A friend of mine posted this article on Facebook. https://www.lifesitenews.com/news/psychiatry-expert-scientifically-there-is-no-such-thing-as-transgender?utm_content=buffer48a29&utm_medium=social&utm_source=defendmarriage%2Bfacebook&utm_campaign=buffer

I don't feel knowledgeable enough about scientific proof that transgender is indeed a real condition that can be demonstrated scientifically. I want to speak up and say something, but am afraid that my lack of knowledge will only make me look dumb.

What resources would you share as a rebuttal to this?

If you start googling Dr Paul McHugh, you will discover the source of the problem. He managed to destroy the original John Hopkins program that had been running from 1963 and has caused a good deal of suffering in the community. His treatments have been disproved but yet he still has a few followers who won't listen to reason. Arguing this article will require you provide evidence of the that the others will believe.

This person is not a friend.
Don't waste too much time trying to change their mind.

Quote from: WhatAmI? on August 13, 2017, 09:42:34 PM
A friend of mine posted this article on Facebook. https://www.lifesitenews.com/news/psychiatry-expert-scientifically-there-is-no-such-thing-as-transgender?utm_content=buffer48a29&utm_medium=social&utm_source=defendmarriage%2Bfacebook&utm_campaign=buffer

I don't feel knowledgeable enough about scientific proof that transgender is indeed a real condition that can be demonstrated scientifically. I want to speak up and say something, but am afraid that my lack of knowledge will only make me look dumb.

What resources would you share as a rebuttal to this?

This is one a few "standard" and already debunked myths surrounding Trans people, the net is littered with plenty of peer reviewed studies debunking his study.

There are a few of these debunked myths that get trotted out regularly...my understanding is that even what McHugh has said has been grossly over inflated and McHugh himself said his study was not of a standard where any conclusions could be drawn about anything. But of course those that want to use this out dated study will always cherry pick what they want...

Any of the following

https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/is-there-something-unique-about-the-transgender-brain/

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18761592

-- money quote

QuoteCONCLUSIONS:
We revealed a cerebral activation pattern in MTF transsexuals compared with male controls similar to female controls compared with male controls during viewing of erotic stimuli, indicating a tendency of female-like cerebral processing in transsexualism.

https://academic.oup.com/cercor/article/25/10/3527/387406/Structural-Connectivity-Networks-of-Transgender

Thank you for all of the replies. It is really appreciated. To the comment about my friend not being a real friend, I don't believe that is correct. I only came out to my wife last week, and besides her only my therapist knows I am transgender. Dealing with misinformation and misunderstanding is going to be the new normal for me and I want to be well equipped. I am fully convinced of my own life experience that being transgender is not simply "being unhappy" as this ignorant author postulates, but this is the kind of argument I am realizing I will run into over and over as time goes by.

I come from a very conservative background and I and most of my friends were raised to have very narrow views on topics like gender. I don't count my friends as enemies just because they can't understand. I would rather try my best to overcome their ignorance with truth and hopefully win them over.

The funny thing is, the friend that posted this is someone I have long suspected to have similar struggles with trans identity. I can't prove it, and won't try to, but I believe he has been suppressing many of the same feelings that I am finally addressing. I sometimes think some of the people who most vigorously promote things like this are folks who are throwing up smokescreen to hide their own insecurities.

The so arguments arguments in that article are useless and don't hold up. So being able to ovulate and having penis makes a woman a woman and a man a man? What about cis women who have a medical condition prohibiting them from having a properly functioning uterus. Or a cis man accidentally having had there penis removed. Even the chromosome argument makes no sense as some intersex people have a mix of different chromosomes. If the writer of the article met someone who presented and looked traditionally female and then learned they were intersex makes me think his brain would not be able to compute that at all.

https://www.newscientist.com/article/mg23230954-600-transgender-people-have-different-brain-activity-when-touched/

https://www.newscientist.com/article/dn20032-transsexual-differences-caught-on-brain-scan/

both articles you may find useful.

Although if your friend still refuses to see sense when faced with science it's best just to walk away and not waste your time. Some people are simply unable to look beyond their bubble or comfort zone.