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

It's plausible that the rise in gender dysphoria is due to increased societal acceptance. It's also plausible it's because of social contagion. Only scientific research will help illuminate the problem and determine the best path forward. So let's do the research. Only good can come from a better understanding of the issue.

Scientific research, uninfluenced by politics, must proceed for the mental and bodily health of human beings.

ROGD is real. My ASD 15y/o son was radicalised on the Internet into believing he was transgender after obsessively immersing himself on tumblr YouTube and other social media sites. His gp referred him to Camhs, and from the outset of him suddenly announcing he was trans, Camhs embraced, encouraged, and celebrated it, as did the Tavistock clinic. Without fail he was referred to using female pronouns by his nhs care team. There was no balanced view, it was affirmation only. Shocking, bewildering and terrifying - he was referred to mermaids and gires for “support”. I realised there was nowhere to turn to for a balanced view. It was sudden onset, and traumatic beyond words. Thank you Lisa Littman, and the others who are working so hard to shed light on the scandal of how AYA are being preyed on by the trans cult, please don’t let them shout you down.

I'm lucky I grew up during a time when my refusal to adhere to gender stereotyping made me a "tomboy". The fact that it's seen as being born the wrong sex is abhorrent.

Scientific research ought not to be censored. It is moral cowardice to allow one group to disallow the free dissemination of research merely because that group does "not like it or agree with it". Freedom of thought and speech are hallmarks of the United States. If this research is forbidden for publication--who will next have their speech censored? This is a very slippery slope and Brown University has an obligation to stand up to those who seek to ruin academic freedoms and the rights of the First Amendment.

Women, our health, our safety, our intelligence, etc., have all been subject to studies, or neglected from consideration. This is an inquiry into an emerging trend among teens and young women. So there are men trying to shut it down because it's incontinent. to their perception of themselves. This phenomena will, in and of itself, studied in the not to distant future. And Brown will be a prime example.

sanity is good.

I have a 14yo. Daughter, whom never showed symptoms of any gender dysphoria until finding the internet, tumblr and YouTube told her she was trans., bc she hated her breast & periods. Now, she’s denamed her female self and thinks testosterone-mastectomy-hysterectomy-phallaplasty is her only solution. As a family we have seen, depression-anxiety-possibly autism behavior. Though now brainwashed into this ideology she won’t cooperate to look for underlying issues. SILENCE IS CHILD ABUSE, PLEASE RESEARCH, FOR OUR DEVASTED FAMILY!

This is a matter of intellectual freedom, as well as being a matter of life and death for some young people.

Academic freedom is essential.

I'm so tired of this kind of censorship. Let's get back to doing actual science.

There was a person in Denmark (perhaps wrong country) who was allowed to kill himself via assisted suicide because he had had gender reassignment early and did not realize the gravity of his choice until later. He was granted assisted suicide due to depression.

Please let our kids get the help they DO need and not the help that doctors and medical people need to get rich.

University used to be about differing opinion with the intent of learning new points of view. Brown should hang their head in shame.

While I am generally skeptical of the scientific strength of creating categories of mental disorder, I believe Littman’s finding that gender dysphoria is often peer influenced rather than an innate personality tendency is a sound observation worthy of proper scientific study. I am disgusted by the attempts of Julia Serrano and the like to demand that their gender ideology be regarded as the sole scientific view, and their attempts to censor any scholar who deviates from their party line.

Shame.

The pursuit of truth is our only option

Dysphoria, by definition, is not a good. Research into its causes and into factors increasing its prevalence should be encouraged.

Why would any institution of learning be averse to study of anything? Since when is controversy a problem for a university?

Academic research must not be paralyzed by political agendas. In most cases, the strength of lobbying against a line of inquiry indicates the importance of that topic. When a University mutes its academics due to political pressure, it has ceased to be an institute of knowledge. Don't let that be you, Brown.