Formation | 2021 |
---|---|
Founder | Stella O'Malley |
Website | https://www.genspect.org |
Genspect is a self-described gender critical organisation co-founded in June 2021 by psychotherapist Stella O'Malley and other members of the Society for Evidence Based Gender Medicine. The organisation's advisory panel includes Lisa Littman, whose research concerns the contentious concept of rapid-onset gender dysphoria (ROGD),[1] which is not recognized as a medical diagnosis by any major professional institution[2][3][4] and is not backed by credible scientific evidence.[5][6] Genspect has been criticized as anti-transgender by transgender advocates.[7]
Genspect has advocated against conversion therapy bills which include protections for transgender people from "suppression of gender identity", supported Littman's concept of ROGD, and worked with Our Duty, a group which called for an "immediate moratorium" on anyone under 25 transitioning and recommends "swift desistance from transgender ideation" as the "stated goal of any treatment regime" for transgender youth. In addition, Genspect has supported multiple legal complaints filed against transgender youth clinicians and intervened on behalf of parents to stop transgender children from socially transitioning in schools without parental support.[8][better source needed]
History
Genspect has supported numerous legal complaints against clinicians and has supported parents in efforts to prevent students socially transitioning at school without full parental support. Genspect intervened in Welsh Valleys School in a case against the school district for using a student's preferred pronouns in school and intervened in a court case in Arizona in defense of the state's Medicaid ban on transgender healthcare. Genspect has argued that including gender identity and gender expression in conversion practices legislation may undermine the ability to carry out ethical therapy to support children and young people under the UK conversion therapy ban and New Zealand's Conversion Practices Prohibition Legislation Act 2022,[9] and that gender-affirming care for children and young people has a poor evidence base. Genspect has advised parents against using transgender children's chosen names and pronouns, recommended schools ban "tucking" and "binding", and said not to punish misgendering between students. Genspect also "stands in full solidarity" with Our Duty, an organisation which advocates an immediate moratorium on gender-affirming healthcare for anyone under 25 and public funding for it any age. The group recommends talk therapies where the stated goal of any treatment regimen must be "swift desistance from transgender ideation".[8][better source needed][10][better source needed]
The Trans Safety Network reported that seven of Society for Evidence Based Gender Medicine's (SEGM) eleven clinical advisors are also members of the Genspect team. Namely, O'Malley, Julia Mason, Avi Ring, Sasha Ayad, Roberto D'Angelo, Marcus Evans and Lisa Marchiano. They described SEGM as "an anti-trans psychiatric and sociological think tank" and fringe group and reported that most of SEGM's funding came in donations greater than $10,000.[11][12] In response to attempts by legislators in Alabama and Texas to ban gender affirming care for minors a report was written by a law professor and six physicians and psychologists who work with trans children and teenagers. These researchers noted that SEGM, which was cited by Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, is "biased" and "not a recognized scientific association".[13][14][15]
In March 2022, O'Malley would have appeared at an NHS conference on gender dysphoria at Great Ormond Street Hospital, alongside paediatrician Hilary Cass, journalist Helen Joyce, CEO of Mermaids Susie Green, and academic and Genspect advisor Lisa Littman. The event was cancelled following complaints by NHS whistleblowers, researchers, and transgender rights activists, who accused a majority of the speakers as having a "record of extreme prejudice towards trans people".[8][better source needed] Genspect held a Detrans Awareness Day on March 31, 2022.[16][17]
On June 15, 2022, The New York Times interviewed parents from Genspect who defined the rise in transgender-identified children as a "gender cult" and mass craze. The article also referenced a substack newsletter by an anonymous Genspect parent titled "It's Strategy People!" about how the organisation gets its perspective into the media by purposefully not referring to transgender children as "mentally ill" or "deluded".[18] PinkNews criticized the Times article for platforming Genspect.[19]
Reception
Jenn Burleton, executive director of TransActive, described Genspect as "an anti-trans, 'gender critical' organization ideologically affiliated with TERFism, ROGD [Rapid Onset Gender Dysphoria], and Alliance Defending Freedom".[7] Gay Community News described Genspect as "an organisation that supports parents who don't affirm their transgender children, espousing the pseudoscientific 'condition' known as Rapid Onset Gender Dysphoria (ROGD), condemned by WPATH, the American Psychiatric Association and American Psychological Association."[11]
References
- ^ Genspect. "Genspect: Our team". Retrieved 4 July 2022.
- ^ Littman, Lisa (2019-03-19). "Correction: Parent reports of adolescents and young adults perceived to show signs of a rapid onset of gender dysphoria". PLOS ONE. 14 (3): e0214157. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0214157. ISSN 1932-6203. PMC 6424391. PMID 30889220.
- ^ "WPATH POSITION ON "Rapid-Onset Gender Dysphoria (ROGD)"" (PDF). World Professional Association for Transgender Health. 2018-09-04. Retrieved 2022-07-06.
- ^ "AusPATH Position Statement on 'Rapid-Onset Gender Dysphoria (ROGD)' – AusPATH". Retrieved 2021-12-12.
- ^ Bauer, Greta R.; Lawson, Margaret L.; Metzger, Daniel L. (2021-11-15). "Do Clinical Data From Transgender Adolescents Support the Phenomenon of 'Rapid-Onset Gender Dysphoria'?". The Journal of Pediatrics. 243: 224–227.e2. doi:10.1016/j.jpeds.2021.11.020. ISSN 0022-3476. PMID 34793826. S2CID 244283360.
- ^ "ROGD Statement". Coalition for the Advancement & Application of Psychological Science. Retrieved August 4, 2021.
- ^ a b Rook, Erin (March 8, 2022). "Women's group will hold conference to try to convince trans people to "detransition"". LGBTQ Nation. Archived from the original on 5 June 2022. Retrieved 2022-06-19.
- ^ a b c Ferreira, Lou (March 25, 2022). "NHS invited speakers with 'anti-trans' links to trans event". openDemocracy. Archived from the original on 7 June 2022. Retrieved 2022-06-15.
- ^ Genspect (8 September 2021). "Genspect Submission to the Conversion Practices Prohibition Legislation Bill in the New Zealand Parliament". New Zealand Parliament. Retrieved 3 July 2022.
- ^ Genspect (25 March 2022). "A response to openDemocracy: In defence of a gender-rational approach". Genspect. Retrieved 3 July 2022.
- ^ a b Ferreyra-Carroll, Lilith (2021-10-21). "A state of collapse: Trans healthcare in Ireland is a national emergency". Gay Community News (Dublin). Retrieved 2022-06-28.
- ^ Moore, Mallory. "SEGM uncovered: large anonymous payments funding dodgy science". transsafety.network. Retrieved 2022-06-26.
- ^ Ring, Trudy (2022-05-05). "'Science' Behind Texas/Alabama Anti-Trans Policy Is 'Full of Errors'". The Advocate. Archived from the original on 16 June 2022. Retrieved 2022-06-16.
- ^ Boulware, Susan; Kamody, Rebecca; Kuper, Laura; McNamara, Meredithe; Olezeski, Christy; Szilagyi, Nathalie; Alstott, Anne (2022-04-28). "Biased Science: The Texas and Alabama Measures Criminalizing Medical Treatment for Transgender Children and Adolescents Rely on Inaccurate and Misleading Scientific Claims". SSRN. Rochester, NY. doi:10.2139/ssrn.4102374.
- ^ "Faculty from the Yale Law School, the Yale School of Medicine's Child Study Center and Departments of Psychiatry and Pediatrics Join with Colleagues to Examine the Scientific Claims Underlying Texas's Attempt to Treat Gender-Affirming Care as "Child Abuse"". medicine.yale.edu. Retrieved 2022-06-26.
- ^ Corr, Julieanne (9 April 2022). "Students union boycotts Irish Times over conversion therapy article". The Times. Archived from the original on 10 April 2022. Retrieved 10 April 2022.
- ^ Ditum, Sarah (29 January 2022). "The detransitioners: 'The problems I thought I'd solved were all still there'". The Times. Archived from the original on 4 March 2022. Retrieved 4 March 2022.
- ^ Bazelon, Emily (2022-06-15). "The Battle Over Gender Therapy". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Archived from the original on 19 June 2022. Retrieved 2022-06-19.
- ^ Baska, Maggie (2022-06-16). "New York Times faces searing backlash for publishing 'harmful' anti-trans 'propaganda'". Pink News. Archived from the original on 19 June 2022. Retrieved 2022-06-19.