The American College of Pediatricians (ACP) issued a
position statement last month entitled “Gender Ideology Harms Children,” which
will be followed by a peer-reviewed statement on the subject that’s expected to
be released by summer, ACP told CNSNews.com.
“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,” the
statement issued on Feb. 2 stated. “Facts
— not ideology — determine reality.”
This statement — written by Dr. Michelle A. Cretella,
president of the ACP, Dr. Quentin Van Meter, vice president of the ACP and a
pediatric endocrinologist, and Dr. Paul McHugh, university distinguished
service professor of psychiatry at Johns Hopkins Medical School and the former
psychiatrist-in-chief at Johns Hopkins Hospital — cites eight reasons why “gender
ideology” instead of treatment based on biological facts is harmful to
children.
The first point is, “Human sexuality is an objective
biological binary trait: ‘XY’ and ‘XX’ are genetic markers of health — not
genetic markers of a disorder,” with the purpose of male and female being “the
reproduction and flourishing of our species.”
It notes “exceedingly rare exceptions of sexual differentiation,” which
are disorders but do not represent a “third sex.”
Secondly, “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.” The statement added
that self-awareness develops over time and can be “derailed” by the experiences
and information a child receives from infancy forward. Further, no matter what sex a person imagines
themselves to be, they remain either a biological male or a biological female.
The third point is that, “A person’s belief that he or she
is something they are not is, at best, a sign of confused thinking” or the
child could suffer from gender dysphoria — “an objective psychological problem ...
that lies in the mind not the body, and it should be treated as such.”
Fourth, “Puberty is not a disease and puberty-blocking
hormones can be dangerous” by inhibiting growth and fertility, according to the
position statement.
According to the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental
Disorders, the statement fifthly says, “as many as 98% of gender confused boys
and 88% of gender confused girls eventually accept their biological sex after
naturally passing through puberty.”
The sixth point is that “children who use puberty blockers
to impersonate the opposite sex will require cross-sex hormones in late
adolescence. Cross-sex hormones are
associated with dangerous health risks including – but not limited to – high
blood pressure, blood clots, stroke and cancer.”
The seventh point states, “Rates of suicide are 20 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.”
The eighth point calls chemical and surgical treatment of
children based on “gender ideology” 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.”
ACP is a non-profit organization founded in 2002, and states
as its mission: “The Mission of the American College of Pediatricians is to
enable all children to reach their optimal physical and emotional health and
well-being. To this end, we recognize
the basic father-mother family unit, within the context of marriage, to be the
optimal setting for childhood development, but pledge our support to all
children, regardless of their circumstances.”
Rev. Dr.
Kenneth L. Beale, Jr.
Chaplain
(Colonel-Ret), U.S. Army
Pastor,
Ft. Snelling Memorial Chapel
Simply put - the study confirms what we've known all along!
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