The medical establishment is failing children

A sad sign of our times is the news that parents can now buy “tucking underwear” for boys as young as four. Target is marketing chest binders to young teen girls that want to opt-out of appearing to have breasts. The local library features books like “Jack not Jackie” and “I’m Not a Girl,” which promote stories of transgender children.

It’s not just progressive outlets extolling the virtues of transgenderism. A family recently featured on Fox News claimed their transgender child knew she was a male “before she could speak.”

Most alarming, however, is the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) and its quest to normalize a multiplicity of genders and avoid the reality of an adolescent mental health crisis.

The AAP recently released a You-ology: A Puberty Guide for Every Body. At first glance, parents may think it a harmless educational booklet, but a deeper look showcases dangerous and unscientific gender ideology at work. Even the basic tenets of language are misleading.

In one passage, the book notes how some kids are assigned the wrong sex at birth. “Oliver” (previously “Olivia”) is transgender, the book says, and “he belongs in the boys locker room as much as any of us do.”

An average reader would have no idea that the phrase “sex assigned at birth” originated as a concept with the .02% of people born as intersex. In such a case, sex is sometimes impossible to determine at birth, and a doctor had to choose—or assign—one. The 99 percent of people who identify as transgender were not “assigned” the wrong sex at birth, because it’s not a guessing game. It’s a biological reality. Yet, the language associated with the physical and medical condition of intersex has been hijacked.

The Intersex Society of North America says intersex has nothing to do with gender, advocates for proper mental healthcare, and condones a “cautious approach to surgery,” even though these individuals, due to genetic issues, may have mismatched body parts. One only wishes transgender advocates were so “cautious” about moves to change body parts when biological sex is crystal clear..

The AAP book represents a higher-level effort to indoctrinate kids, as scholars and medical professionals intentionally alter definitions and create new, unfounded concepts out of thin air. They whitewash biological realities to support a radical plan that has no association with truth or rationality.

The Journal of American Medicine is pushing puberty blockers. The American Medical Association says transgender care for minors is not “extreme” or “experimental.” The Pediatric Endocrine Society says minors should be “supported in living in their desired gender role.”

These associations and journals are so scared of being called “bigoted” that they are willing to say whatever it takes to avoid reputational harm. Medical ethics has taken a nosedive in the 21st Century, surrendering to the latest progressive demands.

In You-ology, the writers are desperate to avoid gendered language. They characterize boys and girls as having “sperm-making bodies” or “baby-growing bodies,” respectively. Lest we forget, the infamous “birthing person” also makes an appearance in the book. True to cultural acquiescence, the book advocates “tucking” and “binding” for teens that feel “uncomfortable” in their bodies, though neither of those things sounds very “comfortable” either.

We know a small percentage of people struggle with gender dysphoria, and we should be sympathetic. But the widespread, mainstream promotion of transgenderism, which goes far beyond sympathy and acceptance, is destroying a generation.

Medical professionals pledge to “first, do no harm.” Yet, when they insist that biological reality doesn’t exist and allow children to alter their bodies permanently, even before their brains are fully formed, they indeed do great harm.

Books like You-ology cultivate deep confusion. As states make hormone treatment more available, vulnerable teenagers will have the opportunity to make decisions they may regret for a lifetime. What can we call such action but evil? The Devil has found a foothold in modern America.

Despite what transgender advocates say about lack of affirmation leading to suicide, a new study from the Heritage Foundation finds suicide rates are higher in states with easier access to cross-sex treatments. Why could this be? The truth is that gender dysphoria is classified as a mental illness. Even if the new spate of people claiming transgenderism actually have gender dysphoria, treatment should start with extensive mental health evaluation and therapy. Nevertheless, as one paper from the AMA Journal of Ethics states, a doctor can “accommodate some people who want to bypass certain steps – such as psychotherapy.”

Just as a person with anorexia is never thin enough, and “one drink is never enough” for the alcoholic, swapping genders will not solve the heart and mind problem that drives the desire to do so. The best way to find peace in the body is to recognize the Creator who made it and adapt to the natural law that governs this Earthly existence. Struggles here will never cease, but we look forward to a greater day when the concerns of the fractured self are replaced by worship of the One who made our bodies—and our souls—with exact intention.