Commentary
Do No Harm Fellows Provide Expertise at FTC’s Workshop on Child Transgender Industry
Share:
Today, several Do No Harm fellows had the honor to participate in the Federal Trade Commission’s workshop, The Dangers of “Gender-Affirming Care” for Minors.
The workshop featured expert testimony from medical professionals, detransitioners, and parents of children harmed by gender ideology, and highlighted the misleading and deceptive practices employed by the child transgender industry.
This is a massive step toward holding this industry accountable for its harmful behavior.
Take it from us: we know just how often medical associations and doctors make misleading statements and downplay the harms of sex change interventions for children.
FTC Chairman Andrew Ferguson opened the event explaining why the FTC is interested in investigating the child transgender industry.
“If a medical claim is false or misleading, it is the commission’s sworn duty to protect American citizens from that claim, no differently than it would for any other false or misleading claim,” Ferguson said.
“Refusing to investigate these health claims and the potential consumer harm to parents and children merely because one political party supports those claims as a matter of its ideology would be the politicized choice,” he continued.
Additionally, Do No Harm Senior Fellow Dr. Miriam Grossman gave a presentation that focused on how the child transgender industry has long been inherently deceptive.
Dr. Grossman discussed the origins of pediatric gender medicine and how activists have used shoddy research for decades to promote dangerous and harmful medical procedures. Her presentation focused on deceptive practice in language, in medical records, and in therapists’ letters for support of hormones and surgeries.
“Language is an instrument,” Dr. Grossman said, referring to euphemisms used by gender activists to obscure the true harms of sex change interventions. “It can be shaped for a particular purpose. It can change the way we think.”
Do No Harm Senior Fellow Simon Amaya Price shared his own experiences with the child transgender industry, detailing his encounters with a pediatrician who pressured him into transitioning. Simon was joined by his father, Gareth.
“The pediatrician asked my dad in front of me, ‘would you like a dead son or a living daughter?’ This isn’t just a line used by activists,” he said. “This is a line used in healthcare settings by the doctors that your kids are seeing in your communities all across this country.”
Later, a panel discussion focusing on the lack of evidence for child sex change interventions, Do No Harm Senior Fellow Dr. Lauren Schwartz, a psychiatrist, pointed out the false premises employed by the child transgender industry to justify medical interventions.
“To think that a child can make a decision whether or not they should go through unhindered puberty; that doesn’t seem like a medical decision or conversation we should be having with anyone, let alone a child,” Dr. Schwartz said.
“So when I think about what I do as a psychiatrist and I support mental health and wellness and well being of my patients throughout their entire lives, not just in that moment, my job is not to ‘affirm’ in that moment what the child thinks that they need or a vulnerable young adult thinks that they need,” she added.
And finally, Do No Harm Senior Fellow Jamie Reed, a whistleblower who previously worked at a pediatric gender clinic, provided an inside look at how “gender-affirming” practices are anything but scientific or evidence-based.
“The entire diagnosis is based on progressive stereotypes and self-described feelings for minor children and their parents,” Reed said. “My clinical experience shows that these […] assessments are not consistent, comprehensive or truly diagnostic.”
We’re enormously proud of our fellows for providing their insight and expertise on this crucial topic.
The child transgender industry has long misled parents, minors, and the public at large about the true nature of gender medical interventions.
These are not harmless medical procedures – these are life-altering interventions that are simply not supported by the evidence.
We commend Andrew Ferguson and the Federal Trade Commission for taking action.
