Issues@Hand

AFA initiatives, Christian activism, news briefs

June 2018 – The Journal of Adolescent Health published a study by University of Texas researchers claiming transgendered teens who changed their names and publicly claim a gender change, “affirm their gender identity and reduce mental health risks known to be high in this group.”

The study claimed to be “remarkably ethnically and geographically diverse and diverse in terms of social class.”

However, Dr. Michelle Cretella, president of American College of Pediatricians, saw the exact opposite.

“This is a woefully small study that is not at all representative of children who self-identify as transgender nationwide,” Cretella said. “Consequently, the statistics derived from it are meaningless and the conclusions false.”

Unfortunately, there are real-world applications from studies such as this. In Hamilton County, Ohio, a 17-year-old teen took his parents to court because they did not allow him to begin hormone therapy that would begin his transition into a woman.

Juvenile court judge Sylvia Hendon granted custody to his grandparents who, according to the prosecutor, “accept their grandson for who he is.”

The parents said they took their son to the Cincinnati Children’s hospital in 2006 for anxiety and depression and were shocked when he returned home with a diagnosis of gender dysphoria.

Cretella sees danger in encouraging children and teens in their gender dysphoria: “At best, cooperating with a child’s fantasy or delusion of being trapped in the wrong body temporarily mutes the impact of significant underlying emotional and psychological problems… .”

lifesitenews.com, 4/4/18; cincinnati.com, 2/16/18