The so-called gender identity law – where anyone, in any way, can legally change their gender without regard to their actual gender – was pushed through the parliament last year with party discipline, despite strong opposition among the members. Now the Sweden Democrats want the law to be repealed before it comes into force and creates confusion and chaos.

The LGBTQI+ movement has long been criticized for using aggressive methods to convince boys and girls in puberty that their experiences are not the natural search for an adult identity, as developmental psychologists have long agreed, but instead a sign that they were born in the wrong body with the wrong gender.

This has resulted in a wave of so-called gender dysphoria that researchers, doctors, and psychologists argue cannot be explained naturally, but is about the rainbow movement getting its claws into young people when they are in a vulnerable and exposed phase in life between childhood and adulthood.

Biological fact or social construction

The identity political trend is to describe gender as a “social construction,” where individual opinions trump biological facts. The gender identity law, which was pushed through last year amid strong protests, represents the tip of an iceberg, where the LGBTQI+ movement also persuades children and their parents to let the child stop their biological development with so-called puberty blockers.

It is argued that this gives the child respite and time to consider which gender they want to belong to. However, the strong hormonal treatment has serious side effects that cause lifelong damage and harm to the person subjected to it. Critics argue that it should be classified as severe child abuse.

Politically created wave of gender dysphoria

The ink has barely dried on the paper about the new gender identity law, where everyone can change their official gender identity according to their preference, taste, and mood as often as they wish. But before it has come into force, the Sweden Democrats now demand that it be repealed.

SD Member of Parliament Leonid Yurkovskiy says that his party subscribes to the hypothesis that the wave of gender dysphoria is mainly politically created and describes it as a “cultural contagion” on social media.

“Young people who come out as trans are very encouraged,” Yurkovskiy told Expressen.

What he is referring to is that the LGBTQI+ movement often goes unchallenged, as there is an anxiety among actors in society who should take a cautious and critical stance to protect the children. Being traditionally conservative in identity and gender issues can backfire.

Supported from several quarters

However, this time the Sweden Democrats are not alone in shaking off the fear of being critical. They have general support from the Christian Democrats, and within the Moderate Party, there is also strong resistance, which, however, was tamed into submission by the M-leader, Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson, with threats of reprisals – the so-called party discipline.

Support for the criticism of the gender identity law is also found elsewhere. The Social Democratic profile and chairwoman of S-women, Annika Strandhäll, who is usually in sharp conflict with the Sweden Democrats, agrees with the socially conservative party on this issue. Within the medical discipline, the prominent doctor Agnes Wold has also spoken out against the law.

Wants to revive a dormant debate

After the law was passed, the debate lost momentum, and many of its critics resigned, as with a little goodwill and overlooking brutal political top-down control, it is still a democratically made decision.

However, within the Sweden Democrats, they have not given up. Several of the party’s members of parliament have submitted motions to repeal or substantially rewrite the law.

One of those keeping the resistance alive within the Sweden Democrats is Leonid Yurkovskiy. At the party’s municipal and regional conference recently, he organized a seminar for party members under the heading “The Sexperiment – Trans Care and the New Gender Identity Law.”

Many unanswered questions

He, and many others, are convinced that there is a need to pause, ask questions, and research more when it comes to gender dysphoria and transsexuality, instead of rushing in the direction that the LGBTQI+ movement has pointed out.

Why has there been such a large and unexplained increase in the number of people who believe they belong to a different gender than their real one? Why do girls with various types of neuropsychiatric diagnoses constitute a significant portion?

“Previously, it was mainly men who suffered from gender dysphoria and sought trans care. Now there has been a huge change in that it is primarily young girls with autism who are seeking it. Then you have to wonder what the real cause is. One symptom of autism is having difficulty with self-identification,” explains Yurkovskiy.

He is supported by the Social Democratic profile Annika Strandhäll, who has changed her stance on the issue since her time as minister.

“We have had an increase of about 1,500 percent in young girls with gender dysphoria over the past ten years. There is a clear correlation with various types of psychiatric conditions or diagnoses, such as autism,” she stated in the debate preceding the decision in the parliament.

She advocated postponing the issue but when it came to the vote, she did not dare to go against her party, choosing not to be present in the chamber when the buttons were pressed.

“Cultural contagion” and “trend”

Yurkovskiy was present and pressed the red button. He has continued to criticize the gender identity law and the phenomena that he and many others believe are behind this type of decision.

Terms such as “cultural contagion” and “trend” recur in Yurkovskiy’s rhetoric. He points out that young people, who today form their perception of most things based on impressions they have received on social media, are bombarded with the influence that they suffer from gender dysphoria, while those who believe otherwise are overwhelmed with accusations and negative epithets.

These attitudes have infiltrated parts of healthcare for people with diagnoses, where today it is quick to identify it as gender dysphoria, without considering other, often more plausible, alternatives.

“Then a patient who may actually suffer from other conditions or be in a vulnerable period in their life may be pushed to follow this path and perhaps start a treatment and then move on,” Yurkovskiy explains.

Read all articles on Samnytt about gender reassignment HERE and gender identity HERE.