“Desist, Detrans & Detox: Getting Your Child Out of the Gender Cult” (Sophia Institute Press 2024)
Author: Maria Keffler is a co-founder of Advocates Protecting Children and the Arlington Parent Coalition. An author, speaker, and teacher with a background in educational psychology, she has fought to support families and protect children from unethical activism and dangerous policies around sexuality and transgender ideology since 2018. She is the author of multiple books, including “Desist, Detrans & Detox: Getting Your Child Out of the Gender Cult.” She and her husband have three young adult and teenage children and live in Arlington.
Why did you write the book? When I worked with Arlington Parent Coalition, which rallied Arlington parents to push back on radical policies around sex and gender in Arlington Public Schools, many parents reached out to us asking for help because their children had announced transgender identities. We put together a short pamphlet of what we had seen as best practices for pulling children out of this cult, based on long-understood principles of childrearing and educational psychology, as well as what parents who were successful at pulling their kids back told us worked for them. The pamphlet was well-received, but people still had questions. I kept waiting for someone to write a book for parents, but it didn’t appear. I decided to do the best I could to provide parents background on where gender ideology came from, why it’s both erroneous and nefarious, and how to protect children from being dragged away by this cult of thought.
Synopsis: In this actionable analysis of one of the most damaging movements of the modern age, “Desist, Detrans & Detox” makes a compelling case that what lies at the core of the transgender phenomenon is a crisis of identity, and that only a loving but firm reality check can staunch the hysteria.
Maleness and femaleness are immutable biological facts. Masculinity and femininity are personality constructs, conditioned by societal norms. But “gender,” the term favored by activists, has no solid definition. The language introduced by gender ideology is entirely subjective, which allows emotions to redefine reality.
“Desist, Detrans & Detox” outlines parallels between cults and gender ideology: recruitment tactics that prey upon insecurities, indoctrination in nonsensical beliefs that must never be questioned, requirements to shun nonbelievers, and in-group newspeak that cultivates a sense of belonging.
The book exposes the cult of gender ideology with journalistic detail, digging into aspects the mainstream media chooses to ignore. It explores the origins of modern gender ideology in the 1960s, modern medical negligence in overlooking mental health issues, bullying and peer pressure from those professing gender ideology, and the rapidly growing community of detransitioners and their testimonies.
“Desist, Detrans & Detox” provides a manual for parenting children during the time they are most vulnerable to gender activism. Parents learn how to discern fact from fiction, set boundaries on names and pronouns, find a trustworthy therapist, and determine what vulnerabilities lead children to the gender cult. The book also includes resources for parents whose children are currently recovering from gender dysphoria. Central to my approach is unconditional love and forgiveness, with a focus on moving forward together.
Packed with statistical data, reasoned arguments, and practical advice, “Desist, Detrans & Detox” equips readers to prevent, work through, and heal from what I consider the medical scandal of the 21st century.
What should the average Catholic know about this book? Parents of faith often believe that because they’ve raised their kids in a loving home that teaches them about God and proper theology, their children are safe from being indoctrinated with gender ideology. But unfortunately, even children from the best of Christian families are at risk, especially if they have anything that makes them exceptional or vulnerable: autism, prior trauma, anxiety or depression, or any other mental health struggle — even being a victim of bullying — can make a child susceptible to this ideology. Parents need to teach their kids the truth about God’s creation early and often. Men and women are created by God as distinct and separate beings, and they are not interchangeable, nor can they change sex or be “born in the wrong body.”
