Catholic League president Bill Donohue comments on the need to be wary of transgender psychologists:
Boston was the epicenter of the clergy sexual abuse scandal in the Catholic Church, and now it is the epicenter of child abuse again, although this time it is the medical profession that is the culprit.
Gender Multispeciality Service (GeMS) is part of Boston Children’s Hospital. The unit is known as one of the most advanced and prominent institutions of its kind in the United States that provides sex-reassignment operations on children. If we were serious about combating the sexual abuse of minors, we would shut it down.
A psychologist who works there, Kerry McGregor, claims that “most of the patients that we have in the GeMS clinic actually know their gender, usually, around the age of puberty. But, a good portion of children do know as early as, seemingly, from the womb.”
What she said is not simply wrong—it is impossible.
Children do not decide their gender—culture does. Gender is a sociological term meaning the appropriate roles for males and females as determined by the culture we are born into.
Notice the tentativeness of her remarks. A “good portion of children”—a quarter, half, more?—know “as early as, seemingly, from the womb” their gender. “Seemingly”?
So apparently unborn children not only know their sex, they know whether they are satisfied with it. But how does she know that human beings she cannot interview—they cannot yet talk—are content with being a boy or a girl? Got to give her credit for one thing: If kids are that smart at that age, abortionists should be prosecuted for murder.
There’s more. McGregor holds that some children choose their gender [which they really can’t] “as soon as they can talk.” What’s that? “They might say phrases, such as ‘I’m a girl’ or ‘I’m a boy’ or ‘I’m going to be a woman’ or ‘I’m going to be a mom.’ Kids know very, very early.”
That’s funny, the first word out of my daughter’s mouth was “Dada”; it is easier to say than “Mama.” Looks like my kids were not an anomaly.
A survey last year asked over 11,000 parents what their baby’s first words were. Here are the 15 most common:
- Dad (or Dada, Daddy, Papa, etc.)
- Mom (or Mama, Mommy, Mum, etc.)
- Hi (or Hiya, Hey, Heya, Hello)
- Buba (or Bub or Baba)
- Dog (or Doggy, Puppy)
- Ball
- No
- Cat (or Kitty)
- Nana
- Bye
- Duck
- Ta (or Tata)
- Baby
- Uh oh
- Car
“I’m a boy” or “I’m going to be a mom” never made the cut, nor did “I’m going to be an astronaut.” But perhaps McGregor meant they “seemingly” made such pronouncements
Love, she says, is “the biggest protector” against “negative mental health effects such as depression, suicidality, anxiety that we worry about for our gender diverse kids and young adults.” It is always good for parents to love their children, but she does not say why these children are more likely to be depressed or suicidal, for if she did it would blow up the narrative that these children are just like ordinary kids. They need help. What they don’t need is tampering with their bodies.
Dr. Paul McHugh and Dr. Lawrence S. Mayer are two well-respected psychiatrists who are experts in this field. They concluded that the idea that “a person might be a man trapped in a woman’s body,” or vice versa, “is not supported by scientific evidence.” So why subject children to this kind of “treatment”?
In the video where McGregor made her comments (it has since been taken down), she addresses parents who have children with gender dysphoria, and in doing so she unwittingly falls into a trap of her own making. She made reference to children whose gender is “other than the one that they were assigned at birth.”
Wait a minute! Forget the fact that gender is never assigned—it is biologically determined by the father—how could it be possible for gender to be assigned at birth when she previously told us that “a good portion” of babies “in the womb” know what it is? She can’t have it both ways.
The results of a big survey of psychologists was recently published in Perspectives on Psychological Science. It found that “80 percent of respondents said yes to [having] broad mental health difficulties,” and that “a little under half” admitted to being diagnosed by a professional. That says it all.
There are, of course, many competent psychologists. However, parents need to exercise caution before selecting a psychologist to treat their children about any malady, never mind gender dysphoria. Some of them may just drive them crazy.
