Important interview (April 2019) with Dr. Alexander Korte, a German Child & Adolescent Psychiatrist.

Oh, and thanks Lang and Duchess.

@fascinated You are right, Germans are very matter-of-fact, very direct, and don't care a ff about hurting someone's feelings when stating an opinion, which for some people of an Anglo background often feels rude, they get offended, etc. So I have high hopes the movement won't take off there. They are also very wary about ideologies, because of their history.

I honestly can't imagine this ideology taking off in Germany the way it has here. Added to which, Germans are very fussy about distinguishing between males and females, to the extent that these days you no longer use the male version of a word as a collective noun, you have to say "male and female doctors, male and female students, male and female citizens" etc All very clumsy and longwinded and inelegant, if you ask me, but nobody did, so...

Oh, and what a fiasco there would be with pronouns! Even things have genders and they are very particular about "misgendering" things so I can't see them calling an obvious man she etc.

I was in Germany recently and spoke to a friend who was very involved in the feminist movement some years ago; she had no idea of what is happening in the US and UK and was pretty horrified when I told her. So fingers crossed.

Thanks from me too, for the share and the transcription.

He seems very calm and measured, but the idea of being him, in the centre of all the madness....

Thank you LangCleg for posting this and thank you DuchessDumbarton for transcribing

@DuchessDumbarton, you're a flippin' star - thank you

More transcript
Many doctors treat those adolescents with puberty blockers. How do you feel about this?
In the debate about the use of puberty blocking drugs, I have personally taken a clear stance. I am critical of this treatment, I think it needs to be reconsidered.
The problem is that the proportion of children taking puberty suppressing rugs, who later decide to take cross sex hormones as a further step, the proportion of those children is close to 100%. This is documented in the available studies and it is also what the centers giving such treatments in substantial numbers report. The conclusion that I draw from this is that with the decision to give puberty clockers, intentionally or unintentionally, the decision to take testosterone or estrogen in a second step is already made.
This means that I am already setting the course, at this very early stage. Although in my opinion, at this very early age, the diagnosis per se is not yet certain or cannot be certain.
Some even advocate for the use of puberty clockers before adolescence. For children at the age of nine or ten…

Now the key question is: when will a person who is still developing, and this is definitely the case with adolescents but especially so with children, when will a person be able to decide something like this, which has lifelong consequences.
We know that young people decide things hastily and in many ways tend to be too hasty. So we know about young people’s levity. And in many areas we are anxious to protect young people and especially children. Consider, for example, the existing regulations for the use of drugs and alcohol, visiting restaurants, attending evening events, the protective measures against media content that facilitates aggression etc.

On the other hand, we assume that c child can already make a decision about puberty-blocking treatment? That I do not believe!

I was wondering whether anyone in Germany would speak out about this. IME they are often a bit more likely to not pussyfoot around issues, compared to the oh so polite British ....

Transcript up to 3m36s:

When does transsexual development manifest itself?
An actual transsexual development can usually be seen very early. On those cases, we are told by the parents or by the patients themselves: It has always been like this, as early as I can think back. In kindergarten already, I felt somehow different, I was interested in things that were rather unusual for my biological sex in terms of social gender roles or stereotypes.
Well, and then there is also a relatively new phenomenon, which I find worrying: more and more young people suddenly come to the fore with this idea, without having a history of a sexual dysphoria during childhood. This is worrying because I have reasonable doubts as to whether this is really an actual transsexual development.
I would rather make the assumption that there are very different individual causes and reasons behind this.
So, my worry is, that many young people hope, that gender-affirming treatments will solve all their problems- and that this hope is actually an illusion and cannot be fulfilled.

Saw this earlier. A great video from an informed medic.

First two minutes transcribed below:

"For some years now, we have been monitoring/observing a significant increase, in fact a disturbing, explosive surge, in patients’ referrals.
This has increased significantly in the last 10years, with a significant acceleration within the last 5 years, I would say.
And we see a change in the sex ration. i.e.: how many biological girls in relation to biological boys approach the clinic.
Regarding this we see a marked increase in the number of biological girls, especially teenagers, in early or mid-adolescence.
What are the reasons for that?
One important reason, I think, could be that puberty requires much greater integration and adaptation skills of biological girls that it does of boys.
In this sense, we may possibly draw a parallel to eating disorders.
For anorexia, we assume a similar cause, namely that female adolescents are overwhelmed with the integration of sexuality at this age. Some fail to rise to this challenge in puberty.
In particular they are overwhelmed with the underlying beauty and body image ideals, which they perceive as a powerful stressor and which put a lot of pressure on them. "

If a transcript is available I'd like to read it, the interpretation text is too small for me to be able to read it.

Lang that is very valuable.
I wanted to quote whole sentences from it- such a logical and compassionate man.

I wonder if there is a transcript somewhere?