There’s a curious talking point that won’t seem to die right now that just got a major boost from everyone’s least favorite author. In shorthand, you’ll most likely see the narrative referred to as “medicalized homophobia”, which posits a conspiracy theory that asserts that gender transition of any kind is an elaborate attempt to convert lesbians and gay men to heterosexuality through hormones and surgical intervention. Despite being baseless on its face, it’s an incredibly popular talking point and certain to come up in any discussion where an anti-trans campaigner wishes to dodge the accusation of being anti-LGBTQ.

With the unprecedented onslaught of hateful anti-trans bills and policies waging war on trans youth happening right now, I see a lot of rampant speculation about social transition in school, and an equal number of claims around "clusters of kids" doing the same. Any number of “concerned parents” groups, op-ed columnists and headline-starved science writers are swearing up and down that entire friend groups are suddenly declaring themselves with different names, pronouns and descriptors related to gender and sexual orientation. And for the right-wing, this offers a perfect platform to inject fear into an already hostile climate as they prepare to dismantle every inch of progress made over the past forty or so years.