Study Shows Mothers of Boys With Gender Issues Are Mental

The abstract of a scientific study published in 1991 has been making the rounds on social media, and it is shocking on two levels. The first wave of shock (although not surprise) comes at you from what the study discovered: the mothers of gender dysphoric boys tend to suffer from a host of mental illnesses of their own.

The study (full text can be found here), “Mothers of boys with gender identity disorder: a comparison of matched controls,” was performed by researchers Sonia Marantz and Susan Coates, both of whom are Ph.D.s. The abstract details their predictable but sad nonetheless findings:

This pilot study compared mothers of boys with gender identity disorder (GID) with mothers of normal boys to determine whether differences in psychopathology and child-rearing attitudes and practices could be identified. Results of the Diagnostic Interview for Borderlines and the Beck Depression Inventory revealed that mothers of boys with GID had more symptoms of depression and more often met the criteria for Borderline Personality Disorder than the controls. Fifty-three percent of the mothers of boys with GID compared with only 6% of controls met the diagnosis for Borderline Personality Disorder on the Diagnostic Interview for Borderlines or had symptoms of depression on the Beck Depression Inventory. Results of the Summers and Walsh Symbiosis Scale suggested that mothers of probands had child-rearing attitudes and practices that encouraged symbiosis and discouraged the development of autonomy.

While depression is no picnic, I wouldn’t wish Borderline Personality Disorder on anyone. The National Institute of Mental Health tells us the symptoms can include:

Efforts to avoid real or perceived abandonment, such as plunging headfirst into relationships—or ending them just as quickly.
A pattern of intense and unstable relationships with family, friends, and loved ones.
A distorted and unstable self-image or sense of self.
Impulsive and often dangerous behaviors, such as spending sprees, unsafe sex, substance misuse, reckless driving, and binge eating.…
Recurring thoughts of suicidal behaviors or threats.
Intense and highly variable moods, with episodes lasting from a few hours to a few days.…
Inappropriate, intense anger or problems controlling anger.

Needless to say, women who suffer with this difficult diagnosis and don’t or can’t control their symptoms seldom keep their son’s father in the picture. The effects on a helpless child being raised by such a person must be incredibly damaging.

(And may there be a special place in hell for men who abandon their sons to depraved women who act out by feminizing and castrating their captive boys. It’s one thing to stick it in crazy and then choose not to spend your life with her — no one can blame you — but it’s another thing to abandon your own flesh and blood to such a fate. Be a man and fight for your children.)

The second shock from reading the study abstract is that it draws conclusions that no one is allowed to suggest, much less study, these days. You look over your shoulder as you read to make sure nobody sees you. The very first few words of the piece — “This pilot study compared mothers of boys with gender identity disorder (GID) with mothers of normal boys…” — are enough these days to cost someone their job.

At that point, you are struck by the full weight of the precise extent to which discourse and honest research into this subject has been smothered, and it’s breathtaking. You want to weep for the deliberate blinding of intellectual inquiry.

What a tragedy — for science, for the pursuit of truth, and most of all, for the children abandoned to this fate. God help them.

Editor’s note: An earlier version of this article said the study was undertaken in 1994. It has been corrected to the 1991 publication date.