In a recent publication of the American Public Health Association, five Department of Defense (DOD) doctors state the only answer for military children struggling with gender confusion is to immediately put them on puberty blockers and hormones.
In “Caring for Military-Affiliated Transgender and Gender-Diverse Youths: A Call for Protections,” authors David A. Klein MD, MPH, Natasha A. Schvey PhD, Thomas A. Baxter DO, Noelle S. Larson MD, and Christina M. Roberts MD, MPH, stated that on the basis of “human rights,” “youths… have an inherent ability and right to consent to gender-affirming therapy.”
Drs. Klein, Schvey and Baxter work at Travis Air Force Base in California. Dr. Larson practices at the Department of Pediatrics at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center.
The doctors reference an article from the American Academy of Pediatrics, “Ensuring Comprehensive Care and Support for Transgender and Gender-Diverse Children and Adolescents,” when they state “prior research has found that children can begin participating in their medical decision-making as early as age seven years.”
The five DOD doctors demanded the military train all of its providers on their ideas on gender medical interventions for minors, even though they acknowledge that 53 percent of military-affiliated physicians in the DOD health system indicated they would refuse to prescribe hormones regardless of any training.
They also criticized states like Florida for restricting “gender-affirming care” for minors, claiming it “overstates uncertainties” that a child may later detransition, “exaggerates risks” of permanent side effects, “and falsely claims that medical standards authorize sterilization.”
“New state laws directly harm TGD adolescents by denying access to potentially life-saving medical care and further exacerbating health care inequities, health risk behaviors, and preventable deaths,” the doctors wrote.
The article also states the skyrocketing increase in “transgender-identifying” youth was “due to increased awareness of the full range of gender identities, social acceptance, and improvements in medical care.”
A 2016 study conducted by two Johns Hopkins University scientists reveals that scientific evidence does not support the “born that way” claim regarding homosexuality or the “trapped in the body” so-called “transgender” claim. Written by Dr. Lawrence S. Mayer and Dr. Paul R. McHugh, this study evaluated data from over 200 peer-reviewed studies regarding sexual orientation and gender identity.
Regarding “sexual orientation,” the study concludes: “The understanding of sexual orientation as an innate, biologically-fixed property of human beings – the idea that people are ‘born that way’—is not supported by scientific evidence.”
Regarding “gender identity,” the study states: “The hypothesis that gender identity is an innate, fixed property of human beings that is independent of biological sex – that a person might be ‘a man trapped in a woman’s body’ or ‘a woman trapped in a man’s body,’—is not supported by scientific evidence.
Regarding health, the research reveals non-heterosexuals experience 1.5 times more anxiety and depression, 1.5 times more substance abuse, and 2.5 times the risk of suicide than heterosexuals. Suicide attempts by “transgender” individuals are estimated at 41 percent compared to less than five percent of the overall population. It also concludes there is no evidence to suggest that children should be encouraged to identify as the opposite gender if they act or speak in a way that is typical of their opposite gender and warns against any treatments or surgeries on young people who identify with the opposite gender.
Liberty Counsel recently won two Court of Appeals cases striking down ordinances in Palm Beach County and City of Boca Raton, and Tampa, Florida, which prohibited minors from voluntary counseling from licensed professionals. These licensed therapists provide life-saving counseling to minors who desperately desire to conform their attractions, behaviors, and gender identities to their sincerely held religious beliefs. As a result of these victories, counselors in Florida, Alabama and Georgia are free to help their minor clients.
Liberty Counsel Founder and Chairman Mat Staver said, “We are uniquely created by God as male and female and doctors must ‘do no harm.’ Puberty blockers, cross-sex hormones, and mutilating surgeries do not resolve underlying emotional stressors. More and more people express regret after their bodies have been permanently altered. I have no doubt that we will see a rash of malpractice lawsuits against doctors who profit from this practice.”
