Today's Battles

The same old same old. But while they continue, so will I.
From the Catholic News Agency:

In a recent letter sent to school superintendents throughout the country, the American College of Pediatricians (ACP) cautioned that it is “not a school’s role to 'affirm' a student’s perceived personal sexual orientation.” The ACP also said that “rigorous studies” show that children and adolescents who initially experience gender confusion or same sex attraction no longer do so by the age of 25.

My reply :

The American College of Pediatricians is a front group for some religious conservatives. Few of the members are actually doctors. Those that are lend an imprimatur to what would otherwise be seen as just another ideological tract, full of misleading interpretations of work that the authors have distanced themselves from.

A Christian Psychologist who specialises in the area has written a critique of their mendacity.

It's at http://wthrockmorton.com/2010/04/06/factsaboutyouth-com-a-critical-review/

" While there may be some useful information here, I do not agree with much of what is claimed. The essential claims are that the site is “a non-political, non-religious channel presenting the most current facts on the subject.” In fact, the presentation is one-sided with old research and reparative theory dominating the content."

Nothing on the site is from the last 8 years. Most is based on preliminary research of 20 to 40 years ago, which has since been debunked by later studies in more detail, and with better controls.

It is most unfortunate that non-specialists in the area will be misled by a deliberate attempt by those with an ideological bias to confuse them as to what the research states.

Then there's Don Surber's Blog at the Daily Mail:

A confused little boy wants to use the girls room. Rather than say no — or yes if everyone thinks he’s a girl — the state of Maine goes through this mental contortion with it bureaucracy — just why does Maine need a human rights commission? — that in the end is too intellectually dishonest to admit that one size does not fit all in the law.

. He may have a point. The problem though is with the comments, which show more than anything else why Human Rights Commissions have to get involved.

So a 12 yo mixed up kid is going to set policy for a state’s educational system....
This balderdash is a horny teen’s dream. These idiots have never worked in a secondary school and seen the effects of hormones. ....
A 12-year-old boy may be confused. He may also be harrassed trying to use the boys’ restroom and he’s out of place in the girls’ restroom. Obviously he needs mental health care. At school, probably he should use the boys’ restroom and the boys should leave him alone if he’s being harrassed.
Gender is biological but can be confused. Pretending that gender-sorting is discrimination really is silly.
Check your equipment at the door, boys and girls and go the right bathroom for Pete’s sake! This crap about being transgender at the ripe age of 12 is absolutely nuts, unless there is a physical deformity like hermaphrodism. Otherwise, tell the little goofball to wait till college before making dumbass decisions about lifestyle.

Anyway, I commented in my usual style. Minimal opinion, maximal evidence.

Not a confused little boy – a confusing little girl.

Trans children aren’t confused about their gender. Others around them are though, as they think it’s just common-sense that you’re the sex you appear to be.

And that’s true. It *is* common-sense. Just like it’s common sense that the world is flat. When you go down to the corner shop, when you use a street directory, it makes no sense to treat the world as being round. It’s only when you travel long distances that reality becomes apparent, in exceptional cases.

I’ll quote from just one of the hundreds of medical and scientific papers on this. These are not “psychological” or “sociological” studies. Not religious or political tracts either. They’re anatomical articles, based in MRI scans and even autopsies....

Regular readers of this blog will know what comes next. For others, just look at the tag "reference" - and welcome!