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New Trans Textbook for Psychiatrists Could Harm Millions of Kids, Critics Say

New Trans Textbook for Psychiatrists Could Harm Millions of Kids, Critics Say
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New Trans Textbook for Psychiatrists Could Harm Millions of Kids, Critics Say

By Darlene McCormick Sanchez

A new "cutting-edge" textbook on transgenderism written with the help of activists will be used to train psychiatrists and could harm millions of children in the future, some experts have warned.

"Gender-Affirming Psychiatric Care," just released on Amazon at $58, is a textbook printed by American Psychiatric Association (APA) Publishing.

The textbook signals early on that it's more subjective than objective, quoting a feminist studies professor saying, "Scientific neutrality is a fallacy."

The content has prompted some critics to question the textbook's reliance on a mix of transgender-identifying professionals writing about their experiences, limited scientific studies, and neo-Marxist critical theories.

"This is a huge issue; millions more kids will be harmed," said Dr. Lauren Schwartz, a psychiatrist in Oklahoma speaking out against the rush to "transition" children.

The textbook's introduction says the book is based on an "evidence-informed approach" instead of an evidence-based approach, which is more scientific, she told The Epoch Times.

The 26 chapters are written by 56 authors, 50 of whom are in the transgender community, according to the textbook's foreword.

Chapters include affirming "two-spirit people," a term used to refer to someone who believes he or she is both sexes, and one about "double queer" people—or people who identify as transgender and have a mental disability.

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 California State Superintendent of Schools Tony Thurmond reads from the book "Red: A Crayon's Story" to 2nd grade students at Nystrom Elementary School in Richmond, Calif., on May 17, 2022. Thurmond celebrated the donation of thousands of LGBT books from Gender Nation to 234 elementary schools in nine California districts. (Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)

The book's editors are listed as an associate professor of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School and investigator at the National LGBT Health Education Center; and a transgender-identifying psychiatry resident at the University of Pennsylvania, whose work is influenced by her background as a "non-binary/trans, queer, neurodivergent, chronically ill, Jewish person."

Dr. Schwartz noted that the authors were chosen by "prioritizing lived experience, diversity of perspectives, and community impact of prior work over academic titles."

'Disturbing Gibberish'

The problem is the textbook will be perceived as authoritative because it was printed by the APA's publishing arm, she said.

"Anyone wanting to practice gender-affirming care, any attorney wanting to defend it, and any legislator who wants to protect it, now they have a new peer-reviewed textbook, not just 'evidence' in a journal or a study," she said.

Alan Hopewell, a prescribing neuropsychologist in Texas who saw transgender-identifying patients decades ago, called the textbook "disturbing."

"This is nonsensical gibberish which has no foundation whatsoever in science," he told The Epoch Times.

Hospitals could demand doctors go by the textbook because the APA put it out, or it could even be used to remove the license of doctors who don't go along with it, he said.

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