Study Finds No Scientific Basis for Transgenderism
The Left often likes to use science — or rather, a modified version of science — in arguments related to atheism, evolution, abortion, climate change, etc. But just how it will deal with a new scientific study on transgenderism remains to be seen. According to a new report published in The New Atlantis journal, transgenderism — the latest hot button social justice “ism” — is not supported by science.
The report was co-authored by former Chief of Psychiatry at Johns Hopkins Hospital and Distinguished Service Professor of Psychiatry at Johns Hopkins University Dr. Paul McHugh and Arizona State University Professor of Statistics and Biostatistics Lawrence Mayer. They concluded that “gender identity” is not separate from biological sex.
"Examining research from the biological, psychological, and social sciences, this report shows that some of the most frequently heard claims about sexuality and gender are not supported by scientific evidence,” the report prefaced.
“The hypothesis that gender identity is an innate, fixed property of human beings that is independent of biological sex — that a person might be ‘a man trapped in a woman’s body’ or ‘a woman trapped in a man’s body’ — is not supported by scientific evidence," stated the researchers.
This is not exactly groundbreaking news to those who exercise common sense, of course. Simply because an individual purports to identify as something doesn't make it true, particularly if it is biologically impossible. It does not take a scientific study to confirm that a person who identifies as a horse, for example, is not a horse, or one who identifies as a chair is not in fact a chair. But the study should provide some weight to the common sense approach to transgenderism, while simultaneously exploding the beliefs of some social justice warriors who may have difficulty reconciling this scientific study with their own sense of reality.
The New Atlantis report is sure to provoke some controversy, as it challenges a number of theories that have been readily accepted by the general public in recent years, including what the authors dub the “born that way” hypothesis: “The notion that homosexuality or heterosexuality is in any given person unchangeable and determined entirely apart from choices, behaviors, life experiences, and social contexts." According to the authors, that view is not “well-supported by research.”
The authors also take issue with the criteria found in the fifth edition of the American Psychiatric Association’s Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-5) for diagnosis of gender dysphoria in children, and the interventions used in the treatment of gender dysphoria despite the lack of scientific evidence behind them.
At particular issue for the researchers is how transgenderism is being foisted on America’s youth, as the scientists note that most children outgrow gender confusion, and efforts to advocate transgender acceptance are sure to create further confusion. “Children are a special case when addressing transgender issues. Only a minority of children who experience cross-gender identification will continue to do so into adolescence or adulthood,” the report stated.
“There is little scientific evidence for the therapeutic value of interventions that delay puberty or modify the secondary sex characteristics of adolescents, although some children may have improved psychological well-being if they are encouraged and supported in their cross-gender identification," wrote the researchers. "There is no evidence that all children who express gender-atypical thoughts or behavior should be encouraged to become transgender."
