Transgender psychologist Erica Anderson ripped into the American medical establishment for its practices regarding transgender-identified kids during an interview with Fox Digital Thursday.
Anderson has practiced psychology for more than 40 years. She has also most recently worked in behavioral pediatrics at the University of California San Francisco’s (UCSF) Adolescent Gender Center, according to Fox.
“I’ve never seen a major mental illness cured by a gender transition,” Anderson said. “I don’t think there’s any empirical evidence to suggest that depression or anxiety or autism or any other condition is going to be cured by a gender transition.” (RELATED: ‘Groomed And Preyed Upon’: Young Woman Was Pressured Into Mastectomy, Testosterone As A Child — Now She Regrets It)
Anderson said in her clinical experience, instances of children who express an identity different from their biological sex are “rare” and suggested social contagion can explain much of the rise in transgender-identifying kids.
“We need to explore the course of this gender journey on the part of the young person and find out, is it occurring because of their own organic awareness of who they are, or is it in part because they realize that a lot of other kids are doing this and why shouldn’t they?” Anderson asked.
Transgender psychologist warns of ‘emotional blackmail’ used by collegues in their treatment of minors #news #breaking #fox https://t.co/tlLd2pqAwC pic.twitter.com/dPES6DbXZ3
— Brandon Thompson (@brandonpromo) August 24, 2023
“We have no reason to believe that exploration of gender on the part of teenagers is less subject to peer influence than anything else,” she added. “Pretty much everything going on with teenagers is subject to peer influence. So why isn’t gender? No one’s ever given me an adequate explanation for why they think gender can’t be subject to peer influence. I would submit it is.”
Anderson pointed out that in Europe, several countries have adopted a cautious approach towards medical interventions performed on children.
England’s National Health Service (NHS) ordered Tavistock Clinic, which operated with a policy of unquestioningly affirming children who expressed gender identities that did not align with their biological sex, to shut down. Sweden has reportedly backtracked on a previous policy touting cross-sex hormones as “safe” and has banned sex change procedures for minors in all but limited circumstances because “the risks outweigh the benefits currently.”
“Protocols that we’ve had in the past no longer seem to apply, and so we need to ask ourselves what do we need to do with this population? That’s where I think the issues lie right now in the United States,’ Anderson said.