National Geographic Puts Transgender Child On Cover-Now Pediatricians Take Stand

05 Jan, 2017 by Cassy Fiano

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National Geographic chose to put a child suffering from gender dysphoria on its January 2017 cover, causing instant outrage. Many rightly accused the magazine of glorifying child abuse… and that includes a group of pediatricians, who are slamming them for the decision.

Avery Jackson is a nine year-old boy who believes that he is a girl and his appearance on the cover is the first time a transgender person has been featured on the cover of National Geographic. The cover featured a quote from Jackson, saying, “The best thing about being a girl is, now I don’t have to pretend to be a boy.”

Jackson’s parents supported his decision to live as a girl when he began to “identify” as one at the age of three. “Until that point she was quite a rough-and-tumble little boy with a buzz cut and a shark tooth necklace. But when she was three, she asked her dad and I if we could buy her a princess dress,” his mother, Debbie Jackson, explained. His parents said no at first, but eventually relented, and soon, he was wearing dresses and girl’s clothing all the time. The family met with a psychologist and an endocrinologist, and made the decision to let him go to school as a girl. They went “into hiding” for a year to allow Jackson to grow out his hair “to look like the girl she is” and eventually emerged “with a very happy and confident daughter.”

The American College of Pediatricians disagrees, however, and slammed National Geographic. Michelle Cretella, MD, president of the medical organization, said that this is an example “promoting a political agenda over science and the wellbeing of innocent children.”

“’Affirming’ so called transgender children means sterilizing them as young as 11 years-old,” Dr. Cretella said. “Puberty blockers plus cross-sex hormones causes permanent sterility. And biological girls who ‘transition’ to male by taking testosterone may have a double mastectomy at age 16. The life time use of cross-sex hormones also puts these children at risk for stroke, heart disease, diabetes, cancers and more.”

She also pointed out that this is overwhelmingly just a phase. “When a child under the age of 12 thinks they are the opposite sex and is allowed to naturally pass through puberty, 75%-95% of the time that child will accept his or her biological sex by the late teen years,” she explained. She argued that accepting transgenderism in children is basically equal to child abuse. “When academic, medical and other public institutions propagate the lifetime use of toxic hormones and the surgical removal of healthy body parts as healthcare for children they are engaged in institutionalized child abuse,” she said.

The medicine and science behind this is clear. What will it take for liberals to stop putting their agenda over the well-being of children?