WPATH Members Provide Uncontested Validation of GHQ Mission

News Commentary

Going back as far as 2014 and earlier, parents, desisters, detransitioners, LGB people, health professionals, autism experts, and some trans people have been ringing alarm bells about the safety of pediatric medical transition for gender dysphoric minors under "the affirmative model." This model may involve social transition at age three, puberty blockers at age ten, and surgery and cross-sex hormones as young as thirteen. WPATH is a very pro-medical transition organization that promotes "Standard of Care" but is strongly influenced by activists highly motivated to transition children medically. Despite this, three of its members have been speaking out about the dangers that are surrounding "the affirmative model." They are Marci Bowers, an MtF surgeon who specializes in vaginoplasty, and Erica Anderson and Laura Edwards-Leeper, who are mental health professionals. Their concerns are regarding reckless mental health practices that rapidly transition youth with little assessment, the considerable increase in female young people wanting medical transition, and the reality placing male tweens on puberty blockers (and then cross-sex hormones) ruins their sexual function for the rest of their lives and requires dangerous and experimental bottom surgeries due to stunted genital growth.

These are the very concerns our organization has raised since 2019, and our board members have raised since 2015. Because affirmative model advocates such as Johanna Olson-Kennedy, Diane Ehrensaft, Michelle Forcier, Jack Turban, and Kristina Olson have so misled the public to believe in the health and safety of this protocol, any person who raised the concerns these WPATH members are now has been painted as a "bigot," a "concern troll," and a "transphobe,” often accompanying verbal abuse and threats to one’s career.

We are glad the WPATH members are speaking out now. We'd like to believe this is in good faith and not solely motivated by fears of lawsuits. The fact that they have done this creates a new reality that there will be no more plausible deniability this can harm in the future. This protocol should have received more scrutiny years ago:

Top Trans Doctors Blow the Whistle on ‘Sloppy’ Care

What Do We Mean By “Gender Affirming Care?” A Conversation with Dr. Laura Edwards-Leeper

Recent Article Criticizes the Quality of Jack Turban's Analysis

News

Several health professionals have criticized the work of affirmative model advocate Jack Turban, from the Stanford University School of Medicine, regarding his studies and analysis of childhood and adolescent gender dysphoria issues.

This post references a paper by Turban, Beckwith, Reisner, and Keuroghlian and is found below:

“Association Between Recalled Exposure to Gender Identity Conversion Efforts and Psychological Distress and Suicide Attempts Among Transgender Adults”

Archives of Sexual Behavior published an LTE in response to this study:

“One Size Does Not Fit All: In Support of Psychotherapy for Gender Dysphoria.”

They wrote a piece in Quillette for the general public:

“Jack Turban’s Dangerous Campaign to Smear Ethical Psychotherapy as Anti-Trans ‘Conversion Therapy’”

From the article:

We agree with Turban’s position that therapies using coercive tactics to force a change in gender identity have no place in healthcare. However, we take issue with the authors’ problematic analysis and flawed conclusions, which they use to justify the misguided notion that any practice that deviates from reflexively “affirmative” psychotherapy for gender dysphoria (GD) is harmful and should be banned. Their analysis is compromised by serious methodological flaws, including the use of a biased data sample, reliance on poorly constructed survey questions, and the omission of any control variable that tracks subjects’ baseline mental-health status.

References:

D’Angelo, R, Syrulnik, E., Ayad, S, Marchiano, L, Kenny, DT, & Clarke, P. (2020, November 1). Jack Turban’s Dangerous Campaign to Smear Ethical Psychotherapy as Anti-Trans ‘Conversion Therapy.’ Quillette. Retrieved from https://quillette.com/2020/11/01/jack-turbans-dangerous-campaign-to-smear-ethical-psychotherapy-as-anti-trans-conversion-therapy/

D’Angelo, R, Syrulnik, E., Ayad, S, Marchiano, L, Kenny, DT, & Clarke, P. (2020, October 21). One Size Does Not Fit All: In Support of Psychotherapy for Gender Dysphoria. Archives of Sexual Behavior. Retrieved from https://doi.org/10.1007/s10508-020-01844-2

Turban, J.L., Beckwith, N., Reisner, S.L., Keuroghlian, A.S. (2019). Association Between Recalled Exposure to Gender Identity Conversion Efforts and Psychological Distress and Suicide Attempts Among Transgender Adults. Journal of the American Medical Association 77(1), 1-9. Retrieved from DOI: 10.1001/jamapsychiatry.2019.2285

Comment from a Person with Gender Dysphoria Opposing Pediatric Medical Transition

Editorial

A person with gender dysphoria sent in this comment to Gender Health Query. Allana’s comments are posted here with permission:

I am a 63-year-old MTF trans-woman who has not transitioned. I have been in the struggle for decades, my folks had inclinations when I was 5-7 years old but it wasn't until I was 14 in the middle of adolescence did things shift into high gear. My father was a prominent member of the community, an MD, and one would have thought he would understand. He didn't, and he didn't want to know so he disowned me to scare me into stopping this obsession with thinking I was a girl. At the age of 17 when my mother and father split up and she moved away, he agreed to send me to counseling which only lasted a few weeks. The therapist knew absolutely nothing and I realized I would have to go deep into the closet, so I did telling my father that I had been cured. 48 years later and I still struggle but at least I know that it wasn't a passing fancy. I am alarmed at the worldwide uptick in young people coming out, jumping into HRT, and having surgery. Sure I want what is best for our young people, I don't wish this on anyone, the decades of depression, guilt, shame, and pain of not fitting into the "gender" society says I should be. But, it would be a greater loss for even 1 person to wake up at 25 years old, out of the protected environments of schooling and into the workforce saying OMG, what have I done? I can't go back and I can't undo? Nobody wants that or regrets and nobody wants all the negatives I had to endure as a young person. I can honestly say, however, looking back as painful as it was at times, it was the necessary part of growing, being a human, and developing into an adult.

How can someone at age 10-15 going through puberty and all the other changes that non-questioning teens go through, possibly know that what they are doing with hrt and surgeries can be the correct move? Just because some adult says it will remove their pain and heartache, really? What happens down the road when they have to face other life situations that are as tough if not tougher, do they just follow the crowd, jumping to the latest advice on social media? They must ride out the storm at this critical phase of their life so that when they are out of the teenage years, entering the "real" world of work and making their place in society, they will know in their heart of hearts if they are truly trans. Being truly trans is not a fad, it is not a choice, it does not waver and it will be with you as you age so don't be in such a hurry, give your BRAIN a chance to figure this out. If you are truly trans, there will be plenty of time to make physical corrections to your body but then when you do, you will know with almost 100% certainty that it is the best way for you to proceed. It will be an easy decision, it will be based on Your life, your feeling, and situations, it will be your well-informed choice.

Sure, I wish I had been born a female and never had to go through all of this. I experienced tremendous pain, heartache, and illness but through it all, I matured, grew up and became my own person. I have had plenty of opportunities to transition over the years but it was my conscious choice not to for the sake of family, career, and personal goals. I did the best I could with the knowledge and support that we had in those days and yet I didn't go off the deep end, I dealt with one of life’s many storms that we all go through. Society is a lot better equipped and informed than when I was a youngster and the medical professionals know a heck of a lot more but it is always evolving as we continue to learn. So let's embrace that knowledge and use it for the benefit of the whole person, not just some quick fix so the stats look better on a graph that promotes our own agenda...let kids be kids, be there for them, love them and support them. I am not saying abandon them but allow them the dignity to grow at their speed and mature into the human that they were intended to be. Yes, I have many struggles in my life, being trans is just one part. It's on my mind most days and I am still working through it but I have not just survived but led a wonderful, fulfilling life. I am a functioning member of society, a contributor to the lives of many and oh yes, I am still Transgender. Please, let's not rush to judgment at such an early age, help a youngster to find their way but do so with mother nature’s help. The real truth will set you free.

Case of Teen Girl Desisting from Gender Dysphoria Highlights Conflicts and Dangers Around Pediatric Medical Transition

A parent sent an email to Gender Health Query about a teenage girl who met DSM diagnostic criteria for gender dysphoria. One parent and the mental health and medical professionals were all enthusiastic to medically alter this girl's body, who eventually outgrew her feelings. The story highlights conflicts that are arising between parents around their child's trans declaration, the involvement of the courts, and how early medical treatment endangers grey area children/teens/young adults.

Slightly edited (for anonymity) and posted with permission:

Subject: My daughters desistance

Message: Briefly, I would like to share that my daughter, who has recently desisted, had identified as transgender (FTM) for over 2 years, from age 13-15. During this entire period, she regularly pressured me and my ex that she needed medicalization with hormones. I very carefully resisted the pressure while showing support. My ex, however, was very supportive and showed eager willingness to allow her to medicalize. My ex also used my resistance to medicalization to try to show family court I was not supportive of my daughter's coming out as TG. My ex exploited this (along with some parent/child conflict) in an attempt to limit my parental rights and parenting time. This was a source of great conflict, for us as co-parents. Throughout her court challenge, a few mental health professionals were brought to the case to give opinions. We also hired an LGBTQ "specialist" for therapy for my daughter. All the mental health pro's recommended the affirmation approach and encouraged seeking out consultation for puberty blocking or hormone therapy. At one point, in the presence of my child, I asked the LGBTQ specialist if she, and my daughter, had discussed testosterone therapy and its side effects. She replied that, yes, they had. I asked, "Have you had the conversation about how 'T' has irreversible side-effects." The "specialist" flatly denied that this was true, to me, in front of my child. She stated that the effects of T are reversible. I know that this is not true, as I had done diligent research on TG medicalization. I was appalled that a therapist claiming to be a transgender specialist would be so uninformed. She was also unaware of what WPATH was.

Recently, My daughter has desisted and is back to identifying as her natal gender. The cessation of the two years of identification happened almost as fast as her coming out as TG two years prior. It terrifies me to think that, had I lost parenting rights/decision making during my ex's court challenge, my daughter may have been allowed to medicalize her transition. It terrifies me that there is a mental health community (who may have very little understanding/training/information) that is encouraging medicalization of children.

Through the process of transition, I reluctantly consented to a consultation at the Children's Hospital Transgender Clinic here in ****. I consented under pressure from my ex with her court case. I felt I had to show that I was supportive of my child's TG identification. Fortunately, there was a 6+ month waitlist for a consultation. I fear if we had gone to our consultation, the TG Clinic might have recommended hormone therapy. This would give my ex more professional backing (along with other mental health professionals opinions) to either pressure me to consent to medicalization or, worse, the court to limit my parental decision-making rights. Luckily my daughter desisted before her name came up on the waitlist.

When I called the Transgender clinic to remove my daughter's name from the waitlist, I asked the staff member if the TG Clinic kept data and statistics of children who were in the program, or on the waitlist, who had dropped out due to desistance. She said she was not aware of any data collection of that type. There seems to be so much disinformation on desistance rates for TG kids. I feel desistance rates are under-reported. I feel, during this era where child referrals to TG clinics have skyrocketed (particularly for teen FTM's), there needs to be reliable data collection on desistance rates to be used for additional research. Also, this data would be most useful in making clinical decisions on whether or not to medicalize certain age groups, like teenagers. I have no idea how trans gender clinics are accredited, but perhaps keeping accurate data on program desistance rates should be a condition of accreditation.

I'm appreciative of this web site and organization. I'm thankful to share. I'm curious to hear others' thoughts on desistance rates data collection.

Sincerely,

****

Opposing Opinions Around Pediatric Medical Transition And Gender Ideology

News

This post will contain several examples of varying opinions about pediatric medical transition and gender activism.

Trans Opposition to Pediatric Medical Transition and Gender Activism

Not all trans people believe in pediatric medical transition as the medical side effects can be intense, and surgeries and hormones have risks. Scott Newgent, an FtM trans person, has circulated a petition, “Adult Transgender & Non-Transgender People Against Medically Transitioning Children opposing medical treatment on minors.”

Scott has suffered serious damage due to phalloplasty surgery, a dangerous operation with high rates of complications:

Well, we are the marginalized group, along with the support of Non-Transgender adults, and we are telling you that medically transitioning children is wrong. In remaining quiet, we have cut a safe corner out for ourselves to live peacefully, but with the massive influx of children transitioning, we can in good conscience, stay silent no longer. Together, arm in arm, we come together from the LGBT community, the straight community, the conservative community, the liberal community, the Christian community, the Jewish community, and many more to save Transgender identifying children.

A trans person in Canada is calling for an Inquiry into the rising numbers of children being treated for gender dysphoria, many of whom are in the foster care system.

We are adding an older article that highlights the reality that there are disagreements, even among trans people, as to how gender non-conforming people should exist in society. The article, “Pakistan's traditional third gender isn't happy with the trans movement,” is about the conflict between tradition “third gender” culture and modern trans activism:

For centuries, South Asia has had its own Khawaja Sira or third gender culture. The community, identifying as neither male nor female, are believed by many to be "God’s chosen people," with special powers to bless and curse anyone they choose.

The acceptance of Khawaja Sira people in Pakistan has been held up internationally as a symbol of tolerance, established long before Europe and America had even the slightest semblance of a transgender rights movement.

But the acceptance of people defining their own gender in Pakistan is much more complicated. The term transgender refers to someone whose gender identify differs from their birth sex. This notion is yet to take root in Pakistan and the transgender rights movement is only beginning to assert itself formally. Now, some third gender people in Pakistan say the modern transgender identity is threatening their ancient third gender culture.

A “third gender” traditionalist comments on an MtF who uses female pronouns and is currently a supermodel:

Bindiya Rana is the grand matriarch of the third gender community in Karachi. She doesn’t prescribe to the transgender identity. She is a Khawaja Sira, so revered that she is a guru (teacher) to more than 50 chelahs or apprentices. 

This relationship has a parental element and is a cornerstone of Khawaja Sira culture. Each chelah pledges allegiance to their guru, as they did to their guru before them. These family trees provide acceptance, social support and financial backing. Most chelahs give a percentage of their income to their gurus. It’s a lifetime commitment that allows the establishment of families that often replaces biological lineage. 

But those who identify as transgender, like Choudary, don’t subscribe to the guru-chelah system. As a result, Rana and her chelahs view the transgender identity as alien and even immoral.  

“If you don’t have a guru, we don’t recognize you. These people who say they are transgender; that concept is just wrong," says one of Rana's chelahs. "They can never be women. They cannot give birth. Even if they change their bodies they can’t change who they are. We are not women. We are what Allah has made.”

The Pakistani example highlights that there is more acceptance of trans than the concept of homosexuality in the Muslim world where homosexuality is punishable by death.

Trans Identity as a form of Self-Harm

GHQ is adding an older article from the New Statesmen, which discusses how female body hatred around gender dysphoria is being normalized despite the fact that doing things like breast binding is physically damaging:

And yet, look again at that list of side effects: breathing difficulties, skeletal problems, fainting, inability to participate fully in exercise. The female adolescents wearing binders have reproduced all the problems of tight-lacing corsets, this time in the service of restrictive anti-femininity rather than restrictive femininity. So is issuing guidance to reduce the harms of binder-wearing in schools an act of care for transgender children, or an abdication of it? Is the role of adults in authority – whether parental, educational or medical – to validate everything that comes under the rubric of transition, regardless of long-term consequences, or could another approach be better?

LGB Conflicts with Gender Politics

Andrew Sullivan made a brief reference to gender identity politics in a discussion about the sweep by the conservative Tories in Britan in a recent election. We cover some similar opposing viewpoints that are a reaction to some of the cultural influences of postmodern queer theory.

It is clearer and clearer to me that the wholesale adoption of critical race, gender, and queer theory on the left makes normal people wonder what on earth they’re talking about and which dictionary they are using. 

A paper called Disaffirming Gender: Somatic Incongruence as a Co-function of Ideological Congruity covers the conflicting interests that can exist between concepts of sexual orientation and gender identity:

The activist conjunction of sexual orientation and gender identity is questioned by demonstrating how the concerns of the transgender movement run contrary to an agenda of liberation from gender ideology. The confused vocabulary of trans discourse articulated in the language of somatic incongruence (so-called gender dysphoria) is exposed, using an analysis of the concept of somatic incongruence and the various interventions through which bodies are apparently restored to ideological congruence constructed upon, inter alia, gender, race, and age. The paper rejects transgender medical treatment and surgery as nothing but the most brutal affirmation of gender stereotypes and, in conclusion, calls for a radical and total disaffirming of gender, analogous to the termination of racial classification and segregation. 

Below are several articles about the formation of the LGB Alliance in the UK. The organization was formed to advocate for LGB interests away from the demands of trans activism, which include transitioning young children and MtFs taking positions on girls’ sports teams.

This article covers the views of a former member of Stonewall UK who supports the breakaway LGB organization:

Fanshawe believes that the Stonewall of today is undermining the rights of lesbians and putting women and girls at risk by “unthinkingly” merging the rights of lesbians and gays with those of trans people through its ‘acceptance without exception’ dogma as it lobbies for transgender people to be able to legally self-identify as the gender they feel they are without having to provide evidence that they have lived in that gender for two years or by having gender dysphoria diagnosed.

LGBAlliance is going so far as to challenge Stonewall UK backed initiatives:

The LGB Alliance is of the view that Stonewall’s advice misrepresents the Equality Act, which recognizes sex as a protected characteristic. By replacing biological sex with gender identity, the LGB Alliance argues, Stonewall contravene legislation designed to uphold women’s rights. They describe this position as ‘Stonewall Law’ and fully intend to fight it.

There are always accusations of bigotry in LGBT discourse when other groups wish to advocate without adding trans interests. This is from Quillette.

Are gay people allowed to meet and organise in defense of their interests? A hard yes, you might have thought. But some apparently disagree.

Witness the response to the London-based LGB Alliance, a newly created British group that asserts “the rights of lesbian, gay and bisexual people to define themselves as same-sex-attracted.” The group’s creation has sparked vitriol, not from the traditionalist Christians or social conservatives who might have opposed such groups in the 1980s or 1990s, but from the self-described progressive left.

There is an article in the Spectator that covers trans activist approaches to promoting trans acceptance in women’s spaces like sports and prisons and pediatric medical transition. The information comes from a report from a British law firm:

The report is called ‘Only adults? Good practices in legal gender recognition for youth’. Its purpose is to help trans groups in several countries bring about changes in the law to allow children to legally change their gender, without adult approval and without needing the approval of any authorities. ‘We hope this report will be a powerful tool for activists and NGOs working to advance the rights of trans youth across Europe and beyond,’ says the foreword.

Below are some relevant quotes from the article about strategy:

‘While cultural and political factors play a key role in the approach to be taken, there are certain techniques that emerge as being effective in progressing trans rights in the “good practice” countries’…

‘In many of the NGO advocacy campaigns that we studied, there were clear benefits where NGOs managed to get ahead of the government and publish progressive legislative proposal before the government had time to develop their own. NGOs need to intervene early in the legislative process and ideally before it has even started. This will give them far greater ability to shape the government agenda and the ultimate proposal than if they intervene after the government has already started to develop its own proposals’…

‘In Ireland, Denmark and Norway, changes to the law on legal gender recognition were put through at the same time as other more popular reforms such as marriage equality legislation. This provided a veil of protection, particularly in Ireland, where marriage equality was strongly supported, but gender identity remained a more difficult issue to win public support for.’

‘Another technique which has been used to great effect is the limitation of press coverage and exposure. In certain countries, like the UK, information on legal gender recognition reforms has been misinterpreted in the mainstream media, and opposition has arisen as a result. ….Against this background, many believe that public campaigning has been detrimental to progress, as much of the general public is not well informed about trans issues, and therefore misinterpretation can arise.

In Ireland, activists have directly lobbied individual politicians and tried to keep press coverage to a minimum in order to avoid this issue.’ (Emphasis added).

The Times of London posted another article about trans activist money in politics:

A pharmaceutical firm that markets drugs used in gender-identity clinics to delay puberty has given £100,000 to the Liberal Democrats.

Jo Swinson’s party has already upset feminists, who worry that the “extreme trans-ideological” policies in its manifesto will put vulnerable women at risk.

Denying Trans People Emotional & Sexual Access is “Transphobia”

There is an ongoing narrative that people should be emotionally and sexually available to trans people based on the trans person’s gender identity, or that person is a bigot or a transphobic.

This is from a recent article in Slate:

Stoya: I’m having difficulty putting myself in to the shoes of a person who is so off put by genital configuration.

Rich: Look, I’m way more into dick. Maybe I need to work on that, but it feels OK to like what I like. I don’t fantasize about vulvas; I do dicks. It’s plausible that someone has a type formed by a bunch of factors that are specific and don’t make him a bad person. But it’s also not just possible but observable and prevalent to have “preferences” that dog-whistle bigotry. I think these things require a lot of self-interrogation.

GHQ reviews the conflicts this is causing here and here.

Comments from Jesse Singal:

@jessesingal

The Advocate also published an article arguing it’s transphobic not to date trans people as some trans people are trying to make this concept mainstream:

The question that gets danced around, however, is: “Are all these numbers indicative of transphobia?” The answer, I believe, is clearly yes.

The Spectator commented on the strained arguments in the Advocate article:

Those who deny the existence of biological sex and insist a person can change sex through self-declaration have made a number of grave mistakes — some of which harm their own community. The promise of ‘passing’ — a term that refers to trans-identified people who are perceived to be the opposite sex, rather than simply a male attempting to dress ‘like a woman’ or vice versa — is in fact quite cruel. Most trans-identified people won’t ‘pass’ in public; but even if they manage to appear as the sex they wish to be on a day to day basis, all sorts of subtle cues betray them when it comes to attracting their desired partner. 

Trans Activism

Trans activists have reacted angrily to a book promoting body positivity in children called My Body is Me! due to the fact it promotes body acceptance and was cosponsored by Transgendertrend, a group that questions the ethics of pediatric transition:

My Body is Me is an upbeat, rhyming picture book, aimed for 3-6 year olds, written by Rachel Rooney and illustrated by Jessica Ahlberg in consultation with TransgenderTrend. It introduces children to the workings of the human body, and celebrates similarities and differences while challenging sex stereotypes. It also aims to promote a positive self-image and foster self-care skills. The text is inclusive for children with physical or sensory disabilities.

In an example of extremist gender activism, Debbie Hayton (who is on the GHQ Board) is trans and is being targetting for not believing it is possible to change your biological sex:

A transgender woman has been accused of transphobia for wearing a T-shirt saying she is really still a man.

Debbie Hayton, 51, a physics teacher in the Midlands, who transitioned from male to female in 2012, is facing expulsion from the LGBT committee of the Trades Union Congress (TUC) for the slogan: “Trans women are men. Get over it!”

Jake Pyne is an FtM activist who is part of GDAWorkinggroup.com. This website was set up with almost the same name as a group of health professionals (GDworkinggroup) who advocate a more cautious approach in an apparent attempt to challenge them. The site members consist of the people at the forefront of trans activism and the affirmative model, such as Diane Ehrensaft and Johanna Olson-Kennedy. Jake Pyne is also allegedly responsible for spreading a false allegation against Dr. Ken Zucker in order to get him fired for his more conservative approach to medically transitioning minors.

Below is a screencap of Pyne laughing at a joke about murdering a reporter, which is common behavior over the internet:

Multiple trans voices take issue with pediatric medical transition and some of the more radical aspects of trans activism.

Changing Laws and Policies to Allow Pediatric Medical Transition Without Parental Consent

The below case is an example of the new normal. Parents will lose the ability to have their children wait until they are adults to alter their body medically. This case is in Europe, but the same activist push exists in all Western countries:

By the parents' admission, they warned “Nea” that sex change is a complex and traumatising procedure, and that some of its effects are irreversible. They suggested waiting until the school year's end, going back to Finland, undergoing a thorough medical examination, and learning more about the consequences of getting a sex change.

However, “Nea”, with the help of a representative from a local trans organisation, went to the police and reported her parents for opposing her gender reassignment procedures. The authorities in the unnamed EU country supported the underage girl.

The Conservative think tank site Public Discourse reviews some conflicts of interest in allowing trans-identified students in girls bathrooms:

The case against compelled affirmation policies needs to be more explicitly and vividly sexualized. The argument against these policies must be rooted in the civil liberties of objecting students and the right not be forced to be the object of another’s sexual gaze. Opening intimate facilities to anyone of the opposite sex imposes psycho-sexual trauma on countless non-consenting youths, and constitutes a form of sexual exploitation.

The case:

Consider the experience of some northern Illinois high-school girls, as one federal court recently described it. In Students and Parents for Privacy v. High School District 211, Judge Jorge Alonso wrote that several of them were “startled, shocked, embarrassed, and frightened by the presence of a male in the girls’ restroom,” most especially when “female student A” was “exposed to this male’s penis.” No wonder: he also found that these students “are at continual risk of encountering (and sometimes do encounter), without their consent, members of the opposite sex while disrobing, showering, urinating, defecating and while changing tampons and feminine napkins.”

The naked guy was no streaker or everyday pervert. He was a student. The school did nothing to discipline him. In fact, the school authorities had sent him there under what they unapologetically called a “compelled affirmation” policy governing transgendered students’ access to intimate school facilities. Judge Alonso dismissed all complaints about the policy that were based on rights protected by the Constitution, including the free exercise of religion, students’ right of bodily privacy, and parents’ right to direct the education of their children. He did, however, permit statutory claims for sexual harassment and violation of the Illinois Religious Freedom Restoration Act to go forward, possibly to trial.

The legal expert wants these cases to elicit sexually in the minds of the public:

I think that the case against compelled affirmation policies needs to be more explicitly and vividly sexualized. By that I mean that the argument against these policies must be rooted in the civil liberties of objecting students, as they pertain to the morality of acts which cause sexual arousal; which instigate impure thoughts; and which threaten both the healthy psycho-sexual development of young people and—most importantly in our cultural moment—the right not to be forced to be the object of another’s sexual gaze—the occasion for the arousal of another person. This improvement synthesizes the prevailing privacy contentions (which, again, are sound so far as they go); extends them; and focuses the argument on something that even judges who have been mesmerized by transgender-affirming propaganda might find hard to sanction: opening intimate facilities to anyone of the opposite sex (that is, anyone bearing the sexually provocative body parts of the opposite sex) imposes psycho-sexual trauma on countless unconsenting youths, and constitutes a form of sexual exploitation.

Most MtFs who transition at young ages are not sexually attracted to females. They are very effeminate homosexual males. However, most MtFs are autogynephilc males, are sexually attracted to women, and appear to be coming out at younger ages. The school system in these cases would be putting heterosexual males in with teenage girls in situations that involve nudity.

Gender ideology, something some LGBT people strongly disagree with, is taught to children in schools in multiple countries in the world:

For trans ideology to truly spread, it needs to become an inherent part of our core belief system. As natural as the sky being blue, and the earth being round, we must all have the truth of trans as a foundational element of our understanding about the world for it to thrive. Convincing adults is one thing, but to really make this wash, it’s children that need to taught the dogma of multiple gender identities and the ability of humans to swap their sex for its opposite. The purported goal behind teaching children that male and female are nothing more than feelings is compassion, empathy, and anti-bias.

The work to bring children into the trans fold is pervasive and growing, and we’ve seen it in the US and Canada. In Sweden, the government is pouring money into an educational program for drag queens to read to children with disabilities. Meanwhile, in the UK, where trans advocates have a major head start, the BBC is airing educational programming to teach children that there are as many genders as stars in the sky.

The article “Schools told all lessons for five-year-olds should include gay and trans themes” discusses the issue of when and how to teach children about gender identity and sexual orientation.

South Carolina wants to ban underage medical treatment for trans-identified youth.

There is a recorded video of a conservative father rebelling against gender ideology being taught to children in school.

Miscellaneous

Here is an account of a medical student who believes the sciences are embracing ideology over scientific facts regarding gender identity and biological sex.

References

A Concerned Medical Student Speaks Out. (2019, December 2019). Retrieved from https://www.kelseycoalition.org/pubs/A-Concerned-Medical-Student-Speaks-Out?fbclid=IwAR2DbQujxTiw29Pbd_mL_mHUq_beuD9sOoii-RjAZpOPFHGzH2v3fZOaPj4

Azhar, M. (2017, July 29). Pakistan's traditional third gender isn't happy with the trans movement. PRI. Retrieved from https://www.pri.org/stories/2017-07-29/pakistans-traditional-third-gender-isnt-happy-trans-movement

Bradley, G. (2019, December 1). Compelled Sexual Affirmation in the School Bathroom. Public Discourse. Retrieved from https://www.thepublicdiscourse.com/2019/12/58498/

Ditum, S. (2016, October 25). How society is failing transgender children. New Statesman. Retrieved from https://www.newstatesman.com/politics/feminism/2016/10/how-society-failing-transgender-children

Griffiths, S., Walsh, J. (2019, December 1). Schools told all lessons for five-year-olds should include gay and trans themes. Retrieved from https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/7d300e42-13ad-11ea-b97d-3a49c0ea7ce7?fbclid=IwAR0C9LRDIB3bzIcj-Tu-H2ooFxf7B8AtRsDP8ooB49WtNZNtLG7zTcDjsf0

Emmons, L. (2019, November 22). Teachers are indoctrinating our children in radical trans ideology. The Post Millenial. Retrieved from https://www.thepostmillennial.com/teachers-are-indoctrinating-our-children-in-radical-trans-ideology/

Hellen, N., Wheeler, C. (2019, December 8). Puberty-blocker drug firm donated cash to Lib Dems. The Times[London]. Retrieved from https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/puberty-blocker-drug-firm-donated-cash-to-lib-dems-cf3x77nh3

Hellen, N. (2019, December 22). Trans woman Debbie Hayton faces ban for transphobia. The Times[London]. Retrieved from https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/trans-woman-debbie-hayton-faces-ban-for-transphobia-96tfkl5gc?fbclid=IwAR0glDgonjBJMJwv0-iYMY468WrPD72KSAps3-n46Pz4I2uUrC5NbS4PMlY

Heuchan, C. (2019, November 7). LGB Alliance asks Human Rights Watchdog to Investigate ‘Stonewall Law.’ After Ellen. Retrieved from https://www.afterellen.com/general-news/573118-lgb-alliance-asks-human-rights-watchdog-to-investigate-stonewall-law

Jenn Smith Calls for Provincial&National Inquiries into mass gender transitioning of Vulnerable kids. (2019, October 19). Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aPBfHgxWGwE

Joyce, H. (2019, November 4). Meet the Gay Activists Who’ve Had Enough of Britain’s Ultra-Woke Homophobes. Quillette. Retrieved from https://quillette.com/2019/11/04/meet-the-gay-activists-whove-had-enough-of-britains-ultra-woke-homophobes/

Kiirkup, J. (2019, December 2). The document that reveals the remarkable tactics of trans lobbyists. The Spectator. Retrieved from https://blogs.spectator.co.uk/2019/12/the-document-that-reveals-the-remarkable-tactics-of-trans-lobbyists/

Losing a Daughter, Not Gaining a Son: Finnish Parents Who Opposed Teen's Sex Change Lose Custody. (2019, December 12). Sputnik News. Retrieved from https://sputniknews.com/society/201912121077550078-losing-a-daughter-not-gaining-a-son-finnish-parents-who-opposed-teens-sex-change-lose-custody/

Murphy, M. (2019, December 19). Are you heterosexual? Or simply transphobic? The Spectator. Retrieved from https://spectator.us/heterosexual-simply-transphobic/?fbclid=IwAR27cIwt6-CxA0mabnlg4iX1kfDrkeX8SNbLcZ-XlgKWxbOId4bKrHaIGO0#

North, A. (2019, November 25). South Carolina wants to ban lifesaving medical treatments for trans kids. Vox. Retrieved from https://www.vox.com/2019/11/22/20977721/south-carolina-trans-transgender-youth-gender-reassignment

Olver, T. (2019). Disaffirming Gender: Somatic Incongruence as a Co-function of Ideological Congruity. The Psychoanalytic Review 106(1),1-28. DOI: 10.1521/prev.2019.106.1.1

Phalloplasty gone wrong. (2019, September 4). Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FAJSILE_wGc

Rhodes, M. (2019, November 4). Co-founder of Stonewall calls for calm. Holyrood. Retrieved from https://www.holyrood.com/inside-politics/view,cofounder-of-stonewall-calls-for-calm_14648.htm

Rooney, R., Ahlberg, J. (2019). My Body is Me!. Published by Transgendertrend.

Singal, J. (2017, February 7). How the Fight Over Transgender Kids Got a Leading Sex Researcher Fired. The Cut. Retrieved from https://www.thecut.com/2016/02/fight-over-trans-kids-got-a-researcher-fired.html

Stoya, R. Juzwiak. (2019, November 7). “I Hope This Doesn’t Make Me a Terrible Person." Slate. Retrieved from https://slate.com/human-interest/2019/11/ask-trans-women-about-their-genitals-while-dating.html

Sullivan, A. (2019, December 13). Boris Johnson Is Showing Western Politicians How to Win. New York Magazine. Retrieved from http://nymag.com/intelligencer/2019/12/andrew-sullivan-boris-johnsons-winning-formula.html

Tannehill, B. (2019, December 14). Is Refusing to Date Trans People Transphobic? The Advocate. Retrieved from https://www.advocate.com/commentary/2019/12/14/refusing-date-trans-people-transphobic?fbclid=IwAR3sftFezusxMKMsL5i0tDzKTQKx_nx2-s7O0y6IWFmZ3jkURrp3a7DUMjU

Oregon Health And Sciences University: Shaky Science Around Gender Dysphoric Minors

News Commentary

The Federalist is a conservative news site generally unsupportive of LGBT issues.. However, an article from September accurately covers some of the shaky information being presented as hard facts in transgender medicine for children and teens. The article is called “How Oregon Built A Transgender Medical-Industrial Complex On Junk Science.” It is about the staunchly pro-pediatric medical transition culture in Oregon, where a 15 year old can undergo surgery without parental consent.

A quote from the article:

As a group of suburban Portland psychiatric nurses sat for training in late 2016, they had no idea they were witnessing a paradigm shift in public health policy. They simply wanted to know what to do about a sudden upsurge in young psychiatric patients who believed themselves to be in the wrong body. They had turned to a colleague from Oregon Health and Science University (OHSU) for help.

The reply was astonishing: The children’s claims should be taken at face value, and the children should be referred to OHSU, or like institutions, for a “Dutch Protocol” of puberty blockers and cross-sex hormones. Further, the nurses should expect such referrals to comprise 3 percent of the children in their care.

The author discusses an astronomical 3% estimate of trans children they expect at their hospital:

OHSU professionals have been asserting that 3% of children in their care will be transgender. The article takes them to take on this estimate:

Yet in a hospital training, administered by people with advanced degrees to other people with advanced degrees, no one questioned the assertion that 3 percent of local kids were in the wrong body and that the hospital on the hill could give them the right one.

‘A Quality Improvement Project’

The cultural trajectory — from “first do no harm” to “no holds barred” — that Oregon is traversing under a regulatory framework shaped by gender service providers, is reflected in the disparate responses the two institutions gave when asked about the invalid 3 percent citation.

This article highlights the reality that there are a lot of unsubstantiated assertions around the treatment of transgender youth. GHQ reviews many of them in Topic 4. It also highlights the fact that so many health professionals and people in media seem to have zero interest in asking why so many young people, particularly females, are identifying as trans, given the serious medical side effects that result from medical transition.

This should be of concern as there have been reports of transition regret and botched surgeries at OHSO and taxpayers are funding these surgeries by medicaid:

The first recommendations in the letter are to implement advanced transgender-specific surgical training for the surgeons and a formal grievance procedure for the patients. Ashe told me in an email he felt rushed and pushed into having surgery by all his medical providers — therapist, general practitioner and surgeon. He wrote:

“The doctor [Dr. Daniel Dugi III] basically used a bunch of trans people to experiment on and gain experience without being properly trained. I was denied by him for an orchiectomy [removal of the testicles] and coerced into having SRS [Sex Reassignment surgery] by him and my GP [general practitioner] who was stressing that I needed to be castrated ASAP. I had previously told my therapists who wrote my letters [of approval] I never wanted surgery. I feel like I was very much pushed into transition as an answer to my mental health problems that were ignored by my ‘gender’ therapist.”

Also:

As the stories in the letter to the university clearly show, the number of surgical complications in this small group far exceeds the program’s publicly stated total of three. These six stories and three more in the letter demonstrate why the group recommends that the OHSU THP begin collecting, evaluating, and independently reviewing patient results.

Another article was published on Medium highlighting questionable claims and statistics involved in transgender “science.” The article by vocal critic of trans activism, Julian Vigo, was removed by Medium and then reinstated. They likely removed it because activists sought to censor it despite the validity of its content. This is a common problem with current trans activism. This article is more critical of the concept biological sex is irrelevant, a common attitude in gender activism. We review the serious conflicts this ideology is causing within and outside of the LGBT population.

Quotes about a new agenda-driven UK survey study and confirmation bias and lack of scientific validity:

From the ground up, this project’s experts and advisory board have a clear agenda to install pro-transgender conclusions given the ethos of the research team, their political and theoretical motivations, and what seems to be a troubling push by many in academia around the English-speaking world to elide any discussions of material reality to the extent of removing sex as a legal characteristic.

And:

The imbalance in these studies bulldozes the survey-taker and passive reader into having to collude with the ethos that gender is “good.” These research projects never put into question the possibility that gender is uniquely a stereotype and harmful to males and females alike. The planned impact of Cooper’s project is formulated around the researcher’s assumption that the research findings will be “ideally placed to influence future legal and policy debate.” What this means, when you sift through the bios of the principal investigators and many on the advisory board who hold seats on other granting institutions, editorial committees, and institutional seats of great power, is this: that an enormous amount of money has been thrown at academics who are using public funds for political activism within a dishonestly formulated project.

References:

Heyer, W. (2019, December 18). 9 Transgender Patients Complain Of Mutilation, Botched Sex-Change Surgeries In Oregon. The Federalist. Retrieved from https://thefederalist.com/2018/12/06/9-transgender-patients-complain-mutilation-botched-sex-change-surgeries-oregon/

How to Stage a Study: The Transgender Lobby in British Academia. (2019, July 30). Retrieved from http://archive.md/vV8zf#selection-209.0-209.63

Kirkpatrick, K. (2019, September 16). How Oregon Built A Transgender Medical-Industrial Complex On Junk Science. The Federalist. Retrieved from https://thefederalist.com/2019/09/16/how-oregon-built-a-transgender-medical-industrial-complex-on-junk-science/#.XYBfLUNkRYI.twitter

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.

An Example of The Education Profession Enthusiastically Promoting Student Chest Binding, a Harmful Practice

News Commentary

This post covers an example of the enthusiastic embrace many educational entities currently have of narratives that validate the body dysmorphia of teenage girls around trans/genderqueer identity. There is an increasing number of girls chest binding and girls identifying as trans or non-binary. Mackin, a company providing educational materials to schools, circulated a book suggestion via email to teachers and other contacts.

A description of the company:

For more than 35 years, Mackin has provided library and classroom materials for grades PK-12. Working with over 18,000 publishers and an age-appropriate database of nearly 3 million print titles and more than 2 million digital titles, Mackin supplies print books, eBooks, read-alongs, audiobooks, databases, videos and more, along with digital content management and custom collection analysis services.

A true partner in education, Mackin’s continued success and unblemished reputation is known by thousands of teachers, administrators, and librarians across the country and throughout the world.

Below is an image of the book Some Girls Bind that was endorsed by School Library Review:

Below is a description of the book:

Jamie knows that she isn't like other girls. She has a secret. She binds her chest every day to feel more like herself. Jamie questions why she is drawn to this practice and why she is afraid of telling her friends, who have their own secrets. Could she really be genderqueer?

Chest binding is not a safe activity, according to Peitzmeier et al., 2017:

Over 97% reported at least one of 28 negative outcomes attributed to binding.

Girls should be encouraged to wear sports bras, not to bind, for safety reasons. And with such a long list of psychic contagions and socially contagious body harming fads, fomenting and celebrating breast hatred by validating this behavior that used to be very rare may do more harm than good.

A section on the GHQ website covering the culture’s current positive promotion of chest binding can be found here.

An article about the previously unheard of numbers of females binding in school can be found here.

Another example of the cultural promotion of binding to female youth can be found in a recent Cosmopolitan article called “A Complete Beginner's Guide to Chest Binding.”

References:

James, R. (2019). Some Girls Bind. New York, NY: West 44 Books.

Moore, L. (2016, March 21). A Complete Beginner's Guide to Chest Binding. Cosmopolitan. Retrieved from https://www.cosmopolitan.com/sex-love/news/a55546/how-to-bind-your-chest/

Peitzmeier, S., Gardner, I., Weinand, J., Corbet, A., Acevedo, K. (2017). Health impact of chest binding among transgender adults: a community-engaged, cross-sectional study. Culture, Health, and Sexuality 19(1), 1-12. doi.org/10.1080/13691058.2016.1191675

Transgender Trend. (2016, August 3). Breast Binders In UK Schools. Retrieved from https://www.transgendertrend.com/breast-binders-in-uk-schools/

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.

Mario Lopez Expresses Concern For Supporting Solidifying a Child’s Gender Identity & Gets Attacked by Media & LGBT Organizations as "Transphobic"

News Commentary

Mario Lopez has come under fire for making a comment that he worries that reinforcing a child’s gender identity may have later negative ramifications. This was in relation to how Charlize Theron is raising her 7-year-old child as trans. The comment is below:

I just think it’s dangerous as a parent to make that determination then OK, well then you’re going to be a boy or girl, whatever the case may. It’s sort of alarming. And my gosh just think about the repercussions later on.

Lopez received accusations ranging from “transphobia” to being “in need of education.” There are multiple studies that show early social and medical support for trans youth benefits their mental health [de Vries (2014) and Russel (2018) and Olson (2016)]. However, even gender dysphoria experts share his concerns. Several of those comments can be found on our website.

LGBT media and organizations have come out against the comment despite the fact that many gender experts’ opinions, desistance research, and that regretters appear to be increasing, all point to the real risks to pre-LGB children or confused teens. More heterosexual youth may be affected as well with changing demographics. Part of the reasons for this lack of concern is the way that very positive transition studies and articles have been promoted [(de Vries (2014) and Olson (2016)] in the US media but negative ones have not [Littman, 2018 and Professor Bigg’s blocker review]. LGBT organizations, trans activists, and affirmative model advocates also promote the concept anything other than total affirmation of a child’s gender identity is akin to murder (“Do you want a live daughter or a dead son”).

The media and LGBT organizations also fail to mention the harsh realities of medical transition. Transitioned children will be sterilized, castrated, have weaker bones, may have lowered IQ, and will later have increased circulatory health risks.

Promoting unquestioned affirmation is a current trans activist priority but isn’t in the interests of the gay, lesbian, and bisexual population if this creates significant amounts of “false positives.” No LGBT organization is presenting this issue with any balance. Affirmative model advocates have done an excellent job in painting this as safe to the public by ignoring or downplaying desistance and other risks to facilitate the blanket social transition and hormone blocker protocol on all children who say they are trans.

No concern about any of these issues is likely to be raised from any LGBT organization. They will continue to promote unquestioned child/teen medical transition and accusations of transphobia if any one does question it.

Lopez had to recant his concerns as people likely would have tried to completely destroy his career. Candace Owens decried “leftists” forcing an apology under these blackmail-like conditions.

To review the main points around this issue:

1) There is in fact data that shows improved mental health with social and medical support in trans youth that should not be discounted.

2) PFLAG, the HRC, the Advocate, Charlize Theron, or anyone attempting to educate Mario Lopez actually has no idea if an early social transition prevents a child from aligning with their body. Several top gender dysphoria experts believe it will. There is a fair amount of evidence environmental and parental factors may influence gender dysphoria, so it is reasonable to believe the current environment will solidify a trans identity in a child or young teen.

3) Early social transitions will likely lead to the use of hormone blockers. More and more people are viewing hormone blockers as dangerous. Few children desist once put on blockers so it is very possible they affect gender identity development. They are giving tweens hormone blockers before they experience any puberty at all, the puberty that used to aid children in desisting from GD.

4) Young regretters are coming forward as well, so false positives regarding young people are already shown to be inevitable.

5) Most media outlets and all LGBT organizations refuse to acknowledge any risks to grey area children who may need time and proper mental health support to get through puberty and align with their natal sex.

6) The failure to present the nuances of these issues, to downplay desistance, and avoid discussions about regret on the part of affirmative model advocates is likely responsible for this overall lack of interest on the effects of these protocols on LGB (and heterosexual) gender nonconforming youth.

7) Mario Lopez had to apologize or people would have tried to destroy his career, as happens to many people who express any doubts about affirmation of children and teens. People who challenge the affirmative model in anyway will be attacked in liberal circles such as LGBT organizations, leftist media, and academia.

References:

Arciga, J. (2019, April 14). Charlize Theron Reveals 7-Year-Old Daughter Is Transgender: Daily Mail. Daily Beast. Retrieved from https://www.thedailybeast.com/actress-charlize-theron-reveals-7-year-old-is-transgender-daily-mail

Biggs, M. (2019, July 29). The Tavistock’s Experiment with Puberty Blockers. Department of Sociology and St Cross College, University of Oxford. Retrieved from http://users.ox.ac.uk/~sfos0060/Biggs_ExperimentPubertyBlockers.pdf

De Vries, A., McGuire, J., & Steensma, T. (2014). Young Adult Psychological Outcome After Puberty Suppression and Gender Reassignment. Pediatrics,134(4). doi:10.1542/peds.2013-2958d

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

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

Russel, S., Pollitt, A., Gu, L., Grossman, A. (2018) Chosen Name Use Is Linked to Reduced Depressive Symptoms, Suicidal Ideation, and Suicidal Behavior Among Transgender Youth. Journal of Adolescent Health 63(4), 505-505. doi.org/10.1016/j.jadohealth.2018.02.003

Stockler, A. (2019, July 31). Candace Owens Says 'Sick' People Bullied Mario Lopez Into Apologizing For Anti-Trans Comments. Daily Beast. Retrieved from Daily Beast. Retrieved from https://www.newsweek.com/candace-owens-mario-lopez-bullied-transgender-apology-1451997

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 Damning Review of the Justifications for Puberty Blocker Use in the U.K.

News

Oxford professor Micheal Biggs has been vocal in criticizing the protocols for treating gender dysphoric minors at the Gender Identity Development Service in the United Kingdom. He has completed a review of the decisions that have been made by the Tavistock clinic around the use of puberty blockers and a move towards an affirmative model titled “The Tavistock’s Experiment with Puberty Blockers.”

The first quote provides the history of the use of puberty blockers for gender dysphoria:

In 1994 a 16-year-old girl who wished to be a boy, known to us as B, entered the Amsterdam Gender Clinic. She was unique for having her sexual development halted at the age of 13, after an adventurous paediatric endocrinologist gave her a Gonadotropin-Releasing Hormone agonist (GnRHa). Originally developed to treat prostate cancer, these drugs are also used to delay puberty when it develops abnormally early: in girls younger than 8, and boys younger than 9. The endocrinologist’s innovation was to use the drug to stop normal puberty altogether, in order to prevent the development of unwanted secondary sexual characteristics—with the aim of administering cross-sex hormones in later adolescence. Dutch clinicians used B’s case to create a new protocol for transgendering children, which enabled physical intervention at an age far below the normal age of consent (Cohen-Kettenis and Goozen 1998).

His review is not positive:

This paper describes the origins and conduct of this study and scrutinizes the evidence on its outcomes. It draws on information obtained by requests under the Freedom of Information Act to the Tavistock, to the NHS Health Research Authority, and to University College London (UCL). I will argue that the experimental study did not properly inform children and their parents of the risks of triptorelin. I will also demonstrate that the study’s preliminary results were more negative than positive, and that the single published scientific article using data from the study is fatally flawed by a statistical fallacy. My conclusion is that GIDS and their collaborators at UCL have either ignored or suppressed negative evidence. Therefore the NHS had no justification for introducing the Dutch protocol as general policy in 2014

The paper addresses the fact that the hormone blocker protocol has been called reversible and that this has not actually been proven and is very likely not true. GHQ covers the many statements by affirmative model advocates that blockers are “fully reversible” and the actual serious consequences of blockers here.

The paper also describes the reality that the blocker to cross-sex hormone protocol stunts genital growth:

One further absence deserves emphasis. The 2005 Symposium had noted the paradox that blocking a boy’s puberty left him with stunted genitalia, which were then not sufficient to transform into a pseudo-vagina. 

This necessitates a more drastic vaginoplasty surgery. We cover the ramifications of this protocol.

Biggs goes on to criticize the Tavistock professionals:

Three years after the experiment began, Carmichael announced success to the tabloid press. “Now we’ve done the study and the results thus far have been positive we’ve decided to continue with it” (Mail on Sunday, 17 May 2014). Her statement was at best misleading.

Biggs on bone density, something the GHQ website covers here:

The authors state reassuringly that bone density did not decline in absolute terms. This is misleading, because growing children need density to increase (Laidlaw 2018). The abstract acknowledges that the children experienced a decline relative to the norm for their age group, and this decline was especially marked for girls. By year three, the average girl on GnRHa had lower bone density than 97.7% of the population in her age group. Surely this raises serious concerns?

A graph:

He describes on the psychological outcomes (particularly in females who are coming out as trans in unprecedented numbers) and what appears to be an intention to spin them in the most positive way possible, despite some negative findings:

Diligent searching has uncovered unpublished results on the psychological effects. Most revealing is an appendix to Carmichael’s report to the Tavistock’s Board of Directors (GIDS 2015).4 It tracks 30 of the children on triptorelin, measuring changes after one year of the drug regime; presumably the remaining 14 subjects had not completed their first year on the drug.5The text is sometimes internally inconsistent and occasionally contradicts the tabulated figures, suggesting that the appendix was prepared in haste. But we can summarize those changes that were reported as statistically significant (p-value < .05). Only one change was positive: “according to their parents, the young people experience less internalizing behavioural problems” (as measured by the Child Behavior Checklist). There were three negative changes. “Natal girls showed a significant increase in behavioural and emotional problems”, according to their parents (also from the Child Behavior Checklist, contradicting the only positive result). One dimension of the Health Related Quality of Life scale, completed by parents, “showed a significant decrease in Physical well-being of their child”. What is most disturbing is that “a significant increase was found in the first item ‘I deliberately try to hurt or kill self’” (in the Youth Self Report questionnaire). Astonishingly, the increased risk of self-harm attracted no comment in Carmichael’s report. Given that puberty blockers are prescribed to treat gender dysphoria, it is paradoxical that “the suppression of puberty does not impact positively on the experience of gender dysphoria” (measured by the Body Image Scale). When differentiated by sex, the impact was positive for boys on one aspect of body image, but negative for girls on two aspects.

Another problematic example:

The abstract proclaims that “adolescents receiving also puberty suppression had significantly better psychosocial functioning after 12 months of GnRHa ... compared with when they had received only psychological support” (Costa et al. 2015: 2206). The literature treats this article as providing evidence in favour of puberty blockers (e.g. Butler et al. 2018; Heneghan and Jefferson 2019). But the abstract is misleading: the analysis actually failed to detect any difference between children who were given GnRHa and those who were not

The paper ends with a suggested ban on hormone blockers and more extensive research:

What, then, is to be done? Richard Byng (2019) recently demanded a moratorium on the use of GnRHa for children suffering from gender dysphoria until there is robust evidence that this drug regime is safe and effective. A team of independent researchers must be given access to all the data from the 2011 experiment. They will need expertise in statistics, psychiatry, and endocrinology; most importantly, they must have no vested interests in the promotion of GnRHa. Given that this experiment has been used since 2014 to justify the provision of these drugs to children under the NHS, the outcomes of this experiment—on all the physical and psychological measures that were collected—must be published urgently.

Update 08/18/19: Adding information on late puberty and lack of bone density “Teenagers who identify as transgender taking powerful ‘puberty blocker’ drugs ‘may suffer from weaker bones in the future’”

Update 10/22/19: The study has been cleared of ethics concerns by the Health Research Authority but criticisms continue.

References:

Adams, S. (2019, August 17). Teenagers who identify as transgender taking powerful ‘puberty blocker’ drugs ‘may suffer from weaker bones in the future.’ Daily Mail. Retrieved from https://www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/article-7368017/Teenagers-identify-transgender-taking-puberty-blocker-drugs-suffer-weaker-bones.html

Biggs, M. (2019, July 29). The Tavistock’s Experiment with Puberty Blockers. Department of Sociology and St Cross College, University of Oxford. Retrieved from http://users.ox.ac.uk/~sfos0060/Biggs_ExperimentPubertyBlockers.pdf

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.

An Opinion Piece by Jordan Peterson, Clinical Psychologist, About Gender Ideology in Schools

Opinion

by Justine Kreher

Jordan Peterson is a clinical psychologist who is controversial because he does not believe the state should enforce pronoun use and for some of his views on the sexes and their role in society (which could be characterized as center right).

He has written an opinion piece in the the National Post called “Gender politics has no place in the classroom.”

He discusses the confusion he fears, as a clinical psychologist, will arise from telling children there is “no such thing as a boy or a girl.” This is something that happened in a classroom of six year olds and is now the subject of a complaint by the parents, as their child was upset. These ideas arose from postmodern influenced queer theory in academia, by people such as Judith Butler.

The bill he refers to is a human rights bill in Canada, Bill C16:

Worse is the insistence characteristic of the bill, the policies associated with it, and the tenth-rate academic dogmas driving the entire charade, that “identity” is something solely determined by the individual in question (whatever that identity might be). Even sociologists (neither the older, classical, occasionally useful type, nor the modern, appalling, and positively counterproductive type) don’t believe this. They understand that identity is a social role, which means that it is by necessity socially negotiated.

While some may see this as a conservative opinion in this day and age, it is actually shared by some leftists, LGB people, and trans people. The LGB community used to play with identity and use cross-sex pronouns at times. There wasn’t the obsession with pronouns and identity that there is today. Nor the desire (except some etiquette rules around drag shows) to invest in having the general public validate them. Some GenX LGB people, in particular, feel this is a step backwards. And some trans people do as well. They tend to be more conservative, or “transmedicalists,” who don’t deny the relevance of biological definitions of sex or believe society needs to embrace the concept of multiple genders. Some of the opinions of LGBT supportive liberals and LGBT people, which aren’t that different from Peterson’s, can be found here. While Peterson is speaking about confusion around gender ideology and children, examples of how gender ideology is causing some confusion and strife within the LGBT population can be found here.

I have a complaint with this article, as well as other articles that express worry that gender ideology will confuse and over-medicalize children. I agree we should be worried it will. However, these critical articles often fail to address any solution for the child who’s behaviors and interests are highly aligned with cross-sex stereotypes. These youths my be trans-identified or not. But either way, extremely effeminate boys and masculine tomboys are outliers that aren’t really incorporated very well into our society. They don’t see themselves represented anywhere. These children are often treated poorly, including verbal and physical abuse. And if people who do not like current gender ideology and trans activism want to create change, it would be best to address how these youth’s can be supported as well. Instead, they are forgotten about in these articles about maintaining concepts of “societal structure.”

Jordan Peterson is not a far-right person. But this point relates to why I am personally very skeptical about addressing this issue with any far-right conservatives that only frame this in terms of social order, with no regard for those children/teens who are harmed by the way that order currently exists.

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.

Chest Binder Giveaway Event at a Public Library

News

There will be a binder raffle giveaway as part of a teen pride celebration at the Renton Library in Washington State.

Chest binder giveaway, trans teen, Renton Library

Binding is not safe for the body. It crushes the chest, causes shortness of breath, can fracture ribs, and can permanently effect the shape of the chest to become concave in a growing person. And many more young females are binding than in the past. It is celebrated in “queer” youth culture and media.

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.