Pediatric group accused of silencing debate about 'affirmative care' for trans youth

ITASCA, ILL (TND) — Genspect, an organization that supports "an evidence-based approach to gender distress," has called out the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) for allegedly stifling debate on an internal proposal to change the AAP policy suggesting “affirmative care” is the best option for adolescents experiencing gender dysphoria.

The proposed resolution, intended to be discussed at the 2022 AAP Annual Leadership Conference, called for the academy of around 70,000 pediatricians to undergo a “systematic review of evidence” and update its 2018 policy around the management of pediatric gender dysphoria.

“We want our children to be affirmed as whole human beings, and we want them to be treated with evidence-based interventions which ensure that benefits outweigh risks,” Genspect wrote in an open letter to the AAP published earlier this week. “We are very concerned that the AAP is currently representing only one set of views on how best to help our children thrive—namely both social (names, pronouns, etc.) and medical transition (puberty blockers, cross-sex hormones, surgeries), which the AAP refers to as ‘affirmative care.’ Many of our children have received this care and are anything but thriving.”

According to Genspect’s letter, AAP leadership “disallowed” pediatrician comments on the resolution seeking a review and update to current policy around the treatment of pediatric gender dysphoria because it was “unsponsored.”

“It is alarming that not a single chapter or committee within the AAP was willing to ‘sponsor’ a resolution that asks to conduct a non-partisan and systematic review of evidence in pediatric gender medicine – something the AAP has never done,” the group’s letter said. “It is even more alarming that the AAP appears to be preemptively suppressing debate by not allowing comments on ‘unsponsored’ resolutions, a rule that did not exist last year when a similar ‘unsponsored’ resolution got many supportive pediatrician votes and comments.”

Genspect ultimately called on AAP to open up comments on the resolution and vote to adopt it at the group’s upcoming August leadership conference.

In its letter, Genspect pointed to the United Kingdom’s decision to undertake its own multi-year review of the nation's gender transition guidelines.

An interim report has already been published identifying a lack of “routine and consistent data collection” within the Gender Identity Development Service, which oversees services for children with gender identity issues in England and Wales, according to The Guardian.