The American College of Pediatricians reaffirmed the biological differences between men and women and condemned the idea of teaching kids early on that gender identity is fluid as “child abuse.” In a preliminary statement released on Monday, the group of over 400 pediatricians nationwide listed eight points explaining their position scientifically.
Perhaps the most compelling is the last point, where the organization unequivocally condemned miseducating young people (emphasis theirs):
Conditioning children into believing a lifetime of chemical and surgical impersonation of the opposite sex is normal and healthful is child abuse. Endorsing gender discordance as normal via public education and legal policies will confuse children and parents, leading more children to present to “gender clinics” where they will be given puberty-blocking drugs. This, in turn, virtually ensures that they will “choose” a lifetime of carcinogenic and otherwise toxic cross-sex hormones, and likely consider unnecessary surgical mutilation of their healthy body parts as young adults.
In the past few years, books and TV shows promoting transgenderism have been targeted toward children and young adults, with the goal of reaching people before they are old enough to question the ideology of self-described gender. This is to say nothing of Bruce “Call Me Caitlyn” Jenner, the former Olympic athlete turned transgender icon. The American College of Pediatricians seeks to reverse this trend, and has data to back up their objections to it. “Facts — not ideology — determine reality,” the statement declares.
Here are the eight points made by the college, in plain language:
1. Humans are male and female, biologically.
Science is straightforward about this: a person’s DNA either has two “X” chromosomes or one “X” and one “Y”. These are “genetic markers of health — not genetic markers of a disorder.” Scientifically, human sexuality is “binary by design” with the aim of reproduction. Disorders of sex development (DSDs) are “rightly recognized as disorders,” and those who suffer from them “do not constitute a third sex.”
2. Gender is not objective, but sex is.
The college defines gender as an awareness of being male or female. This awareness develops over time and may be derailed by various life events. People who “feel like the opposite sex” do not compromise a third sex, but remain biologically male or female. No matter what their stated gender identity, they cannot escape sexual reality, and to think that they can is a delusion.
Next Page: Transgender Thinking is “Confused” and Leads to Higher Suicide Rates
3. Transgender thinking is confused.
“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,” the college writes (emphasis added). This is a psychological condition known as gender dysphoria (GD) and it is recognized as a mental disorder in the Disgnostic and Statistical Manual of the American Psychiatric Association (DSM-V).
4. Puberty-blocking hormones are dangerous.
Some transgender advocates push for using hormones to block the natural development of puberty among boys and girls. These hormones “induce a state of disease — the absence of puberty — and inhibit growth and fertility in a previously biologically healthy child.” Far from a cure, they are a poison.
5. The vast majority of “transgender” boys and girls will accept their natural sex.
As many as 98 percent of gender-confused boys and 88 percent of gender-confused girls eventually accept their original biological sex after puberty.
6. Using puberty-blocking hormones as a kid will endanger you as an adult.
Children who use hormones to block puberty in order to impersonate the opposite sex will need cross-sex hormones (testosterone and estrogen) in late adolescence. Blocking puberty screws up the body, and these cross-sex hormones will add to that disease, as they are associated with dangerous health risks including high blood pressure, blood clots, stroke, and cancer. Ouch.
7. Transgenderism leads to higher suicide rates.
The college notes that rates of suicide are twenty times greater among adults who use cross-sex hormones and undergo sex-reassignment surgery. This holds true even in Sweden, which is one of the most LGBTQ-affirming countries.
8. Teaching kids this is good and right is child abuse.
Now we come full circle. Transgender ideology is harming our children, teaching them lies about human biology that have been disproved by science. This is child abuse, and it is refreshing to see a group of over 400 pediatricians denouncing it.
Join the conversation as a VIP Member