LGBT activists previously argued gender dysphoria may be affirmed by discoveries about individuals’ genetics and brain development. Harvard University researchers, for example, explored this viewpoint in depth in a 2016 article titled “Between the (Gender) Lines: the Science of Transgender Identity.”
In studies published in 1995 and 2000, researchers looked at specific areas of the brain in both transgender adults and those who accept their sex. They found that male to female transgender people had specific brain areas more closely resembling that of gender-natural women, and the same for transgender men (females living as men).
The researchers also studied transgender people not taking hormones, and found similar results. They argued this indicates transgender people may be born with brains somewhat akin to those of the opposite sex, either due to genetics or hormone exposure as a fetus.
Further exploration into questions like this should greatly benefit medical personnel in helping effectively treat transgender patients. However, LGBT activists seem to have made a drastic ideological shift towards opposing efforts.
The University of California at Los Angeles’s Semel Institute for Neuroscience and Human Behavior was preparing a National Institute of Health-backed study to better understand brain structures and responses among people living with gender dysphoria. The study was titled, “Gender identity and own body perception – implications for the neurobiology of gender dysphoria.” Its researchers were seeking transgender participants when LGBT activists demanded the study be shut down.
According to the physicians attempting to conduct the study, “We want to understand the neurobiology of gender dysphoria and the interactions between sex hormone therapy treatment, the brain, and the body phenotype.” However, the executive director of the local activist group Gender Justice LA objected, claiming the study “opens the door for advancing the highly disregarded and dangerous practice of conversion therapy.”
Gender Justice LA claims the study is designed to “trigger” gender dysphoria in those who have not begun treatment and therefore would be psychologically harmful to the participants. They asserted that because the study could be used “for the creation of therapeutics to treat gender dysphoria as one would treat anorexia” it could be used as a method of conversion therapy.
The California LGBTQ Health and Human Services Network circulated a letter to local LGBT communities urging transgender and gender-nonconforming people to stay away from the “dangerous” study.
“We object to the view that transgender people have an aberrant body image condition or that brain imaging of traumatic response could ultimately ‘help’ trans people,” the group wrote in the letter. “It is suggestive of a search for medical ‘cure,’ which can open the door for more gatekeeping and restrictive policies and practices in relation to access to gender-affirming care. At a time in which trans lives are under attack, we find this kind of research to be misguided and dangerous.”
Seemingly shocked by the backlash, the leading physician has paused the study until meetings with local LGBT groups can be conducted to better understand the objections and adapt the study to address their concerns. However, this is unlikely to be effective. The California LGBTQ Health and Human Services Network named the lead doctor, Jamie Feusner, M.D., in their press release.
They complained that Feusner primarily studies eating disorders and body dysmorphic disorder, which is offensive to LGBT ideology, which wholly rejects the idea gender dysphoria is problematic. The organization claimed this study is proof all similar studies must first go through research review boards by TGI (transgender, gender-nonconforming and intersex) organizations….
The above comes from a Feb. 15 story on The Federalist website.
What is a man? What is a woman? What is male? What is female? What is real? What is true?
Man is the only being that God willed for itself. Man is a body and soul. The body decomposes at death. The soul lives forever. At the end of this world, all the dead will rise and be reunited with their bodies, glorified. This can happen because of the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, the Son of the Living God who became Man.
So should I tell you what I think of this article, or should I just let others libel me first?
There’s a third option. Regular readers already know your LGBTQ-supporting views never vary, so why not just write: “As I have consistently said before . . . .” and just spare us all.
You’re pretty good at seeing the future.
I think we are getting too personal here. This is why so many post anonymously. It is a comment section. I think his comment was inappropriate but he is obviously feeling mis-characterized due to what happened in the comment section on another article.
i have mis-characterization happen to me all the time and I have learned that it is about the other person not about me. I just let it go. It’s the Internet.
I have people who actually know me who do that. They do it to belittle and make themselves feel righteous (even when they are sinning or being an accessory to another’s sin).
Maybe we could stick to the topic of the articles or at least not carry arguments to another article.
As a matter of law, you can’t be libeled unless you are specifically identified. A combox pseudonym doesn’t meet that standard.
And it has to cause real harm.
Do you represent bohemond? or CCD? Or do you just not understand that many words have common definitions that are not part of litigation?
You’re legalistic when it suits you and not when it doesn’t.
Do you have a law degree? Are you a lawyer or have training in the law? Have you passed the Ca bar exam?
If not, you should not be making any comments about libel or anything that you are not an expert or certified in.
Isn’t that what you tell everyone who disagrees with you on the wuflu?
So you feel that you reputation has been harmed? How?
“Follow the science,” we are repeatedly told, except when the scientific evidence doesn’t fit the leftist, Marxist agenda.
Why not study gender issues and have open, honest discussions, even debates, publicly about such?
(I didn’t intend that as a rhetorical question. Yet, I think we all know the answer why that discussion is not permitted in colleges, Big Tech controlled media, certain political parties, some Catholic institutions and even medical circles.)
Well, congratulations everyone who voted for Democrats this past election. The pernicious Equality Act is going to become law. Yes, you caused this. You will be held accountable on judgment day. How can about half the country be so blind, wicked or stupid?
Not so fast.
It isn’t the Law yet. It has a significant hurdle in the Senate.
Am not putting any money on it’s passage.
I agree Frank. It’s fate isn’t a done deal.
BTW, 63% of REPUBLICANS favor the Equality Act, and over 70% of all Americans. Why? Because people understand that no one should be prevented from obtaining employment and housing because of their sexual orientation. In fact, the Catechism of the Catholic Church basically says the same thing.
YFC, Catechism of the Church is based on Truth and the Natural Moral Law, the so-called Equality act is based on Woke ideology. As I predicted YFC has made it clear he will side with the secular powers once they start their persecution of Faithful and the Church.
No, if those numbers are correct it’s because Americans who support it don’t understand what the Equality Act would do. They just hear the title “Equality Act” and conclude that they don’t want to be seen as opposing equality, so they unthinkingly say they support it.
The Equality Act would grant civil rights protections to transgenderism as a protected class, equivalent to race. It would be the most sweeping social change ever in American history. And all based on lies about anthropology, psychology and biology.
What about the science? There are only two sexes. Transgenderism is mental illness. It should not be protected in law.
When Biden signs it into law and Catholic schools and churches are forced to have cross-dressing employees, I hope that will finally be what causes a sensible bishop to declare Biden excommunicated.
Even if we accept your position that transgenderism is a mental illness, since when do we deny housing to people because they are mentally ill? Oh you can’t live in my apartment building because you have depression! Or you can’t work for me because you have post-traumatic-stress-disorder. Even if it is true that it is a mental illness, we are called to treat all people with dignity and respect, and the ability to feed and house oneself is central to that notion.
YFC wants the door opened just a little bit more, let that perversion seep in just a little bit more, use compassion as an excuse to let that perversion in the door. We did not stop them when they just wanted to be left alone, they will not stop until we are in camps bet on it
Housing is a problem for many mentally ill people.
This article deals with gender dysphoria and “trans-gendered” people, not only with “sexual orientation”. The Church teaches that persons with same sex orientation should not be discriminated against, on that basis alone, in securing employment or housing . I support that teaching 100%.
You go on to say that the Catechism of the Catholic Church “basically” teaches the same thing re transgender persons.
In ordinary English, “basically” does not mean “the same as”. “Basically” is a weasel word that can cover a multitude of false inferences and comparisons. So does the Church’s teaching differ re transgendered persons and same-sex oriented people re employment and housing, and to what extent?
You don’t cite the relevant CCC sections you rely on, so we can’t decide for ourselves. Could you quote them for us so we can?
Your response to requests like this has often been “I’m not going to do your research for you”. No one is asking you to do any extra labor whatsoever. In making your claim, you clearly depended on specific CCC language. You know what it was. We’re not mind-readers. Just tell us.
what it is. We’re not mind-readers
I don’t know why my post on the Church’s teaching did not get published. I assume the editor knows best.
Long story short: The Church in the Catechism says that all unjust discrimination is to be avoided. There are some professions and situations where it feels discrimination is just.
Dear Mr. or Ms. Chaff: Thanks for your support of the clear notion that the Catechism clearly forbids discrimination against LGB people, in many of the ways the Equality Act seeks to eliminate, among them fair housing and employment.
And thanks for letting me clarify what I meant by “basically”. It’s really quite simple: I can’t ever recall a time in which Church law, or Church doctrine, or Church catechisms were taken wholesale to be written into secular law, certainly not in the US. If one seeks to find the actual text of the Equality Act in the Catechism, you wouldn’t find it! The Equality Act is certainly not the “same as” the catechism”. Yet the concepts behind the two documents, while not word-for-word the same as each other, reflect the same values, the same ideals, the same moral precepts, the same ingredients, if you will. Some are more clearly written out, others must be derived from the words, but it is all there.
Though the Equality Act doesn’t restate the Catechism verbatim, its words and morals are “basically” there. I had a frittata this weekend that was “basically” an omelette.
The US Bishops oppose the equality act.
There is copy of their letter to Congress on the USCCB website.
“Though the Equality Act doesn’t restate the Catechism verbatim, its words and morals are “basically” there. This statement shows how delusional YFC is when it comes to claims of being a Catholic. I pointed out in the post below what the Equality Act entails and it does not reflect the Catechism of Church in any way, shape or form.
YFC here is what your beloved “Equality Act” entails
exempts itself from the bipartisan Religious Freedom Restoration Act, in an explicit and unprecedented
departure from one of America’s founding principles, thereby infringing on religious freedom and making
it more difficult for individuals to live out their faith
x forces religiously operated spaces and establishments, such as church halls, to either host functions that
violate their beliefs or close their doors to their communities
x requires women to compete against men and boys in sports, and to share locker rooms and shower
facilities with men and boys
x forces faith-based charities that serve all people to violate their religious beliefs, and threatens the welfare
of thousands of beneficiaries of charitable services such as shelters and foster care agencies, by forcing
a multitude of them to be shut down
x jeopardizes existing prohibitions on the use of federal taxpayer funds for abortion, likely pressuring or even
mandating the performance of abortions by health care providers in violation of their consciences, and
ultimately ending more human lives
x hinders quality health care, by forcing health care professionals, against their best medical judgment, to
support treatments and procedures associated with “gender transition.”
This is what Catholics who voted for the fraudulent Catholic Biden has given us… God Have Justice
Thanks, bohemond. You vindicated my suspicion about YFC’s use of the words “basically the same as” weasel words to deceive us. The Church has never condoned the things you listed, as YFC’s devious posting suggests. I’m more certain than ever that YFC will try to pull the wool over our eyes whenever it comes to homosexuality. He apparently embraces the LGBTQxyz lifestyle [including mutilation surgery to “change” gender and freely engaging in homogenital acts], no matter how much the Church condemns them. His views merit no attention on a Catholic website.
YFC will not answer to these facts, because he cannot, he sides with secular leftist over the Church despite his protest the contrary. The LGBT agenda is inherently anti-Christ since it is based on the denial of Truth. When they first starting making noise, they just wanted to be left alone to “love” who they wanted to. Now as predicted they are imposing their will on the rest us.
I think YFC did a good job of distracting from the article and it’s last line:
The organization claimed this study is proof all similar studies must first go through research review boards by TGI (transgender, gender-nonconforming and intersex) organizations….
A few years ago there was a massive march in Rome against the Italian legislature about to vote on allowing gay marriage. Massimo Gandolfini, organizer of Saturday’s “Family Day” protest in Italy, told a reporter “A man and a woman form a marriage,” Gandolfini said. “All the others are alchemy.”
I know a serious subject but the phrase “there is truth in humor” applies here.
What is YFC talking about discrimination in housing?
Is he talking about homeless shelters that are for women only allowing a transgender female to stay there?
Why the Bishops of the United States oppose tThe Equality Act:
exempts itself from the bipartisan Religious Freedom Restoration Act, in an explicit and unprecedented departure from one of America’s founding principles, thereby infringing on religious freedom and making it more difficult for individuals to live out their faith
forces religiously operated spaces and establishments, such as church halls, to either host functions that violate their beliefs or close their doors to their communities
requires women to compete against men and boys in sports, and to share locker rooms and shower facilities with men and boys
forces faith-based charities that serve all people to violate their religious beliefs, and threatens the welfare of thousands of beneficiaries of charitable services such as shelters and foster care agencies, by forcing a multitude of them to be shut down
jeopardizes existing prohibitions on the use of federal taxpayer funds for abortion, likely pressuring or even mandating the performance of abortions by health care providers in violation of their consciences, and ultimately ending more human lives
hinders quality health care, by forcing health care professionals, against their best medical judgment, to support treatments and procedures associated with “gender transition.”