NIH Director Raps American College of Pediatricians for Distorting Research on Homsexuality

John Commins, April 16, 2010

http://www.healthleadersmedia.com/content/PHY-249685/NIH-Director-Raps-American-College-of-Pediatricians-for-Distorting-Research-on-Homsexuality

National Institute of Health Director Francis S. Collins, MD, has accused the conservative American College of Pediatricians of distorting his research on homosexuality.

"It is disturbing for me to see special interest groups distort my scientific observations to make a point against homosexuality," Collins said in a written statement on NIH letterhead. "The American College of Pediatricians pulled language out of context from a book I wrote in 2006 to support an ideology that can cause unnecessary anguish and encourage prejudice. The information they present is misleading and incorrect, and it is particularly troubling that they are distributing it in a way that will confuse school children and their parents."

I just went on to the ACP website site and sent this email:

QuoteDr. Benton, you owe a retraction to the 14,000+ schools you sent letters to regarding homosexual and transgender children.  You irresponsibly took from Dr. Francis Collin's 2006 report an excerpt out of context and used it in a letter to thousands of schools and spread harmful misinformation.  I thought doctors took an oath to do no harm!

NIH Director Collins responsibly reported the misuse of his report and you owe it to the schools, teachers, parents and children to do the same.  The harm this can do to gay, lesbian and transgender children is immeasurable.  A correction and apology is owed them.

Giving the Devil his due, I did see one thing right in the ACP letter.  The idea was to not RUSH an open and irretrievable declaration over something that can affect your future life.  People in their teens, and even the adults that deal with them get caught up in a mad rush to get things done quickly.  What the ACP certainly does not advocate is saying that experimental personal relations are NORMAL for Heterosexual, Homosexual, Ambisexual, Asexual, Cisgendered, or Transgendered teenagers, and any others I have missed.  We need to teach ways for them to traverse these experiments safely, and for their parents and community to keep their cool and calm while it goes on.  I suspect that some of the "Cured" (any of the above) to heterosexuality/cisgenderedness were rushed into making solid and singular decisions too early.  (My own decision on hetero/male was one of those too early too fast things. OOPS!)  The big item is to get a sense of humor about it, and for Mom and Dad to remember their own teenage years with affection and maybe a little saddness for missed opporturnities.  Teach your children to accept other people where they are and when, and know it will change to some degree.  Teach them "Don't hall off and slug someone of either or both genders for making a "pass" at you", and teach self assertiveness with gentleness and compassion.  It will take time, and you will enjoy it more if you do.

Then when the teenager becomes an MD, they will not pull the rest of the shenanigan that was pulled by ACP.

Quote from: Vicky on April 17, 2010, 11:20:38 AM
Giving the Devil his due, I did see one thing right in the ACP letter.  The idea was to not RUSH an open and irretrievable declaration over something that can affect your future life.  People in their teens, and even the adults that deal with them get caught up in a mad rush to get things done quickly. 

I hope, Vicky, that you aren't saying that young pre-teens who are TG should be waiting to express their true gender. There is a need to halt the quick onset of puberty, which causes irreparable harm. The use of hormone blockers is important. I'm not proposing surgery at age 11 or 12, but certainly by the age of 21 if the kid has years of positive experience living in their new gender.

Kids need a safe zone, whether gay or trans, to be themselves. This would include home and school.

By all means, yes, pre-teen TG/TS need room to express how they feel about their gender and to show it to the world, and puberty arresting med's should be part of the picture IF needed to give them the time.  They also need freedom to decide that they do not need complete gender reassignment, but to express gender diversity IF that is what is needed.  Any lable is too limiting, and as a whole we should be thrilled that there is an illimitable range of variation among young people.  The only lable for any of us is our name (given or chosen).  Julie should be your lable, Vicky should be mine, not Transsexualjulie or Transgendervicky, just our names. SAFETY, yes indeed.

Quote from: Vicky on April 17, 2010, 11:20:38 AM
Giving the Devil his due, I did see one thing right in the ACP letter.  The idea was to not RUSH an open and irretrievable declaration over something that can affect your future life.  People in their teens, and even the adults that deal with them get caught up in a mad rush to get things done quickly. 
...

I do have to say, and with the sincere greatest of respect, that as someone who actually was fortunate enough to come out at aged 5 and miraculously even back in the 1960's was taken seriously by my rather forward thinking parents, I absolutely could not disagree more.

I think it is axiomatic that being "free to be me" and allowed the space "to find myself" by my loving parents and educators was a great gift and one of the reasons why I have never really suffered to any meaningful extent from any of the psychological difficulties that so many transpeople have to battle with, like depression, resentment for lost time etc.

The only thing I rgeret was the time I wasted during my late teens, when my first therapist, astonished by the way I had already managed to carve out a niche for myself as a somewhat androgynous "almost girl" decided that the sensible thing would be to put me through a period of a kind of reparative therapy, "just to be sure."

I think everyone should be allowed to experiment in their youth - the only provisio that I would put on that was that, as my parents always told me, "there is no shame in wanting to try something and then deciding that you have changed your mind" Kid's should be allowed to be themselves, but they should also always be reassured and told that until they have surgery they can always change back.

I have already sent the ACP an email much along the lines that Julie Marie wrote, although at the time I wrote mine the "rap" hadn't been delivered so instead i criticised their rather selective use of outdated sources and their complete ignoring of more modern research.

The gist of my email was, however, very much the same.

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Post Merge: April 18, 2010, 10:17:13 AM

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Ah I see from your second post that we are not that far apart in our thinking after all

I just think reactionary bozo's like the ACP need to be TOLD where the acceptable limits of good medical practice lie, and providing an excuse for hatred and bigotry certainly isn't part of that!

I too, strongly believe that young people must be free to experiment. Sadly, our education system and society seems geared to making boys into tough, unfeeling young men who can be sent to war.

I do not accept that conflict is natural for young boys. The claim that this is actually competition is a nonsense. Young boys are taught, from an early age, to accept knocks and those that don't tend to get bullied by teachers.

But equally, Children must be free to change their minds.

I have a problem here. My heart says that young boys should be allowed to change early. But I'm speaking from personal experiences.

My head says that children should never be labeled. And too many labels are being applied to children, which are going to follow them all their lives.

I wonder, for example, how many children when they become adults, will be thanking their parents for having them labled ODD, ADHD, or any other fancy label when they come to apply for jobs that require a clean mental health background?