Jennifer Lahl On Her Newest Film, ‘The Lost Boys: Searching for Manhood’
We are in the midst of a transgender moral panic. Where only recently, very few people sought what used to be called a sex change, today the numbers of people seeking to “transition” to the other gender—particularly among children and teenagers—is becoming a flood.
Much of the American medical establishment and the Biden administration claim that immediately yielding to children’s feelings that they are not the sex they were born is medically necessary, life-saving care. But is the science really settled? Recently, the United Kingdom, France, Norway, and other European countries hit the brakes on immediate gender affirmation in children—to the point that the UK shuttered its largest gender clinic for children as unsafe for patients. Even the World Health Organization—under political pressure, to be sure—just admitted that “the evidence base for children and adolescents is limited and variable regarding the longer-term outcomes of gender affirming care for children and adolescents.”
The UK’s National Health Service concluded that instead of encouraging transition, “the clinical approach has to be mindful of the risks of an inappropriate gender transition and the difficulties that children may experience in returning to their original gender role.” Such “returns” are known as “de-transitioning,” a phenomenon that receives far too little attention, and when it does, too often sparks bitter denunciation of detransitioners among radical gender ideologues.
My guest today has dedicated herself to raising the public profile of this important issue. Jennifer Lahl has directed, co-written, and co-produced three important documentaries on the subject. The first, Trans Mission: What’s the Rush to Reassign Gender? explored the medical ethics of administering puberty blocking and cross-sex hormone in children. That film was quickly followed with the release of The Detransition Diaries: Saving our Sisters, which told the stories of three young women who transitioned to living life as if they were men—only to realize that they are, indeed, women. And. completing the trilogy, the just released, The Lost Boys: Searching for Manhood, in which five young men describe their experiences with gender dysphoria and their ultimate pursuit to find peace in their natural masculine bodies.
Among her many accomplishments, Lahl is a documentarian and founder of The Center for Bioethics and Culture Network. Her writings have appeared in various publications including Cambridge University Press, the San Francisco Chronicle, the Dallas Morning News, and the American Journal of Bioethics. As a field expert, she is routinely interviewed on radio and television including ABC, CBS, PBS, and NPR. She is also called upon to speak alongside lawmakers and members of the scientific community on various issues of bioethical concern.
Board of Directors – The Center for Bioethics & Culture Network (cbc-network.org).
The Lost Boys: Searching for Manhood (youtube.com)
Venus Rising Podcast: https://cbc-network.org/venus-rising-podcast/