Part 1 in a series. Part 2 can be found here.

Parents of teen girls, are you under the mistaken and old-fashioned impression that your parenting opinions should be respected by other adults when it comes to how your children are raised? Do you have the outmoded idea that you should have any input at all into decisions that might have an impact on the physical health and wellbeing of your offspring?

You’re behind the times, mom and dad. Didn’t you know there is a network of organizations, run by well-meaning, unbiased adults who only have your child’s best interests at heart? These people know more about what’s good for your daughter—I mean, son–than you do. Step right up, because I’ve got some news for you.

When teen girls go online and wander into the lair of FTM transitioners, one of the biggest topics of discussion is breast binders.  Despite how uncomfortable and frankly dangerous to health they are, and despite the fact that breast tissue is not a cancer or wart to be done away with, but a vital aspect of a female’s body, no dysphoric teen would be without a breast binder, to hear it from their promoters.

One of the biggest binder pushers is an organization called TransActive Gender Center, which (among many other things) is in the business of sending out free binders to minor girls who can’t get their skeptical parents to jump on board the transition train.

Because of the excellent sleuthing work done by the intrepid GallusMag and others over at GenderTrender, the shady practices of this organization are coming to light. The Executive Director of TransActive, an MTF by the name of Jenn Burleton, came under quite a bit of heat in a comment thread recently for misrepresentations about the nature of this “non-profit” organization. It’s worth perusing the whole thread here: https://gendertrender.wordpress.com/2015/05/06/transgender-activists-campaign-against-puberty-blockers-for-transgender-children

In the thread, GallusMag sums up their “In a Bind” program for us:

^^^ Jenn Burleton is king of the munchausen mommies at TransActive, a transgendering children political lobbying group. He is also responsible for a program called “In A Bind”, which sends “Chest Binders” out to children in unmarked packages so that the children can compress their rib cages and crush their pubescent breast tissue. The practice is considered dangerous or even life threatening, which is why many otherwise supportive parents forbid it. Jenn’s service is designed to bypass parental consent by providing the chest compression devices directly to children in secrecy.

How difficult is it for a child to qualify for one of these free binders? It’s easy as can be.

https://www.transactiveonline.org/inabind/get.php

Age

All of our binders are sent to youth ages 21 and younger. If you are 22 or older, please do not fill out an application.

Need

Our binders go to people based on demonstration of actual need. ‘Need’ may be financial (can’t afford a new binder) or circumstantial (living with unsupportive parents). Please understand that we are a non-profit trying to help as many youth as possible. Please be honest with yourself and In a Bind when demonstrating need.

The “unsupportive parent” who might just have a few concerns about this in 2015 is the child abuser of yesteryear. Get with the program, you useless parents! (As an aside, I’ve been called a “child abuser” and told “I hope you die” multiple times by online strangers, typically childless, who fancy themselves parenting experts, because I dare to write this blog and have meaningful conversations with my own child about these matters.)

Are there any dangers to this practice of crushing pubescent breast tissue in a corset-like vice? Well, there are a few hazards, but they’re worth it! After all, gender dysphoria is the real deal, and any delay in folding, spindling, or mutilating healthy body parts is—well, it’s child abuse.

Yesterday, the blogger Stoptranschauvinism shared this helpful information about the dangers of breast binding from the McLean FTM top surgery clinic in Canada. The clinic specializes in top surgery. Hm. Wonder if they might have a reason to be publicizing this information? Nah. They’re just providing a public service.

From McLean clinic:

The following are some symptoms you should look out for:

• Loss of breath
• Back pain throughout the back or shoulders
• Increased pain or pressure with deep breaths

Collapsed Lungs

Since chest binding can lead to fractured ribs, this can increase the risk of puncturing or collapsing a lung. This happens when a broken rib punctures the lung, causing serious health issues.

Once the lung is punctured, it has a higher risk of collapsing because air can fill the spaces around the lungs and chest.

Back Problems

If you bind your chest too tightly then it can cause serious back issues by compressing the spine, which is part of your central nervous system. The spine controls many functions, and you need to be very careful when doing anything that may cause damage.

Back pain from chest binding can also be an indication that a lung has been injured. If the pain is coming from the upper back or shoulder, consult with a doctor for further examination to ensure proper lung health.

And the piece de resistance from McLean:

Fractured ribs, damaged blood vessels, or punctured lungs can cause difficulties down the line and may stop you from being able to move forward with surgery. Keeping these issues in mind will allow you get the most out of using chest binding.

…until the day Dr. McLean liberates you (and some of the funds in your bank account) to feel like this handsome, Zen-like fella:

But don’t take it from the unbiased McLean clinic. How about hearing directly from FTMs who use these devices? The Internet is full of binder horror stories (Truth About Transition would be a good place to start), and a quick YouTube search will turn up many such stories. Try a video search for “binding injury.”

So take heart, parents! Your son is in good hands with the likes of the TransActive Gender Clinic and, later (as soon as possible!) “renowned plastic surgeons.”

Below you will find a nearly verbatim conversation I had with a therapist when looking for someone to help my child. Trans activists insist that therapists and doctors are careful not to misdiagnose a person as transgender who is merely “gender nonconforming,” but this has not been my experience. I had similar conversations with 3 other “gender therapists,” all of which went pretty much the same as the one below.

I would caution any parent of a child who claims to be transgender to do your homework first before entrusting your offspring to the care of a psychologist, psychiatrist, or medical doctor. Get on the phone and ask lots of questions. If they say they must meet your child first, run the other way.

Finding a professional who hasn’t jumped on the transgender bandwagon will likely be a hunt for a needle in a haystack. What you want is a professional who is interested in working on underlying issues that may be causing your child pain–not just someone who will fast-track your daughter or son onto the transition conveyer belt.

Be wary of any therapist who supports “informed consent” for minors. In a nutshell, this is the latest push by trans activists to shorten the “transition” process, relying mostly on the child’s avowed self identification as the one and only criterion.

Be aware that online communities on Reddit, Tumblr, and YouTube are actively inciting young, gender-questioning people to identify as transgender, and to demand immediate hormones, surgery, and other interventions. Active recruitment and coaching is a reality, including encouragement to threaten self harm.  See the excellent blog, Transgender Reality for examples.

************************************************************************************************

“Gender” therapist: Oh, it is VERY VERY rare for a 16-year-old who says they are transgender to really be lesbian.

Me: Hm. Oh, really? Well, she has only had relationships with girls, watches nothing but lesbian love stories on TV, and, um, just started talking about all this last week. She never talked about wanting to be a boy before that YouTube binge.

“Gender” therapist: Well, I know you’re scared and it must be so hard to accept this.

Me: No, actually, I just don’t buy it. I’m not scared. I’m angry.

“Gender” therapist (nodding sympathetically, while thinking, “what a transphobe”): Uh, huh. Well, you know, there is nothing you or I can do if she is actually transgender.

Me: So, all she has to do is SAY she is and that’s it?

“Gender” therapist: I’m sorry, we’re out of time. That will be $150.

Mark Geier sued by Maryland State Board of Physicians for administering Lupron

So this man is a quack, someone who subscribes to loony autism theories. For years, he administered Lupron to little kids with autism, promising their hopeful parents a cure. Thankfully, he lost his license to practice medicine in several states, after being sued in 2011-12

In a St. Louis Today article about the court actions, we find this quote:

“There is no evidence that the drugs used by Dr. Geier have been helpful for any autistic children,” said Dr. Steven Rothman . “This is not a therapy that should be tried without very careful controls and really convincing preliminary evidence.”

Where are the “careful controls” and “convincing preliminary evidence” that Lupron is safe for administering to prepubescent children labeled “transgender” by their parents, “gender therapists,” and pediatricians?

Answer: There aren’t any.The only “evidence” we have is that these drugs can indeed block normal development of a child by preventing puberty, to pave the way for cross-sex hormones (and sterility) at puberty.  And “careful controls?”  The pediatric transition trend is an out-of-control horse that has already bolted from the barn.

http://sexnotgender.com/2013/03/20/activism-to-normalize-gender-transitioning-now-comes-at-childrens-expense/

Treatment with puberty delaying drugs leads to sterilization if it is followed with the administration of cross sex hormones at 16 years, as the Brill and Pepper handbook on “transgender” children (2008), explains, “the choice to progress from GnRH inhibitors to estrogen without fully experiencing male puberty should be viewed as giving up one’s fertility, and the family and child should be counseled accordingly” (Brill & Pepper, 2008, p. 216). For girls, sterilization is the outcome too, because “eggs do not mature until the body goes through puberty” (Brill & Pepper, 2008, p. 216).

Evidence-based practice is the gold standard in medicine. Also from the Geier court order we have this:

Adverse side effects of Lupron in children include, but are not limited to, risk of bone and heart damage…The Respondent endangers autistic children and exploits their parents by administering to the children a treatment protocol that has known substantial risk of serious harm and which is neither consistent with evidence-based medicine nor generally accepted in the relevant scientific community.

But ah, here we have the loophole for gender doctors. Lupron is today “generally accepted” (despite the serious lack of safety evidence) by the “relevant scientific community”–aka gender specialists. Reputable medical professionals who deal with autistic children reject Lupron as a valid treatment, but your friendly gender doctor is willing and eager to write that script for Billy or Suzie.

Coincidentally, it turns out that there is a high rate of autism diagnosed in people who are identified as transgender. But that is a post for another day.

As I’ve written on this blog several times, the increasing use of testosterone by teen girls and young women who are “transitioning” is not being studied in any systematic way. What we do have is some information on the use of testosterone–anabolic steroids–in female athletes.

I plan to eventually write a longer post on this issue, but as a start, at the bottom of this post are some links regarding the effect of testosterone on East German athletes. This was quite a scandal in the 1970s-80s, and many of these women have suffered lifelong ill health effects.

Before anyone hastens to assert that the “T” used in FTM “transition” is not the same as the doping of athletes: It’s true that any reputable doctor would not recommend the high dosage levels these women were subjected to. But here are three points to consider:

• Testosterone use in FTMs has not been studied rigorously, and there are no researchers actively recruiting subjects from the huge wave of young women currently taking “T. ” The studies that need to take place are long-term, longitudinal studies–following the women for a lifetime. See my post here:

The testosterone guinea pigs aren’t being recruited

I would love to be proven wrong on this, so please, readers, tell me about all the peer-reviewed research being conducted on all these girls and young women.

• Plenty of young women are getting their “T” not from doctors, but from transactivists who advertise their willingness to share their stashes. It is also very easy to order “T” online from shady dealers. I have also read blog posts from young FTMs who are experimenting with upping their testosterone dosage to achieve increased masculinization effects.
• On blogs like Truth About Transition, we see lots of anecdotal evidence, gathered by females who themselves are currently taking testosterone, of adverse effects. In fact, personal blogs are the closest thing we have to an actual evidence base on the chronic use of testosterone in women.

Some links:

Excerpt from this 2004 New York Times piece:

The words used in court were that the giving of relatively high doses of Oral-Turinabol to a girl around puberty has significantly contributed to development into transsexuality,“ said Franke, the molecular biologist whose research into the East German doping system formed the basis of the criminal prosecutions. Although the complex decision to have a sex change could not precisely be connected to steroids, the psychologist Ungerleider said,“Emotional fallout from high levels of testosterone can make people unsure who they are.”  

http://www.exberliner.com/features/lifestyle/doped-and-dropped%3A-the-endless-plight-of-former-east-german-athletes/

http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2007/10/31/1193618974100.html

http://www.swimmingworldmagazine.com/news/dopings-darkest-hour-the-east-germans-and-the-1976-montreal-games/

http://www.newsweek.com/east-germanys-steroid-shame-253840

Mom of 7-year-old boy plans to freeze her own eggs after she sterilizes him

It really is a brave new world. And now, the new frontier is parents and other family members harvesting their own eggs and sperm to be used by the kids they proactively chose to sterilize. The comments on GenderTrender are well worth the read too. Munchausen-by-proxy gone rogue. This is what passes for good parenting of elementary aged children now:

 “I have a transgender 7 year old daughter. She has become a beautiful, happy, vibrant person since she started transitioning a year ago. I have no reason to think her identity will change and neither does her therapist. 

Because she is so young, she will most likely go on puberty blockers before she ever creates sperm. If she then goes onto hormone treatments directly from the blockers, she will be sterile. She will never create sperm. She’s too young to tell me whether she might someday want biological children, and I strongly suspect, knowing her personality as I do, that she will not want to give up hormone treatments for the length of time it would take to create sperm, because the effects on HER would be, well, significant.

“She’s too young to tell me whether she might someday want biological children.”

…but not too young for you and her “therapist” to make that decision for your child. Orwell lives. Long live doublethink.

The actual headline to the article is:

 Head Transplants ‘Could Replace Gender Reassignment Surgery’ for Gender Dysphoria

Quote from lead neuroscientist in this piece: “There might be an ethical quagmire there. I’m not getting into it, I’ll leave that to society.“ Ya think?

That this is a serious article in effing NEWSWEEK magazine–about as mainstream as you get–shows how far down the rabbit hole we’ve gone because of trans activism. Head transplants…Head transplants! are actually being considered as a viable treatment option for gender dysphoria. Even if it’s a scientifically improbable idea, it is being contemplated. Is there any hope for sanity in this upside-down world?

Hey, here’s a radical idea: How about we reverse the equation and focus on changing the mind that believes it’s attached to the wrong body, instead of the other way around?

Update December 2016: Mark and Lynna appear to have changed their minds about youth transition, as well as transgenderism in general, multiple times since this video was made. The video is a snapshot in time but should not be viewed as a stable representation of the Cummings’ views.

The linked YouTube video (posted 4/28/15) is a must watch, straight from the horse’s mouth. When even prominent trans media figures like these^^ (Mark/Maritza Angelo Cummings, an FTM transitioned at 38, and Lynna Arielle Lopez, an MTF transitioned at 43) start strongly criticizing the use of puberty blockers for kids and the transgender trend raging with adolescents, maybe we might actually see some changes going forward.

Allies to be found in unexpected places. They sound like smokers who volunteer their time to caution others not to acquire the habit.

They pull no punches: they discuss Lupron dangers, the possibility that hormone treatments could aggravate issues like cutting/self harm, and the folly of dosing kids with hormones when their frontal lobes aren’t developed. They criticize the doctors who are too quick to diagnose gender dysphoria when many other mental health issues are prominent. They take on what they call the “cross dresser” community and trans activists who are pushing the current media narrative. They acknowledge the homophobia (internalized, as well as of professionals and parents) that feeds into transition of kids–a point of view that is pretty much heresy in trans activist circles. They even take on the biggest taboo of all: Suicidal threats by kids if they don’t get hormones and surgery. They contrast the initial glow of transition with the reality of years on hormones when the excitement fades.

I’ve transcribed and condensed just a few excerpts from this 37-minute plea for sanity, below. There is a lot more and I recommend watching the whole thing.

Disclaimer: I don’t agree with everything they say in the video, but I don’t have to. They seem to be sincerely interested in protecting gender nonconforming kids, and that’s my bailiwick.

Partial video transcript/excerpts:

Mark: In normal human development, normal and abnormal child psychology–which I study in my profession–every little boy or girl will explore with their gender roles….This thing is being blown out of proportion. Before there were hormones, before there were surgeries, we all lived. Didn’t commit suicide, didn’t hate life…

Lynna: The thing is, if you hate yourself, that isn’t a gender identity issue.

Mark: That’s a person issue….Look at what Michael Jackson did to himself. There is a psychological component to this “I don’t like myself” thing…

[A young MTF I talked to] didn’t want to be seen as a “gay boy.” And I think that plays a major role… A lot of these parents are like, “oh,  I don’t want my kid to be gay.” …Yeah, there’s this condition called “being transgender,” that fits the bill better.

There’s an agenda behind all this, and people don’t realize. Pharmaceuticals are involved, the politicians are involved, new sets of doctors that are actually working for or are part of the WPATH or that are trying to monopolize–like this Dr. Spack–”Mr. Quack.” He says, oh, if the child [is a cutter] and you give them the blocker and the cutting stops, that’s the tell-tale sign that says they’re trans. Do you know how many mental disorders are related to cutting? Bipolar, schizophrenia… it’s a list a mile long and has absolutely nothing to do with gender dysphoria.

Lynna: Endocrinologists are [one of the lower paid MDs]. So when they get this new crop of clientele that makes them lots of money…These puberty blockers are like $700 a month. And there’s some kind of device they install that is like $1500…

Mark: Notice how they’ve taken away the gatekeeper…There is a political agenda behind this…

Lynna: …All my MTF friends know to use these key terms now before they go to ask for the hormones. Like, “[I’ve felt like this since I] was 5 years old,” or “I used to wear my mom’s clothing” …

Mark: “And I wanna  hurt myself, because if I don’t get what I want, I’ll kill myself.” Suicide. Mention that, and radar goes up…

..For parents of trans kids, please do your research. Do not submit your kids to these dangerous drugs, when 80% of these kids revert back! It’s a stage, it’s a phase…. Being transgender is not about hormones or cutting off your breasts. Being transgender is a spiritual condition, and there’s nothing wrong with expressing both your male and female side.

So what if little boys are “feminine”? Doesn’t mean they need to be girls, or little girls who are “masculine” need to be boys. You know, this is the power of suggestion that has been pushed upon us as a weak community because of our wanting to belong and be accepted, and we need to wake up from this.

Do I regret doing this? [transition] …Would I have done things differently if I’d known another path? Yes. Because you lose a lot as a trans person. You’re taking away years from your life. You’re exposing yourself to all sorts of dangers. You lose jobs, you lose family, you lose friends. You lose it ALL. All for what? A delusion…

Lynna: What happens later, as you age? What will be the end, for us?

Mark: A lot of people don’t think about this, because when they’re in the glitz and the glamour, and they’re getting the boobies, and getting the muscles, if you’re a guy. We’re all tunnel vision, which is an obsessive compulsive behavior that most transgender people face. But when you get to be 70 years old … and you have to go to a nursing home? How many nursing homes are equipped to deal with trans people? Zero. And I’ve worked in nursing homes, I’m an occupational therapist…Even a regular older person.. gets treated like crap [by nursing assistants]. These are “normal” people. Can you imagine [a religious nursing aid seeing a transgender person]? “Oh, God, no, this is an abomination!” We don’t think about these things, we only think about the [good things] we do when we’re young… But what about when these medications really start kicking in and taking a toll? All the hormones that are synthetic and horrific for your health….heart attacks, strokes, more neurological impairment. What are you gonna do then?

Lynna: …and to think they want to give [hormones] to kids. It’s like barbaric.

Mark: It’s child abuse. And people are like, “well my child wants to commit suicide.” Look, children are very malleable. You don’t allow them to be exposed to social media which is constantly pushing, pushing, and probing… I didn’t transition until I was 38 years old. I didn’t even know about being transgender… I was a female body builder and I took steroids. And somebody said, “Are you FTM?” and I was like, what is that? Is that like a new machine or..Again it’s the power of suggestion. ..in 6 months, boom, I had my top surgery and my hysterectomy. I went to the gender specialist, and they’re like, “oh yeah, here you go!” [mimes prescription being written]

Lynna: And if you hadn’t been told anything, you would have been…

Mark: …a lesbian, yep. Still body building, but …

Mark: Crucify us if you want. But reality is reality. And what I’m seeing here is something very dangerous. We’re dealing with kids and these quack doctors, hurting these children. Someone’s gotta speak their mind.

Lynna: We can’t be silent about this issue. When innocent children are affected, and a population group is being sterilized, we have to say something.

Mark: I won’t mention names, but a trans child I know, who is now a little teenager, has been on the blockers. Reports are, more behavioral problems, depression…The limelight, the fame, the fortune. These parents who have Munchausen syndrome…there’s red flags all over the place.

Lynna: Gender is a hot topic right now. Our community is being thrown into the limelight, with the whole Bruce Jenner interview and all that… It’s not just a gender identity issue; we’re dealing with a neurological issue. I found out that I have Asperger’s just recently…Understanding is key… If you can avoid taking this path–

Mark: Please do.

Lynna: Because it’s a very rocky road. And not many people get to travel safely on this road.

Mark: And a lot of people don’t end up very well on this road. They end up dead, or with all sorts of other issues….a lot of trans people end up alone.

Lynna: The majority. It doesn’t even matter how beautiful they are.

Mark: [referring to the anger trans people have expressed to him because of his views] Temper tantrums galore. That’s part of the neurological impairment most of us [trans people] have. I’ve gotten to the point where I’m not gonna care….Truth hurts. What is it somebody said? When you’re making a difference, people get offended.

Mark: …[These kids] take the blockers, they have these side effects, then they’re infertile, they can’t have kids…

Lynna: Now they’re 25 or 30 years old.

Mark: …with mental problems, because that’s what happens: You didn’t develop fully because puberty is a normal thing to go through, people.

Lynna: It’s important to go through puberty without blocking it.

Mark: The body goes, “what’s going on, what’s happening?”

Lynna: What am I being blocked for?

Mark: The side effects are gonna be there. Pharmaceutical companies are gonna lie to you, say, “Oh, it’s ok. Nothing’s gonna happen.” BS!…they’re messing with your reality, they’re feeding into your crap. You know what’s happening? All this “transgender, transgender, transgender…”

Lynna:…you have a 4-year-old who’s transitioning, because Mommy says, “Would you like to be named…this boy name, instead of your girl name?” And then they’re like, “oh, yeah.” …“Do you want to go to school and be a boy?” And then they show them videos of differerent kids who transitioned and they’re like, “Do you wanna be like him?” Oh yes, I do. It’s the power of suggestion.

Mark: And the parents are thinking, wow, we’re gonna get media exposure, we might get a book deal….Look at this with Jazz. The book deal, the mermaid thing, it’s like, whoa…How many parents are like, I want my kid to be that, too…It’s like when the little girls get pushed into modeling… and beauty pageants. It’s no different. Munchausen syndrome. Pretty heavy stuff….If you think your kid is transgender, fine, let them express themselves, but don’t go putting them through dangerous stuff that you can’t take away later.

Lynna: It’s not reversible, as some say… Lupron affects people like 15 years later.

Mark: I’ve been at this since 2003…but what’s happening in this community now is disheartening. The advocates now are using the kids to promote their thing, to justify who they are. And it’s just sad.

Young lesbian decides to transition

This piece is two years old. Why must stories like this be confined to the lesbian and feminist blogosphere, while triumphant transition stories are saturating the media? The dots are easy to connect, but there is a willful ignoring on the part of journalists, “gender therapists,” and parents infected by transition fever. We must keep speaking out, and increase exposure of gender-critical alternatives until we break through the thick skin insulating public opinion inside the transition-is-the-answer bubble. We have to. We owe it to all the girls and young women who need our advocacy.

“I was reading some comments yesterday from straight men and women and it was pretty astonishing to see not only how little they know about lesbians and trans people, but also how little they really actually care about lesbians.Here is this blog, created and written by a butch lesbian about her lived experiences and her opinions based on those lived experiences and these straight women and men were commenting about how there is no such pressure to conform, there is no such pressure to transition. Hell, they even commented on how harmless the cotton ceiling is and how it doesn’t attempt shame lesbians into having sex with men who call themselves women.

Instead of believing a woman who has lived these experiences and knows about them first hand, these straight people also drank the trans kool-aid and believed the rhetoric spewed forth by the trans community. Instead of listening to what I had to say about lesbians, butches, and trans people, these women and men decided that I was just another silly woman screaming about how awful the menz are and that they shouldn’t take me seriously.

So it shouldn’t be surprising to see young butch dykes out there who are subjected to the trans propaganda, feel like they should transition. It shouldn’t be surprising that young dykes out there who are confronted daily by a society that ignores, ridicules, and even tries to exterminate butch lesbians, feel like they should transition. I shouldn’t be surprising that young dykes out there who hear from the straight community all of the homophobic, lesbophobic, and misogynistic crap they say about lesbians and women, while praising trans for “being brave,” feel like they should transition.

No, it isn’t surprising that this young woman was resigned to her fate. It isn’t surprising  that she was ready to stop being a lesbian and conform to what people everywhere shove down non-conforming women’s throats about transitioning. It isn’t surprising that she was ready to live life “as a man.” It’s heartbreaking, because I, like so many other women out there who refuse to conform to this patriarchal society’s demands, have been there; and sometimes, it’s just easier to go with the flow of those around you and do what is expected.

Someone on my Twitter joked about staging an intervention for this young woman; and I really wish we could. I wish a group of us could sit her down and tell her that she is beautiful and handsome and wonderful just the way she is, that she is part of a community filled with a rich and amazing history, that she is loved and cherished for the non-conforming woman that she is. Our intervention could even consist of women who I keep meeting through my blog, women who went through the transition stages in their attempts to become men and who, years later, regretted that decision and are on their way back to the women they always were.”

I got halfway through reading this, thinking it HAD to be satire, before realizing it was written in absolute seriousness. How long will it be before doctors are jailed or fined for daring to declare a newborn male or female at birth? [Bracketed comments by me]

Slate blogger considers newborn sex ID abusive

“Obstetricians, doctors, and midwives commit this procedure on infants every single day, in every single country. In reality, this treatment is performed almost universally without even asking for the parents’ consent, making this practice all the more insidious. It’s called infant gender assignment: When the doctor holds your child up to the harsh light of the delivery room, looks between its legs, and declares his opinion: It’s a boy or a girl, based on nothing more than a cursory assessment of your offspring’s genitals.”

[It’s just the doctor’s OPINION, readers!  He barely glanced at the kid’s genitals, not that those matter, anyway. Humans are exempt from sexual dimorphism, unique among mammals!]

“… With infant gender assignment, in a single moment your baby’s life is instantly and brutally reduced from such infinite potentials down to one concrete set of expectations and stereotypes, and any behavioral deviation from that will be severely punished—both intentionally through bigotry, and unintentionally through ignorance. That doctor (and the power structure behind him) plays a pivotal role in imposing those limits on helpless infants, without their consent, and without your informed consent as a parent. This issue deserves serious consideration by every parent, because no matter what gender identity your child ultimately adopts, infant gender assignment has effects that will last through their whole life.”

[Oh, just come out and say it! This is a conspiracy by the medical profession–the “power structure”–and pure infant child abuse.  Call child protective services!]

“… Infant gender assignment is a willful decision, and as a maturing society we need to judge whether it might be a wrong action. Why must we force this on kids at birth? What is achieved, besides reinforcing tradition? What could be the harm in letting a child wait to declare for themself who they are, once they’re old enough (which is generally believed to happen around age 2 or 3)?”

[“Generally believed” by increasing numbers of people (and journalists), but absolutely refuted by decades of data indicating that the vast majority of 2-year-olds who claim they are the opposite sex grow out of it!]

“Is it better to play the odds, or play it safe? Think carefully. Infant gender assignment might just be Russian roulette with your baby’s life.”

[You bad, abusive parent! Don’t you dare let some sinister midwife or OB-GYN misgender your newborn baby!]

Where the HELL are the reporters with the courage to push back against this nonsense??

Nearly every day, there is a glowing media report about the latest 5-year-old who has been identified as transgender. But one of many examples:

http://boston.cbslocal.com/2015/04/23/parents-share-5-year-old-sons-transgender-journey/

This headlong rush to diagnose minors who are gender nonconforming as “transgender” children needing psychological and medical intervention is a relatively new phenomenon, picking up speed only in the last decade or so.

In searching the clinical and research literature for the origin and motives behind the diagnosis of GID, I came upon this paper by Nancy Bartlett et al, published in the journal Sex Roles, December 2000. This article (original behind a paywall, but a copy linked here), critiques the DSM IV and the diagnosis of GID as fundamentally flawed and homophobic. The paper is chock-full of citations to studies indicating that gender dysphoria in children is generally transient. I’ll let the authors speak for themselves with the below excerpts. Page numbers refer to the original (paywalled) version.

I’ll say it again (and again and again): The current medical and media message is: “trans until proven otherwise.” This should be seen as malpractice, because sending small children to “gender therapists” and supporting and amplifying their (most likely transient) conviction that they are the opposite sex puts them on the conveyer belt to later medically “transition”—a lifetime of drugs and surgeries.  How many of these young children being currently diagnosed, if left alone, would have grown up to be non-dysphoric gay and lesbian people? At the rate this is all going, we will never know.

Update: This blogger is likely one of those who would have been groomed to be a transboy instead of growing up to be a lesbian, had she been born later.

https://chekistocrat.wordpress.com/2015/04/30/i-try-to-think-of-polite-titles-for-fucking-wankery/

(pg 761)

There is a lack of empirical evidence to support the notion of distress caused directly by GID …Certainly, child distress does not seem to be a common reason for referral of children with GID. Rather, the basis for clinical referral is more often parents’ or teachers’ concern regarding the child’s “intense involvement in overt cross-gender play” or the parents’ desire to prevent homosexuality in their child.

 …It has been proposed that distress among at least some children with GID is simply a response to having their desired manner of behaving thwarted (Di Ceglie, 1995; Meyer & Dupkin, 1985; Stoller, 1975; Sugar, 1995; Zucker, 2000). In the literature there are numerous accounts to support such a supposition.

(p 770)

Regardless of the fact that homosexuality is not officially considered a disordered outcome, the prevention of homosexuality remains a significant reason for referral of children with GID. It would be naive to believe that prevention of homosexuality is not a motivating factor for at least some of the clinicians who work with children referred for gender-atypicality. Indeed, some researchers and clinicians in the area of GID in children are quite open about such a goal, writing books (e.g., Rekers, 1982, 1991) or belonging to organizations devoted to the prevention of homosexuality (e.g., L. Loeb: see www.narth.com/menus/advisors.html). Thus, although the issue of the risk associated with a homosexual outcome should be moot, it is not. It is crucial that researchers and clinicians in the area of GID in children recognize that the most likely outcome for children with GID, with or without treatment (Green, 1987), is homosexuality, and that homosexuality is a nondisordered outcome. Only a very few children with GID continue to have GID as adolescents or adults.

(p 773)

Retrospective data show that homosexual men and women remember higher rates of childhood cross-gender behavior than do their heterosexual counterparts (see Bailey & Zucker, 1995, for a review). Data from retrospective studies of gay men and lesbians tend to indicate similar childhood gender nonconforming experiences as do prospective studies (cf. Phillips & Over, 1992). Compared to their heterosexual counterparts, for example, more gay men and lesbians recall having enjoyed “cross-gender” activities, dressing like the other sex, and pretending to be the other sex (Bell, Weinberg, & Hammersmith, 1981).

( p775)

…Moreover, much empirical evidence points to GID in those children as nothing more than a conflict between the individual and society, given that the most likely psychosexual outcome, whether a child does or does not receive treatment for GID, is homosexuality. Several authors have noted that it is ironic that the DSM-IV has a category for a childhood psychopathology for which the most likely predicted outcome is homosexuality, which has not been formally considered a pathology for over a quarter of a century (Fagot, 1992; Green, 1994). Labelling children as gender-disturbed when their most likely psychosexual outcome is homosexual is of questionable value, when the DSM-IV does not include this outcome as disordered. It is troubling that in the current peer-reviewed literature, despite it not being officially considered a mental disorder, homosexuality continues to be labelled as a “sex-role disturbance,” a “severe sexual problem,” or even a “diagnosis” (e.g., Dahl, 1988; Rekers, 1986).

(p 773)

Ironically, it seems to have been generally accepted in the literature that children with GID are at high risk for adolescent or adult GID (see APA, 1987; Bradley & Zucker, 1990; Rekers, Bentler, Rosen, & Lovaas, 1977; Rosen, Rekers, & Bentler, 1978; Zucker, 1985; Zucker&Green, 1992). Indeed, this line of reasoning has provided much of the basis for endorsing treatment for children with GID, which is unsettling given that a relatively large body of empirical evidence points to GID in adolescence or adulthood as being an outcome for only a small percentage of children with GID.

(p 777)

The previous notion of sexual inversion, and more recently, of homosexuality as mental disorders should be a reminder to mental health professionals about psychiatry’s power to pathologize those who do not fit the social norm (Bem, 1993). With homosexuality as the most likely psychosexual outcome for a child with GID, APA’s Position Statement on Homosexuality is relevant. In 1993, the American Psychiatric Association’s Committee on Gay, Lesbian, and Bisexual Issues of the Council on National Affairs called on organizations and individuals to “do all that is possible to decrease the stigma related to homosexuality wherever and whenever it may occur” (p. 686). It seems as though the inclusion of GID in children as it appears in the DSM-IV does little in responding to this appeal. Although the focus of this paper was on GID in children, it raises a larger question about the concept of “pathology” in general. To what extent do other “disorders” represent conditions that simply violate societal norms?