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Feminism: Sex and gender discussions

American College of Pediatrics reaches decision: Transgenderism of children is child abuse

26 replies

Lamahaha · 06/12/2019 08:24

I don't know if this has been posted before but it seems significant. Very clear and matter-of-fact. Feelz didn't come into the decision.

“The American College of Pediatricians urges educators and legislators to reject all policies that condition children to accept as normal a life of chemical and surgical impersonation of the opposite sex. Facts – not ideology – determine reality.”

www.israel-wire.com/2019/11/17/american-college-of-pediatrics-reaches-decision-transgenderism-of-children-is-child-abuse.html?fbclid=IwAR1emm5inSfzt9RFFig3EgLm2jnkOCb06gXrXRPLp5KEOAaCJ1k7pu79QZw

OP posts:
Lamahaha · 06/12/2019 08:26

BY Michael Dorstewitz

"The policy statement, authored by Johns Hopkins Medical School Psychology Professor Paul McHugh, listed eight arguments on why gender reclassification is harmful.

  1. Human sexuality is an objective biological binary trait: “XY” and “XX” are genetic markers of health – not genetic markers of a disorder.
  1. No one is born with a gender. Everyone is born with a biological sex. Gender (an awareness and sense of oneself as male or female) is a sociological and psychological concept; not an objective biological one.
  1. A person’s belief that he or she is something they are not is, at best, a sign of confused thinking. When an otherwise healthy biological boy believes he is a girl, or an otherwise healthy biological girl believes she is a boy, an objective psychological problem exists that lies in the mind not the body, and it should be treated as such.
  1. Puberty is not a disease and puberty-blocking hormones can be dangerous. Reversible or not, puberty-blocking hormones induce a state of disease – the absence of puberty – and inhibit growth and fertility in a previously biologically healthy child.
  1. According to the DSM-V, as many as 98% of gender confused boys and 88% of gender confused girls eventually accept their biological sex after naturally passing through puberty.
  1. Children who use puberty blockers to impersonate the opposite sex will require cross-sex hormones in late adolescence. Cross-sex hormones (testosterone and estrogen) are associated with dangerous health risks including but not limited to high blood pressure, blood clots, stroke and cancer.
  1. Rates of suicide are twenty times greater among adults who use cross-sex hormones and undergo sex reassignment surgery, even in Sweden which is among the most LGBQT – affirming countries."
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RoyalCorgi · 06/12/2019 08:29

The thing about the American College of Pediatricians is that they're not an official professional body - they're just an advocacy group.

Lamahaha · 06/12/2019 08:29

hmmm... Why do so many topic have a vote button today? I certainly did not choose one, though I saw it beneath the dialogue box.

OP posts:
Joisanofthedales · 06/12/2019 08:29

Sense at last

Lamahaha · 06/12/2019 08:31

The thing about the American College of Pediatricians is that they're not an official professional body - they're just an advocacy group.

We need as many advocacy groups as possible to speak out. The more speaking out, the greater the likelihood they will be, collectively, heard. They all say the same thing.

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NonnyMouse1337 · 06/12/2019 08:31

I tried to do a quick search for the original source.

Could only find a post from September 2017 from the American College of Pediatricians.

www.acpeds.org/the-college-speaks/position-statements/gender-ideology-harms-children

Birdsfoottrefoil · 06/12/2019 08:32

The thing about the American College of Pediatricians is that they're not an official professional body - they're just an advocacy group.

You mean like WPATH?

Lamahaha · 06/12/2019 08:33

Yes, there's a link at the bottom of the article that doesn't work.
I'd guess that the group is being silenced? It's strange that it's published on "Israel wire", of all places.

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JellySlice · 06/12/2019 08:35

The thing about the American College of Pediatricians is that they're not an official professional body - they're just an advocacy group.

So are Stonewall.

So are the Yogyakarta Principles.

Lamahaha · 06/12/2019 08:38

Beneath the link posted by NonnyMouse, there's this:

The bottom line is this: Our opponents advocate a new scientifically baseless standard of care for children with a psychological condition (GD) that would otherwise resolve after puberty for the vast majority of patients concerned. Specifically, they advise: affirmation of children’s thoughts which are contrary to physical reality; the chemical castration of these children prior to puberty with GnRH agonists (puberty blockers which cause infertility, stunted growth, low bone density, and an unknown impact upon their brain development), and, finally, the permanent sterilization of these children prior to age 18 via cross-sex hormones. There is an obvious self-fulfilling nature to encouraging young GD children to impersonate the opposite sex and then institute pubertal suppression. If a boy who questions whether or not he is a boy (who is meant to grow into a man) is treated as a girl, then has his natural pubertal progression to manhood suppressed, have we not set in motion an inevitable outcome? All of his same sex peers develop into young men, his opposite sex friends develop into young women, but he remains a pre-pubertal boy. He will be left psychosocially isolated and alone. He will be left with the psychological impression that something is wrong. He will be less able to identify with his same sex peers and being male, and thus be more likely to self identify as “non-male” or female. Moreover, neuroscience reveals that the pre-frontal cortex of the brain which is responsible for judgment and risk assessment is not mature until the mid-twenties. Never has it been more scientifically clear that children and adolescents are incapable of making informed decisions regarding permanent, irreversible and life-altering medical interventions. For this reason, the College maintains it is abusive to promote this ideology, first and foremost for the well-being of the gender dysphoric children themselves, and secondly, for all of their non-gender-discordant peers, many of whom will subsequently question their own gender identity, and face violations of their right to bodily privacy and safety.

The full article is signed by the following: Michelle A. Cretella, M.D.
President of the American College of Pediatricians

Quentin Van Meter, M.D.
Vice President of the American College of Pediatricians
Pediatric Endocrinologist

Paul McHugh, M.D.
University Distinguished Service Professor of Psychiatry at Johns Hopkins Medical School and the former psychiatrist in chief at Johns Hopkins Hospital

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StealthPolarBear · 06/12/2019 08:38

Interesting

thirdfiddle · 06/12/2019 08:48

It's a sensible looking statement. Though I haven't checked references for the figures. Is it recent? I found a fact checker article about it dating way back.

www.acpeds.org/gender-dysphoria-in-children-summary-points

Unfortunately the organisation issuing is small and a quick Google suggests they're routinely smeared as conservative and anti-trans. More mainstream American Academy of Pediatricians seems to be affirmation and medication all the way.

www.snopes.com/fact-check/americas-pediatricians-gender-kids/

NightLion · 06/12/2019 08:54

Interesting survey result. Would the people who who voted YABU care to offer a scientific counter argument?

Lamahaha · 06/12/2019 09:18

There isn't a voting button. This is not AIBU. The vote option (on the main page) is a glitch.

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BarbaraStrozzi · 06/12/2019 09:25

The ACP is a far right, anti abortion (among other things) pressure group. Admittedly, as OP says so are Stonewall and WPATH (which is playing exactly the same propaganda game as ACP: attach an adjective like "American" or "World" to your entirely unofficial pressure group to make it sound like it's government or UN approved when it isn't).

But I think this is a case of "s stopped clock is right twice a day."

This matters because of the old line about the 3 possible responses to "my behaviour doesn't match society's expectations for someone with my type of body."

Genderist: fix your body.
Right winger: fix your behaviour.
Feminist: you're fine as you are, let's fix society's expectations.

My worry about the ACP is I think on a lot of issues they'd come down on the "fix your behaviour" side, which is not a world view I want to align with.

RoyalCorgi · 06/12/2019 09:25

So are Stonewall.

My point is that we shouldn't get excited about the fact that a small lobby group has come up with a statement that we approve of. The OP says it's "significant' - it isn't. If the American Academy of Pediatricians had issued this statement, then it certainly would be.

PlanDeRaccordement · 06/12/2019 09:30

I know the suicide statistic is correct. I have seen the Swedish study although the number was 19.7x increase in suicide or something, the 20 is a rounded up number.

It does mean we as a society are pressuring too many transgender people into gender change surgery because it’s doing more harm than good. It’s not a panacea that can help all transgender people.

I agree leaving children alone until after puberty is a good idea.

Lamahaha · 06/12/2019 09:49

The OP says it's "significant'

No I didn't. I said it "seems" significant. I even used a question mark in my first draft of the post as I know I often lack background information on certain groups and individuals.

As someone said upthread, even a stopped clock is right twice a day. To me it has always mattered the content, the truth of what is being said, not who said it.

I'm vegetarian. So was Hitler. Should I change my diet?

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IWantADifferentName · 06/12/2019 10:26

Well thank fuck somebody sees sense on this issue. I wish more people would speak out.

RoyalCorgi · 06/12/2019 14:44

OP, you seem to misunderstand me. I'm not saying they're wrong. I agree with them and you agree with them. That's all fine and dandy. I'm just saying it's not remotely significant - they have held this view for a long time and it's been discussed on here before. Every now and then someone gets excited because they imagine that this organisation is the official body representing paediatricians, and each time someone has to point out that they're not.

SetYourselfOnFire · 06/12/2019 16:07

This isn't new. To TRAs, Paul McHugh is a genocidal transphobe who literally murdered millions of trans people by shutting down John's Hopkins transgender surgery program as unethical in 1979.

somebrightmorning · 06/12/2019 16:26

it's a rather misleading title. They didn't reach a decision. They have always opposed this on principle, including religious principle

FWRLurker · 06/12/2019 17:09

This reply has been deleted

Message deleted by MNHQ. Here's a link to our Talk Guidelines.

DodoPatrol · 06/12/2019 17:09

I would eye them with deep suspicion.
'1. Human sexuality is an objective biological binary trait'. No, it isn't . Human sex is. If they can't even proofread point 1...

FWRLurker · 06/12/2019 17:09

Sorry. Herself