Brown University and PLoS ONE: Defend academic freedom and scientific inquiry

You betray the very thing you stand for by suppressing this information. I can't believe what I'm seeing.

This petition is long overdue. It is a welcome sign that the trans lobby can no longer be immune from legitimate criticism of its tactics of censoring any research or opinion that challenges its orthodoxies.

Dean Marcus, If you can't stand the heat, get out of the kitchen. Step down from your position as dean.

we lost our dear son to ROGD, who never showed signs of being transgendered until suddenly. he's cut off his entire family after we expressed concern about dramatic shift, our last contact with him he decided to mention that he was planning to enter the porn industry and that there's nothing we can do to stop him

This is an ideologically motivated attack on research that was conducted in good faith. The critics provide no relevant criticisms, instead attacking what they feel are the implications of such a publication. This speaks to the lack of integrity on the part of the people attacking Dr. Littman.

I experienced a ROGD after I was date raped by two guys when I was 21. I also was abused when I was a child and suffered with EDNOS when I was a teenager and had to go to Renfrew treatment facility when I was in my early teens. I noticed that the gender dysphoria was very similar to my ED. It's the same part of the brain (body image), just a different form of self-destruction. It's really torturous what these people protesting this research are doing to those of us trying to heal from traumas. It's very traumatic. I'm also a suicide attempt survivor and it's really a struggle to have these people trying to wipe out the existence of people that need this kind of research to be done.

Please everybody, understand the developing brain. Kids are like lambs mentally unable to think clearly and make good decisions. with wolves desperate to shepherd them away from protective parents who instinctively know best. "The frontal lobes of the brain which are responsible for high level reasoning and decision making aren’t fully mature until the early 20s, according to Deborah Yurgelun-Todd, a neuroscientist at Harvard’s Brain Imaging Center." "From ages 11-14, kids lose some of the connections between cells in the part of their brain that enables them to think clearly and make good decisions. What happens is that the brain is pruning itself—going through changes that will allow a young person to move into adult life effectively. “Ineffective or weak brain connections are pruned in much the same way a gardener would prune a tree or bush, giving the plant a desired shape,” says Alison Gopnik, Professor of Child Development at UC Berkley. Why is academic freedom prostituted to the wolves?

This is an egregious attack on research and academic freedom!

Supporting

My grandaughter falls into the catergory of ROGD. In college she was able to get testosterone and a double mastectomy at age 18/19. There needs to be more research. Dr. Littman's study was just the beginning.

This would never fly in veterinary medicine. Brown is obviously caving in to political pressure. Their arguments are simply repressive propaganda which no one, even an earnest researcher, is allowed to resist. If we really love science, and our children, we will resist all the more!

I am not signing this as a parent but as a professional clinical counselor with twenty years of experience working with youth in the areas of mental health, interpersonal violence and relational trauma and issues relating to gender identity. I am and have been active in advocating for and supporting trans rights and affirming care since the early 2000s. I have supported trans youth as young as 12 to gain safety in school and help their families better understand and support them. I provide assessments for youth seeking hormone affirming intervention. I have done education for counseling professionals. I have run gender groups with youth. I share all this to underscore my own position in support of youth who needed gender affirming care at the medical level. Nevertheless, I completely agree that in the past several years what I have witnessed in my own practice with youth as well as that of counselors I supervise is an exponential increase in the numbers of girls (as assigned at birth) presenting with gender dysphoria and identifying as male Or as gender variant on the spectrum somewhere. For many it is about deconstructing the gender binary, playing with gender, resisting conforming to the narrow available gender construction of femaleness in our society. For some it will reflect a legitimate deep knowing of self as wrongly embodied. I absolutely believe trans affirming care should be available. However, I strongly believe (and know some of my peer clinicians who also work with youth agree) that we need more rigorous screening, that integrates a comprehensive understanding of developmental psychology. There is no denying that the onset of puberty is a common time for most youth to try on different identities. This is strongly reflected in the developmental literature regarding adolescence. It is one way they attempt to complete one of the major tasks of adolescence which is to differentiate from one's family. Furthermore, it is reckless to deny

Brown cites reasons of the methodology of the study’s conclusions, yet no where states what these criticisms are. Brown further professes that redacting studys that have been peer reviewed is not uncommon, yet also shares no examples of this. Academic research and thought that run counter to the wishes of outcomes do not negate objective truths and silencing debate on any topic that is handled with scientific diligence is antithetical to the expansion of education.

We should not be involving children in irreversible treatments.

This is a vital issue.

This article has already gone through the peer-review process. Future research should be welcomed that may or may not refute the author's conclusions. It's chilling that this is being turned into a political sideshow.

As a scientist, I'm appalled that research is being censored due to pressure from campaign groups.

We depend on universities to support research concerning social issues that reflect ongoing trends in today's world. Dr. Littman is working to create data concerning ROGD. this is much needed research and I hope to see more researches take on this issue. Brown University should be applauding this research, not suppressing it.

When I was a teenager, I felt as if I should have been born a boy. Had the internet been around at that time, I may have transitioned because, like most teens, I was impassioned, impulsive, and occasionally dramatic. If I had had access to hormonal medication and surgery, there is a very good chance I would have gone as far as medically possible to become a boy. By the time I was 20, I understood social inequality and realized that there was something wrong with our culture, not my body. I've been happy with my body and happy to be a women for my entire adult life. We need as much understanding of this phenomena as possible. Both to help those who are struggling with dysphoria *and* to protect teens who are responding to external factors but aren't actually trans. This study and others like it are vital and necessary if we are to give children the best possible long-term medical outcome.

More research needed to explore ROGD. Our daughters and granddaughters need to be protected from this insane ideology.