Case against trans-action
Most kids will accept gender: doc
A psychiatrist who has presided over youth gender-transition treatments for more than a decade says “four out of five” genderquestioning children eventually accept their bodies if no medical interventions are carried out.
Dr. Riittakerttu Kaltiala — described as “Finland’s leading expert on pediatric gender medicine and chief psychiatrist at its largest gender clinic” — made the claim in an interview with the liberal newspaper Helsingin Sanomat this week, according to Tablet. The doctor said data from 12 separate studies supported her claim.
Split on left
Kaltiala’s comments come just days after a “progressive whistleblower” at a St. Louis kids gender clinic spoke out against the facility’s trans treatments, saying what she witnessed was “morally and medically appalling.”
Last week, the left-leaning New York Times published an op-ed defending J.K. Rowling, who has publicly been accused of transphobia. The paper’s brass also rebuked staff and contributors who accused the newspaper of anti-trans bias in its coverage.
These events show that liberals are not in lockstep when it comes to transgender issues, with some on the left now feeling freer to speak out against what has been described as “trans orthodoxy.”
During the interview, Kaltiala also cautioned parents of gender-questioning children against using their offspring’s preferred pronouns or a new chosen name.
The medical expert insisted such acts weren’t a harmless “formality” and still counted as an intervention that could influence the child.
“It’s a message saying that ‘this is the right path for you,’ ” the doctor said.
“The developmental mission of youth is not helped by the fact that young people’s self-expression is supported and directed from the outside,” she added.
“The environment should also not commit to identity experiments in a way that might make a later change of direction anxiety-inducing.”
Meanwhile, Kaltiala also dismissed the idea that gender-dysphoric children would be driven to suicide if doctors denied medical intervention.
“It is not justified to tell the parents of young people identifying as transgender that a young person is at risk of suicide without medical treatments and that the danger can be alleviated with gender reassignment,” she said.
Some concerns
The expert added that the “transition or suicide” dichotomy was “purposeful disinformation, and spreading it is irresponsible.”
However, Kaltiala did distinguish between youngsters who question their gender in childhood and those who start to experience dysphoria in adolescence. She appeared particularly concerned about the latter group.
According to Helsingin Sanomat, “many young people grab the idea available in the media and social media that their problems are caused by gender identity and will be solved if others start to see them as members of the other sex.”
Kaltiala refuted that idea, declaring: “A balance of mind does not come from making others do and see what you want.”
According to NYC-based Komodo Health, around 42,000 children and teens across the US received a diagnosis of gender dysphoria in 2021 — nearly triple the number in 2017.