While reparative therapy – the notion that homosexuality or gender dysphoria is a disorder that can be treated with clinical psychological help – has been widely rejected by evangelicals, the secular world has gone even further in their insistence that such mental and spiritual issues must be embraced with permanent disfigurement. Such is the case in Ohio, where Christian parents have now lost custody of their 17 year-old child for refusing to allow their daughter to “transition” to male.
The Hamilton County Job and Family Services have removed the minor child, who according to court documents, suffers from gender dysphoria. The child wanted to receive sex-change drugs which would inject her with foreign hormones, stifle her feminity, and begin to slow process of bodily deformation. The parents of the child did not believe that it would be in the best interest of their daughter, and refused to allow her the “treatment.” The State of Ohio listened to the complaints of transgender advocacy groups who argued to the court that if the young woman did not receive the treatment she would kill herself.
With co-occurring symptoms of depression and anxiety – which the transgender advocacy groups noted as the reason to mandate her transition – the parents felt their daughter was in no position to determine her best interests. The court, on the other hand, decided that because she suffered from diagnosed mental health issues, the minor had to receive sex reassignment.
The Hamilton County prosecutor, Donald Clancy, is pro-transgender and noted that the parents’ will for their child isn’t admissible into consideration because they are “religiously motivated,” and cited the father’s words that sex reassignment goes against his core values. Likewise, the transgender advocates in court alleged that the father said the daughter may go to hell and subjected her to six hours of Bible study, which the Hamilton County Job and Family Services decreed was tantamount to abuse.
In reality, those suffering from gender dysphoria become more likely to commit suicide, at least to a whole host of statistical studies, like this 2011 study conducted in Sweden.
Dr. Sheila Jeffries wrote in her 2014 book on the subject, Gender Hurts:
There is still a remarkable absence of recent studies that follow up those who have SRS to find out whether this treatment is efficacious despite the great expansion of the industry of transgendering [sic]. A 2011 long-term follow-up study from Sweden found that sex reassignment was not efficacious because after sex reassignment transgenders [sic] had higher risks of psychiatric morbidity, suicidal behaviour and mortality overall than the general population, when using controls of the same birth sex. The study concluded that ‘sex reassignment’ may alleviate ‘gender dysphoria’ but ‘may not suffice as treatment for transsexualism, and should inspire improved psychiatric and somatic care after sex reassignment’
While certain studies, particularly those funded by transgender advocates, show mixed results and some indicate a lower risk of suicide among transgender patients post-surgery, one fact remains abundantly clear in almost every study. Transgender individuals in general, regardless of whether it is pre or post-transition, suffer from suicide risks considerably higher than those among the general population.
It would make sense, one would think, to provide an alternative treatment for someone suffering from gender dysphoria besides embracing their illness. Sadly, with both evangelicals and the medical profession rejecting reparative therapy, there is no real alternative to sex reassignment for those who are plagued with this mental illness.
