Why Transgender Identities Are Finally In Freefall 

Elon Musk vulnerably told the world in July 2024, “My son Xavier is dead, killed by the woke mind virus,” adding starkly, “They call it deadnaming for a reason … they call it deadnaming because your son is dead.” Musk explained this mind virus to Bill Maher on his show more than a year earlier as a psychic spell where “you can’t question things; even the questioning is bad.”

This virulent virus fuels the deadly secular religion of transgenderism, a lie founded upon a contra-scientific view of male or female that rapidly infected millions of young people through social contagion over the last ten years. It caused whole guilds of otherwise well-educated professionals (physicians, psychiatrists, psychologists, educators, coaches, sports administrators, athletic associations, politicians, and the media) to lose their collective reason, objectivity, and credibility. We have all seen its horrific effects.

The deception seems to be exhausting itself, and there are now social science findings indicating this. Some are contesting this new data, but it is worth being mindful of as a notable indicator.

Eric Kaufmann, professor at the U.K.’s University of Buckingham and director of the new Centre for Heterodox Social Science, analyzed data from several large-scale, high-quality youth surveys and notes a decided shift in American teens and young adults moving away from identifying as either trans or queer.

His full report, entitled “The Decline of Trans and Queer Identity among Young Americans,” documents how the number of young people once identifying as trans or non-binary nearly halved across most data sets over the last two years. In his highly viral X posts, Kaufmann stated, “trans identification is in free fall among the young.” His report notes, “In these cases, we see a ‘rise and fall’ pattern of numbers returning to pre-surge baselines.” In other words, this nascent re-establishment of a pre-trans craze equilibrium could be the earliest empirical grave marker of the trans mind virus.

The same was shown to be true for alternative sexualities. While “traditional homosexual categories of gay and lesbian remained stable,” Kaufmann observed “a sharper rise and decline in the share identifying as bisexual and queer” as well as “questioning” and “pansexual” between 2020 and 2025. This decline was shown in “a return to heterosexuality.” The observation Bill Maher famously made that the sudden meteoric rise in these nouveau identities was suspect is now documented as true.

Kaufmann charts the dramatic rise and decline in gender and sexual identity this way.

In fact, professor Kaufmann documented a similar devastating anomaly in the “LGBTQ is completely natural so get used to it!” script in a groundbreaking 2022 paper: “Whereas in 2008 [sexual identity] attitudes and behavior were similar, by 2021 LGBT identification was running at twice the rate of LGBT sexual behavior” [emphasis added]. Just saying one was a meaningless “LGBTQ person” became twice as popular as actually doing any of the things those letters supposedly signify.

Again, social contagion at work in a deceptive mind virus.

In his new report, Kaufmann explains, “The average peak of non-heterosexuality, in 2023, matches the peak in non-binary gender identity in many of the surveys we have available.” He concludes, “It appears that trans and queer are going out of fashion among young people, especially in elite settings.” Yes, much of the LGBTQQIAAP2S+ rainbow pride madness we have all been badgered to celebrate every June has indeed been performance art cosplay.

The generational cohort changes in growing non-identity have been sudden and dramatic. Kaufmann states:

The fastest declines in BTQ+ identity over 2022-25 took place within the 2025 and 2026 graduating classes with 2027 and 2028 cohorts starting college life at lower BTQ+ levels. To the extent that the youngest represent the leading edge of new trends, this suggests that trans, bisexual and queer identities are declining in popularity with each new cohort.

So what is the reason behind this rise in gender and sexual play-acting and its possible dramatic decline? In a tight write-up of his study for UnHerd, Kaufmann explains, “My analysis indicates that changes in mental health over time, especially depression, made a significant difference to the trajectory of trans and queer identities over this period.”

But something else is certainly at work as well. You cannot sustain a lie for long, and the psychic trans spell is certainly breaking as so many are confidently speaking truth. Curiously, these were not bold Christian leaders. Many acquiesced to silly “pronoun hospitality.” Some publicly repented, giving others clarity and courage. The stalwart truth tellers were largely secular voices … and women.

Kellie-Jay Keen, the fire-filled Marilyn Monroe clone, boldly exposed the lie in 2018. Megyn Kelly caught Keen’s contagious courage and followed suit. J.K. Rowling fiercely started mocking the psychic madness on June 6, 2020 and has not stopped since. Liberal feminist Kara Danksy truthfully called transgenderism “left-wing misogyny on steroids … a made-up concept used to justify all kinds of atrocities.” Of course, there were also the young and fearless Riley Gaines and Chloe Cole, and author Abigail Shirer, who called it out as a “craze” in 2021.

Men spoke up as well. Billboard Chris started asking very public questions. Professor Jordan Peterson, early on, doggedly refused to have his language policed. President Trump gave billions courage and clarity when he signed, on his first day in office, an executive order establishing a basic fact: “It is the policy of the United States to recognize two sexes, male and female.” And as we saw earlier, Elon Musk publicly denounced the trans mind virus and hasn’t stopped.

All these are simply following the great Alexander Solzhenitsyn’s prescient maxim that if we refuse to be “witting servants of the lie” we will all “be amazed how swiftly and helplessly the lies will fall away, and that which is destined to be naked will be exposed as such to the world.”

Friends, unapologetic moral clarity spoken with confidence is contagiously empowering. It’s certainly what’s killing the trans mind virus, and your voice must join the chorus.

Glenn T. Stanton is the director of family formation studies at Focus on the Family and the author of “The Myth of the Dying Church.”