American Academy of Pediatrics boots detransitioners from conference
The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) on Monday expelled detransitioners from its conference in Orlando.
Detransitioners is a term that refers to people who regret attempting to “transition” to the opposite sex and have since tried to reclaim their natural sexual biology. They are overwhelmingly young adults who disavow gender ideology, and many of them dedicate themselves to warning others about the physical and mental dangers of medical mutilation.
The AAP, on the other hand, is a major supporter of medical mutilation for children, or what it calls “gender-affirming” care. The association, which comprises roughly 67,000 pediatricians, last year re-affirmed its support for child medical mutilation treatments such as puberty blockers, cross-sex hormones, and genital surgery.
On Friday, the AAP kicked off its annual five-day conference in Orlando, Florida. Medical professionals flew in from around the globe to attend. Sunday’s keynote speaker was US Department of Health and Human Services Assistant Secretary for Health Richard Levine, who claims to be a woman and now goes by “Rachel.” Levine is responsible for shaping the AAP’s guidance on “gender-affirming care.”
The conference featured thousands of booths by exhibitors, including pharmaceutical companies. One of the exhibitors was the Alliance for Mental Health, a coalition of groups that advocates for mental health treatment for gender-confused kids instead of subjecting them to medical mutilation. Representing the alliance were detransitioners Nicholas Flowers, Abel Garcia, Chloe Cole, and Soren Aldaco. They were accompanied by activists Erin Friday and January Littlejohn.
According to The Daily Wire, the group spent over $25,000 on their booth, where they presented conference attendees with data and insights regarding children affected by gender confusion. The group said they were successfully communicating with doctors for the first two days but were thrown out on Monday. They were reportedly approached by a security guard who said that one of the individuals in the group had violated “the code of contact” last year. He offered no further details and gave them 10 minutes to pack up their booth.
“Security wouldn’t confirm who the individual was, what the violation was, or why it impacted this different group in a different year,” reported commentator and activist Matt Walsh, who shared footage of the incident.
‘Infertility and sterility is a known consequence’
Last week, attorneys general in 21 states launched an investigation into the AAP over its support for child mutilation.
In a letter to the AAP, the attorneys general slammed the AAP for its “misleading and deceptive” claim that puberty blockers can be reversed. Doctors and gender ideologues use this claim to defend hormone manipulation in children as safe and temporary. According to science, however, puberty blockers are not fully reversible.
“When used to suppress hormones below normal ranges during or before puberty, puberty blockers: (1) may interfere with neurocognitive development; (2) compromise bone density and may negatively affect metabolic health and weight; and (3) block normal pubertal experience and experimentation,” the letter reads, citing a medical report. “And when puberty blocker use is followed directly by cross-sex hormone use, which is often the case, infertility and sterility is a known consequence, at least for those who began puberty blockers in early puberty.”
The AGs noted how the AAP has relied on guidance from the World Professional Association for Transgender Health (WPATH). Recently discovered communications revealed that the WPATH’s “science” was shaped by the federal government via pressure from the Biden-Harris administration, namely from Richard “Rachel” Levine.
“It is even less defensible now that the World Professional Association for Transgender Health and its standards of care—the AAP’s apparent cornerstone source—have been exposed as unreliable and influenced by improper pressures,” the attorneys general continued.
Claim that puberty blockers are reversible ‘just isn’t true’
They also pointed out that even the World Health Organization (WHO) has not signed off on puberty blockers.
“The AAP has no basis to assure parents that giving their children puberty blockers can be fully reversed. It just isn’t true. That is why the World Health Organization refuses to endorse puberty blockers or otherwise provide treatment guidelines for children with gender dysphoria, explaining that ‘the evidence base for children and adolescents is limited and variable regarding the longer-term outcomes of gender affirming care.’ The WHO is not alone. Countries around the world are intervening to protect children against these untested treatments.”
The letter went on to say that “gender-affirming care” is “abusive” and endorsing it is “inhumane,” but the APP continues to do so.
“And yet, the AAP continues to authoritatively declare that puberty blockers are ‘reversible.’ That claim is scientifically unsupported and contradicts what is medically known. And because that claim raises questions under most state consumer protection laws, it has the undersigned alarmed.”
The AGs ended the letter by requesting that the AAP provide copies of its communications with WPATH, justification for its support of child medical mutilation, explanations for how its stance is consistent with scientific findings, its policies and procedures, and more.
The letter was written by Idaho Attorney General Raúl Labrador and signed by AGs from Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Iowa, Kansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, North Dakota, Ohio, South Carolina, South Dakota, Texas, Utah, Virginia, West Virginia, and the Arizona Legislature.
