The American Academy of Pediatrics is doubling down
By Eliza Mondegreen, UnHerd.
Evidence of medical harm among minors is still being ignored
For years, the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) has attempted to suppress internal dissent on the issue of child gender transition by any means necessary, bending and breaking its own rules in the process.
But it turns out I was too hasty. Rather than waiting for the systematic review of the evidence, the Academy has announced it will be issuing “practical guidance” on gender-affirming care for kids early next year.
The new guidance is a rare bright spot for co-author Jason Rafferty, a paediatrician and child psychiatrist who has weathered a stormy autumn that saw him sued by two former patients. Rafferty was also featured in an unflattering piece in the Boston Globe, in which he described his approach to gender-affirming care as “affirming and validating the child’s sense of identity from day one through to the end”. Reporter Jennifer Block spells out what that means in practice: