The President of the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) now acknowledges that "the vast majority of children" subject to "gender-affirming care" should not be medicalized,
a complete reversal of the AAP's official 2018 policy.
Moira Szilagyi responded in an open letter to an op-ed by Leor Sapir and Julia Mason in the Wall Street Journal on Sunday that criticized the AAP's suppression of debate regarding their policy to "affirm" children and teens in their transgender identities with drugs, hormones and surgeries.
Szilagyi issued a public response to the initial piece with a Wall Street Journal opinion letter, but avoided acknowledging or answering any of the main points Sapir and Mason made. However, she did make an admission, by saying that they recommend the "opposite" of "medical treatments or surgery for the vast majority of children."
"In its recommendations for caring for transgender and gender-diverse young people," Szilagyi writes, "the AAP advises pediatricians to offer developmentally appropriate care that is oriented toward understanding and appreciating the youth's gender experience. This care is nonjudgmental, includes families and allows questions and concerns to be raised in a supportive environment. This is what it means to 'affirm' a child or teen; it means destigmatizing gender variance and promoting a child's self-worth. Gender-affirming care can be lifesaving. It doesn't push medical treatments or surgery; for the vast majority of children, it recommends the opposite."
"I take that to mean psychotherapy first or only," Sapir said in response to Szilagyi's letter.
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This marks a course reversal from AAP's previous position, announced in the 2018 Pediatrics article by Rafferty et al, which explicitly called 'watchful waiting' an 'outdated approach' and equated it to 'conversion therapy,'" Sapir said.