Rebuttal To BBC2

BBC had a documentary about trans children and Dr. Zucker which I wrote about yesterday and the Huffington Post has a rebuttal to the documentary.

6 Facts About Affirming Therapy for Trans And Gender Non-Conforming Youth
Here’s what you need to know.
By Brynn Tannehill
January 23, 2017

BBC2’s recent program about transgender youth featured a lot of scare tactics about what happens if transgender youth are affirmed in their gender identity. This was topped off scary music when talking about the alleged dangers of allowing transgender and gender non-conforming youth to express themselves. It also featured disgraced former head of the Gender clinic at Center for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH) in Toronto, Dr. Kenneth Zucker.

The documentary left out crucial details, such as the fact that as far back as 2009 Zucker’s clinic was investigated by his employer, and warned to change their methods. When the 2015 follow up independent review found that little, if anything had changed since the warning he received 2009, he was dismissed. His explicit hostility to other experts in the field was evident at the 2016 WPATH Conference as well.

The article goes on to list the six rebuttals to the documentary,

Fact #1: Affirming therapy does not railroad youth into transitioning
The entire point of the affirming approach to transgender and gender non-conforming youth is to NOT push them in any particular direction, but to give them a safe space to explore their identity and expression. Pushing them towards transition goes entirely against this concept.

Dr. Colt Keo-Meier, the lead author of Division 44 (LGBT issues) of the American Psychological Association’s guidance for treating transgender children, refutes this fear-mongering claim:

“The gender affirmative model supports identity exploration and development without an a priori goal of any particular gender identity or expression.

“Practitioners of the gender affirmative model do not push children in any direction, rather, they listen to children and, with the help of parents, translate what the child is communicating about their gender identity and expression. They work toward improving gender health, where a child is able to live in the gender that feels most authentic to the child and can express gender without fear of rejection.”

A therapist is your guide not your leader; their goal is to help you understand yourself, not to plant ideas. The classic cartoon where the therapist says, “And what do you think?” is really what they do.

Fact #2: Transition regret is rare, and competent affirming therapists aren’t the problem
Transition regret is rare. In the context of the BBC program, they provide anecdotal evidence rather than actual evidence from peer reviewed studies. In both the US and the Netherlands, youth who were properly screened, and placed on blockers, had a regret rate of taking blockers that is effectively zero. In a Dutch study, out of a cohort of 55 only two of the youth dropped out of taking blockers, and neither expressed regret at having taken them.
[…]
Fact #3: Autism and Gender Dysphoria are not synonymous
There does appear to be some statistical link between autism and gender dysphoria. However, the vast majority of autistic people are not transgender, and the vast majority of transgender people are not autistic. (i.e. autistic people are slightly more likely to be transgender, and vice versa). BBC2’s program tries to imply that autism causes gender dysphoria, which is demonstrably false in the vast majority of both transgender, and autistic people. If you diagnosed a transgender person as autistic simply because they are transgender, you’d be wrong 19 out of 20 times.
[…]
Fact #4: Affirming therapy has demonstrated highly successful outcomes
A number of recent studies of transgender and gender non-conforming American youth treated under an affirming model have shown excellent outcomes. The youth are both well-adjusted in their gender identification, and in terms of overall mental health. Indeed, one study showed no significant statistical difference between the overall mental health of affirmed transgender youth and in the general population. Similar outcomes were also observed in Dutch populations.
[…]
Fact #5: The “80% of youth desist” figure used against affirming therapy is no longer credible
The “80% desist” figure is used by Dr. Zucker to support his “Drop the Barbie!” methods is used to argue that affirming therapy will lead gender non-conforming youth down a path that leads to a transition they neither want nor need.

More importantly even Dr. Zucker contests the numbers,

Zucker himself admitted during the 2015 investigation into CAMH that 70% of his patients were “sub-clinical” to begin with.

The last fact that they cite is,

Fact #6: Affirming therapy does not regard being transgender, or gender non-conforming, as a bad outcome
Affirming therapy does not treat “heterosexual cisgender as the most acceptable treatment outcome.” A child who is happy, well adjusted, confident, and supported in their gender identity, sexual orientation, and gender expression is the desired outcome of affirming therapy.

As I said yesterday, the problems that I see with Dr. Zucker is that he is stuck in the past and he kept trying to fit the children into his idea of gender dysphoria instead of letting the child guide their transition. In a way it was a form of conversion therapy that he practiced.

The BBC documentary also added fuel to those who want to deny our existence.

BBC documentary exposes dangers of trans agenda
The Christian Institute
17 Jan 2017
A BBC documentary has highlighted the dangers of endorsing the view that people can be ‘trapped in the wrong body’.

‘Transgender Kids: Who Knows Best?’ uncovered how trans activists in Canada have sought to enforce their radical agenda through accusations of ‘transphobia’ towards opponents.

Activists, critical of the concerns raised by the programme, even lobbied the BBC to pull it before it aired on BBC2 last Thursday.

Fired
The documentary focused on the work and research of Dr Kenneth Zucker, a recognised authority on childhood gender dysphoria, who ran Canada’s largest child gender clinic for 30 years.

Dr Zucker was fired for challenging the idea that children who believe they are ‘trapped in the wrong body’ should always be affirmed in that belief.

Former colleague Dr Ray Blanchard said: “People are now probably fairly terrified of taking any stance that is out of step with what trans activists are demanding.

The BBC documentary added ammunition to those who want to oppress us.

If you have ever seen a child who transitioned you will see a happy, well-adjusted child. I don’t know how many article I read and how many children I meet that said they were heavily medicated for a whole host of alphabet disorders... ADD, ADHD, ASD, Eating disorders, Mood disorders and the list goes on and on. One trans child that I know went from taking 14 pills a day to zero once she transitioned. One child that I know went from a basically a zombie to a child who outgoing and vibrant just by transitioning.