11.30.23 – Epoch Times

“New Trans Textbook for Psychiatrists Could Harm Millions of Kids, Critics Say”

By Darlene McCormick Sanchez

The textbook could make it more difficult for practitioners who disagree with the 'gender-affirming care' model, critics say.

A new "cutting-edge" textbook on transgenderism written with the help of activists will be used to train psychiatrists and could harm millions of children in the future, some experts have warned.

"Gender-Affirming Psychiatric Care," just released on Amazon at $58, is a textbook printed by American Psychiatric Association (APA) Publishing.

The textbook signals early on that it's more subjective than objective, quoting a feminist studies professor saying, "Scientific neutrality is a fallacy."

The content has prompted some critics to question the textbook's reliance on a mix of transgender-identifying professionals writing about their experiences, limited scientific studies, and neo-Marxist critical theories.

"This is a huge issue; millions more kids will be harmed," said Dr. Lauren Schwartz, a psychiatrist in Oklahoma speaking out against the rush to "transition" children.

The textbook's introduction says the book is based on an "evidence-informed approach" instead of an evidence-based approach, which is more scientific, she told The Epoch Times.

The 26 chapters are written by 56 authors, 50 of whom are in the transgender community, according to the textbook's foreword.

Chapters include affirming "two-spirit people," a term used to refer to someone who believes he or she is both sexes, and one about "double queer" people—or people who identify as transgender and have a mental disability.

The book's editors are listed as an associate professor of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School and investigator at the National LGBT Health Education Center; and a transgender-identifying psychiatry resident at the University of Pennsylvania, whose work is influenced by her background as a "non-binary/trans, queer, neurodivergent, chronically ill, Jewish person."

…

‘DISTURBING GIBBERISH’

The problem is the textbook will be perceived as authoritative because it was printed by the APA's publishing arm, she said.

"Anyone wanting to practice gender-affirming care, any attorney wanting to defend it, and any legislator who wants to protect it, now they have a new peer-reviewed textbook, not just 'evidence' in a journal or a study," she said.

Alan Hopewell, a prescribing neuropsychologist in Texas who saw transgender-identifying patients decades ago, called the textbook "disturbing."

"This is nonsensical gibberish which has no foundation whatsoever in science," he told The Epoch Times.

Hospitals could demand doctors go by the textbook because the APA put it out, or it could even be used to remove the license of doctors who don't go along with it, he said.

…

It [the book] asserts that the psychiatric field was built on "the work [and assumptions] of European, white, cisgender men, including their colonial, Anglo-centric, cis-heteropatriarchal worldview and pathologization of experiences that did not fit their own 'norm.'"

The idea that Western countries were colonizing land stolen from indigenous people is part of critical race theory (CRT), which critics say is rooted in neo-Marxism.

STRAIGHT WHITE BIAS

CRT and gender theories see white people and heterosexuals in Western civilization as "oppressors" of minority identity groups, who are viewed as victims…

Proponents of CRT and gender theories contend that discrimination against identity groups such as white people and heterosexuals is needed to right the wrongs against racial and sexual minorities…

Queer theory is a gender ideology advocating the destruction of traditional sexual norms; some queer theorists support sexual acts such as pedophilia and bestiality that aren't accepted by society.

The textbook describes heterosexuals as cisgender people who are part of a "cultural and systemic marginalization" of LGBT people who don't align with societal norms.

To prove the point, the authors object to the idea that only women can have babies.

"For example, naming an obstetrics and gynecology practice a women's health center is cis-normative because it assumes the practice will only serve patients with one gender," the foreword reads.

Mr. Lindsay, author of "The Marxification of Education," said the idea of "treating" gender dysphoria with hormones or surgery is akin to performing lobotomies on the mentally ill decades ago…

Dallas attorney Ron Miller agreed that a textbook affirming gender transitioning could lead to the harming of millions of children through sterilization and side effects from hormones and surgery.

He started a boutique law firm to represent de-transitioners, who no longer identify as the opposite of their birth sex. His clients are suing doctors who prescribed hormones and surgery for gender dysphoria.

Like Dr. Schwartz, he told The Epoch Times that he sees danger ahead if the textbook is universally adopted.

Mr. Miller pointed to the American Academy of Pediatrics, which came out with guidance on "gender-affirming care" for children in 2018.

..Likewise, a textbook put out by a professional psychiatric organization such as the APA is seen as credible, Mr. Miller said.

However, studies referenced in the textbook have come under fire for being flawed, such as the Dutch Protocol studies that are the basis of the affirmation model used today.

"The studies that they're referencing in this textbook are all low-quality studies," he said.

The professional psychological [American Psychiatric Association – APA] organization says it's made up of 146,000 researchers, educators, clinicians, consultants, and students of psychiatry in the United States.

These "standards" end up trickling down, even into elementary schools, where school counselors could affirm millions of children, Mr. Miller said…

 

'DOUBLE QUEER'

The textbook discussed "double queer" children, who are confused about their gender and suffer from other mental disorders. It addresses the effects of hormones administered to these transgender-identifying children with coexisting cognitive ailments.

Queer is used in this term to mean outside of what is considered normal.

One chapter gives a scenario of a boy called Rosie with a history of attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) whose endocrinologist recommends starting him on puberty blockers because he is worried about the changes puberty will bring.

The parents are concerned about the interaction of hormone blockers and ADHD medicine in the scenario.

The chapter goes on to assert that puberty blockers "have been used safely in children of all genders" to pause early-onset puberty and to treat prostate cancer in adults.

It also claims that "pubertal suppression is fully reversible.

The idea that there are no consequences for puberty blockers "is the opposite of everything coming out of Europe," Dr. Schwartz said.

"That's the lie that they're promoting all across the country," Mr. Hopewell said.

He contended that puberty blockers can affect bone growth and brain development in adolescents, noting that the brain controls hormones.

Hormone drugs such as Lupron, which suppress testosterone production, also must be managed carefully, Mr. Hopewell said.

But the textbook said "gender-affirming" hormones appear to be "overwhelmingly safe and linked with positive outcomes."

…The textbook noted that evidence on cardiovascular risk associated with cross-sex hormones is mixed.

However, a new Danish study reinforces medical evidence that transgender-identifying people taking cross-sex hormones dramatically increases their chances of developing heart disease.

Published in the European Journal of Endocrinology in August, the study [8.5.22 -- https://academic.oup.com/ejendo/article-abstract/187/3/463/6972096?login=false]  included 2,671 transgender-identifying people in their early to mid-20s who took cross-sex hormones in Denmark.

The study showed that the risk of developing heart disease for males and females taking cross-sex hormones was "significantly higher" than those in the control group.

Besides ADHD, the textbook talks about the presence of other conditions frequently associated with gender dysphoria, such as autism and obsessive-compulsive disorder.

The chapter states that an autism diagnosis could "interfere" with transgender health care by "causing clinicians to be more cautious than they otherwise would be."

Mr. Hopewell said the book seems to blame "evil doctors" who want to treat autism as causing problems for autistic children who want to transition. He said that caution should be used when dealing with society's most vulnerable children, instead of pushing them into "treatment."

"You're taking an autistic kid and convincing them of this nonsense," he said.