Transcendence: Youth Trans Critical Professionals
“This website is a community of professionals thinking critically about the youth transgender movement. We are psychologists, social workers, doctors, medical ethicists, and academics.We tend to be left-leaning, open-minded, and pro-gay rights. However, we are concerned about the current trend to quickly diagnose and affirm young people as transgender, often setting them down a path toward medical transition.”
“Our concern is with medical transition for children and youth. We feel that unnecessary surgeries and/or hormonal treatments which have not been proven safe in the long-term represent significant risks for young people. Policies that encourage — either directly or indirectly — such medical treatment for young people who may not be able to evaluate the risks and benefits are highly suspect, in our opinion.”
“Medical transition can involve administering puberty blockers and cross-sex hormones to young children. These drugs are being used off-label. The long term side effects are not known, but there is cause for concern. They can certainly result in permanent sterilization of a child who has not even been allowed to go through puberty. In essence, the rush to treat transgender children medically is a massive experiment.”
“In many cases, these young people come to identify as trans after binges on social media sites such as tumblr, reddit, or YouTube. There is evidence that vulnerable young people are being actively recruited and coached on such sites to believe that they are trans. Social contagion is almost certainly playing a role as well. In many schools and communities, there are entire peer groups “coming out” as trans at the same time. In many cases, these young people may be suffering from mental health problems such as anxiety or depression that leave them easy prey to the cult-like tactics on these online trans activists.”
http://youthtranscriticalprofessionals.org/
It can seem to parents seeking support that “affirmation of a child’s ‘gender identity’” is a widely recognised and supported ‘best practice.’ In fact, many clinicians are skeptical and feel compromised in their professional judgment due to the prevailing climate where any questioning is framed as ‘transphobic.’ Clinicians who do express doubts have to do so anonymously. We applaud the professionals who have set up this site and encourage everyone to share it widely: it is an invaluable resource and a voice which needs to be heard.
via New Site From Youth Trans Critical Professionals – Transgender Trend.
The Politics of Gender 