GHQ Endorses Affirmation Generation, a Documentary About the Affirmative Model & the Damage it is Doing to Gender Dysphoric Young People.

News Commentary

Transitioning so many gender dysphoric young people is proving to be doing a lot go damage. The new Affirmation Generation documentary, released on Vimeo is a good overview of what is going on with the explosion in trans-identification and the gleeful enthusiasm to medicalize it.

Show notes:
medical ethics
12 experts, 6 detransitioners,
45 medical articles

We are pleased with this documentary. It is respectful and rational. We are grateful to the producers and participants and hope that more people become aware of this medical scandal as more harmed young people come forward.

Update (03/07/23): Trans activists successfully had this video taken down from Vimeo. However, at a later time they reinstated it.

Gender Dysphoria Endocrine Society & Pediatric Endocrine Society Guidelines Intentionally Hide Risk & Harm

Editorial

Heading: “Your Dangerous, Inaccurate, and Ideological Guidelines for Trans-Identified Youth”

Sending this to 100s of mental health and medical professionals as this is a wide-spread problem- apathy about risk to LGB and other youth. This is profoundly destructive to these individuals and to our communities. The younger children are transitioned, the more of them there will be.

To the Endocrine Society and Pediatric Endocrine Society,

We are board members for an LGBT medical watchdog organization regarding pediatric medical transition for minors with gender dysphoria. In 6 years of intensely researching this issue, your recent statements and guidelines on this topic are some of the most unethical and sloppy of anything we have seen, in our free-speech opinion. And we have seen a lot of substandard discourse, confirmation bias, censorship, and blatant disregard for the safety of mostly LGB youth who may resolve GD as all prior research shows many do. There are so many ideological spins and factual errors in these documents it would take far too long to go over them all. And that should not be the public’s job. That is your job as the leadership and board members of The Pediatric Endocrine Society and the Endocrine Society, tasked with the most important goal of all, being trustworthy. Your organizations are experiencing ideological capture by extremist gender identity activists (even PhDs and MDs), and our guess is that you are entrusting small, agenda-driven committees to write balanced information. This is a huge mistake regarding this contentious and complicated issue that requires responsible nuance.

No, the “affirmative model” is not universally recognized as “safe” by all gender dysphoria experts, and it is clearly proving to be unsafe for some young people. That is the truth.

BBC

FB comment from WPATH member

Science bodies have a moral obligation to present facts and accurate information to the doctors and scientists they represent and the public. If you don’t, you will justifiably be accused of negligence and malpractice for the harm we are seeing befall young people due to the dishonesties represented in your documents regarding gender dysphoric youth. These dishonesties are being exposed by a groundswell of well-informed parents, doctors, mental health professionals, trans-rationalists, detransitioners, podcasters, and concerned LGB people who have been going public for years, negating the possibility of plausible deniability by organizations such as yours. 

The documents in question: 

https://transhealthproject.org/resources/medical-organization-statements/endocrine-society-statements/

https://www.endocrine.org/-/media/a65106b6ae7f4d2394a1ebeba458591d.ashx

https://academic.oup.com/jcem/advance-article/doi/10.1210/clinem/dgaa816/6031005

https://www.endocrine.org/-/media/endocrine/files/advocacy/position-statement/transgender_health_minors_fact_sheet.pdf

And here is this statement demonstrating the Endocrine Society and Pediatric Endocrine Society have a complete lack of concern or compassion for the young woman in the Bell v Tavistock case (she won) who transitioned at too young an age who is now permanently scarred by doctors such as yourselves. She is here merely as a prop to be kicked to the side and aggressively opposed so you can continue to prescribe extreme and experimental medical treatments on minors who don’t reach full executive function until age 25:

https://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2020-12/tes-dpt121120.php

While there are too many errors and hard ideological slants to go over in the material in these links, we will review a few of the most egregious. This is unacceptable for doctors’ organizations.

Your attempt to debunk this quote falls flat to those of us who know what is really going on:

“Texas should ban chemical castration, puberty blockers, cross-sex hormones and genital mutilation surgery on all minor children for transition purposes, given that Texas children as young as three (3) are being transitioned from their biological sex to the opposite sex.” Even though “chemical castration” and “genital mutilation” are not part of gender-affirming care for minors, such wording serves to alarm the general public, and 94.57% of the electors supported the measure [15].

Not part of gender-affirming care for minors? While you may dislike the phrase “chemical castration” because it doesn’t have the marketable ring of “gender affirming” it is the proper term for the use of hormone blockers. These are the very drugs and terminology used to “chemically castrate” sex offenders. When you give puberty blockers to an 11-year-old, you stunt their genital growth. The problem of “micropenis” is well documented and the state becomes permanent when the youth goes on estrogen. This can permanently destroy the youth’s sexual response making a fully realized adult romantic relationship impossible. Due to lack of tissue, the youth now requires a rectosigmoid or peritoneal graph vaginoplasty to create a neovaginal canal as surgeons can’t do the “gold standard” one. These protocols sterilize both sexes. The wording in the quote above is hardly hyperbolic.

And now to the second part of the inaccuracy of the sentence. Genital surgeries are done on minors. Jazz Jennings, who likely has permanently destroyed sexual function for life, had this procedure done at 17 on national television. Jazz had to have 3 corrective surgeries after the experimental vaginoplasty “popped” and collapsed, an incident described by Jazz as extremely messy and painful. This path was decided by Jazz at age 11 when doctors such as yourselves prescribed hormone blockers. One of the patients in the Steensma/de Vries cohort died from the vaginoplasty, despite this being the #1 “success” study cited to promote pediatric transition. These young people are guinea pigs. We contest a child who hasn’t had a first boyfriend or crush even, can consent to permanent sexuality destruction despite your confidence in the face of conflicting data and views. There are trans people who adamantly oppose this.

Should the public feel “alarm” over this?

Reddit

Here is evidence of vaginoplasty surgeries underage. The same is true for double mastectomies performed on tweens.

https://www.prweb.com/releases/2014/09/prweb12141694.htm:

“The patient, a California high school student who began administering estrogen and anti-androgens to transition from male to female at the age of 11, is the youngest transgender patient in U.S. history to completely avoid male puberty and subsequently undergo gender reassignment surgery at the age of 16.”

Another problem:

"Gender identity was considered malleable and subject to external influences. Today, however, this attitude is no longer considered valid."

A detransition subreddit with thousands of people holds views that say otherwise. We also document many social factors that influence gender dysphoria linked below. Of particular concern to us, but not you, is that homophobic bullying pushes youth towards trans identification. This is according to a peer-reviewed study and many anecdotal examples of LGB youth who claimed this was the case or their therapists saying so. Lack of stability in the home appears to be another environmental factor. There are many examples of social contagions throughout history, and most involve young females. We believe there is robust evidence to support this is currently the case with spiking levels of trans identification in females. Responsible doctors analyze situations when epidemiology has drastically changed. 

We are an intellectually honest, evidence-based organization. We cover the valid "nature" data on brain research, lending credence to the above claim's possibility. But why does a layperson org have more comprehensive, evidence-based information than the Endocrine Society or Pediatric Endocrine Society? You pretend people who flatly state their social environment helped fuel their dysphoria and desire to transition don't exist. You pretend the multiple sex and gender researchers who worry that early social transitions may groom pre gay and lesbian children for medicalization don’t exist (Dr. Wren, Dr. Carmichael, Dr. Cantor, Dr. Zucker, Dr. Soh, Dr. Bailey, Dr. Blanchard, Dr. Korte, Dr. Drescher, Dr, Bradley, even Dr. Steensma have made these statements). The very design of your materials is to hide harm and risk. This is intentional, isn’t it? To see yourselves as protecting the important children even if it means recklessly endangering others by pretending they don’t exist, and ensuring your doctors and the public don’t know they exist.

https://www.genderhq.org/trans-nature-vs-nurture-innate-gender-identity-culture

https://www.genderhq.org/increase-trans-females-nonbinary-dysphoria 

https://www.genderhq.org/trans-children-gender-dysphoria-desistance-gay/#anchor-page1-section-b

You cite Jack Turban and pretend serious critiques by GD experts of his work don't exist. A good list of these professionals can be found in the comments on his JAMA article (under paywall), which should have been published if people were acting with integrity around this issue. 

https://www.genderhq.org/blog/conversion-therapy-trans-study-turban?rq=Turban

https://www.genderhq.org/blog/2020/11/2/recent-article-criticizes-the-quality-of-jack-turbans-analysis?rq=Turban

Miesen (2018)

Another criticism: 

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/30392631/

“We work and live with the co-occurrence of autism and gender diversity on a daily basis, and we are concerned that perpetuating misunderstanding about the co-occurrence places individuals at risk.”

More on Jack Turban: 

http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s10508-020-01844-2

Moving on:

“Pre-pubertal youth who are supported and affirmed in their social transition long before medical interventions are indicated, experience no elevation in depression compared to their cis-gender peers.” (12)

Your reference is Achilles (2020). Should this not be Olson (2016)? Achilles is a drug study on adolescents. And the social transition Olson study is far from perfect.

Here is another example of the malpractice of your documents that violate all standards of informed consent:

"Over the last decade, there has been considerable research on and development of evidence-based standards of care that have proven to be both safe and efficacious for the treatment of gender dysphoria/gender incongruence in youth and adults.”

Where is this hard evidence this is “proven” “safe?” Jazz Jennings had 4 sexuality-destroying vaginoplasty corrective surgeries and will never have any sexual feeling, and you call this “safe.” Multiple gender dysphoria experts are concerned about this harming potential desisters, and you call this “safe.” There is information that this impacts bone health, and you call this “safe.” It looks like the blockers you are prescribing cognitively immature children can negatively impact pubertal brain development by lowering IQ. IQ is something very pertinent to career choice and earned income. But this is “safe.” There is no mention of the study that indicates a significant increased risk of heart attack in FtMs or mitochondrial damage or vaginal atrophy. You don’t mention you have no idea what the long-term consequences are of transitioning tweens on their bodies over the decades to come. How is this ethical, this hiding by you of negative, valid data? How? Having a good, honest desire to help this population is not a valid excuse for violating basic tenants of informed consent and “do no harm.” Citations for serious medical side-effects below:

https://www.genderhq.org/trans-youth-side-effects-hormone-blockers-surgery

We highly recommend you look at historical accounts of how medical and mental health professionals have harmed the public due to mirthful excitement about new protocols that wound up harming people because sterilizing children, destroying their sexual response forever, harming LGB youth, impacting bone health, IQ, and circulatory health are grave matters. We aren’t lawyers, but it sounds like “safe” is lawsuit-worthy (and was in the Bell v Tavistock case).

Bottom line- The sheer extremity of what you are doing to children is because you are being led to believe you are preventing suicides (referenced in your documents). There is a lack of robust proof that this is true, and several media-covered suicides used to promote underage transition involved fully affirmed youth with access to medical protocols. Inflating suicide risk, something often employed by affirmative model doctors and therapists to the public, violates all anti-suicide reporting guidelines, even those for LGBT youth laid out specifically by the American Foundation for the Prevention of Suicide. Suicide is highly socially contagious. Sending the message youth will kill themselves if not given strong drugs immediately is harmful. GHQ does not spin suicide. It is too serious a matter. No one should. Some studies indicate transition is helpful in this way. The studies in the Cornell review and others that have this information is on our evidence-based website.

But we will list studies/articles that should alarm you given the soaring numbers of children endocrinologists are “chemically castrating,” leading to underage surgeries: 

Branstrom (2020) recently had to be corrected (authors really wanted positive results). The reality is this study from Sweden’s healthcare system, with a large population, failed to prove mental health benefits to either hormonal therapy or sex reassignment surgery. This is in a country that is very pro LGBT, where people have access to public healthcare. It’s not perfect data but better than much in the Cornell review.

Lipson (2019) should concern you. This is a large population of college students surveyed. Why is the mental health so poor in trans people at universities where trans identity is celebrated, minority status is elevated in general, and they have access to student health care that often pays for transition?

Graph circulated by a researcher on SM regarding Lipson (2019)

The use of puberty blockers has not been shown to improve mental health in the UK, one of the reasons Tavistock lost the Bell v Tavistock case. There are likely thousands of kids on these blockers now in the US.

http://users.ox.ac.uk/~sfos0060/Biggs_ExperimentPubertyBlockers.pdf?fbclid=IwAR2X8HdzFfeUnaY0995EiTh9-gYCBKz5FmHG98PTdMjbXgZd5IhhGvl6uhY

At this time there are 20,000 adverse effects reported to the FDA from Lupron. An older article-

https://khn.org/news/women-fear-drug-they-used-to-halt-puberty-led-to-health-problems/

See Adams (2017)- This study, a meta-synthesis analysis, indicates transition may be ineffective in reducing suicide risk. When combining averages across 42 of the more recent studies (relevant because being trans was likely more difficult and unaccepted in the past), they found very high suicide ideation rates, even within the last year. Past year's stats also are not much better than lifetime stats in this review. And these are individuals accessing "gender-affirming" medical care. 

Stop engaging in desistance denial. This data is not presented in your documents. Having researched this for years, we understand why. Desistance data clearly shows pediatric transition is a risk to pre-gay and lesbian kids and ROGD (Littman 2018) shows this is a risk to teens struggling with puberty. This isn't included because you do not care about these youths. No one does in “affirmative” discourse. If you cared, you would address the risks to them and their needs. You can see it every time any data or evidence shows they are being harmed (they are) or may be harmed. You can see a long list of censorship incidences enforced not only by activists (who always threaten people) but by major universities, LGBT media, and magazines like Psychology Today. Everyone does it who wants to appear "progressive." Because LGB youth don’t matter. Girls struggling with puberty don’t matter. Girls who may have a sexual assault in their background don’t matter. If they mattered, you would talk about their needs and suffering, how they are scarred when their body parts are removed at too young an age, and how you are destroying their human right to just grow up and work out their identity issues.

You can't bring yourselves to write one sentence in care of them. Not one.

http://www.heather-brunskell-evans.co.uk/body-politics/1114/

There is so much that is sloppy about your material and ignoring of legitimate studies and critiques of the happy/safe narrative. Please fix this. It delegitimizes you and violates your moral and professional obligations. There are too many people who are very well informed who will hold those accountable for ignoring risk and, worse, lying about it and covering it up. We will leave by summarizing the problems:

1) No acknowledgment of high rates of desistance in all prior research and the likelihood of them being gay or lesbian, thus obscuring risk to pre-gay kids by putting them in social transition at age 5 and interfering with their natural puberty with blockers.

2) No acknowledgment of bizarre trends of clusters of teenage females coming out as trans in a gender dysphoria spike unheard of 20 years ago. Any responsible health professional takes a close look at a condition when its epidemiology changes drastically, especially when treatment results in permanently altering a minor and social contagion is a well-established phenomenon with many historical examples.

3) No acknowledgment of several disturbing studies indicating the hormone blockers, hormones and sex reassignment surgery overall may not reduce the likelihood of mental health problems and suicide risk. And no honest review of information showing very significant negative health impacts.

4) References to Jack Turban and no references to the critiques of this barely out of med school doctor’s work. 

5) No care from the Endocrine Society and Pediatric Endocrine Society for mounting numbers of mostly young women, many ASD and/or lesbian and bisexual, encouraged to hate their bodies as struggling same-sex attracted tomboys, who are now permanently scarred by the mental health and medical profession. See their stories on this subreddit with thousands (assume a high 90% are lurkers and just 10% detrans/desisters, this is a lot of people with regret on this site with 17K subscribers).

https://www.reddit.com/r/detrans/

Tout data that shows benefits to pediatric transition. It’s there. We don’t deny that. But this is an unfolding nightmare and major human rights violation for those of us who care about pre-gay and lesbian kids and LGB teenagers, known to experience intense but ultimately transient GD. We are also very small minority groups. More and more detransitioned young people are significantly impacted. Our communities and our humanity are significantly impacted. We do not blame the mounting numbers of scarred and permanently altered young people. We are working to ensure mental health and medical professionals involved in these inappropriate transitions are held accountable and are not allowed to kick these “bad optics” youth under the rug as morally acceptable collateral damage. Your endocrine guidelines/statements do just that and it’s intentional.

We are a trans-inclusive organization that cares about the obsession with passing being worshipped over brain development, bone health, genital development, avoiding severe and experimental bottom surgeries, and fertility.

This will be on our website. We will provide documentation of this to anyone who later feels they were harmed by the doctors in your organizations following substandard informational guidelines and want them held accountable. This has been successfully done in the UK. Don’t assume there isn’t an intense motivation to hold those accountable in the US. Don’t assume you are immune.

We aren’t the only people/organization/group concerned about this international issue. And some of them are trans.

https://segm.org

https://rethinkime.org

https://detranscanada.com

https://www.gccan.org

https://lgballiance.org.uk (with chapters in the US, Canada, Poland, and Australia)

https://www.transgendertrend.com

Supporting parents of children with gender dysphoria

https://genderreport.ca

_____________________________________

Our board

https://www.genderhq.org/about

A list of supporters

https://www.genderhq.org/letter-signatures 

References:

Adams, N., Hitomi, M., & Moody, C. (2017). Varied Reports of Adult Transgender Suicidality: Synthesizing and Describing the Peer-Reviewed and Gray Literature. Transgender Health, 2(1), 60-75. doi:10.1089/trgh.2016.0036

Holt, A. (2020, December 1). Puberty blockers: Under-16s 'unlikely to be able to give informed consent.' BBC. Retrieved from https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-cambridgeshire-55144148

Correction to Bränström and Pachankis. (2020, August). The American Journal of Psychiatry. Retrieved from https://ajp.psychiatryonline.org/doi/10.1176/appi.ajp.2020.1778correction

Biggs, M. (2019, July 29). The Tavistock’s Experiment with Puberty Blockers. Retrieved from http://users.ox.ac.uk/~sfos0060/Biggs_ExperimentPubertyBlockers.pdf?fbclid=IwAR2X8HdzFfeUnaY0995EiTh9-gYCBKz5FmHG98PTdMjbXgZd5IhhGvl6uhY

Brunskill-Evans, M. (2018, June 21). A Woman’s Place is Standing Her Ground. Retrieved from http://www.heather-brunskell-evans.co.uk/body-politics/1114/

D’Angelo, R., Syrulnik, E., Ayad, S, Marchiano, L., Kenny, D.T., Clarke, P. One Size Does Not Fit All: In Support of Psychotherapy for Gender Dysphoria. Archives of Sex Behavior (2020). Retrieved from https://doi.org/10.1007/s10508-020-01844-2

Endocrine Society (2020, December 16). Discriminatory policies threaten care for transgender, gender diverse individuals. EurekAlert. Retrieved from https://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2020-12/tes-dpt121120.php

Endocrine Society, Pediatric Endocrine Society. Transgender Health: Suporting Gender Diverse Youth to Improve their Health, Well-being, And Safety. Retrieved from https://www.endocrine.org/-/media/endocrine/files/advocacy/position-statement/transgender_health_minors_fact_sheet.pdf

Endocrine Society, Pediatric Endocrine Society. Endocrine Society and Pediatric Endocrine Society Transgender Health Position & Statement (2020). Retrieved from https://www.endocrine.org/-/media/a65106b6ae7f4d2394a1ebeba458591d.ashx

Endocrine Society (2020, December 16). Discriminatory policies threaten care for transgender, gender diverse individuals. EurekAlert. Retrieved from https://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2020-12/tes-dpt121120.php

Jewett, C., & Kaiser Health News. (2017, November 30). Women Fear Drug They Used To Halt Puberty Led To Health Problems. Retrieved from https://khn.org/news/women-fear-drug-they-used-to-halt-puberty-led-to-health-problems/

Lipson, S.K, Raifman, J., Abelson, S., Reisner, S.L. Gender Minority Mental Health in the U.S.: Results of a National Survey on College Campuses. American Journal of Preventative Medicine 53(3), 293–301. doi.org/10.1016/j.amepre.2019.04.025

Olson, K. R., Durwood, L., DeMeules, M., & McLaughlin, K. A. (2016). Mental health of transgender children who are supported in their identities. Pediatrics, 137(3), e20153223. doi:10.1542/peds.2015-3223

PRWeb. (2014, September 5). Beverly Hills Plastic Surgeon, Gary Alter, MD, Performs Gender Reassignment Surgery on Youngest Transsexual Patient in the United States. Retrieved from http://www.prweb.com/releases/2014/09/prweb12141694.htm

Strang, J.F., Janssen, A., Tishelman, A., Leibowitz, S.F., Kenworthy L, McGuire, J.K., Edwards-Leeper, L., Mazefsky, C.A., Rofey D., et al. (2018) Revisiting the Link: Evidence of the Rates of Autism in Studies of Gender Diverse Individuals. Journal of the American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry 57(11), 885-887. doi: 10.1016/j.jaac.2018.04.023

TLDEF's Trans Health Project (2020, December 17). Endocrine Society. Retrieved from https://transhealthproject.org/resources/medical-organization-statements/endocrine-society-statements/

van der Miesen, A., Cohen-Kettenis, P., de Vries, A. (2018) Is There a Link Between Gender Dysphoria and Autism Spectrum Disorder? Journal of the American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry 57(11), 884-885. doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jaac.2018.04.022

Walch, A., Davidge-Pitts, C., Safer, J.D., Lopez, X., Tangpricha, V. Iwamoto, S.J. (2020, December 16). Proper Care of Transgender and Gender Diverse Persons in the Setting of Proposed Discrimination: A Policy Perspective. The Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism. doi.org/10.1210/clinem/dgaa816

GHQ Responds to the American Psychological Association Guideline for TGNC People

News Commentary

This is our response to a request for feedback from the public regarding the APA’s guidelines for trans and nonbinary-identified people. A complete copy of “Guidelines for Psychological Practice With Transgender and Gender Nonconforming People” can be found here and comments are received until 9/30/20:

Guideline 1. “Psychologists understand that gender is a nonbinary construct that allows for a range of gender identities”

This is an ideological statement. How is the APA defining gender? There is no universal agreement gender should be defined as something subjective with limitless variations believed by others. Very few people in the human population experience gender incongruence. Declaring all of gender to be a “nonbinary construct” is an overstatement. The APA may choose to engage this recently popularized language (mostly with roots in postmodern gender studies in academia) that values subjective experience over the scientific method, but a more grounded way to phrase this is:

“Human beings are a binary, sexually reproducing species with some intersex conditions that still fall under male & female. While males & females have differing bell curves for many traits, they overlap, & it is normal to have females who fall into ranges closer to male averages & vice versa. Some individuals experience incongruence with their biological sex due to factors that research indicates are both biological & environmental. Gender dysphoria is a spectrum.”

Word choice by the APA is important to your organization’s image & mission. Does the APA want to be a science organization or one that uses language derived from activist circles & identity studies in academia whose proponents often don’t engage their ideas in rigorous scientific discourse? There have always been gender outliers. That isn’t evidence the concepts & language used in current gender identity activism are all positive for mental health & society at large. Many people have adopted a myriad of identities (belief one is a shaman, MPD, the Glass Delusion) throughout history not grounded in material reality. Everyone has rights to become their happiest self. The issue regarding the wording of this section is if others around them MUST adopt their self-perception as literally true. A more critical approach is warranted.

Some context: Gender Health Query is bringing this up due to our perspective as a medical & cultural watchdog organization around pediatric medical transition & contemporary gender ideology. We formed because we are starting to observe real-world harm to young people resulting from the gender identity movement despite its positives. This section assumes that genderfluidity ideology discourse is progressive & the healthiest possible framing for people struggling with gender issues. & that if we all believe that gender is indeed a spectrum, that there are multiple genders, & that this should be validated by not only health professionals but the public at large, that dysphoric people will experience reduced problems with mental health.   

Many of us (we are an LGBT organization & trans-inclusive) have come not to believe that, & we have evidence. We range from LGB people observing body hatred issues in gender nonconforming young females not alleviated by transition to “transmedicalists” who believe that the genderqueer movement, with its myriad of pronouns & demands on the outside world for validation, is harming transsexuals (a term they embrace to distinguish themselves as having a definable medical condition). 

The language you are using in this whole section is concerning because demands are being made. Demands that psychologists not only support their clients with kindness, compassion, & coping skills but must also adopt their clients’ worldviews & subjective experience as facts about gender (217-219). & this from the APA’s Nonbinary Fact Sheet:

“Practice using singular pronouns such as they/them & zie/ hir. Using non-binary pronouns can feel awkward at first. Practicing using these pronouns outside of the therapy room will allow clinicians to get more comfortable & fluent in doing so & will make speaking with clients easier.”  

Not all LGBT people support the language used here because of where it has led. We are seeing some harm arising from telling young people that biological sex is irrelevant & that gender is a spectrum. “Harm” meaning a glorification of body dysmorphia now viewed as “cool” identities. Harm meaning an increase in stories of transition regret. Harm meaning “queer” youth who seem to have difficulty coping with even minor challenges to their worldviews about their long growing lists of sexual & gender identities & demands to be sexually & emotionally validated by people who don’t agree with identity over biology. Harm meaning any young bisexual who doesn’t want to identify as “pansexual,” or lesbian who doesn’t want sex with MtFs, is being called a bigot, an unhealthy form of sexual harassment disguised as social justice, behavior now rife in LGBT youth & even some adult spaces. Harm meaning young people who are so gender/sexually confused they are being put at risk for sexual exploitation by peers & adults online & in real life in “queer” spaces. Harm meaning an obsession with identity in youth culture over accomplishment & human values. We have many examples to justify these statements (see genderhq.org).

Guideline 2. Psychologists understand that gender identity & sexual orientation are distinct but  

Mental health professionals should educate themselves on the specific & often-ignored needs of trans people & that trans & sexual orientation are two different things. 

It is also important to acknowledge the association of even intense childhood dysphoria & adult GL identity (https://www.genderhq.org/trans-children-gender-dysphoria-desistance-gay/#anchor-page1-section-b). Evidence such as “the older brother effect” indicates certain biological processes create both trans & gay outcomes. Hormone in utero effects may affect FtM or lesbian identity (https://www.genderhq.org/trans-nature-vs-nurture-innate-gender-identity-culture). This is why there is a growing community of LGB people who are very concerned about socially reinforcing a child’s cross-sex identification at age 5 & giving them Lupron as early as age 11. & the push to socially & medically transition the large increase in trans-identified bio females. We don’t know the number of medicalized false positives that will occur, but it won’t be zero. There is currently a detrans subreddit (https://www.reddit.com/r/detrans/) with thousands of people in it & most appear to be L & B young women dealing with medical side effects who transitioned at too young an age. 

In line 279, you use the term “Sexual orientation identity.” Sexual orientation is based on bio sex, as in male & female. It is not an “identity.” Individuals are free to view themselves as they wish. But our org. protests any attempt by mental health bodies to define gay & lesbian people based on gender identity & not same-sex attraction. We aren’t alone in this. If the APA adopts the stance that sexual orientation is something one can identify into, you are taking sides on an issue that is extremely contentious. You will be taking a position many gay men & lesbians view as offensive to the interests of their minority groups. Why? The answer is in the way this ideology plays out in the real world. Contemporary gender identity activism (that uses the same language used in this document) is framing gays & lesbians as bigoted for not including dysphoric, opposite-sex people in their sexuality. It’s causing much strife. There are even psychologists who are “problematizing” homosexuality & heterosexuality by framing not emotionally & sexually validating trans people’s identities in terms of social justice (Blair 2018). Our board had to write a response.  https://www.genderhq.org/blog/2019/6/17/ghq-board-opinion-sexuality-as-social-justice-creates-problems-especially-among-lgbt-youth?rq=Blair

Some people in the LGB population will view the APA  as a hostile entity to LGB identity if you validate the concept one can identify into homosexuality or gay & lesbian identity or that bisexuality is anything other than attraction to the 2 biological sexes. Changing these definitions reflects genderqueer activism, not facts.

Line 266 “range of gender identities that exist.”

The APA may want to consider if adopting queer theory views of gender as a spectrum is helping in the real world as it relates to NB-identified people. Most research showing benefits of transition relates to binary FtM & MtF. While studies such as Russel (2018) show a boost in happiness if pronouns are respected, & this may include third gender pronouns, other studies indicate many people are not being helped by the rise in the NB identity. Several studies on NB identities show they have worse mental health than binary trans people (Jellestad 2018, James 2016, Tebbe 2016). This is often blamed on the outside world’s failure to validate them properly. Our position is that youth should not be encouraged to seek & demand validation from others to achieve happiness, but the current genderqueer movement relies heavily on this concept.

Other plausible scenarios are persons may adopt an NB identity due to ASD, BPD, BDD, HPD, NPD, or AGP. They may be struggling with internalized anti-gay/lesbian feelings. There are personal accounts that say so & at least one study that shows homophobic bullying increases the likelihood of trans identification (Delay 2017). They may be experiencing a female inferiority complex as one of the many females identifying as trans or NB in exploding numbers. The compassion in this section is good. We want support for GNC people too. We must create space in society for them & support them. We ARE them as an LGBT organization. But mental health is complex & mental health issues should not be rebranded as “identities” because we believe that is what we see in some cases. Given affirmative model advocates openly admit minors are undergoing permanent medical alteration like double mastectomy for NB identities, the APA must look at what is causing this increase in mostly female minors with these identities. We are seeing more stories of transition regret & some of these mostly lesbian & bisexual or ASD young women had adopted NB identities.

Guideline 5. Psychologists recognize how stigma, prejudice, discrimination, & violence affect the health & well-being of TGNC people. 

“Discrimination can include…not using a person’s preferred name or pronoun”

We hope the APA believes there are limits to defining not using preferred pronouns as “discrimination” given there are now dozens of them. Is an LGB person or transmedicalist “discriminating” against someone if they do not believe in pronouns such as ze, ve, zir, they, & it, all pronouns you will see people use. The APA must be mindful not to advocate for imposing worldviews on others who may not agree with them by framing it as bigotry & discrimination. This is an increasing problem in academia & has infiltrated science bodies. Real discrimination is kicking someone out of a home or firing them.

Discrimination, suicide ideation, mental health issues, & violence inflicted on poor black & brown people are all real issues that must be addressed. We also see a huge amount of paranoia in the trans community that is not in line with reality when one examines crime statistics. Trans people overall may not be at higher risk for violence relative to other groups such as women in general or black men. & the media reported murders, with hyped headlines, often involve situations where they weren’t targeted in an anti-trans hate crime. One study shows they are at lower risk for violence than women overall. Since anxiety, depression, suicide ideation, & paranoia are all socially contagious phenomena, it is best to educate trans people about how to be mindful to keep themselves safe & healthy without fomenting fear that may harm their mental health and make them feel hated. Targeted programs for poor people at risk for drug addiction & prostitution are most needed. Trans people can live safe & happy lives in tolerant areas. It is crucial to promote messages of hope.

https://www.channel4.com/news/factcheck/factcheck-how-many-trans-people-murdered-uk

https://quillette.com/2019/12/07/are-we-in-the-midst-of-a-transgender-murder-epidemic/

https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2019/dec/8/transgender-homicide-rate-remarkably-low-despite-h/

This section mentions “stigma.” Our position is that many mental health professionals are participating in stigmatizing autogynephilia by refusing to recognize it exists due to political pressure from certain activists. Many trans people admit they experience this. We believe we see a lot of harm, shame, & acting out resulting from people participating in AGP denial. 

https://www.genderhq.org/trans-youth-identity-politics-rights-conflicts-lgbt-part3

The APA should start talking about this condition openly. We consider it malpractice to continue to deny it exists, which may prevent a therapist from helping people in the most honest way possible without shame.

Guideline 7: Psychologists understand the need to promote social change that reduces the negative effects of stigma on the health & well-being of TGNC people. 

Some concerning parts of this section-

"Psychologists may choose to become involved with an organization that seeks to revise law & public policy"

"Psychologists may consult the National Center for Transgender Equality"

This is an ideological trans rights organization. For example, they make these claims about trans students- "Some are denied opportunities to go on field trips or participate in sports."

This is a lie. People want policies to protect female students & female sports. All evidence is leading to MtFs having very significant biological advantages in sports over biological females even once they medically transition (https://fairplayforwomen.com/sports/). MtFs are blowing away females in track in high school and college, for example. No one is preventing anyone from participating in sports based on biological sex. FtMs on testosterone may be included in male sports if they wish as they will still retain a disadvantage but have unacceptable advantages over girls and women. We believe males need to learn to be kind & compassionate towards gender nonconforming males who may identify as girls, not force girls to be nurturers at the expense of their ability to win sports competitions because they don't matter as much as a male with GD. There is a trans Muay Thai fighter who identifies as a trans woman & fights males and recognizes they are trans & takes pride it that. This is preferable role-modeling, not forcing society to deny biological reality.

Imagine an unaltered MtF goes on a field trip, stays in sleeping quarters with a girl & has consensual sex with her on a school field trip. She gets pregnant. That is a situation where the parents will have every right to sue the school. A school worried about this is not "discriminating" against a trans student who is undoubtedly allowed to attend field trips as any other student. Safe, compassionate accommodations must be made for all. The APA should not follow organizations such as this uncritically for advice.

The APA should stay away from inserting itself "to promote social change" when it results in potentially harming other groups. Adhere to "change" that protects the safety, health, & ability to live & work for trans people. If you go beyond that & promote current gender identity activist demands like MtFs are "literally female," you will be viewed as an anti-woman & anti-LGB rights organization by many. The eradication of women's sports, prisons, rape crises centers for biological females, medicalizing children who may be pre-LGB, & eliminating the ability to collect valid data regarding sex due to the change of public records are very contentious issues. Many people, including conservatives, far leftists, trans-rationalists, LGB people, parents, feminists, scientists, and detransitioners are working against some of the biology denialism in current gender identity activism. LGB people are breaking off from LGBT organizations to form new ones due to this ideological capture. Best avoid "promoting social change" in those areas unless you want your organization torn apart by this.

Guideline 8. Psychologists working with gender-questioning 4 and TGNC youth understand the different developmental needs of children and adolescents, and that not all youth will persist in a TGNC identity into adulthood. 

"As a result, this research runs a strong risk of inflating estimates of the number of youths who do not persist with a TGNC identity."

This is debatable when one takes a close look at the Steensma study.

https://medium.com/@jesse.singal/everyone-myself-included-has-been-misreading-the-single-biggest-study-on-childhood-gender-8b6b3d82dcf3

We review desistance stats here. 

https://www.genderhq.org/trans-children-gender-dysphoria-desistance-gay

We already know false positives on minors are happening. We just don't know the numbers. The APA should take this on as an ethical duty. Detransitioners will be a growing population. We see rapid validation of trans identity in minors by psychologists leading to irreversible medical consequences. At the same time, we see young people who meet full DSM criteria but are desisting or detransitioning. These are minors being put under extreme medical protocols. It's good always to be mindful of this reality. Transition underage is considered a human right now. Is growing up without being permanently medically altered for intense, but ultimately transient feelings a human right? We believe it is. 

We consider stories like this malpractice. This 15-yr-old girl would have taken testosterone had her father not let her before desisting after meeting DSM criteria. As a medical watchdog org, we hear a lot of stories like this. Altering physically healthy bodies underage would normally be considered a major human rights violation. The inevitable false positives on mostly pre-LGB youth, ASD, and girls with trauma that will result from transitioning youth before brain maturation are acceptable collateral damage to trans-positive healthcare. This is the reality of the new paradigm, and we would like to see organizations like the APA be more upfront about it, given the serious medical consequences. For example, altering pre-LGB youth can be considered akin to what was done to intersex babies when doctors surgically altered them given the Lupron to estrogen protocol stunts genital growth, and they are doing surgeries underage now. 

https://www.genderhq.org/blog/2020/4/8/teen-girl-outgrows-gender-dysphoria-dangers-pediatric-medical-transition

Medical transition under age causes sterility, may permanently destroy sexual function and may impact cognition and bone health.

https://www.genderhq.org/trans-youth-side-effects-hormone-blockers-surgery

"Much greater consensus exists regarding practice with adolescents. Adolescents presenting with gender identity concerns bring their own set of unique challenges."

This comment should be removed. The demographics of this condition have completely changed, with many more females seeking SRS, more heterosexual females wanting to be gay men, and an overall increase in youth requesting medical treatments. There is not a consensus about what to do. The Tavistock gender clinic in the UK has seen multiple public resignations. That doesn't indicate "consensus." It indicates safeguarding and ethics problems. It's unethical as a mental health body to not to take a closer look at ROGD and other trends when one sees these graphs. We believe there is very robust evidence GD is a socially contagious and iatrogenic condition for some people, particularly female teens and YAs. 

https://www.genderhq.org/increase-trans-females-nonbinary-dysphoria

Much evidence points to social factors contributing to GD. Society is currently being set up to maximize the number of medicalized young people.

https://www.genderhq.org/trans-nature-vs-nurture-innate-gender-identity-culture/#anchor-page10-section-a

Guideline 11. Psychologists recognize that TGNC people are more likely to experience positive life outcomes when they receive social support or trans-affirmative care.

We have reason to believe younger cohorts will have more regret and less positive mental health outcomes due to the substantial increases in the numbers of young people transitioning and the move to the affirmative model and informed consent model for adults. For example, the Williams Institute study is touted as an example of a study validating the need to offer easy medical transition access. But if one looks at the question about passing better, there is no benefit. In that study, natal females (in contrast to natal males) who say other people don't recognize them as trans or GNC have the same or higher suicide attempt rate as females who are dysphoric and recognized as female, not male. 

If you look at Lipson (2019) there are incredibly high rates of mental health problems among the trans college students surveyed. This is at a time when celebration of trans identity is at an all-time high. And college students are often given access to transition healthcare. Yet the rate of mental health problems is alarming, particularly among biological females. Given it is known females are prone to body dysmorphia contagions or BPD, which involves identity instability, we hope the APA is asking questions beyond blind affirmation. We are seeing many therapists blindly and immediately affirming young people assuming transition will solve all of their problems. It's one reason we felt we had to form GHQ.

Another recent study (Branstrom 2019) calls into question the overall benefits of SRS on mental health. The conclusions of this study initially claimed a benefit. The study had to be corrected after several LTEs pointed out major flaws. It showed no benefit. It's disingenuous they have not changed the title, and bias may be involved in them not retracting it altogether. 

https://ajp.psychiatryonline.org/doi/abs/10.1176/appi.ajp.2019.19010080?journalCode=ajp

https://www.genderhq.org/blog/2020/8/19/american-journal-of-psychiatry-study-purported-to-show-benefits-of-transgender-medical-transition-made-false-claims 

We review the positive studies on GHQ.  

https://www.genderhq.org/trans-youth-suicide-statistics-kill-themselves-manipulate-parents/#anchor-page15-section-b-what 

We also cover studies such as Dhejne, Adams, and Marshall that call into question the positive effects of medical transition in the long run on mental health & suicide risk.

https://www.genderhq.org/trans-youth-suicide-statistics-kill-themselves-manipulate-parents/#anchor-page15-section-b-below

The APA may want to take a closer look at what is going on now rather than rely on the Cornell review and other positive studies. Detransition and rapid onset gender dysphoria (Littman 2018) will likely be growing topics. Please don't acquiesce to the intense and often successful efforts to shut this down.

https://www.reddit.com/r/detrans/

https://www.genderhq.org/trans-activism-identity-politics-harassment-censorship

Guideline 15. Psychologists respect the welfare and rights of TGNC participants in research and strive to represent results accurately and avoid misuse or misrepresentation of findings. 

“One group of experts has recommended that population research, & especially government-sponsored surveillance research, use a two-step method, first asking for sex assigned at birth, & then following with a question about gender identity (GenIUSS, 2013).”

Yes- it is critical to collect data knowing the biological sex of all involved. This is creating problems. We look at studies on LGBT youth and we don’t even know the biological sex of those involved. It’s an example of the many problems identity over biological reality causes. Scientists, women, gay people, and trans people all need access to proper data.

Thank you so much for allowing us to participate.

Please Join a Letter Writing Campaign in Honor of JK Rowling & Her Bravery in Raising Concerns about Large Increases in Medically Altered Youth with Gender Dysphoria

Did you know that JK Rowling’s and Harry Potter’s birthdays are coming up soon?

Many of us have felt heartened and grateful for JK Rowling’s recent contributions to the discussion around gender ideology. Rowling shares a birthday with her beloved literary progeny – July 31. Harry Potter fans will recall that the boy wizard receives his first Hogwarts’ acceptance letter a week before his 11th birthday. When his Aunt Petunia and Uncle Vernon refuse to let him see the letter, more and more “letters from no one” begin to arrive, finally inundating his aunt and uncle.

The Hogwarts’ motto is Draco Dormiens Nunquam Titillandus (Never Tickle a Sleeping Dragon), but sometimes sleeping dragons do indeed need to be tickled. We thought we would show our support for Joanne on her birthday by sending “letters from no one” to The Guardian, the BBC, and The New York Times. All we are asking for is constructive dialogue in the mainstream media. Please download the letter, print it three times, and send it to the New York Times, the BBC, and the Guardian in time for it to arrive around July 31. Alternatively, you may copy the text (printed below) and paste it into an email. Or better yet, do both! You may feel free to sign it and give a brief description of yourself, or you may simply send without signing.

Once you’ve printed your letter, please take a picture of it and post the photo on social media using the hashtags #ItsNotHateToWantDebate and #HappyBirthdayJKR. Tag in the journalists and the outlets. And please help spread the word!

Let’s send as many letters to each of these media outlets as Hogwarts sent to Harry at Uncle Vernon and Aunt Petunia’s house. 

Looking forward to seeing you at Hogwarts!

For a downloadable PDF of the letter, click here.

To copy and paste the letter into an email, see the text of the letter below. 

___________________________________________

To the BBC, The Guardian and The New York Times:

We are writing to request that you widen your scope when reporting on gender diversity. A progressive society is characterised by a respect for thoughtful discussion and we hope that journalistic outlets of your stature could explore multiple perspectives on these important questions rather than stifling debate by covering only one side.   

In her recent personal essay, J.K. Rowling outlined her concerns that extremist ideology was negatively impacting vulnerable groups. She highlighted several pressing aspects of this issue that have received scant coverage in the liberal media. The international reaction to Rowling’s essay demonstrated both the lack of public awareness about these issues and the urgent need for honest and respectful dialogue. 

In Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone, Harry begins to receive numerous copies of his Hogwarts’ acceptance letter a week before his birthday on July 31 – which is also Rowling’s birthday. These letters marked a new beginning for the fictional boy wizard. We hope these letters that you are receiving will signal to you that there are many from across the political spectrum who wish to have a good-faith discussion about gender ideology and its impact on women, children, adolescents, and also on lesbian, gay, and bisexual people. 

It is our hope that together we can help to usher in a new beginning where we can have important conversations that until now have been substantially ignored by the liberal mainstream media. Given our mutual desire to support gender non-conforming individuals, we believe that it is vitally important for leading media to cover these crucial and under-reported stories. 

• The extraordinary growth in the number of adolescents with gender dysphoria

• The link between increasingly rigid gendered expectations and gender dysphoria in childhood

• The social pressures on lesbian, gay and bisexual youth to conform to sex role stereotypes and/or change their bodies

• The complex issues facing the growing number of detransitioners

• The potential impact the enshrinement of gender identity has upon sex-based rights, single-sex spaces, and sports for women and girls

After receiving his letters, Harry travelled to Hogwarts on September 1. We would like to follow up with you in early September to see how we might bring more nuance and depth to the current coverage about gender issues.

Hope to see you at Hogwarts!

#ItsNotHateToWantDebate                #HappyBirthdayJKR

The Guardian

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The New York Times

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News in Trans Medical Treatment Side-Effects

News Links

GHQ covers the side-effects of medical transition for gender dysphoria in Topic 2. We are tagging recent news articles to update that section.

1) There is contradictory information regarding the risk of blood clots and stroke. Two newer studies do not show elevated risk of blood clots.

“Venous Thrombotic Risk in Transgender Women Undergoing Estrogen Therapy: A Systematic Review and Metaanalysis” (Kahn 2019) states the risk of hormone therapy is similar to that of women who are on birth control pills.

“Effects of Gender-Affirming Hormones on Lipid, Metabolic, and Cardiac Surrogate Blood Markers in Transgender Persons” (Defreyne 2019) attributes risk thromboembolic morbidity to the use of estradiol, no longer prescribed and thus more recent regimens are safer. They also state evidence on cardiometabolic disease is inconclusive.

2) “Physiologic Response to Gender-Affirming Hormones Among Transgender Youth" (Olson 2018) indicates that some young females being given testosterone may already be pre-hypertensive. In two females in the study, after 2 years of testosterone, the BP went from normal to hypertensive, and triglycerides increase, HDL decreases. A normal range is under 120 SBP. Elevated is 120-129. HTN is 130 and up. SBP went from 115 to 128 but is described in the paper as "not clinically significant:"

RESULTS: Of the initial 101 participants, 59 youth had follow-up physiologic data collected between 21 and 31 months after initiation of hormones available for analysis. Metabolic parameters changes were not clinically significant, with the exception of sex steroid levels, intended to be the target of intervention.

3) "Effects of testosterone therapy on lipid profile in trans men during a 6-month prospective clinical study" (Tancic-Gajic EPATH presentation) indicates testosterone therapy may lower HDL (good) cholesterol.

Short term testosterone therapy in transgender men was associated with increases in BMI and with decreases in HDL-cholesterol. Long-term studies are needed to assess the long-term cardiometabolic risks of testosterone therapy in trans men.

4) “Suppressing Puberty by GnRHa: Unresolved concerns” (Meyer-Bahlburg EPATH presentation) reviews the data indicating concerns for the use of hormone blockers in children/teens:

Results and Conclusions

Animal models: Studies of the effects of prolonged GnRHa treatment in juvenile sheep have shown sex-specific im- pacts on emotion and behavior regulation (Wojniusz et al., 2011), impairment of long-term spatial memory (Hough et al., 2017a) which persisted after GnRHa discontinuation (Hough et al., 2017b), sex-specific effects on gray-matter and amygdala volume (Sex on Brain European Research Group - SOBER, et al., 2013), and on sex-biased gene ex- pression of the amygdala (Nuruddin et al., 2013).

Children with CPP: Two modest-sized studies showed impairment of Wechsler IQ of about 1⁄2 standard deviation, affecting especially the Performance IQ (Mul et al., 2001; Wojniusz et al., 2016; Hayes, 2017).
Adolescents with GD: A case study showed a significant drop in working memory, which did not reverse after GnRHa treatment ended (Schneider et al., 2017). In a study of a small sample, GnRHa treatment did not affect executive functioning in terms of the Tower-of-London task (Staphorsius et al., 2015).

In conclusion, the very limited findings from sheep studies as well as from small human samples raise significant concerns about possible long-term adverse side effects of prolonged GnRHa treatment on brain development. Urgently needed are: (a) systematic studies of GnRHa effects on the developing brain in animal models that are more closely guided by the evidence regarding brain organization during puberty; (b) corresponding (preferably prospective) studies of pertinent behaviors and underlying brain structure and function in human clinical samples undergoing GnRHa treatment.

5) There are two papers about two incidences of adolescent females with venous thromboembolism, a life-threatening condition.

“Hormone Therapy and Venous Thromboembolism in a Transgender Adolescent” (Stanley 2018):

Abstract
Venous thromboembolism can be precipitated by both genetic and acquired factors, but the role of testosterone therapy is less clear. Here, we present a 17-year-old transgender adolescent, transitioning from female to male, receiving both estrogen and testosterone therapy, who developed a pulmonary embolism without an underlying genetic thrombophilic condition. As transgender medical care evolves, the use of testosterone as cross-sex hormone therapy in adolescents is likely to increase. Our review suggests that care must be taken when initiating treatment with testosterone, and modification of other thrombophilic risks should be explored before starting therapy in this population.

“Venous Thromboembolism in a Transgender Adolescent on Testosterone Therapy: A Case Report and Literature Review.” (Fan 2020):

Abstract
The incidence of pediatric venous thromboembolism (VTE) has been increasing in the past few decades and can be associated with significant mortality and morbidity. There are known risk factors associated with VTE, including estrogen therapy. However, the relationship between testosterone and VTE remains unclear. Here, we present a 17-year-old female-to-male transgender patient without a history of inherited thrombophilia, who developed pulmonary embolism while receiving testosterone injections for gender dysphoria. Despite the limited data on testosterone and the risk of VTE, health care providers should counsel patients and family about the possible increased risk of VTE when starting testosterone.

6) Hormone blockers have negative impacts on bone health but cross-sex hormones may not to the same extent.

“Hormone therapy in transgender patients is safe for bone”

Transwomen are more likely to have a lower bone mineral density (BMD) before beginning hormone therapy, compared with male reference populations, but there are no short- or long-term risks to bone health over the life of a transperson who receives hormone therapy, according to a presentation at the annual meeting of the American Society for Bone and Mineral Research.

“Hormonal treatment of transgender people is safe with respect to bone,” said Martin den Heijer, MD, PhD, of the VU University Medical Center in Amsterdam.

This article did say after ten years, there was an increased risk of osteoporosis and hip fracture.

7) “Brain Maturation, Cognition and Voice Pattern in a Gender Dysphoria Case under Pubertal Suppression” (Schneider 2017) shows puberty blockers may cause as much as a ten-point drop in IQ points but this is not mentioned in the abstract. The abstract doesn't mention that IQ fell from 80 to 70 after GnRHa. Also, IQ normally increases between age 8 and 16.

8) “The Pediatric Endocrine Society’s Statement on Puberty Blockers Isn’t Just Deceptive. It’s Dangerous:”

The Pediatric Endocrine Society recently issued a statement claiming that the effects of puberty-blocking medications on normal puberty are reversible. Has the FDA determined that there is scientific evidence to validate this claim? Have there been any rigorous long-term studies addressing this question? Is social transition truly harmless? Is it ethical to continue this experiment on children? The answer to all of those questions is no.

The author, who strongly opposes pediatric medical transition, lays out other negative health consequences to medically transitioning minors here. He also states the even if the medical establishment deems puberty blockers to be dangerous, cross-sex hormones alone won’t be enough to stop masculinization in males on estrogen.

9) Trans people experience very high rates of sexual dysfunction (Kerckhof 2019).

“New study provides insight into the sexual dysfunctions experienced by transgender individuals:”

Transgender individuals tend to report experiencing more sexual problems than the general population, according to new research published in The Journal of Sexual Medicine. But the prevalence of sexual dysfunction is highest among transgender individuals who do not receive gender-affirming surgeries…

“At the same time, the study shows us that even after gender-affirming interventions, both trans women and trans men still suffer from a specific number of sexual complaints. These individuals in the female spectrum experience orgasm difficulties (1 in 3), pain complaints during intercourse (1 in 4) and a fear of sexual contact (1 in 5),” Elaut said…

Like all research, the study includes some limitations. The study used a cross-sectional design — so it is unclear if gender-affirming interventions reduce sexual dysfunction or if people with better sexual functioning are more likely to undergo such operations…

The study, “Prevalence of Sexual Dysfunctions in Transgender Persons: Results from the ENIGI Follow-Up Study“, was authored by Mauro E. Kerckhof, Baudewijntje P. C. Kreukels, Timo O. Nieder, Inga Becker-Hébly, Tim C. van de Grift, Annemieke S. Staphorsius, Andreas Köhler, Gunter Heylens, and Els Elaut.

10) We are adding several articles and the negative side-effects steroids have on the female body:

“Performance Enhancing Anabolic Steroid Abuse in Women”

“Why Anabolic Steroid Addiction Is More Dangerous for Women—and How to Get Help"

"Psychiatric and medical effects of anabolic-androgenic steroid use in women"

Links about Autism and Gender Dysphoria

News Links

There is a known link between gender dysphoria and autism spectrum issues. Below are several links regarding this topic.

1) This is a study (Stagg 2016) confirming higher rates of ASD in trans and non-binary-identified individuals:

Results

Individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) or meeting the AQ cut-off score for ASD were over-represented in both the transgender and nonbinary groups. The key variables differentiating the transgender and nonbinary groups from the cisgender group were systematising and empathy. Levels of autistic traits and cases of ASD were higher in individuals assigned female at birth than those assigned male at birth.

Conclusions

A proportion of individuals seeking help and advice about gender identity will also present autistic traits and in some cases undiagnosed autism. Lower levels of empathy, diminished theory of mind ability and literalness may impede the delivery of effective support. Clinicians treating transgender and nonbinary individuals, should also consider whether clients, especially those assigned female at birth, have an undiagnosed ASD.

2) Another study, Kuvalanka et. al, 2017, discusses the views of mothers with trans-identified ASD, children.

3) Mahfouda et. al, 2019, is a study that acknowledges high rates of mental health problems in ASD and trans-identified youth:

Abstract: Research suggests an overrepresentation of autism spectrum diagnoses (ASD) or autistic traits in gender diverse samples, particularly in children and adolescents. Using data from the GENTLE (GENder identiTy Longitudinal Experience) Cohort at the Gender Diversity Service at the Perth Children’s Hospital, the primary objective of the current retrospective chart review was to explore psychopathology and quality of life in gender diverse children with co-occurring ASD relative to gender diverse children and adolescents without ASD. The Social Responsiveness Scale (Second Edition) generates a Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-5) score indicating a likely clinical ASD diagnosis, which was used to partition participants into two groups (indicated ASD, n = 19) (no ASD indicated, n = 60). Indicated ASD was far higher than would be expected compared to general population estimates. Indicated ASD on the Social Responsiveness Scale 2 (SRS 2) was also a significant predictor of Internalising behaviours (Anxious/Depressed, Withdrawn/Depressed, Somatic Complaints, Thought Problems subscales) on the Youth Self Report. Indicated ASD was also a significant predictor of scores on all subscales of the Paediatric Quality of Life Inventory. The current findings indicate that gender diverse children and adolescents with indicated ASD comprise an especially vulnerable group that are at marked risk of mental health difficulties, particularly internalising disorders, and poor quality of life outcomes. Services working with gender diverse young people should screen for ASD, and also provide pathways to appropriate care for the commonly associated mental health difficulties.

4) There is an article in Spectrum on autism and treatment guidelines that discredits the idea their gender obsession may be due to an over-focusing problem.

“New clinical guidelines address gender dysphoria in autism”

My argument is you need to understand the normal course of gender development for people with autism first.

5) This link from Seattle Children’s Hospital reviews treatment guidelines for gender dysphoric youth with autism.

6) Aeon has an article that discusses the harmful effects of attempts to depathologize autism spectrum disorders and reframe them as “neurodiversity” and an identity-politics activist issue. There has been a very similar trend in trans discourse in the mental health profession, where trans identity is framed as a normal part of gender expression (yet requires risky cross-sex hormones and surgeries that require a diagnosis in order for insurance to cover it.)

“Against neurodiversity:”

It is, therefore, time to start thinking differently about neurodiversity, and to recognise the importance of free speech in the public discourse on autism, because if neurodiversity means anything, it means accepting that we all think differently, and that not everyone takes pride in being autistic.

7) This study is a Yale review.

“Gender Identity and Autism Spectrum Disorders:”

it is unclear whether the most fruitful way to conceptualize this issue is in terms of comorbidity. A more complex approach that attempts to understand gender in developmental terms is potentially more salient for both research and clinical purposes. Our current understanding about the unique social development of individuals with ASD, which may impact the process of gender identity formation, underlines the need for such an approach...

...an exploration of sexuality seems especially pertinent given recent findings that most children with gender-related concerns eventually identify with their natal gender following puberty and frequently adopt homosexual and bisexual identities. It is possible that individuals with ASD may experience similar trajectories in their gender narratives, but potentially follow a different timeline than normally developing individuals owing to reduced social interaction and fewer opportunities to explore their sexual identity.

8) A quote (Glidden 2016) below:

Results

The literature investigating ASD in children and adolescents with gender dysphoria showed a higher prevalence rate of ASD compared with the general population. There is a limited amount of research in adults. Only one study showed that adults attending services for gender dysphoria had increased ASD scores. Another study showed a larger proportion of adults with atypical gender identity and ASD.

9) An adult autogynephile believes AGP is a syptom of autism in this video.

“Autogynephilia is a symptom of autism, not transgender identity"

10) Mahfouda (2019) is an Australian study:

Conclusions

This study expanded on previous research to replicate the finding of higher levels of autistic traits and ASD in a clinic-referred gender diverse sample in Australia. We found that gender diverse children and adolescents with indicated ASD comprise an especially vulnerable group that are at marked risk of mental health difficulties, particularly internalising disorders, and poor quality of life. These findings should be considered when developing best practice for working with gender diverse young people with ASD to ensure that their health care meets their unique needs.

11) Leef (2019):

The results of our study showed evidence of both specificity and nonspecificity with regard to ASD traits and caseness. Future research can adopt the principle of multifinality to understand better why only a minority of children with GD have a co-occurring diagnosis of ASD, but the majority does not.

12) Dr. Strang is a major researcher in the area of autism spectrum and gender dysphoria and a pro-transition, affirmitive model advocate.

Medical Ethics and Pediatric Medical Transition for Gender Dysphoric Youth

News Links

Recently there have been many more health professionals, and others, who have been critiquing the pros and cons of pediatric medical transition, and the benefits of medical transition overall, to gender dysphoric people. We are updating these links to be tagged to our section on medical ethics for those who are interested in researching and understanding health and psychological consequences of transitioning minors.

Questioning Medical Ethics

1) Dr. James Cantor has written a critique of The American Academy of Pediatric’s guidelines on treating gender dysphoric youth. These guidelines ignore desistance statistics and support full social and medical transition for minors. Link to both the paper and a podcast interview below.

“PODCAST 68: Clinical psychologist Dr James Cantor Criticises the American Academy of Pediatrics’ Guidelines for Treating Trans Children:”

Dr James Cantor, clinical psychologist and sexologist, talks to Jonathan Kay about his recent peer-reviewed critique of the American Academy of Pediatrics’ guidelines on treating trans children.

2) Sky News has covered the ethics topic and the fact that therapists can not provide therapy to youth beyond fully affirming them as trans.

“NHS 'over-diagnosing' children having transgender treatment, former staff warn:”

Thirty five psychologists have resigned from the children's gender-identity service in London in the last three years, Sky News research suggests.

Sky News- clip of Dr. Evans:

Dr Marcus Evans resigned from the Tavistock & Portman NHS Trust over concerns about its gender identity service. He questions how a child of 11 can consent to treatment that will 'profoundly effect' their physical and psychological well-being.

3) Below is an article written by Marcus Evans about his deep misgivings about transitioning minors and the affirmative model.

“Why I Resigned from Tavistock: Trans-Identified Children Need Therapy, Not Just ‘Affirmation’ and Drugs”

A similar article exists on Medscape.

“UK Gender Identity Service at Crunch Point as Pressure Mounts”

4) Another article on the Tavistock gender clinic in the UK was published in The Telegraph.

“Children's transgender clinic hit by 35 resignations in three years as psychologists warn of gender dysphoria 'over-diagnoses'“

5) This is an article about another British psychologist.

“Transgender Children: 'The concept of being born in the wrong body is troubling'“

6) A former Tavistock employee is bringing a legal case:

Children cannot consent to transgender treatment, a nurse bringing a landmark legal case has said, claiming that many are autistic, homosexual or just confused. 

Susan Evans, 62, a former psychiatric nurse at the Tavistock and Portman NHS foundation trust, said that “experimental” and “invasive medical treatment” should be prevented in order to protect children. 

7) The Economist has printed an article on the possible dangers of pediatric medical transition and the use of hormone blockers. GHQ covers some of those risks here.

“What to do about puberty blockers”

8) The increase in and complexity of gender dysphoria cases are making ethical decisions more difficult and some Australian health professions believe there are problems with the quality of a new study in Australia designed to track outcomes in trans people.

“What are the health outcomes of trans and gender diverse young people in Australia? Study protocol for the Trans20 longitudinal cohort study:”

Our specific ethical concerns centre on whether the ‘informed consent’ offered to parents and their children reflect the rapid advances in complexity and uncertainty that have been reported in recent studiesiv,v,vi

9) Below are three links on The BMJ.

“Family doctors lack training and feel under pressure to prescribe, finds Sally Howard”

“The struggle for GPs to get the right care for patients with gender dysphoria:”

I am concerned to see yet another article in the BMJ trying to persuade GPs to get involved in prescribing for patients who express a desire to be the opposite sex. I am concerned at the journal’s editorial bias on this issue at a time when, as the article says, the number of young people wanting referrals to gender identity clinics because of gender issues has risen hugely and we are reading and seeing more cases of detransitioners who start going down the gender changing pathway and then regret it. 

And a response from a parent is linked.

10) Sasha Ayad is a therapist who supports mental health exploration for gender dysphoric teens.

“What does the word transgender mean?”

11) A psychiatrist, David Bell, is having to deal with legal fees for having raised alarms about what has been happening with the NHS in Britain, indicating there is a price to be paid by whislteblowers.

12) Some individuals have filed complaints against a plastic surgeon who posts pictures of young people who have had mastectomies along with pictures of biohazard buckets full of breast tissue for marketing purposes.

“News Release: Complaint Filed Against Gender-Affirming Surgeons:”

A coalition including Canadian Gender Report, Parents of ROGD Kids, Canadian Women’s Sex-based Rightsand GNC Centric have submitted a complaint to the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Ontario about the McLean Clinic and two of its physicians: Dr Hugh McLean and Dr Giancarlo McEvenue.

13) This paper (Steensma 2017) reviews the difficulties in these types of cases.

Abstract

Our analysis focuses on the importance of balanced decision making when counseling and treating adolescents with nonconforming gender identities. We argue that clinicians’ communicating appropriate expectations about the effectiveness and limitations of hormone therapy and the risks of psychological and physical iatrogenic effects is critical.

14) This is a translated version of a German presentation about the ethics of transitioning minors.

The AFFIRMATIVE MODEL

1) This is a pro affirmative model paper that doesn’t express concern that social transition could lead to inappropriate medical transition and argues transition should be allowed.

“Importance of being persistent. Should transgender children be allowed to transition socially?”

2) The below paper promotes the informed consent model, stating any gatekeeping is unethical:

“Gatekeeping hormone replacement therapy for transgender patients is dehumanising”

3) It appears therapists in the Seattle area actively encourage trans identification, even when a lesbian is attempting to detransition (see 56:00):

“Trauma and Transition | with Rachel”

Adding Three Studies Regarding the Ability of Minors to Consent to Medical Treatment

News

GHQ tries to document all of the pertinent research studies and news articles regarding the issue of pediatric medical transition for gender dysphoria.

We are adding two links and tagging it to Topic 3, the section on age and the ability to consent to medical treatments.

”Ethical issues arising in the provision of medical interventions for gender diverse children and adolescents” is by Bernadette Wren from the Tavistock clinic in Britain. It is an attempt to balance all of the arguments about how able minors are to consent to the irreversible effects of hormones and surgery.

A letter to BMJ expresses that there are reasons to be concerned about giving minors hormone blockers:

Gonadotrophin releasing hormone (GnRH) agonists are generally given under the premise that they provide “breathing space” for a child or teen to explore their identity without the distress caused by pubertal changes.3 It is becoming clear, however, that once started on GnRH agonists to block puberty almost all children go on to receive cross sex hormones.4 The information given to parents and children that GnRH agonists are completely reversible might therefore be construed as misleading.

“The Medico-Legal ‘Making’ of ‘The Transgender Child’” discusses trans identity and cultural context in terms of the medical ethics of medically altering minors:

Abstract

Thirty years ago, the transgender child would have made no sense to the general public, nor to young people. Today, children and adolescents declare themselves transgender, the National Health Service diagnoses ‘gender dysphoria’, and laws and policy are developed which uphold young people’s ‘choice’ to transition and to authorize stages at which medical intervention is permissible and desirable. The figure of the ‘transgender child’ presumed by medicine and law is not a naturally occurring category of person external to medical diagnosis and legal protection. Medicine and law construct the ‘transgender child’ rather than that the ‘transgender child’ exists independently of medico-legal discourse. The ethical issue of whether the child and young person can ‘consent’ to social and medical transition goes beyond legal assessment of whether a person under16 years has the mental capacity to consent, understand to what s/he is consenting, and can express independent wishes. It shifts to examination of the recent making of ‘the transgender child’ through the complex of power/knowledge/ethics of medicine and the law of which the child can have no knowledge but within which its own desires are both constrained and incited.

References

Brunskull-Evans, H. (2019). The Medico-Legal ‘Making’ of ‘The Transgender Child’. Medical Law Review 27(4), 640- 657. doi.org/10.1093/medlaw/fwz013

Maxwell, J. (2019). Gender dysphoria: a question of informed consent. BMJ (367), 16442. Retrieved from doi.org/10.1136/bmj.l6442

Wren, B. (2019, June 14). issues arising in the provision of medical interventions for gender diverse children and adolescents. ACAMH National Conference. Retrieved from https://www.acamh.org/app/uploads/2015/06/16_05_Dr_Bernadette_Wren.pdf

Censorship and Avoidance of Problems in Pediatric Transition for Gender Dysphoria

News Commentary

The GHQ website has a section on trans activism and censorship and harassment of people who raise issues around the safety of pediatric transition for gender dysphoria. This is an ongoing issue.

Censorship

The Pediatric Endocrine Society does not want its members to discuss the safety of hormone blockers, their use in treating gender-dysphoric tweens, and whether or not minors can consent to irreversible medical treatments. “They strongly oppose” discourse. The below is a letter they sent out to members on October 29, 2019:

It appears a story about our organization was removed from an LGBT news site, the Star Observer, in Australia. The LGBT press does not print any negative information about transitioning children or teens, nor do they mention the association of childhood gender dysphoria with adult homosexuality. Gender Health Query sent Australian officials a letter in support of other people in Australia who are alarmed about the spiking numbers of minors presenting to services for gender transition. We sent the letter to LGBT organizations and media there, including the Star Observer. This link was only up for a short time before they removed the mention of it. If LGBT media entities will not discuss the risks involved in childhood and teen gender transitions to pre-gay and lesbian youth it is best for them to advertise themselves exclusively as trans rights organizations:

4thwavenow is a site for parents skeptical of pediatric medical transition. There are multiple accounts on their website of female teenagers, often same-sex attracted, who went through long periods of identifying as trans (a year or more) and then desisted. They were locked out of their account for using the term “natal male.” This term is widely used and doesn’t violate Twitter’s policy and wasn’t directed at a trans individual. Jesse Singal, a journalist who has received a lot of harassment and verbal abuse for writing accurately about youth and gender dysphoria, stated he contacted a Twitter employee who replied the lockout was a mistake. However, their account is still locked. This is suspicious, and it appears Twitter may be targeting this account. All other social media companies have similar policies as people opposing aspects of trans activism are often removed from social media platforms.

GNC-Centric, a Canadian detransitioned lesbian and activist, whose work is linked on the GHQ site, was removed from Twitter for using the biological term “male” for an individual. Scientifically accurate terms are disallowed on major platforms. As all other major platforms (Facebook, Youtube) have these policies, discussing the reality of a person’s biological sex is now widely banned on the internet. This calls into question why they should essentially own the public square and something that functions as a utility.

This Federalist article documented a case of a doctor accurately discussing the medical risks in transgender medicine. The video was worded in ways many people would find offensive. The author, Michelle Cretella, is also an anti-same-sex marriage activist as a member of the anti-LGB American Academy of Pediatricians. But it highlights the power social media companies have to silence criticism of pediatric transition.

In the original video, Dr. Michelle Cretella, a pediatrician and executive director at the American Academy of Pediatricians, commented on the insanity of wanting to mutilate one’s body for the sake of becoming transgender.

Marcus Evans, a British psychologist who has called into question the safety of the affirmative protocol in treating gender dysphoria, also had his account temporarily banned by Twitter.

Poor Reporting on Trans Issues

Jessie Singal writes about flaws in news articles reporting on gender dysphoria. The UK press has been reporting on the topic of detransition. As a result, Stonewall UK put out a “fact sheet” meant to “debunk” some information on detransition. We review some commentary Singal made about that here.

There are other articles Singal, one of the few reporters to cover this subject, has analyzed. This quote is from an article called How “'Science Vs' Made Two Gender-Dysphoria Errors:”

I’ve been worried, for a while, about the level of bias creeping into mainstream journalism about gender dysphoria, and the frequency with which major outlets make basic errors when covering this subject. I’ve touched on this from time to time: In one blog post responding to critiques of my own work I showed that two of the journalists who cover this subject regularly weren’t familiar with the well-documented phenomenon of trauma sometimes appearing to cause gender dysphoria — a phenomenon you will come across if you have conducted any in-depth interviews with gender clinicians, or read much of the literature on this subject. In another, I critiqued a Slate article that, in my view, took an irresponsible and unsupported stance on the complicated question of what it means when someone goes on hormones and finds their dysphoria has, at least temporarily, gotten worse.

Those older critiques can be found here.

He went on to cover two recent errors in the “Science Vs” podcast:

(1) Science Vs claims that in the fourth edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (the DSM-IV), “being trans” was a mental disorder, but that in the current edition, the DSM-5, being trans is no longer listed as such. This is incorrect on multiple counts…

(2) With regard to the gender dysphoria desistance debate — we’ll get there — the episode claims that “The only study we’ve found that zoomed in on kids [who identified strongly as being trans fairly early in life]… found that out of 45 of them… 44 grew up to be transgender.” Here Science Vs accidentally fabricated and published a study result. There is no such study. 

Below is a screencap pointing out the poor reporting by Vox:

@jessesingal

Rolling Stone is also involved with poor reporting on gender dysphoria. Rolling Stone is wrong that minors are not taking cross-sex hormones or even getting surgery:

@jessesingal

The Advocate failed to make several corrections to a defamatory article referencing Singal. The corrections they should have made can be found here.

Kirsty Entwistle is a British psychologist who has acted as a whistleblower around youths and the Tavistock clinic in the UK. She pointed out that Psychology Today deletes even reasonable comments that do not support anything other than total affirmation:

@seja_bondoso

The author of the article, Jack Turban, is also apparently unwilling to engage with arguments that present concerns about his research or possible false positives, even with other health professionals and scientists:

@seja_bondoso

Trans activists obtained a similar domain name to Transgendertrend in the UK, which is a group that addresses safety concerns around medically transitioning minors. Silencing campaigns commence against anyone who raises any issues or highlights negative outcomes that seem to be increasing. The similarly named site redirects people to Mermaids who believe in affirming all minors and providing them with surgery and hormones underage.

References:

4thWaveNow lockout: Twitter employee admits “mistake” to journalist, yet account remains disabled. (2019, December 11). Retrieved from https://4thwavenow.com/2019/12/16/4thwavenow-lockout-twitter-employee-admits-mistake-to-journalist-yet-account-remains-disabled/

Clark, Chrissy. (2019, November 5). YouTube Removes Video Of Doctor Discussing Medical Reality Of Transgenderism. The Federalist. Retrieved from https://thefederalist.com/2019/11/05/youtube-removes-video-of-doctor-discussing-medical-reality-of-transgenderism/

Singal, J. (2019, March 27). A Critique of the ‘Science Vs’ Episode on Being Transgender, Part 1. Retrieved from https://jessesingal.substack.com/p/how-science-vs-made-two-gender-dysphoria

Singal, J. (2018, November 21). Gender Dysphoria, Trauma, and Online Misinformation. Medium. Retrieved from https://medium.com/@jesse.singal/gender-dysphoria-trauma-and-online-misinformation-59a0ed43d275

Several New Groups Have Formed to Question the Safety of Medically Transitioning Minors with Gender Dysphoria And The Affirmative Model

News

Several new groups/organizations have formed to question the safety of social and medical transition of minors and young adults with gender dysphoria. These concerns are all in line with the concerns listed on the Gender Health Query website.

Rethinking Identity Medicine is based in the United States and says they will focus on best mental health practices and standards of care.

The MISSION of ReIME is to promote the highest standards of care and ethics in the area of identity medicine for children and youth.  To this end, we gather, curate and distribute up-to-date evidence-based information on best practices that ensure individualized, developmentally appropriate standards of care and treatment related to gender and identity non-conformity, variations and dysphoria. Our GOAL is to better inform individuals, friends, family members, communities including clinicians and policy makers at all levels who are seeking information to best safeguard the long term interests and physical autonomy of such children and youth.

We support the right of minors and young people to explore identities, including sexuality and gender that are developmentally appropriate. And that care is required to prevent prematurely foreclosing such exploration that may lead to permanent, invasive medical procedures.

Gender Identity Challenge is a group in Sweden and Norway.

Ever more parents feel that their child or adolescent wants to change their gender without previous warning. We wonder what has brought this about and how to deal with this phenomenon called

Rapid Onset Gender Dysphoria - ROGD

KIRJO is a group in Finland.

The transgender phenomenon is based on gender ideology which harms our society in many ways. It is now time to start the conversation about gender ideology. Is gender dysphoria the new anorexia?

PS. The word “Kirjo” is a Finnish equivalent to the English term “spectrum” (of color or types of people). You can follow and join us here.

Baywater Support is a group of parents from Britain and Ireland who wish to have a more cuatious approach to medicalizating minors:

We are a group of parents in the UK and Ireland who have been brought together by our experiences of parenting children with gender dysphoria or who have declared a transgender identity.

Having looked for the best support for our children, we have found only the 'affirmative' approach to their new identity, backed up by affirmative environments in schools and elsewhere. We've found little scope to explore the new identity as a young person's solution to trauma or distress, as a response to the challenges of adolescence, or to understand its role within underlying mental health or developmental contexts

A new consumer rights organization called Gender Care Consumer Advocacy Network has formed to support people questioning their gender, trans people, and detransitioners seeking mental health and medical services.

Their Mission:

Our mission is to empower recipients of gender transition-related care to become healthy and whole.

They have created a patients bill of rights:

GCCAN is a consumer rights group for any person who has previously or is currently receiving gender care related services. Our aim is to empower consumers of gender-transition related care to get the best health care possible.

GCCAN was founded by gender care consumers because we determined that the level of care we receive during or after gender care treatment is inadequate to achieve healthy mental and physical outcomes. Members of our group have been subject to harms from inadequate gender care services, and our goal is to reduce or mitigate similar harms to other consumers. The current delivery of care does not match established best-practice protocols. Established institutions often fail to balance the interests of consumers with the interests of gender care providers. We seek improvements to accountability, provider education, holistic care protocols, medical research, and public policies. We deserve better.

GCCAN is a registered 501(c)(3) consumer-run nonprofit organization that is non-partisan and non-ideological. Our membership represents many perspectives and experiences, and GCCAN is inclusive to all gender care consumers. As a result, our focus is on every consumer's wellbeing. We advocate for more informed consumers and better gender health care, under the presumption that the best outcome is different for each person. Our Consumer Bill of Rights outlines the necessary improvements to gender care that we seek.

News in Detransition

News

Over the last several weeks, there have been multiple articles on the once rare and under studied topic of detransition.

Charlie Evans is a bisexual woman and is starting a detransition advocacy organization. This is an article by Evans on Medium:

“The medicalization of gender non conforming children, and the vulnerability of lesbian youth”

More from her can be found here https://medium.com/@charlie.evans

This is a link to the crowdfunded page for the detransition advocacy organization:

“The Detransition Advocacy Network”

And a petition asking the public health service in Britain to study and support detransitioners:

“Support Detransitioners at the National Institutes of Health”

Two articles about detransition and Charlie Evens:

'Hundreds' of young trans people seeking help to return to original sex”

“Why is the progressive world so hostile to detransitioners?”

Evans identified as male for nearly a decade, but then changed her mind. And Evans is not alone. She says she has been in touch with hundreds of other young people who have detransitioned, mostly people in their early 20’s. Some of these individuals have had full gender reassignment surgery, and regret it. All are trying to figure out how to move forward and live happy, healthy lives.

There is a new detransition resource in Sweden:

“För mer kunskap och stöd kring detransition”

This is a Dutch documentary on detransition:

“Transgender Regret - A Dutch Documentary”

Below is a video of a story of a detransitioned woman who fit the definition of DSM-5 gender dysphoria from childhood and transitioned as an adult. She believes transition helped prevent her from committing suicide but also run from her butch identity:

“Thoughts of a detransitioned woman”

A personal story of homophobia and transition regret:

“I Spent a Year as a Trans Man. Doctors Failed Me at Every Turn”

At the time, you wouldn’t have been able to tell I was gay just from looking at me. I had long, blond hair, wore makeup, and carried myself rather femininely. But in my head, I knew I was gay—though I was more of a self-loathing gay. 

The truth is, I didn’t like gays, and didn’t want to be associated with them. Yet there I was, dating only other girls…

At age 18, I started seeing a bunch of transgender men’s “success stories” on Instagram. The trans men talked about how something had always “felt off” with them, and they said people couldn’t tell they had been the opposite sex after their transition.

Their stories all seemed to have a happy ending—and it made me rather jealous. 

Here I was getting frowned upon for holding hands with my girlfriend in public, feeling like I’m constantly being judged by everyone, while transgenders could date their same-sex significant other while looking like the opposite sex. 

I resented that and began to envy the transgenders. I looked into it for myself.

Stonewall UK added to the discourse by attempting to debunk some recent narratives emerging about detransition and attributing it to transphobia. These points run contrary to most recent stories about detransition. Many deransitioners claim they never report their detransition to any official entity and that they feel transition was a mistake:

”Dispelling myths around detransition”

Jesse Singal, who has been reporting on the contentious issue of pediatric medical transition and detransition, discussed some problems with the Stonewall UK statement on his personal blog:

”LGBT People Deserve Accurate Information From LGBT Organizations: But they aren't getting it”

The blog is behind a paywall, but he posted some of his commentary on social media:

Andrew Sullivan is joining the ranks of LGB people who are concerned about tranistion regret in LGB and other youth. He has written an article about detransition called “The Hard Questions About Young People and Gender Transitions:”

The widespread consensus today is that detransitioning is so rare even mentioning it borders on transphobic. But in reality, absolutely no one knows how rare detransitions are currently — the small set of research studies detransition skeptics present as evidence that it is very uncommon all come from vastly different contexts, in some cases decades-old, and arguably don’t capture what’s going on in 2019. These women live every day with the consequences of their decision: tenacious facial hair (one has to shave every three days) and body hair, deeper voices, permanently enlarged clitorises. They also suffer from the effects of “binding,” i.e. wearing a breast corset of sorts, to flatten their chests, so they can pass more easily as men. “I have back issues, lower lung capacity, and permanent dents around my shoulders,” one told me. “Every now and again, I have to push a rib back in to breathe,” another recounts. “I have permanent bruising,” another explains. “Serious back issues,” says another, who cannot carry a backpack for long without pain. “We get ‘sir’ed at Dunkin’ Donuts every time,” one joked…

By their own accounts, they had been adamantly trans in their teens. “I was the student trying to get a professor fired because he wouldn’t allow theyand them to be used for a singular person in my papers … I threatened my parents and friends with suicide. It became part of my identity to be suicidal. I screamed at my parents about this, even though I knew I wasn’t going to kill myself.” One went by the pronouns xe and xer and flew into a rage if she was misgendered. Once they had transitioned, and felt miserable nonetheless, they felt that this too was just part of being transgender. One talked of “the hunger to suffer.” Another spoke of “using your pain to validate your own destruction.”

A website called Canadian Gender Report has posted an informal survey of the r/detrans sub Reddit. Given that there is no formal attempt to study detransition at this time, informal surveys such as this one, and the one referenced, are the only efforts available to help understand this population.

References:

Canadian Gender Report. (2019, October 17). From trans to detransitioner – what can we learn from this growing trend? Retrieved from https://genderreport.ca/detransitioners-what-can-we-learn/

Evans, C. (2019, Septmember 9). The medicalization of gender non conforming children, and the vulnerability of lesbian youth. Medium. Retrieved from https://medium.com/@charlie.evans/the-medicalization-of-gender-non-conforming-children-and-the-vulnerability-of-lesbian-youth-10d4ac517e8e

Emmons, L. (2019, October 10). Why is the progressive world so hostile to detransitioners? The Post Millennial. Retrieved from https://www.thepostmillennial.com/why-is-the-progressive-world-so-hostile-to-detransitioners/

Lockwood, S. (2019, October 5). 'Hundreds' of young trans people seeking help to return to original sex. Sky News. Retrieved from https://news.sky.com/story/hundreds-of-young-trans-people-seeking-help-to-return-to-original-sex-11827740

Russell, N. (2019, October 8) What The First Nonbinary American Wants The Supreme Court To Know About Transgenderism. The Federalist. Retrieved from https://thefederalist.com/2019/10/08/what-the-first-nonbinary-american-wants-the-supreme-court-to-know-about-transgenderism/#.XZyM1mqNpSM.twitter

Singal-Minded. (2019, October 9). LGBT People Deserve Accurate Information From LGBT Organizations. Retrieved from https://jessesingal.substack.com/p/lgbt-people-deserve-accurate-information

Stella, C. (2016, September 3). Female detransition and reidentification: Survey results and interpretation. Retrieved from https://guideonragingstars.tumblr.com/post/149877706175/female-detransition-and-reidentification-survey

Stonewall UK. (2019, October 9). Dispelling myths around detransition. Retrieved from https://www.stonewall.org.uk/about-us/news/dispelling-myths-around-detransition

Sullivan, A. (2019, November 1). The Hard Questions About Young People and Gender Transitions. New York Magazine. Retrieved from http://nymag.com/intelligencer/2019/11/andrew-sullivan-hard-questions-gender-transitions-for-young.html?utm_medium=s1&utm_campaign=di&utm_source=tw

Thoughts of a detransitioned woman. (2019, September 27). Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=youtu.be&v=aVse3ZKD9hA

Wright, S. (2019, October 7). I Spent a Year as a Trans Man. Doctors Failed Me at Every Turn. The Daily Signal. Retrieved from https://www.dailysignal.com/2019/10/07/i-spent-a-year-as-a-trans-man-doctors-failed-me-at-every-turn/

A Recent Spate of Articles Regarding the Effects of Trans Activism And Cultural/Legal Conflicts

News

Recently there have been many articles that demonstrate there are conflicting opinions around pediatric medical transition for gender dysphoria and ideological views about sex and gender. These conflicts are happening around the medical treatment of minors, free speech and censorship, sex-based rights issues with girls, and cultural disagreements in and outside of the LGBT population.

Medical Ethics & Parental Rights

A Canadian Court declines to consider criticism that giving tweens cross-sex hormones is too experimental to be given to minors (“Consent form for trans child's hormone therapy was insufficient, lawyer argues at appeal court”):

The father takes the position in court filings that Bowden erred by delivering a “rush to judgment,” and Dunton on Wednesday questioned whether the risk of suicide may have been “trumped up.”

The child and his supporters state in court filings that proper consent was obtained and that the law in B.C. is settled when it comes to affording youth the authority to decide their own medical treatments.

A father in Texas is fighting the transition of his son. A video the father took of the child, circulating online, seems to indicate the mother is actively encouraging the child’s transition. He is now under a gag order from the judge.

The Texas Governor is calling for an investigation (“A Texas man says his 7-year-old isn’t transgender. Now his custody fight has reached the governor’s office’).

A politician in Georgia is proposing outlawing medical treatment for minors:

State Rep. Ginny Ehrhart, R-Powder Springs, wants to make it a felony to change a child’s gender through surgery or drugs and plans to introduce her “Vulnerable Child Protection Act” in the Georgia General Assembly.

The Endocrine Society has urged its members not to make statements against pediatric transition. They are commenting on a case where it appears the mother may be leading the child to identify as trans based on a video the father released to the public.

Suppressing puberty is fully reversible.

The claim puberty suppression is fully reversible is very debatable.

In the UK, a mother is suing Britain’s youth gender clinic, claiming minors can’t give consent to irreversible medical treatment or possible side-effects from hormone blockers (“Mother sues Tavistock child gender clinic over treatments”). Other parents have joined the lawsuit (“Parents battle ‘state‑sponsored sterilisation’ of trans children”):

More than 30 families with transgender children are to lobby the government and the NHS against what they claim is “coerced medicalisation” — propelling vulnerable young people convinced they are the wrong gender towards treatments that risk leaving them infertile.

The group, provisionally called Our Duty, was formed after one mother went public to describe gender reassignment medication and surgery for those with autism or psychological problems as “state-sponsored sterilisation”.

The London Times has released a statement skeptical of the safety of current pediatric transition protocols (“The Times view on the Tavistock clinic and hormone-blocking drugs for the young: Informed Consent”).

The Times concerns mirrors that of some people in the health professions. “Gender dysphoria in children: puberty blockers study draws further criticism” criticizes the handling of medical treatment of gender dysphoric youth in the UK.

An Australian doctor and lawyer have written a paper questioning the safety of puberty blockers for transgender youth.

The court decisions, as in other areas, have followed medical evidence applications where there appears to have been no contrary opinion argued for. It would perhaps be helpful for a matter to come before the courts where a contrary opinion may be fully ventilated – for example, where the parents of a child had different views (supported by appropriate expert evidence) on the merits of Stage 1 and or Stage 2 treatment in a particular case. The current relative ease by which gender dysphoric children

Not everyone believes promoting gender ideology to children is healthy and safe. The article “How the trans debate entered the classroom” covers commentary from several professionals on the rise in the number of medicalized young people. The article states that people want to remain anonymous for fear of backlash if they offer up their honest concerns. Censorship is an ongoing problem around this issue:

‘This is one of the most complicated clinical areas of mental health and clinicians are often put under huge pressure to refer individuals, who believe this will solve their dysphoria, on for medical interventions,’ Dr Evans says. ‘Adolescence involves biological, psychological and sociological changes, and feelings of anxiety and confusion about their role required by society, and experimentation. I’m not saying no to gender transition, but services should resist the pull towards a quick solution that bypasses thoughtful exploration. How an adolescent feels now may not be how they feel in ten years’ time.’…

A senior psychoanalyst (like many I contacted, they asked to remain anonymous) told me ‘children are being seriously damaged’. ‘Gender dysphoria is being treated like an aesthetic,’ he said. ‘How can you consent for a 12-year-old? They’ll be infertile, on medical treatment for life, and if you cut out a piece of their gut to turn into a vagina, you’re not really making them into a woman. There should be a distinction between what someone wants and what is good for them.

Jenn Smith, a transgender person who is opposed to pediatric transition, has released a video discussing Smith’s viewpoints. Smith was a foster child, and there appears to be a link with adoption and foster situations and an increase in gender dysphoria. A gender clinician in BC (Dr. Wong) where Smith is from has stated 1/2 of his patients are “from the Ministry” in Canada. That information can be found here.

Jenn Smith states a caveat that these numbers are going by what Dr. Wong said himself and have not been verified by official statistics. If true, these are very high numbers of trans-identified foster kids:

500 of Wong’s patients are from the Ministry. The Ministry has 6500 kids in it’s care. So when you do the math there what you discover is that that 7.7% of all the children is the Ministry’s care are identifying as transgender and under the care of one doctor, just one doctor. There are other doctors out thoere. Like any family physician can basically perscribe hormones or whatever to kids and stuff. So it is not unreasonable for us to conclude the numers of foster children idenifying as transgender, might be as high as 1 in 10.

Another trans person who is against pediatric medical transition, FtM in this case, has posted an article about the harshness of medical transition on the body (What the medical professionals won't tell you about Transitioning genders, but I will).

Open Debate, Free Speech, & Censorship Issues

Several law professors in Australia signed a letter pledging to support transgender students after a Dean made comparisons of the increase of trans-identified youth to eating disorders.

Almost 40 law academics at the University of Queensland have signed an open letter pledging to support transgender students after the university’s law school dean presented a paper that compared transgender children to teens with eating disorders.

The dean’s response:

‘None of my colleagues have raised any concerns with me, and none have asked for a copy of the 14,000-word paper that I delivered last week. Had they done so, they would have found that it deals with issues that are being widely discussed in the medical and scientific literature.’

‘‘My background is in child protection. To suggest that we don’t tackle difficult issues because it might be challenging is to avoid the responsibilities of intellectual leadership.’

It is a fact that even some experts in gender dysphoria are raising concerns that there may be cases that are influenced by body dysmorphia and social contagion. GHQ covers the reasons for these concerns here.

Below are two articles about the threats to people’s careers coming from trans activism. This topic is extensively covered in this section: Problems with a politicized climate of harassment & censorship. These problems include censorship, threats to one’s career, and threats to people's physical safety. or the safety of their family:

“The purge of trans-sceptical academics”

“Meet the academics hunted down and hounded out of jobs for having the 'wrong' thoughts”

“The trans-activists' witch hunt against academics threatens the whole of society”:

A chaperone accompanies you to your office. Inside, a panic alarm is kept within reach. Once, your office door was covered in urine. You’ve faced multiple death and rape threats. Abuse and harassment, delivered online and in person, have become routine features of your working life.

Sex-Based Rights and Trans Rights

MtF trans individuals have been dominating women and girls in sporting events. Recent research shows that males retain a biological advantage, even post medical transition. The article “‘Justice’ for trans athletes is unfair to girls like my daughter” article discusses the advantages MtF teens have over biological girls in high school:

Alanna has devoted countless days, nights and weekends to training. She pushes herself to shave mere fractions of a second from her race times, yet she positions herself at the starting line knowing that, even with all that training and with her best effort, the odds are against her, the numbers are against her and that fairness doesn’t really exist.

A school is reconsidering the transgender bathroom policy and has received backlash from trans activist:

PICKENS COUNTY, Ga. -- A Georgia school district says it's reversing its decision that would have allowed transgender students to use the bathroom that fits their gender identity.

The Pickens County school district cited death threats, student harassment and vandalism of school property in their decision.

The Economist has an article addressing the conflicts around trans policies in British schools where girls who are uncomfortable with dysphoric males in female changing areas are being expected to leave the area.

Cultural Conflicts within the LGBT Population

Some LGB people have split off from Europe’s largest LGBT organization, Stonewall UK, in Britain. Encouraging the medicalization of gender non-conforming children and the eradication of girls’ sex-based rights are cited as some reasons why. The new organization is called LGBAlliance.

Two articles about this split are below:

“Gay groups clash over ‘homophobic policies’”

“Lesbian barrister: my bosses bowed to transgender ‘hate mob’”:

Bailey was subjected to a torrent of abuse and death threats after she posted on social media: “Gender extremism is about to meet its match.”

Allison Bailey is a lesbian who supports the new LGBAlliance in the UK. She and others have received criticism and even harassment, mostly from the far left, because some believe they should not form their own LGB organization or be criticizing current trans activist policies. She responds in a Twitter thread saved here:

Stonewall UK is a political lobbying group. It‘s not democratically elected. It has no mandate to declare itself the voice of *all* LGBT ppl, yet it behaves as if it does — & is treated by government, charitable & private sector orgs as if it speaks for us all. It does not. 1/

Stonewall UK has spun LGBT rights so completely that *any* challenge or question to its agenda is deemed hate speech, rather than being a healthy & essential part of a functioning democracy. It made it respectable for youth to no platform, scream at & threaten feminists. 2/…

Brad Polumbo, a gay man, has written two articles supporting the concept of a separate LGB movement:

“Gay rights depend on our rejecting transgender radicalism and standing up for James Younger”

“It’s Time for ‘LGB’ and ‘T’ to Go Their Separate Ways”

Other gay men have started a Facebook group called Gay Men Address Gender Identity.

An article called “The Great Erasure” has been posted on Medium and is in line with the dissatisfaction some LGB people have with current LGBT organizations. The article is part opinion but is factually useful in tracking where funding is going for current LGBT organizations.

*GHQ remains a trans-inclusive organization as trans people are not all supportive of pediatric medical transition or denying the concept of biological, chromosomal, sex. Some LGB people are supportive of these things. But all identity groups should be free to organize individually to focus on specific issues.

Not everyone believes the current cultural obsession with pronouns, and identity in general, is healthy. GHQ holds that position as well. This culture is resulting in protests like the recent “S***-In” at San Francisco University protesting the need for more non-binary bathrooms. And this presentation of postmodern queer theory to children by the BBC that lacks scientific discourse and promotes views that are controversial within the LGBT population.

An article written by a GHQ advisory board member called “Amid ‘Erosion in Acceptance’ L Word Loses the Plot & GLAAD Targets Youth” covers some of these cultural issues and the growing numbers of lesbians critical of current “LGBT activism:”

Amid “erosion of acceptance,” the organizations that were supposed to protect us, have campaigned to silence us, using threats and slurs to invoke fear and shame. The L Word has lost all sense of the plot… Yet although mainstream media and “LGBTQ” organizations have pulled out every trick in their “playbook,” the one thing they’ve deeply underestimated is the power of dyke rage.

Andrew Sullivan, a gay man, has written an article about transitioning children and the effects of trans activism on gay rights called “When the Ideologues Come for the Kids”:

Last week, I defended drag queens reading stories to kids in libraries. I don’t take back my words. Getting children interested in reading with costumed clowns strikes me as harmless. But when I was directed to the website of Drag Queen Story Hours, I found the following:

“[DQSH] captures the imagination and play of the gender fluidity of childhood and gives kids glamorous, positive, and unabashedly queer role models. In spaces like this, kids are able to see people who defy rigid gender restrictions and imagine a world where people can present as they wish, where dress up is real.”

However well-meant, this is indoctrination into an ideology, not campy encouragement for reading and fun.

Sullivan included a link to our evidence supported section on the large increases of trans-identified youth ("sky-rocketed”):

In the last few years in Western societies, as these notions have spread, the number of children identifying as trans has skyrocketed. In Sweden, the number of kids diagnosed with gender dysphoria, a phenomenon stable and rare for decades, has, from 2013 to 2016, increased almost tenfold. In New Zealand, the rate of girls identifying as boys has quadrupled in the same period of time; in Britain, where one NHS clinic is dedicated to trans kids, there were around a hundred girls being treated in 2011; by 2017, there were 1,400.

It is not only LGB people critical of aspects of current trans activism. “I am a trans woman – but I think this woke world has gone too far” is written by an MtF trans person:

Trans people have lost the plot. Every day, an increasing amount of absurdity floods in as they do more harm than good. They scream for acceptance without realizing that the ones damaging their image aren't bigots, but themselves.

From anger directed at celebrities for the rational belief that parents shouldn't decide whether their three-year-old is trans, to a culture of outrage that freaks out at the most minor of offenses, transgender activists have become detrimental to my, and others', very existence.

Not helping matters is the fact that these people are laying bombs within our language in the hope they trigger, so they themselves can become triggered. Saying 'transgendered' instead of 'transgender' can see you labeled as transphobic, as can saying 'transwomen' instead of 'trans (notice the space) women.' This is a linguistic minefield with the sole intent of catching people off guard. And those who are caught in its blast are branded as bigots. 

Two articles have been released criticizing the recent pronoun announcements and the LGBT Townhall with Democratic candidates. The Townhall was complete with pronoun announcements, a trans-identified small child presented in front of the camera, and an accusation that misgendering is “violence:”

”Democratic Candidates Displaying Gender Pronouns On Their Twitter Accounts Are Making A Big Mistake”

“CNN LGBTQ town hall reveals the madness of identity politics”

Dr. Karen Blair, a psychologist and SOGI advisor in Canada, has released a video calling sexual orientation that is not inclusive of trans identities problematic and in need of social change. GHQ responded to this type of discourse by sending Dr. Blair a letter in June adhering to the reality that there are biologically driven sexual orientations and that people have the right to them without being painted as problematic and in need of social justice activism by the psychology profession.

From the video:

I, and this study’s researchers involved in this study, believe that this is an issue that needs to be discussed openly and honestly, not ignored. Because only then can we fix it.

This type of commentary is causing major conflicts within the LGBT population and is one of the reasons for the LGB split from Stonewall UK. We cover that issue here.

There are conflicts happening around race and identity at WPATH (who sets the standards for trans healthcare), where minorities took over the stage to call for more representation.

References:

Armus, T. (2019, October 24). A Texas man says his 7-year-old isn’t transgender. Now his custody fight has reached the governor’s office. Washington Post. https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2019/10/24/james-younger-luna-transgender-greg-abbott/

BBC. (2019). RSE KS2: Identity - Understanding sexual and gender identities. Retrieved from https://www.bbc.co.uk/teach/class-clips-video/rse-ks2-identity-understanding-sexual-and-gender-identities/zfqrhbk

Brunskell-Evans, H. The purge of trans-sceptical academics. Spiked. Retrieved from https://www.spiked-online.com/2019/06/26/the-purge-of-trans-sceptical-academics/?fbclid=IwAR3ixz9mTy2UeKeDmOYZ4RkKD2niM6c95lz3KHIyCzsaGl_l5ko5XtL8CUM#.XbDDKGf9i18.facebook

Cohen, B. (2019, July 22). Democratic Candidates Displaying Gender Pronouns On Their Twitter Accounts Are Making A Big Mistake. https://thebanter.substack.com/p/democratic-candidates-displaying

Cohan, D., Barnes, H. (2019, September 20) “Gender dysphoria in children: puberty blockers study draws further criticism”. The BMJ (366). doi.org/10.1136/bmj.l5647

Driscoll, M. (2019, September 19). Meet the academics hunted down and hounded out of jobs for having the 'wrong' thoughts. The Telegraph. Retrieved from https://www.telegraph.co.uk/women/life/meet-academics-hunted-hounded-jobs-having-wrong-thoughts/

Donym, S. (2019, October 16). The Great Erasure. Retrieved from https://medium.com/@sue.donym1984/the-great-erasure-203a124fa02c

Emmons, L. (2019, October 14). CNN LGBTQ town hall reveals the madness of identity politics. The Post Millenial. Retrieved from https://www.thepostmillennial.com/cnn-lgbtq-town-hall-reveals-the-madness-of-identity-politics/

Endocrine Society.. (2019, October). Endocrine Society Urges Policy Makers to Follow Science on Transgender Health. Endocrine News. Retrieved from https://endocrinenews.endocrine.org/endocrine-society-urges-policymakers-to-follow-science-on-transgender-health/

Gibbons, K. (2019, October 26). “Gay groups clash over ‘homophobic policies’.” The Times.[London]. Retrieved from https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/gay-groups-clash-over-homophobic-policies-t95958fmn?shareToken=c602067cb10e7c01e71fba89ac8bbdab

Hellen, N. (2019, October 27). Lesbian barrister: my bosses bowed to transgender ‘hate mob.’ The Times [London]. https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/lesbian-barrister-my-bosses-bowed-to-transgender-hate-mob-shm6x09v8?fbclid=IwAR1bP7iQHAj2hK7-xaV3v2AaTvOHy7wkkrT5ZcIxxWAqq7lc47ca7Lj6fKM

Hurst, G. (2019, October 12). Mother sues Tavistock child gender clinic over treatments. The Times.[London]. Retrieved from https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/mother-sues-tavistock-child-gender-clinic-over-treatments-r9df8m987

Intersectional Bullies Crash Trans Health Town Hall. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=69&v=zHlnQMY9KM0

Jenn Smith Calls for National Inquiry into mass gender transitioning of Vulnerable kids. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?app=desktop&feature=youtu.be&v=VxTtkI51xH4

Manins, R. (2019, October 30). Cobb legislator proposes new law to criminalize physical gender change of children. Marrietta Daily Journal. Retrieved from https://www.mdjonline.com/news/cobb-legislator-proposes-new-law-to-criminalize-physical-gender-change/article_01d7e572-fb4c-11e9-b280-5bf7ecee1ac6.html

O’Conner, M., Madden, B. (2019). In the Footsteps of Teiresias: Treatment for Gender Dysphoria in Children and the Role of the Courts. Journal of Law and Medicine 27 (1). Retrieved from http://sites.thomsonreuters.com.au/journals/2019/10/22/journal-of-law-and-medicine-update-vol-27-pt-1/

Narwitz, S. (2019, October 19). I am a trans woman – but I think this woke world has gone too far. RT. Retrieved from https://www.rt.com/op-ed/471025-trans-woman-woke-too-far/

Polumbo, B. Gay rights depend on our rejecting transgender radicalism and standing up for James Younger. Washington Examiner. Retrieved from https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/gay-rights-depend-on-our-rejecting-trans-radicalism-and-standing-up-for-james-younger

Polumbo, B. It’s Time for ‘LGB’ and ‘T’ to Go Their Separate Ways. Quillette. Retrieved from https://quillette.com/2019/10/26/its-time-for-lgb-and-t-to-go-their-separate-ways/

Radachowsky, C. (2019, October 13). ’Justice’ for trans athletes is unfair to girls like my daughter. New York Post. Retrieved from https://nypost.com/2019/10/13/justice-for-trans-athletes-is-unfair-to-girls-like-my-daughter/

Roberson J.D. (2019, September 10). Amid ‘Erosion in Acceptance’ L Word Loses the Plot & GLAAD Targets Youth. The Velvet Chronicle. Retrieved https://thevelvetchronicle.com/amid-erosion-in-acceptance-glaad-targets-youth-l-word-loses-the-plot/

Quan, D. (2019, September 4). Consent form for trans child's hormone therapy was insufficient, lawyer argues at appeal court. National Post. Retrieved from https://nationalpost.com/news/consent-form-for-trans-childs-hormone-therapy-was-insufficient-lawyer-argues-at-appeal-court

Smee, B. (2019, September 18). University of Queensland academics sign open letter after law dean's trans comments. The Guardian. Retrieved from https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2019/sep/18/university-of-queensland-academics-sign-open-letter-countering-law-deans-trans-comments?fbclid=IwAR3Rh2y75YlstvJ86xp0OjHzPajCgMghWaAIOBJjtiwUYrTlvk9iJg6EZZA

Stonewall UK . Retrieved from https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1190704005648965632.html

Sullivan, A. (2019, September 20). When the Ideologues Come for the Kids. New York Magazine. Retrieved from http://nymag.com/intelligencer/2019/09/andrew-sullivan-when-the-ideologues-come-for-the-kids.html?utm_medium=s1&utm_campaign=nym&utm_source=tw

Transgender rules for English schools face a backlash from women. (2019, )ctober 3). The Economist. Retrieved from https://amp-economist-com.cdn.ampproject.org/c/s/amp.economist.com/britain/2019/10/03/transgender-rules-for-english-schools-face-a-backlash-from-women

Terry, M. (2019, September 4). How the trans debate entered the classroom. Spectator Life. Retrieved from https://life.spectator.co.uk/articles/the-gender-agenda/

The Exclusion of Trans People from the World of Dating. Retrieved from https://www.patreon.com/posts/new-video-29553352

The Times view on the Tavistock clinic and hormone-blocking drugs for the young: Informed Consent. The Times [London]. Retrieved from https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/def68adc-ec4f-11e9-b931-c019e957f02a

Walsh, J. (2019, October 26). Parents battle ‘state‑sponsored sterilisation’ of trans children. The Times [London]. Retrieved from https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/parents-battle-state-sponsored-sterilisation-of-trans-children-mb55fxt60

WGXA. (2019, October 16). Georgia school district reverses decision on transgender bathroom policy. Retrieved from https://wgxa.tv/news/local/georgia-school-district-reverses-decision-on-transgender-bathroom-policy.

What the medical professionals won't tell you about Transitioning genders, but I will. (2019, October 15). Retrieved from https://thetransgendertruth.wixsite.com/mysite/post/what-the-physiologists-surgeons-and-physicians-don-t-tell-you-about-transitioning-genders

Williams, J. (2019, October 8). “The trans-activists' witch hunt against academics threatens the whole of society.” The Telegraph. Retrieved from https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2019/10/08/trans-activist-witch-hunt-against-academics-threatens-whole/?WT.mc_id=tmg_share_tw

Yavitch, E. (2019, October 24). Students hold ‘Shit In’ to demand more gender-neutral bathrooms. The College Fix. Retrieved from https://www.thecollegefix.com/students-hold-shit-in-to-demand-more-gender-neutral-bathrooms/

Tavistock's Hormone Blocker Study Cleared but They Admit Blockers are Given for Cosmetic Reasons, not to provide "Time for Exploration"

News

Due to criticisms of the study (also here) in the UK on hormone blockers given to gender dysphoric children to stop normal puberty, the Health Research Authority investigated the study. They claim it meets their ethical standards. The report can be found here. They describe the purpose of the original blockers study below:

The study 'Early pubertal suppression in a carefully selected group of adolescents with gender identity disorders' was developed in 2010 in response to broadening use of early pubertal suppression treatments across Europe, in the USA and in Australia. There were debates about the evidence of benefits and safety, and whether young adolescents could consent to treatments due to the potential for unknown risks or harms in the future. Some clinicians argued that the consequences of non-treatment were likely to be greater than those of treatment.

Michael Biggs, an Oxford sociologist who has been criticizing the study, comments below:

The Health Research Authority (HRA) has just published its investigation into the 2010 experiment with puberty blockers, or more precisely its role in giving ethical approval and oversight. The investigation was prompted by research published on Transgender Trend in March 2019, with an update in July (the full paper is here). The HRA report’s conclusions are predictably bland. Firstly, ‘the research team involved in the design and delivery of the study … worked in accordance with recognised practice for health research, and in some areas such as patient involvement and transparency were ahead of normal practice at the time’ (p. 11). Secondly, ‘The HRA has acted within its Standard Operating Procedures and its normal practice in relation to this study’ (p. 10).

He goes on to highlight that the main reason they are giving youth hormone blockers is so they pass better later and not to allow time for identity exploration. Identity exploration is often the reason affirmative model advocates give for putting youth on these powerful drugs that stop normal hormonal development by affecting the pituitary gland. Some of those quotes, as well as questionable claims hormone blockers are “fully reversible,” can be found here.

Dr. Biggs from “The astonishing admission in the Health Research Authority report: The purpose of puberty blockers is to commit children to permanent physical transition”:

On close reading, however, the report contains an astonishing admission. The paragraph deserves to be quoted in full:

“It would have reduced confusion if the purpose of the treatment had been described as being offered specifically to children demonstrating a strong and persistent gender identity dysphoria at an early stage in puberty, such that the suppression of puberty would allow subsequent cross-sex hormone treatment without the need to surgically reverse or otherwise mask the unwanted physical effects of puberty in the birth gender. The present study was not designed to investigate the implications on persistence or desistence of offering puberty suppression to a wider range of patients, it was limited to a group that had already demonstrated persistence and were actively requesting puberty blockers. (p. 5, my own emphasis added in bold)”

In fact the 2010 research protocol declared that one of its three aims was ‘[t]o evaluate persistence and desistence of the gender identity disorder and the continued wish for gender reassignment’ (Early pubertal suppression in a carefully selected group of adolescents with gender identity disorder, proposal submitted to Central London REC 2, November 2010, obtained under Freedom of Information from the HRA; italics added). History is being rewritten to alter the rationale for the experiment. It is not clear whether this revisionist history originates with the HRA, or whether the HRA is conveying the current views of the experiment’s chief investigator, Professor Russell Viner (Professor in Adolescent Health at University College London) or his co-investigator, Dr Polly Carmichael (Director of the Gender Identity Development Service, GIDS).

Whatever the source, this is a clear admission that puberty blockers were the first stage on the predestined path to cross-sex hormones. After four assessment interviews, a child of 12 would be consenting in effect to a lifetime of drug dependence and the loss of fertility and the probable loss of sexual functioning. Because the “treatment” was intended to enhance the child’s desire to change sex, it naturally exacerbated her or his gender dysphoria. ‘Worsening behavioural and emotional symptoms of dysphoria’, the HRA notes cheerily, ‘would therefore not in itself be unexpected’ (p. 6).

Micheal Biggs goes on to discuss what he believes to be other ethical problems with the study in the full article.

Two BBC reporters have covered this story in, “Questions remain over puberty-blockers, as review clears study”.

References:

Biggs, M. (2019, March 5). Tavistock’s Experimentation with Puberty Blockers: Scrutinizing the Evidence. Transgendertrend. Retrieved from https://www.transgendertrend.com/tavistock-experiment-puberty-blockers/

Biggs, M. (2019, July 22). Tavistock’s Experiment with Puberty Blockers: an Update. Transgendertrend. Retrieved from https://www.transgendertrend.com/tavistock-experiment-puberty-blockers-update/

Biggs, M. (2019, October 17). The astonishing admission in the Health Research Authority report: The purpose of puberty blockers is to commit children to permanent physical transition. Transgendertrend. Retrieved from https://www.transgendertrend.com/health-research-authority-puberty-blockers-commit-children-permanent-physical-transition/

Clay R. A. (2018). Embracing a gender-affirmative model for transgender youth. APA: CE Corner (49)8, 29. Retrieved from https://www.apa.org/monitor/2018/09/ce-corner

Cohen, D., Barnes, H. (2019, October 15). Questions remain over puberty-blockers, as review clears study. BBC. Retrieved from https://www.bbc.com/news/health-50046579

NHS Health Research Authority, (2019, October 14). Investigation into the study 'Early pubertal suppression in a carefully selected group of adolescents with gender identity disorders.' Retrieved from https://www.hra.nhs.uk/about-us/governance/feedback-raising-concerns/investigation-study-early-pubertal-suppression-carefully-selected-group-adolescents-gender-identity-disorders/

A Recent Spate of Articles about Doctors & Scientists Questioning Pediatric Medical Transition for Gender Dysphoria

News

While the majority of articles and discourse around socially and medically transitioning minors with gender dysphoria have featured positive stories, there have recently been more doctors, scientists, and academics publicly calling for proof of safety and claiming there are dangers involved.

Heather Brunskell-Evans (Philosopher/ Social Theorist) and Michele Moore (Professor, Social Justice & Global Responsibility) are the editors of a book with several contributors who believe trans identity is being actively promoted and over-diagnosed in minors. The book is called Inventing Transgender Children and Young People. Brunskell-Evans describes the threats of censorship and threats to their careers for holding these viewpoints:

Since the publication of the book Transgender Children and Young People: Born In Your Own Body there have been ferocious attempts to silence myself and my co-editor Michele Moore, including sustained attacks on our careers, livelihoods and reputations the likes of which we have never previously experienced in our long academic careers. The publication of our second book, Inventing Transgender Children and Young People, was temporarily interrupted following a threat of litigation by the NHS Tavistock and Portman Hospital Trust UK, home to the Gender Identity Development Services (GIDS). So, not only have we experienced constant attempts to silence our views on the transgendering of children, in the past few weeks we have undergone the nerve-racking fear that our second book might not even be published.

An interview with Brunskell-Evans can be found in “No child is born in the wrong body” with Michele Moore & Heather Brunskell-Evans.”

The Gender Identity Development Service (GIDS) in Britain hired lawyers in regards to the book:

“Britain's first children's gender identity clinic hired lawyers to 'silence' book publishers who warned the rocketing number of youngsters seeking to change sex is 'becoming a scandal’”

A law firm instructed by the Gender Identity Development Service (GIDS) wrote to the editors of 'Inventing Transgender Children and Young People', which warns that the rocketing number of youngsters now seeking to change sex is becoming a scandal.

Lawyers representing Tavistock and Portman NHS Trust, which runs the clinic, claimed many of those who had contributed to the book will have been employed by the gender service and may have broken NHS confidentiality rules.

They said the Tavistock feared the book may contain comments 'defamatory' of its staff.

There are health professionals from Tavistock (the clinic where youth with GD are treated in Britain by the GIDS) and the National Health Service also raising concerns:

“Transgender children who are medically treated risk 'serious and irreversible damage', leading psychiatrist warns”

Transgender children who undergo medical or surgical treatments risk “serious and irreversible damage”, a leading psychiatrist has warned, as he accuses lobby group of “silencing debate”.

Sue Evans is a former Tavistock therapist commenting on a mother’s lawsuit:

“Former Tavistock therapist claims doctors are over diagnosing transgender children”

Today we’re joined by former Tavistock therapist Sue Evans, who after becoming alarmed at the speed in which the clinic offered treatment to children, has now become a whistleblower in support of the mother’s legal action.

Marcus Evans, a former psychiatrist with Tavistock, criticizes what he feels is a lackadaisical attitude toward irreversible medical treatments offered to children/teens:

Normal medical practice is not taking place in my view. There’s not enough research. There’s not enough interest in the downside of what’s going on. There’s not enough scrutiny of the issue of consent. And I think we need an independent regulatory body that would oversee this controversial area.

This creative writing professor comments on transgender books in schools:

“Children being put at risk by transgender books that 'misrepresent' medical knowledge, academic claims”

Children are being put at risk by transgender books in primary schools that “misrepresent” medical knowledge on puberty blockers, an academic has claimed.

Books and lesson plans that are designed educate pupils about transgender issues “fail child safeguarding and conflict with the law”, according to Dr Susan Matthews, an honorary senior research fellow in creative writing at Roehampton University.

The below blog post contains commentary from a Swedish psychiatrist translated into English from this newspaper article:

“Psychiatrist: Gender dysphoria spreads like an epidemic online”

The number of cases of gender dysphoria has increased explosively in recent years, especially among young people. I am appalled at the drastic, irrevocable and unscientific treatment. This may be our country’s biggest healthcare scandal ever…

There needs to be an independent investigation into the probably biggest health scandal in our country’s history.

The public blogging platform Medium censored the original post by removing it altogether for an unspecified “violation.” Censorship around these issues is common.

The same author has written another other piece questioning the safety of pediatric medical transition:

“Läkartidningen: Off-label prescribing of hormones in gender dysphoria should be investigated”

In the United States, Dr. Laidlaw, an endocrinologist, discusses the serious health risks involved with the hormone blocker to cross-sex hormone protocol for minors:

Dr. Laidlaw on the real dangers of puberty and hormone blockers on young people

Another more cautiously minded US doctor:

Johns Hopkins professor on child transgender trend: ‘Many will regret this’

A psychiatrist from Johns Hopkins University has slammed the medical and psychiatric industries for what he says is reckless and irresponsible treatment of patients who claim to be transgender.

Julia Mason is a US pediatrician (and on the GHQ advisory board). Her comments are below:

“A physician is worried about gender transition in pediatrics”

I’ve learned that if I refer a patient to the gender clinic, they are going to get the maximalist treatment. They’re not going to get any help figuring out if they really need the full medical/surgical transition. I am now wary of referring to the gender clinic.

This letter from Australia, by the National Association of Practising Psychiatrists, was written in addition to one by several other doctors, scientists, and concerned individuals, calling for a government inquiry into the safety of pediatric medical transition.

The Hon Greg Hunt
Federal Minister for Health
Parliament House
Canberra

The National Association of Practising Psychiatrists respectfully request:

1. The commonwealth government set up a parliamentary enquiry into the treatment of gender dysphoria in children in Australia;

2. All medical colleges who have member doctors involved in treating gender dysphoria children (paediatricians, general practitioners, surgeons, endocrinologists, gynaecologists, psychiatrists), along with the AMA, the NAPP and other representative medical bodies, and the Medical Board of Australia form a joint committee to develop a set of practice guidelines for the assessment and treatment of children and adolescents under the age of 18 years presenting with gender dysphoria.

Psychologist Dr. Oren Amitay is a Canadian concerned about the affirmative model and the risks to young people who may need more mental hea;th exploration and time to mature. He has faced social punishment from other Canadian psychologists:

“Telling the truth on trans issues got me cancelled: one psychologist’s story“

These comments are in stark contrast to the opinions of affirmative model advocates, like Johanna Olson-Kennedy (head of USPATH), who believe in lowing age of consent for surgery and hormones.

References:

Amitay, O. (2019, September 20). Telling the truth on trans issues got me cancelled: one psychologist’s story. The Post Millennial. Retrieved from https://www.thepostmillennial.com/telling-the-truth-on-trans-issues-got-me-cancelled-one-psychologists-story/

Brunskell-Evans, H. Inventing Transgender Children and Young People. (2019, October 12). Retrieved from http://www.heather-brunskell-evans.co.uk/body-politics/inventing-transgender-children-and-young-people-2/Turner

Dr. Laidlaw on the real dangers of puberty and hormone blockers on young people. (2019, September 12). Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=04rbrvuV1z4&feature=youtu.be&fbclid=IwAR0dDYgL1p13SpKWBLe1R1RJAo6wCuBQhzgJW2M0VIshETuuqJW-AwK4r54

Kids Aren’t Alright. (2019, October 14). RT International. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vxL3uFGstmw

Lencki, M. (2019, September 17). Johns Hopkins professor on child transgender trend: ‘Many will regret this.’ The College Fix. Retrieved from https://www.thecollegefix.com/johns-hopkins-professor-on-child-transgender-trend-many-will-regret-this/

Manning, S. (2019, October 12). Britain's first children's gender identity clinic hired lawyers to 'silence' book publishers who warned the rocketing number of youngsters seeking to change sex is 'becoming a scandal.' Daily Mail. Retrieved from https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-7566851/Britains-childrens-gender-identity-clinic-hired-lawyers-silence-critics-new-book.html

Mason, J. (2019, October 7). A physician is worried about gender transition in pediatrics. Retrieved from https://www.kevinmd.com/blog/2019/10/a-physician-is-worried-about-gender-transition-in-pediatrics.html?fbclid=IwAR0J3bCERzR9hjAC1meocJJnEXUL5detxhyoNHPfpPs24ONyO3qAhYnOwjw

Lane, B. (2019, Septemeber 25). Doctors back inquiry on kids’ trans care. The Australian. Retrieved from https://www.theaustralian.com.au/nation/doctors-back-inquiry-on-kids-trans-care/news-story/6f352bc99da430b194620a2605e8a50d

NAAP. (2019, October 16). Gender Dysphoria – National Enquiry. Retrieved https://napp.org.au/2019/10/gender-dysphoria-national-enquiry/

Roman, S. (2019, September 13). DN Åsikt. ”Könsdysfori sprids som en epidemi på nätet”. Dagens Nyheter. Retrieved from https://www.ihmistenkirjo.net/blog/psychiatrist-gender-dysphoria-spreads-like-an-epidemic-online (English translation here)

Svens, K., Roman, S. (2019, October 10). Läkartidningen: Off-label prescribing of hormones in gender dysphoria should be investigated. KIRJO. Retrieved from https://www.ihmistenkirjo.net/blog/lkartidningen-off-label-prescribing-of-hormones-in-gender-dysphoria-should-be-investigated

Transgendertrend. (2019, April 17). Johanna Olson-Kennedy and the US Gender Affirmative Approach. Retrieved from https://www.transgendertrend.com/johanna-olson-kennedy-gender-affirmative-approach/

Transgendertrend. (2019, June 21). Transgender Trend Statement in Support of Michele Moore. Retrieved from https://www.transgendertrend.com/transgender-trend-statement-support-michele-moore/

Turner, C. (2019, September 4). Children being put at risk by transgender books that 'misrepresent' medical knowledge, academic claims. The Telegraph. Retrieved from https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2019/09/04/transgender-children-medically-treated-risk-serious-irreversible/

Turner, C. (2019, September 4). Transgender children who are medically treated risk 'serious and irreversible damage', leading psychiatrist warns. The Telegraph. Retrieved from https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2019/09/04/transgender-children-medically-treated-risk-serious-irreversible/

Womansplaceuk. (2019, October 14). “No child is born in the wrong body” with Michele Moore & Heather Brunskell-Evans. Retrieved from https://womansplaceuk.org/2019/10/14/no-child-is-born-in-the-wrong-body-with-michele-moore-heather-brunskell-evans/amp/

Two new studies on Gender Dysphoria in Minors

News

We are updating our site with two new studies about minors with gender dysphoria, one that shows a slight improvement in mental well-being in more recent cohorts, and one that calls into question the efficacy of social transition.

The researchers in the Netherlands, who started the hormone blocker to cross-sex hormone protocol, released a study called “Re-evaluation of the Dutch approach: are recently referred transgender youth different compared to earlier referrals?”

The Dutch clinic is seeing large increases in the number of females seeking transition. This is the case in all western countries.

Arnoldussen (2019)

They comment on this increasing number of females:

One suggested theory to explain this shift is that it is easier for birth-assigned females to be open about their transgender feelings, since they experience less stigma when they behave masculine than birth-assigned males who behave in a more feminine manner [16, 31, 32, 33].

Gender clinicians rarely consider the alternative, that masculine girls are bullied for being masculine and don’t value themselves as gender nonconforming girls. Several detransitioned lesbian/bi youth have said this was the case for them and there is evidence homophobic bullying of gender nonconforming youth (also never referenced in these studies) fuels trans identification.

Contrary to other studies with high rates of mental health issues, they note a slight improvement in their recent cohort:

In addition, although we hypothesized that is was possible that present referrals had more psychological problems, the opposite seems the case. Our analyses showed that psychological functioning of the referred adolescents improved somewhat over time. This could be explained by a subtle improvement in externalizing problems and better peer relations. It might be the case that it has become easier to openly identify as transgender in recent years, so that recent referrals do not have to stand up as fiercely for themselves as earlier referrals. In addition, they seem more accepted by peers.

The clinic expresses no concern about social contagion, as other scientists/doctors are, and attribute these increases to more youth coming out and feeling accepted. They also cite superficial similarities to earlier cohorts and recent cohorts, including a large increase in females, to possibly insinuate the groups are the same.

This may suggest that in the early years, only the tip of the iceberg of the actual number of transgender youth was presented to a transgender clinic and this iceberg has come to surface in recent years.

Wong (2019), "Childhood social gender transition and psychosocial well-being: A comparison to cisgender gender-variant children," is another recent study examining the mental health of youth who have been socially transitioned. The sample size is decent, 266 children. Unlike the Trans Youth Project studies often used to justify early social and medical transition, this study has a control group. And unlike Olson (2016), these socially transitioned young people may not have significantly improved mental health.

A quote from the results, emphasis ours:

Results: There was little evidence that psychosocial well-being varied in relation to gender transition status. Parents of CGV children were generally accepting of childhood gender variance, but only poor peer relations predicted lower psychological well-being among these children. Conclusion: Socially transitioned children appear to experience similar levels of psychosocial challenges as CGV children. While further research is needed to evaluate possible effects of childhood social gender transition on well-being, this study suggests experiences of psychosocial challenges among gender-variant children require monitoring irrespective of transition status, and relationships with peers may be especially important to consider.

They report peer relations is a key factor. Poor peer relations actually drives some children towards trans-identification as cited above. It’s worth exploring if more acceptance for gender-variant behavior reduces the need for medical transition to conform to heterosexual gender and sexuality norms.

References:

Arnoldussen, M., Steensma, T.D., Popma, A. et al. Re-evaluation of the Dutch approach: are recently referred transgender youth different compared to earlier referrals? European Child & Adolescent Psychiatry. 1-9 doi.org/10.1007/s00787-019-01394-6

Lane, Bernard. (2019, September 25). Trans care inquiry backed. The Australian. Retrieved from https://www.theaustralian.com.au/nation/doctors-back-inquiry-on-kids-trans-care/news-story/6f352bc99da430b194620a2605e8a50d

Olson, K. R., Durwood, L., DeMeules, M., & McLaughlin, K. A. (2016). Mental health of transgender children who are supported in their identities. Pediatrics, 137(3), e20153223. doi:10.1542/peds.2015-3223

Wong, W. I., van der Miesen, A., Tjonnie G., F., MacMullin, L., & VanderLaan, D. (2019). Childhood social gender transition and psychosocial well-being: A comparison to cisgender gender-variant children. Clinical Practice in Pediatric Psychology,7(3), 241-253. doi.org/10.1037/cpp0000295

Australian News Station Reports on Childhood Gender Dysphoria like a Liberal Tabloid Version of a Fox News Show

Opinion

by Justine Kreher

In tabloid-style, a national Australian news station (ABC) commented on the child/teen social and medical transition movement. More minors are being socially and medically transitioned to treat gender dysphoria in all western countries. The tone of the “media watch” segment is one of moral superiority. The content could be considered news-ish, rather than straight news. It is reminiscent of a Fox News O’Reilly Factor episode, only a left-wing version.

The show starts off quoting a native of the country who hates The Australian, a conservative paper. The Australian has recently published commentary from doctors and scientists who are alarmed by some aspects of pediatric medical transition. This is done to set the stage in everyone’s mind that everything the paper printed about safety and ethical issues should be discounted.

They proceeded to quote Benjamin Law, a gay man, and writer, who is part of ABC staff. Benjamin Law is dismissive of any points that raise red flags about pediatric transition. These include the possibility that early transition may prevent desistance, side-effects of hormone blockers, and large increases of female teenagers coming out as trans. He has been on social media calling for boycotts of The Australian and painting anyone with concerns as “transphobes.”

Benjamin Law, Australian LGBT rights activist

I have sent him numerous examples of liberal-minded, pro-LGBT health professionals, raising all of the same concerns raised by The Australian. I pointed out that false positives resulting from transitioning children, teens, and young adults will fall disproportionately on gay, lesbian, and bisexual youth, as GD happens in those populations, but transition may not be the best option. Despite presenting him with cited quotes from gender dysphoria professionals and research data showing an association with childhood GD and adult homosexuality, he had no interest in addressing these points. Instead, he prompted me to read his document that brushes aside any desire to consider negative outcomes as “moral panic.” One has to pay for it to read it.

The comments he refers to by saying “not sure your comments really cut it” were from the most experienced gender clinicians in the world who support transiting youth. They just acknowledge there are risks to grey-area young people, as gender dysphoria exists more as a spectrum than an either-or situation. There is no attempt to engage honestly with this topic with people of a certain mindset. There is plenty of evidence that there are grey area, dysphoric youth who may resolve GD with less drastic measures. Diane Ehrensaft, the most enthusiastic promoter of early social and medical transition, admits there are “fruit salad” children.

Benjamin Law does not know the effects of the push to socially transition small children on them.

Benjamin Law does not know the effects of giving children hormone blockers at the crack of puberty on them.

No one knows these answers, not Law, not pediatric transition enthusiasts like Johanna Olson-Kennedy, Dianne Ehrensaft, or Norman Spack. And not the Gender Health Query organization. One would have to have studies with control groups.

Benjamin Law doesn’t address the ethics of sterilizing and destroying the sexual function of minors while many trans adults make the choice to have children or don’t get bottom surgery. Benjamin Law does not engage with information sent to him about young, detransitioned people, physically altered with regrets. ABC in Australia has no interest in any of this either even though accessing this information is very easy.

These individuals are interested in exclusively protecting one group of youth, youth who are certain to identify as trans as children and adults. People with professional backgrounds, parents with desisted children, or detransitioners who say other vulnerable youth (LGB, autism spectrum, youth with trauma) may be hurt are irrelevant. And if anyone is concerned about those youth they will paint them as an evil cartoon villain tying children to railroad tracks. The irony is a gay man is doing this. Instead of promoting this baseless outrage towards safety skeptics Law and others who engage in this behavior should just promote what their argument really is:

• Trans youth are at risk for suicide ideation and mental health problems so we support the full affirmation of trans youth who will have stable identities.

• Whatever damage that may result from this is morally acceptable.

• We will attack you if you attempt to discuss that potential damage or damage that has already happened.

That is the honest argument and that is exactly what has been happening elsewhere.

Someone is going to have to be around to care about collateral damage. This collateral damage will likely be ignored by WPATH. Youth who have been harmed by this will be treated horribly by the contemporary “queer” community, as they will be viewed as the enemy of trans people. That is already happening.

The news presenter went on quoting a doctor (“They are castrating children”) in a mocking tone because the news station believes this man should be viewed by all as ridiculous:

While surgery doesn’t happen until age 18 in Australia, gender clinics are castrating children. Hormone blockers are a form of chemical castration. They are given to sex offenders to eliminate their sexuality. The blockers stop the normal adolescent process of puberty. There is information that these drugs have dangerous side effects. If a male youth goes on hormone blockers, and then onto cross-sex hormones, the cognitively immature minor may have permanently ruined their sexual function. Both sexes will be sterilized if they do this. Many trans adults say they want biological children. No one knows the cognitive effects of blockers that may influence gender identity by shutting down a youth’s physical maturation and burgeoning sexual identity. None of this is of any interest to ABC.

Another comment from Benjamin Law:

It is dishonest to paint people worried about pediatric transition as “fringe extremists.” They include some of the most experienced gender experts. Dr. Wren, Dr. Charmicheal, Dr. Steensma, Dr. Zucker, Dr. Susan Bradley and others have all stated there is a possibility that early social and medical transitions may lead to inappropriate transition of cognitively immature minors.

But the Australian’s coverage is shamelessly one-eyed.

The newscaster went on an ad hominem attack against John Whitehall while failing to discount Whitehall’s statements. And then goes on to promote WPATH’s statements. This is a trans advocacy organization and not an unbiased source.

Then there was the one-sided appeal to emotion argument in a parent’s response. It’s not that parents’ responses are invalid. They are valid. It’s choosing a statement that says questioning the safety of drastic body modifications is “demonizing trans children” that is the problem. It is an appeal to emotion argument, hyperbole, an ad hominem attack on people raising legitimate concerns, and a red herring that does nothing to prove that giving 11 year olds hormone blockers is safe. It may not be. There are also increasing numbers of parents who could make statements that their children have been harmed by the culture’s current focus on gender and medical transition.

This is the current and likely future reality:

• A culture that is very supportive of extreme medical body modification on cognitively immature youth will dominate due to fears of suicide risk. This risk is often exaggerated but is real, and transition may help these youths.

• The fact that these treatments are profitable to those offering them is also likely a factor in why they are promoted.

• A desire to protect trans youth will create a situation where any youth who may be harmed or already have been will be treated as inconvenient collateral damage that should essentially shut up and be pushed under the rug.

• Any individuals who do express concerns for youth who may be harmed or already have been will be painted as cartoon villains by large swaths of society (mostly on the left).

• The collateral damage will fall disproportionately on LGB youth, autism spectrum youth, and youth with trauma and other mental health problems. This collateral damage will be considered worth trans-positive health care.
  

Stating The Australian biased skepticism and not the positive data in its reporting is a fair criticism. The Australian has not been centering affirmative model arguments in their recent stories but have been focusing on some concerns, rare in current western media. But this almost clownish ABC segment pretended there is nothing to worry about here rather than present the honest viewpoint that they believe the youth who may be hurt aren’t worth worrying about enough to due even the most rudimentary level of research and reporting.

Academic Psychiatrist Fired for Expressing Skepticism About Safety of Pediatric Transition

News Commentary

GHQ covers the highly politicized subject matter of the child/teen medical transition movement. It shows a pattern of activist censorship, silencing, and even threats of violence towards anyone who expresses any opinion outside of the affirmation only model. Psychiatrist Dr. Allan Josephson, who taught at the University of Louisville School of Medicine, was fired from his position there for appearing at a Heritage Foundation event questioning pediatric transition. The Heritage Foundation is known for opposing all LGBT activism, including opposition to same-sex marriage.

His story appeared in the Daily Signal:

Academia today “is not for the faint-hearted,” says a veteran professor who was head of child and adolescent psychiatry at the University of Louisville School of Medicine until he was demoted and then let go for making public comments on gender identity.

“You know, I really was an academic physician, not a politician. I wasn’t there with an agenda or an activist position,” Dr. Allan Josephson, who also was a professor of psychiatry, told The Daily Signal in a recent phone interview.

Some details on his firing:

After hearing about his remarks, four or five fellow University of Louisville faculty members who worked with Josephson asked the university to discipline or punish him. 

Seven weeks after his appearance at Heritage, university officials demoted Josephson from division chief to faculty member in the division he had headed for nearly 15 years.

Ultimately, the public university in Kentucky let him go as of June 30, after announcing in February that it would not renew his contract.

He is also bringing a lawsuit against the university.

The new norm in academia in the United States will be that health professionals that question the affirmative model will be socially ostracized and punished career-wise. Another example of university staff shutting down access to research or commentary that doesn’t support immediate validation and transition happened when Brown University removed a link to a study, Littman (2018), trans activists didn’t like. The study supports the idea social contagion may be a factor in a minor’s trans-identification.

While these discussions are relevant, and liberal platforms refuse to allow them, many LGBT supportive people will be hostile to a message of skepticism about safety if it is done at an appearance at the Heritage Foundation.

References:

del Guidice, Rachel. (2019, August 19). Academia Today ‘Not for Faint-Hearted,’ Says Professor Who Lost His Job for Talking About Gender. The Daily Signal. Retrieved from https://www.dailysignal.com/2019/08/27/academia-today-not-for-faint-hearted-says-professor-who-lost-his-job-for-talking-about-gender/

Heritage Foundation. (2019, April 4). What Doctors Aren't Telling The Parents of Gender Dysphoric Children [Video file]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VovGbtShGvk

Littman, L. (2018). Rapid-onset gender dysphoria in adolescents and young adults: A study of parental reports. PLOS ONE, 13(8). doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0202330

We do not have open comments on the Gender Health Query website. But that doesn’t mean we aren’t interested in what you have to say. If you have a comment, blog post idea, or any other feedback, we would be interested if the information can be supported by science research, an informed opinion, real-world observations, or personal experiences. Please contact us.

A Review Study Shows Higher Rates of Child Abuse Among Gender Nonconforming Children

News

A study that reviewed other studies regarding trans and gender nonconforming individuals reveals a pattern that they have higher rates of being child abuse victims. The abuse is also associated with other negative mental health outcomes in adulthood.

RESULTS

All studies were cross sectional, exploratory/descriptive. Rates of child abuse were high, with up to 100% of transgender males reporting childhood sexual abuse in one study. In four studies that measured childhood gender nonconformity (CGNC), children who exhibited CGNC were more likely to be abused. In the eight studies that investigated the association of childhood abuse among transgender and gender nonconforming people, it was associated with negative adult outcomes, such as sex without a condom, self‐harm, past year drug use, post‐traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms, and suicide attempts.

References:

Tobin, V., Demaney, K.R. (2019.) Child abuse victimization among transgender and gender nonconforming people: A systematic review. Perspectives in Psychiatric Care. DOI: 10.1111/ppc.12398

We do not have open comments on the Gender Health Query website. But that doesn’t mean we aren’t interested in what you have to say. If you have a comment, blog post idea, or any other feedback, we would be interested if the information can be supported by science research, an informed opinion, real-world observations, or personal experiences. Please contact us.

Mental Health Problems are Significantly Higher in Trans People in a Study of College Students

News

A new study called “Gender Minority Mental Health in the U.S.: Results of a National Survey on College Campuses” reviews data that shows much higher rates of mental health problems in college students with gender dysphoria.

Here is the overall comparison:

Graph circulated by a researcher on SM regarding Lipson (2019)

This chart is broken down by sex and shows FtMs have the most mental health issues of all categories:

Graph circulated by a researcher on SM regarding Lipson (2019)

The story is covered on a Boston University website which described the study this way:

The largest and most comprehensive mental health survey of college students in the US reveals that students who identify as transgender, gender nonconforming, genderqueer, and nonbinary face enormous mental health disparities relative to their peers. In a first-of-its-kind study published on Friday, August 16, in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine, Boston University researchers and collaborators found that gender minority students, whose gender identity differs from the sex assigned them at birth, are between two and four times more likely to experience mental health problems than the rest of their peers.

2.10% of the survey was categorized as “gender minority,” a very high percent of the population based on any research that occurred until recently. But this sample includes “genderqueer” individuals who may not be transitioning medically.

In a trend found elsewhere, more biological females identified as trans/non-binary. They weighted this data so some of the numbers they arrived at appear to be affected by that. From the study itself:

The sample included 65,213 students at 71 colleges and universities across the U.S. Overall, 98% identified as cisgender (n=63,994) and 2% as GM (n=1,237); 1.3% identified as trans masculine and 0.8% as trans feminine. The sample was roughly two-thirds white, and most were undergraduate students. Additional characteristics are presented in Table 1.

More females appear to be attracted to non-binary identities. To understand where this falls in terms of biological sex it is important to note more females attend college than males. In this survey the ratio of females and males who are not trans is 43,388: 20,606 or 43:20, about 2:1. A larger percent of the females were genderqueer-identified.

F=female:

Genderqueer FAB (n=460)
Genderqueer MAB (n=138)

References:

Colarossi, J. (2019, August 16). Transgender College Students Are Up to Four Times as Likely to Experience Mental Health Problems. The Brink. Retrieved from https://www.bu.edu/articles/2019/transgender-college-students-mental-health-problems/

Lipson, S.K, Raifman, J., Abelson, S., Reisner, S.L. Gender Minority Mental Health in the U.S.: Results of a National Survey on College Campuses. American Journal of Preventative Medicine 53(3), 293–301. doi.org/10.1016/j.amepre.2019.04.025

Educator Notices a Pattern Around Trans-Identitifed Youth & Pronouns

News

Lawrence M. Ludlow has written an article about what he believes is an implosion of academic standards and destructive take over of schools by far-left identity politics. The article describing his return to a teaching position in a Suburban school in the American Thinker is called "Worse Than Ever: Government Schools After 35 Years."

The relevant section here is his quote about gender dysphoria:

Gender dysphoria is the new frontier in virtue-signaling, but we know that young people experiment with new identities – adopting and discarding career choices, hobbies, and friends as they “try them on for size.” But the gender dysphoria fad requires adherence to a stereotyped view – namely that certain behaviors are appropriate only for boys and others for girls. Some children, however, have a powerful need for attention and jump on the latest bandwagon to obtain it. Others want to please “important” adults. Shortly after I was hired, a counselor asked me to address one student with plural pronouns to acknowledge her/his gender dysphoria. This request would not have been an issue for me if the student were an adult. I treat people respectfully as a matter of habit. But this student was too young to make this choice. He/she may have been responding to the issue’s trendiness and had demonstrated more than once an interest in fringe politics and behaviors – typical teenage stuff. I believed he/she was attempting to manipulate adults into playing along – another teenage pastime. Moreover, he/she was bright but did not do her homework or study; he/she didn’t even know what a pronoun was! Since Latin is a highly inflected language, this request would derail the learning process. Finally, it was completely unnecessary since I always called on students by name. No pronouns were needed. My explanation did not please the counselor, but I continued to treat the student respectfully.

This is not the first teacher to say they believe there is a faddish element to trans identification and that the demands for pronoun usage are part of a power dynamic. Some also report there is an environment of fear and hostility around pronoun usage on college campuses.

Some of the examples of this can be found on our website in a section Trans identification wielded to seek special attention/power at school & elsewhere.

REFERENCES:

Ludlow, L. (2019, August 15). Worse Than Ever: Government Schools After 35 Years. American Thinker. Retrieved from https://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2019/08/worse_than_ever_government_schools_after_35_years_.html