Our last speaker @moladinsky runs the gender clinic at the University of Alabama. She just described a suicide as “boldly stepping in front of a truck.” She repeated the word boldly.
I, I can’t even. . .
Glorifying suicide is unprofessional and dangerous.
As pediatricians, we’ve forgotten what we’ve been taught about childhood development. We’ve forgotten what we’ve been taught about suicide prevention.
We’re ignoring what our colleagues in Sweden & Finland & the United Kingdom have realized.
We’re concretizing gender ideation.
Yesterday I attended an excellent seminar on suicide prevention by @drlisamhorowitz
She was shocked to hear that professionals are telling parents, in front of their kids, that their child is likely to kill themselves if not affirmed in their gender ideation.
Here’s my iPhone video of Dr. Ladinsky glorifying suicide in a 16 year old. In case you were thinking I misunderstood.
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🧵: Back in February I participated in a webinar about free speech, hosted by the Harvard Business School Club of New York. It was called “Misinformation and Hate Speech: Who Gets To Decide?” hbscny.org/events/registe…
There were multiple speakers, including Nadine Strossen, the former President of the ACLU (I would add - back when it was pro free speech, from 1991-2008) and Lisa Littman MD (@LisaLittman1).
(Can I note, there are still people out there who think Dr. Littman’s article on ROGD was “retracted” or “debunked?” It was not, you can still read it here: journals.plos.org/plosone/articl…
It was three years ago that @LisaLittman1 published her seminal work on adolescent onset gender dysphoria, a new phenomena not previously described in the scientific literature. In honor of her work, @genspect has declared August 16 to be #RogdAwarenessDay
I recently had a conversation with a pediatric psychiatrist about a troubled 12 yr old who has been self harming via cutting for more than a year. As we were discussing the case, the psychiatrist tells me that the girl has expressed discomfort with her gender. (1/4)
I responded “Of course - she's a stressed out 12 yr old girl in Portland in 2021, it's not surprising she would want a get out of girl card, but that makes me wonder if there's a history of sexual abuse." (2/4)
Instead of turning me in to the woke police, the psychiatrist seemed very relieved to hear me say that, and she agreed that medical transition can be seen as a new form of self-harm for stressed kids. (3/4)
An "all inclusive feminist" shared an article with me, to educate me about detransitioners. I read it when it came out last December, but let's take a look, shall we?
It starts by suggesting that major media outlets are exaggerating the number and significance of detransitioners, "fueling misconceptions about the gender transition process."
"“The media are conjuring up a panic about trans lives." says Lui Asquith, who works for Mermaids:
More: "The information that does exist appears to corroborate Asquith’s claim. In a 2015 survey of nearly 28,000 people . . . "
Ooh, ooh! I know this survey! Hold on, I've got a whole thread about it:
I recently re-read a super useful article about how adults can respond to children who express gender dysphoria. It's from 2012, by David Schwartz Ph.D. and it's called "Listening to Children Imagining Gender: Observing the Inflation of an Idea."
I'm not the first person to admire this article, but I've just got to share a few lines because they really spoke to me as a pediatrician.
I spend my days advising parents on the sometimes confusing behavior of their children. A line I use a lot is "kids do what works."
By this I mean that young children are pre-logical - they don't figure things out like adults (hopefully)do. What they have are AMAZING memories. Your 3 yr old remembers what happened three days ago far better than you do.
(Your brain is full! You've got a lot on your mind.)
Why am I speaking up? Partly because I can, and as @amandapalmer says "If you can, you must."
Most pediatricians see gender as a difficult and fraught topic, and it just feels safe to just refer any kids with gender dysphoria to the gender clinic. They're the experts, right?
But over at the gender clinic, they aren't exploring the patient's history, looking for ACE's. They aren't getting into comorbid conditions, like ADHD and ASD. They are starting with affirmation and moving briskly into transition.
And the medical risks are real, for that path
Alternative models for dealing with gender dysphoria are not offered - they are not even considered. It's called "conversion therapy" and outlawed.
Many detransitioners still have gender dysphoria, they've just come up with less hazardous ways to deal with it.