There seems to be a lot of controversy surrounding the transgender bathroom issue.
The transgender community feels that they should be free to choose a male or female
bathroom regardless of their biology, while many non-transgender people would like access
to bathrooms to remain biology based.
The question then becomes, should bathroom access remain solely based on gender biology or be
changed to include gender feelings?
Time.com’s Katy Steinmetz in her July 28, 2015 article titled ‘Everything You Need to Know About the
Debate Over Transgender People and Bathrooms’, explains how bathrooms and fights for civil rights go
hand in hand.
She writes, “In the Jim Crow era, bathrooms—along with water fountains and lunch counters—were places that might be marked with “white only” signs.”
Speaking about a parent’s reluctance to accept a child’s transgender identity Katy writes, “For transgender kids, that might take the form of parents insisting that they’re going through
a phase or putting them in conversion therapy.”
Now that we have a better understanding of Time.com’s viewpoint, which to some degree represents one part of our culture, let’s take a look at the medical community to get an idea of what
they are thinking.
We shall begin by hearing from the former psychiatrist-in-chief for Johns Hopkins Hospital who is quoted in a June 2, 2015 article written by Michael Chapman for Cnsnews.com.
“Dr. Paul R. McHugh, the former psychiatrist-in-chief for Johns Hopkins Hospital and its current Distinguished Service Professor of Psychiatry, said that transgenderism is a “mental
disorder” that merits treatment, that sex change is “biologically impossible,” and that people who promote sexual reassignment surgery are collaborating with and promoting a mental
disorder.”
Mr. Chapman continues to quote Dr. McHugh,
“While the Obama administration, Hollywood, and major media such as Time magazine promote transgenderism as normal, said Dr. McHugh, these “policy makers and the media are doing
no
favors either to the public or the transgendered by treating their confusions as a right in need of defending rather than as a mental disorder that deserves understanding,
treatment, and prevention.”
Dr. McHugh is not alone within the medical community.
The American College of Pediatricians posted an article on March 21, 2016 titled ‘Gender Ideology Harms Children.’
In this posted article 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. “Facts- not ideology-determine reality.’
So in conclusion while Times.com says that it is wrong for parents to insist that a child is going through a phase, the medical community is saying something different.
To recap,
Dr. McHugh’s says;
1. Transgenderism is a “mental disorder”
2. Sex change is biologically impossible
3. People who promote sexual reassignment surgery are collaborating with and promoting a mental disorder.
4. The administration, Hollywood, and major media are treating their confusions as a right in need of defending rather than as a mental disorder that deserves understanding, treatment and prevention.
The American College of Pediatricians says;
1. Human sexuality is an objective biological binary trait: “XY” and “XX” are genetic markers of health – not genetic markers of a disorder
2. 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.
3. A person’s belief that he or she is something they are not is, at best, a sign of confused thinking.
4. Puberty is not a disease and puberty-blocking hormones can be dangerous.
5. According to the DSM-V, as many as 98% of gender confused boys and 88% of gender confused girls eventually accept their biological sex after naturally passing through puberty.
6. Children who use puberty blockers to impersonate the opposite sex will require cross-sex hormones in late adolescence. Cross-sex hormones (testosterone and estrogen) are associated with dangerous health risks including but not limited to high blood pressure, blood clots, stroke and cancer.
7. Rates of suicide are twenty 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
8. Conditioning children into believing that a lifetime of chemical and surgical impersonation of the opposite sex is normal and healthful is child abuse.
3 Questions to think about;
1. If Transgenderism is considered a mental illness, how could states pass laws that cater to this illness in effect saying that it is not an illness?
2. If a biological male feels as though he is a female and is uncomfortable about using a bathroom that has other biological males in it, then how does the new bathroom laws protect a
biological female who feels as though she is a female and is uncomfortable about having other biological males in it?
3. When did the terms male and female cease to be a biological distinction and become a mental or thought distinction instead? And, who made this change?