“At last Johnny’s mommy was able to see, that Johnny’s not what he’s pretending to be.”
– Johnny the Walrus
A fierce debate has begun over the ethics of transgender transitions for minor children in America. With news of gender-affirming surgeries taking place at some of the finest medical centers in the country, including Boston Children’s Hospital and Vanderbilt University Medical Center, concerned citizens are starting to take notice. Yet rather than defending their actions with sound medical and psychological findings, these institutions are instead scrubbing their websites of videos promoting child transitions, and even those crowing about the money-making aspect of the procedures themselves.
Doubling down, the American Medical Association (AMA) has inserted itself into the discussion, by asking the Department of Justice (DOJ) to investigate the investigators, who are merely asking questions about the morality of irreversible treatments and procedures on teens. Fortunately, recent news coming out of the United Kingdom will likely lead to their undoing.
After their own foray into gender transitioning, an independent review led to the shuttering of the UK’s sole youth gender identity clinic. The Tavistock Clinic, which provided children as young as 10 with puberty blockers, hormone therapies, and reassignment surgeries, was deemed unsafe for its patients whose mental health issues went untreated. Undoubtedly, due to the rise in detransitioning of former patients, who upon reaching their early to mid-twenties, found their conversions only added to their depression and mental instability.
Additional evidence coming from the investigation revealed that doctors were pressured to bypass protocols, ignore mental health illnesses, and conform to gender ideology, despite their own concerns. With the clinic expected to close by spring 2023, Britain’s National Health Services (NHS) hopes to refocus their treatment instead, on providing psychiatric assistance to patients suffering from gender identity issues.
While gender dysphoria is sufficiently documented as a medical and mental health disorder that typically reveals itself in young boys, the recent rise in the number of teen girls with gender confusion has not. Young girls are notoriously susceptible to peer pressure, highly needy of acceptance, and are often just trying to fit in. Yet, these new transition cases are being met with a rush to surgery rather than a rational assessment of each girl’s current psychological and emotional health. Financial interests are clearly driving the speed of transitions as clinics will likely have a patient for life, as many transitioners will need continuing medication and supervision. Many patients have been affected by the growing support for the LGBTQIA2+ movement, as well as the increasing disdain for those identifying as cis.
Due to the novelty of transgender recognition for teen girls, there is little data on the long-term physical and mental effects of both medicinal and surgical treatments. Puberty blockers and testosterone alter body structure and produce irreversible characteristics such as deep voices, body hair, and even hair loss. Not to mention the permanency of surgical alterations that can never be fully undone. There are also no legal, medical, or psychological protocols for patients who come to regret their decision and decide to detransition.
In Matt Walsh’s 2021 children’s picture book, “Johnny the Walrus”, Walsh brings the transgender debate to a boy named Johnny who suddenly starts to identify as a walrus. Suitable for children from ages 3 to 8 years old, Johnny’s overactive mind has him living his life as an aquatic mammal. Imagination can be fun and silly but taken too far can have serious repercussions. His mother, initially amused by her young son, makes the mistake of getting advice from social media and the Internet. Bullied into believing his new lifestyle may be real, Johnny ends up prepped for transition. Thankfully Johnny’s mother realizes in time that her son is just a boy and Johnny’s future is spared.
To address the inevitable fallout of children fast-tracked to transition without adequate studies, a nonprofit organization for gender dysphoric children called Rethink Identity Medicine Ethics, a medical research and public policy institute, was launched in 2020. While supporting minors who are questioning their biological gender, Rethink advocates for evaluations using evidence-based medicine, including informed consent, where patients are given the potential consequences of their choices before the treatments are given.
Children from a young age into young adulthood are faced with many new challenges. As such, they often move from one adolescent phase to another. While we want our youth to be who they are meant to be and feel good about who they are, children can be easily manipulated by activists with their own agenda, political or otherwise. Walsh’s book is a good place to start a conversation with young children before they can be unduly influenced by outside voices.
Comentários