Open Letter to the AAP

I am a parent of five children (three biological children and two step-children), I have one biological son who self-identified as transgender at 14 and accessed and used gender changing hormones via the internet under the instruction of internet influences, and my step-daughter who self-identified as transgender and had a double mastectomy at 18 years old. Both too young to make such life altering decisions.

On behalf of all Parents of Rapid-Onset Gender Dysphoric Kids who have reached out to our website (well over 800 now) we urge the AAP to retract their position statement endorsing the affirmative approach to dealing with transgender youth. Please take the time to read some of the personal stories on our website, ParentsofROGDKids.com, to see what a devastating effect the affirmative approach has had on our children's mental health and on their families as a whole. To quote Dr. James Cantor in his fact-checking article (referenced below): "AAP is advocating for something far in excess of mainstream practice and medical consensus. In the presence of compelling evidence, that would be exactly called for. The problems in Rafferty (2018), however, do not constitute merely a misquote, a misinterpretation of an ambiguous statement, or missing a reference or two. Rather, AAP’s STATEMENT IS A SYSTEMATIC EXCLUSION AND MISREPRESENTATION OF ENTIRE LITERATURES. Not only did AAP fail to provide extraordinary evidence, IT FAILED TO PRODUCE THE EVIDENCE AT ALL. Indeed, AAP’s recommendations are despite the existing evidence." (capitalization mine) Reference: http://gdworkinggroup.org/2018/10/18/american-academy-of-pediatrics-policy-and-trans-kids-fact-checking/

Science does not support the "Born in the wrong body" nonsense. Stop mutilating children!!!

Put more money into mental health and help these people...not the doctors and pharmaceutical companies who benefit from surgeries and drugs! We were born who we are! Stop the mutilation!!

My daughter has desisted - thankfully! - and I am so happy to have stood up to the pressure to begin hormone treatment.

I support the right for every child to be free of gender stereotypes. Pushing medical transition on children is an unnecessary burden to place on their developing minds and bodies at an age where they should be learning to divorce their sex from the stereotypes out society pushes on to it.

Thanks

It is purely political, i am afraid.

Please consider this letter from parents of trans identifying children like me. I do not support Trump and his agenda to erase transgender people. I do support LGBTQIA rights and gay marriage. But I also believe we must do no harm to children by quickly encouraging hormones, surgery, and transitioning. There are so many underlying issues for these trans identifying kids and we need to help them TAKE THEIR TIME and have as much education and as many social, emotional, and physical supports as possible as they slowly make decisions that may be irreversible and create lifetime health challenges.

There is an 80% desistance rate for children. Don't let this become another dark chapter in the history of medicine and fad "scientific" crazes that have left so many people irreversibly damaged in the aftermath. This entire process needs far more scrutiny and scientific rigor than what extremist activists have allowed; please don't position politics before peer review. These are extreme interventions and the stakes are very high.

Please retract your inappropriate position on transgender children

The AAP policy statement on transgender children must be updated to reflect RELEVANT, published scientific literature and be fact-checked by an external reputable source to guard against bias. It is your responsibility to base policy on factual evidence, not shoddy interpretations and incorrect citations. Standing by the existing policy statement is tarnishing the AAP’s scientific reputation and there is no alternative but revision. I trust your group will do the right thing. Dr. M.A. Farmer

Concerned about the exponential rise in transgender, the many many girls who want their healthy breasts chopped off, trans women with penises being accepted as “women” and allowed to compete in women’s sports and count as female representation in politics, etc. I am also concerned about women’s rights being eroded, particularly for marginalised or victimised women. I am opposed to males in women’s prisons, and to crimes committed by trans women being tallied as female crimes.

First, do no harm.

I am a formerly trans-identified female. I am very concerned about affirmation only as a standard of care. I am lucky I was not a child during the time this has been the case or irreversible damage would have been done when I was really an autistic GNC girl who disliked feminine norms. Please listen to these parents and protect young girls by doing no harm.

From Canada

I’m the parent of a young adult who lived m to f for 6 years. He took hormones and considered surgery. Then he changed his mind after 6 YEARS of trans as a female. He reverted to male, which is what he was born as. He had legally changed his name and ‘gender’ on paperwork. A friend of his also reverted after 6 years of trans. They both said there was an intrigue to it, and society allowed it. Transgender was NOT necessary, and as my son said after he changed his name and gender marker back legally—he “made some stupid life choices and now he was fixing them.” Amazingly, they were shunned from transgender circles and associations they previously belonged to because they upset the narrative that regret doesn’t happen. It does, and more often than is acknowledged. Children should be completely off limits for hormones and surgeries— they shouldn’t be given to adults either without the most stringent and lengthy guidelines. It’s very quick to be transgender—all you have to do is say you are. Medical personnel need to be fully informed, and not just from the transgender promoting/affirming lobbies. I’ve been told the brain reasoning isn’t developed until about 27, and that was exactly true with my son. Leave the children alone as they develop, and most of them will revert at adulthood IF the door hasn’t been shut by surgeries and sterilization. Transgender affirmation for children with hormones and surgeries is not a healthy approach. It reinforces stereotypes that girls must be feminine, and boys must be macho. In reality, who should care if a boy likes girl things and vice versa?

My son is declaring transgender form the age of 12. He also has a distant and abusive father that he has been estranged from since he was 11. I do not believe he is trans. I would wholeheartedly support him if he were gay or trans. The pschiartist wrote a letter denouncing me for "non-support" and referred him to an endocrinologist after exactly 1 1/2 hours. The endocrinologist was willing to give him estrogen with no further exploration of comorbid issues. Estrogen causes sterility in teenage boys within 5-6 weeks. I support this petition 100%. Candace Martin

It is a huge mistake to allow kids to be affirmed as the opposite of their biological sex. From research and first hand experience, the loneliness and isolation increases for individuals who transition. Additionally, using puberty blockers and hormones on children is dangerous when we do not know long term effects. This should be stopped.

Stick to the science and 'first do no harm'