrenia.” In more recent decades, however, she has recognized that her “most challenging fight is not against dangerous diseases, but dangerous ideas.” The board-certified child and adolescent psychiatrist dedicates her latest book to the battle-worn and beleaguered, parenting the casualties of the transgender war on reality and science. Finding inspiration in their stories and strength, Dr. Grossman intends her book both as a guide out of the madness for the already wounded, and as a harbinger to parents of younger children not yet maimed by this war. Parents looking to emigrate their children out of the all-consuming trans nation will find Grossman’s honesty and expertise, tempered by her candor and concern, informative and hopeful. Mincing no words, the author early on establishes “truths” that are now under active assault by trans activism. These are truths so fundamental, in fact, that they were recognized universally by nearly everyone with the exception of “gender studies professors and grad students until about two weeks ago.” These truths affirm that “[s]ex is not assigned at birth; it’s established at conception,” and “[b]rains always match the bodies to which they are attached; we are not Legos or Mr. Potato Heads that might be improperly assembled.” Less nuanced are Grossman’s statements that “[s]ex is binary,” “permanent,” and “[m]ales cannot become females and females cannot become males.” She war