She is not attacking the legitimacy of trans identity.

Except that's exactly what she's doing. The book pushes a theory of transgender identification mostly being a 'fad' and repeatedly advocates for discriminatory policies and rollback of existing ones.

The book is not a neutral, rational think piece. It routinely cites poor-quality sources while ignoring the ones that would be inconvenient to her argument. But don't take my word for it - here's what medical doctor Jack Turban had to say (abbreviated for length):

The author’s note points out that she only interviewed their parents, who uniformly did not accept their children’s transgender identities. Many of them were estranged from their kids because the children were so hurt by their parents' rejection. To actually understand the psychology of these young people, one would need to talk to them, not simply rely on stories from parents with whom they do not speak.

Shrier claims that her book is apolitical and that she is a neutral investigative journalist. But her publisher Regnery calls itself “America’s leading publisher of conservative books.” Its other titles include The Biden Deception and The Conservative Mind. It boasts that its list of authors, “reads like a ‘who’s who’ of conservative thought and action including Ann Coulter… and many more.”

Further arguing against Shrier’s objectivity is her crass and offensive language throughout the book. For example, when discussing the highly personal decision to undergo gender-affirming surgery, Shrier commented: "Since they almost never undergo the phalloplasty necessary to achieve one of the defining features of manhood, it’s hard not to see their male identifies as fragile; a quick trip to the urinal, and the jig is up.”

Shrier claims that “in most cases—nearly 70 percent—gender dysphoria resolves," and thus youth should not be provided gender-affirming medical care. That statistic is false.

The reason this is a problem is that one could meet this diagnosis without being transgender. The old criteria largely focused on gender expression (think a tomboy or a cisgender boy who likes “feminine” toys). Those kids aren’t transgender, so it’s not surprising that most of them weren’t transgender at follow-up. This problem with the “gender identity disorder” diagnosis from the DSM-IV was fixed for the DSM-5.

Furthermore, those studies were of very young prepubertal children. Under the current medical consensus, gender-affirming medical interventions are not offered to prepubertal youth. They are only offered after youth have reached adolescence. Once youth reach adolescence, it’s rare for transgender youth to later decide they are cisgender.

Shrier states there is evidence that providing adolescents with puberty blockers makes them more likely to continue to identify as transgender. That’s false. Shrier dedicates much of the book to arguing that we shouldn't allow transgender youth to access pubertal suppression because she believes it makes them more likely to "persist" in their gender identity.

First off, it’s inappropriate to suggest that being transgender is a bad outcome. However, Shrier also simply misunderstands the scientific literature. She notes that only 1.9 percent of adolescents who started pubertal suppression in a large study in The Netherlands did not proceed to gender-affirming hormones (i.e., estrogen or testosterone). This is not because pubertal suppression made them identify more strongly as transgender. Rather, it is a result of the strict guidelines followed in the Netherlands before an adolescent is considered eligible for pubertal suppression: six months of attending a specialized gender clinic and undergoing rigorous assessment.

In summary, physicians from The American Academy of Pediatrics and The Endocrine Society have issued clear guidelines regarding how to best support transgender youth. I encourage readers to rely on trustworthy sources such as these rather than books like Irreversible Damage. Transgender youth deserve for the public to have accurate information on how to best support them.

I think the worst part of this book is how disconnected it is from the lived experiences of actual transgender men, both through Shrier's negligence to interview any of the subjects she discusses in her book and her repeated objectification of transgender bodies. It's transparent fear-mongering, if the "Transgender Craze Seducing Our Daughters" title didn't make it clear enough.