My son did not feel like a girl or a woman and then went to look, why do I feel like a woman?

My son felt uncomfortable in his body, in his feelings, socially, and went looking for an answer to that

and found the answer that he was transgender hooked onto that

and took off running with it.

I think this was such an important point, right?

In this particular cohort, it isn't that they have ever,

you know, organically, potentially had this thought on their own.

I mean, I can't obviously speak for everyone,

but I think Marie and I both feel like in our situation,

what she just said was just so well put.

It was an external source saying, and in my case, it was, or in our son's case, it was

literally clicking on a link within one Reddit forum that had been, you know, posted by someone

else that brought him to another forum that was literally called Egg, I-R-L, which stood for memes about trans

people in denial, encouraging them to break out of their shell or their egg and basically

admit to themselves and the world that they're transgender.

And then I have plenty of, unfortunately, I was able to view and observe some of the

conversations that were happening within these forums and the amount of encouragement

and celebration.

It was extremely affirming in a way where I think for the first time, my son found a group of people who he felt like he belonged.

Welcome to the unspeakable podcast. I'm your host, Megan Down. This week's episode is a little different. I have two guests, and they are appearing anonymously. They are the mothers of sons who struggle with gender dysphoria. Now, there has, as you may know, been a lot of discussion over the last few years about girls experiencing

gender identity issues and wanting to transition into males. There's even data that suggests

that the rate of girls making these announcements has risen something like 4,000% in the last

...