A new study released by the University of California Los Angeles finds that gender “nonconforming” young people in California are more than twice as likely to have psychological problems than those comfortable with their biological sex.
According to the study, 17 percent of “gender nonconforming” respondents reported severe psychological distress, versus 7 percent of “gender conforming” youth.
The American College of Pediatricians has asserted that children and adolescents who are uncomfortable with their biological sex suffer from gender dysphoria, as defined in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fifth Edition (DSM-V):
A person’s belief that he or she is something they are not is, at best, a sign of confused thinking. When an otherwise healthy biological boy believes he is a girl, or an otherwise healthy biological girl believes she is a boy, an objective psychological problem exists that lies in the mind, not the body, and it should be treated as such. These children suffer from gender dysphoria. Gender dysphoria (GD), formerly listed as Gender Identity Disorder (GID), is a recognized mental disorder in the most recent edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of the American Psychiatric Association (DSM-V)…
The study, released by the school’s Williams Institute – a sexual orientation and gender identity think tank – and the UCLA Center for Health Policy Research also found no significant differences in the rates of suicidal ideation (thinking) and suicide attempts between “gender nonconforming” young people and those who are comfortable with their biological sex.
That outcome is in stark contrast with other research often cited by proponents of the practice of immediately affirming young people who claim to be a gender that is inconsistent with their biological sex.
In 2015, for example, the Huffington Post featured a column that portrayed “transgender” individuals who consider or attempt suicide primarily as victims of “rejection by friends and family,” “discrimination,” and “internalized transphobia.”
The fear of suicide is one of the primary reasons parents of gender confused children immediately rush to affirm their children’s claim to be a different gender. The fear also fuels the recommendation by LGBT “affirming” therapists that gender-confused children must be affirmed in their gender confusion and even allowed to begin taking puberty-suppressing drugs in order to begin “transition” to the opposite sex.
The UCLA study’s authors point to lack of acceptance of the young person’s chosen gender identity and victimization by family and others as primary causes of the psychological problems experienced by “gender nonconforming” young people:
This finding highlights the need to increase access to affirming mental health care and other supports, as well as to educate parents, schools, and communities on the mental health needs of gender nonconforming youth. It also makes it clear that we must focus on continuing to reduce known risk factors, such as bullying and bias, against gender nonconforming people.
Researchers Paul Hruz, Lawrence Mayer, and Paul McHugh also address the problem of “gender-affirming” therapy in a paper titled “Growing Pains,” published at The New Atlantis.