LGBTQ Activists Say Puberty Blockers are a Form of #Castration and Conversion Therapy, in an Attempt to "Trans Away The Gay"
The trending topic of castration is flooding social media today, amidst concerns for off-label puberty blockers prescribed to children. Upon the announcement of the Tavistock Institute closing in the U.K., former clinicians are speaking out about their experience, and it's coloring the debate of puberty blockers in adolescence, with a new perspective.
Five former clinicians at Tavistock speak out for the first time in a
Times article published on August 8, 2022.
"So many potentially gay children were being sent down the pathway to change gender, two of the clinicians said there was a dark joke among staff that 'there would be no gay people left'."
“It feels like conversion therapy for gay children,” one male clinician said. “I frequently had cases where people started identifying as trans after months of horrendous bullying for being gay,” he told The Times.
“Young lesbians considered at the bottom of the heap suddenly found they were really popular when they said they were trans.”
Another female clinician said: “We heard a lot of homophobia which we felt nobody was challenging. A lot of the girls would come in and say, ‘I’m not a lesbian. I fell in love with my best girl friend but then I went online and realized I’m not a lesbian, I’m a boy. Phew.’”
Clinicians also disclosed that referrals for puberty blockers were occurring after three hour sessions, without proper disclosure or informed consent. Studies show that the vast majority of youngsters who begin puberty blockers go on to have irreversible hormone treatment as early as age 16.
The five clinicians speaking out, have since left the institute, ahead of its closure. All five have expressed concerns about informed consent regarding fertility impairment, citing that it was considered "taboo" to discuss the impact of medical intervention on later sexual function in such a young cohort.
People have taken to twitter and other social media platforms, expressing outrage at the homophobia and "chemical castration" of gay and lesbian children.
The LGBTQ community appears divided on the issue,
with some arguing that "pink boys" should be accepted without rushing towards reassignment surgery. "Some pink boys may benefit simply from meeting a swishy gay man—or better yet, two or three such men who can show them you can grow from being a pink boy to a pink man and have (dare I say it?) a fabulous life," reads an excerpt from an article written by Alice Dregar, a trans activist and professor of medical humanities and bioethics at Northwestern University's Feinberg School of Medicine.
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Dregar had received an email from the mother of a "pink-boy" after she had published the Hastings Center Report called "Gender Identity Disorder in Childhood: Inconclusive Advice to Parents.
Dregar writes,
"It's worth keeping in mind that in North America, some of the advocates of the "therapeutic" approach to childhood gender dysphoria have had a very negative view of sexual minorities, and so they've sought to "cure" children who might otherwise turn out gay, lesbian, bi, or transgender. That's changed to some extent, and thank goodness. But now I really think we are seeing a problem coming in on the other end, namely that strong advocates of the accommodation approach are, I worry, too quick to conclude that a gender non-conforming child is destined to be transgender. The move toward transitioning children early may look progressive, but if you step back, you have to wonder why the Samoan approach (a cultural reference to boys wearing dresses) isn't the most progressive.
"I actually had a (truly) progressive pediatric endocrinologist at one of my talks express just this concern to me a few months ago—the concern that kids are being sent the route of sex-change too quickly. What we know about gender dysphoria in childhood suggests that we don't actually know that much. Outcomes vary wildly, and it isn't clear what effects clinical interventions have, if any.
"In case it isn't obvious, sending a child the transgender route is not trivial. Lupron is typically used to delay puberty (to avoid unwanted pubertal changes), but this use of Lupron is off-label and poorly studied. Endocrinologists all over the country have worried to me about the long-term effects of this use. Surgical sex change will render a person infertile, in need of lifelong hormone replacement therapy, and carries significant risk to sexual function and physical health."
Reaffirming gender-stereotypes- Within the feminist community, the topic of transitioning is said to
reinforce gender stereotypes of ultra-feminine women and super masculine men.
Gloria Steinem wrote In her 1983 book
Outrageous Acts and Everyday Rebellions;
"Transsexuals are paying an extreme tribute to the power of sex roles. In order to set their real human personalities free, they surgically mutilate their own bodies: anything to win from this biased society — where minor differences or hormones and genitals are supposed to dictate total lives and personalities — the right to be who they individually are as human beings."
Janice Raymond, another leader of the feminist movement writes;
"Instead of serving more lifesaving but often less lucrative needs for their surgical and hormone-therapy skills, some physicians are aiding individuals who are desperately trying to conform to an unjust society." Raymond refers to this pharmaceutical push as the transsexual empire, which has been labeled as tans-phobic rhetoric. Despite the pushback from transgender activists, neither have apologized or retracted their statements.
Transgender advocates feel very strongly that access to early intervention can save lives. While studies indicate that sex reassignment can save lives for adults who are transgender, the problem is that it's hard to tell if kids are transgender or simply non-conforming.
In a large percentage of children, gender appears to be a more fluid concept, with actual dysphoria dissipating with age. We also know that a significant number of gay men report having had interests in wearing typically-feminine clothes and doing traditionally-feminine activities as children. So the issue of labeling children as gender dysphoric; e.g when a boy wants to wear or a dress, or a girl wants to ride dirt bikes, becomes more complicated when deciding who will need an endocrinologist, or even a psychologist.
The issue is further compounded by the Biden Administration's new policy to affirm, which has
now become interwoven through Medicaid policies, and state laws.
Critics of the new policies say it's a way to create life-long patients for the pharmaceutical lobby. Others contend that the use of off-label puberty blockers in children causes irreversible damages. Activist say however, that it's a way to save the lives of transgendered teens and adults. Going forward, a balance will need to be struck that both; saves lives, and protects children from opportunistic drug companies.
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--Breeauna Sagdal- Health and Policy Journalist for The Dakota Leader| Post Date: 2022-08-24 13:31:44 | Last Update: 2022-08-25 20:30:45 |
