Kyle Scanlon, an FTM transgender activist, killed himself on 2012.07.08. We were told in subsequent press coverage that he had been depressed most of his life, or at least from a time well before she became he.
As MTF transgender Mirha-Soleil Ross put it on an episode of Jawbreaker, most transsexuals don’t want to become transsexuals; most simply want to become women, to use her own example. (I tried to double-check that quote with her and found no way to contact her.) Scanlon was clearly not satisfied being a man. He became a professional transsexual – running a transgender program at the 519, appearing on television, getting quoted in the press.
From an outside viewpoint, then, Scanlon hated being a girl. She grew up and became a man. Then he became an activist for transgender issues. I gather that neither of the latter two stages remedied the problem of self-hatred. Becoming male didn’t solve the problem of his life. Neither did staying in the public eye. Neither did coauthoring two papers on depression among transgendered people [Canadian Journal of Mental Health 2011:30(2)]. No amount of change – including almost the maximum anatomically conceivable change – was enough to make Scanlon’s life worth living.
Kyle Scanlon’s story is more than a tragedy. It raises questions about the entire official transgender-activist project. Note here I am using the Ross distinction between transsexuals (transgender activists) and people who simply want to become the other gender.
Should someone with severe pre-existing endogenous depression ever have been approved for sex-change surgery, hormone therapy, and related medical treatments? Shouldn’t that be an automatic disqualification?
Why do transgender activists and their apologists insist that the ostensibly higher rates of depression and mental illness among transgender persons are always and solely due to the rejection of a cold cruel world? Isn’t that putting the cart before the horse? Doesn’t Scanlon’s example show that, sometimes or even just in his singular case, depression and transsexuality can be comorbid? If not, how exactly can you prove it’s impossible? I certainly can’t prove it’s impossible, nor can I prove it was applicable in Scanlon’s case. But shouldn’t that be investigated?
Indeed, why do transgenders and their apologists seek to control the entire dialogue about transgender issues? (They even want to police the language you use.) Why isn’t every one of their claims on the table and open for discussion?
If, in a free society, anyone has the right to change their gender (they do), how do we not have the right to discuss any and all issues surrounding transsexuality? Stated another way, why do you have the right to alter your gender but we don’t have the right to talk about the entire process thereof? Why isn’t every single topic, including first principles, open to debate?
A prudent next step
Kyle Scanlon’s life and death are a cautionary tale. Suicides can occur in clusters. Don’t you think it would be wise to put other transgender activists whom you know and claim to love on a kind of suicide watch? Start with Ayden Scheim.
2017 update
Kyle Scanlon was always female and was never male; should never have been given state-funded transgender treatments of any kind; and is still dead. Transgender activists retain the onus to prove they are not, to a man, batshit crazy, inveterate liars, prone to male aggression, and an outright menace.