As other countries, like Sweden, Finland, the U.K. and medical societies in France, Belgium, and Australia turn away from aggressive programs to introduce gender choice and hormone therapy and surgery, the AAP won’t even allow a debate, and it is influencing school policy.

The American Academy of Pediatrics has been cited by members of the BOE in the past, including board member Sue Johnson before she became BOE President, as a source of information that should be considered as we look to define our policies and practices for how schools should handle gender expression and, presumably, the FCPS support of social transitions.

One of the AAP’s efforts is to dispel the idea that introducing gender choice in early education as a normal part of child exploration and development does not drive up the numbers of children experiencing gender dysphoria (gender dysphoria among children 6 to 17 increased 122% between 2017 and 2021). The AAP has relied on a study that Jack Turban and colleagues in Pediatrics published that claimed that social influence isn’t the reason that as many as 9% of America’s youth now call themselves transgender. This study has been widely discredited, and the AAP has been criticized for ignoring data while selectively cherry-picking information that defies logic.

Read this short article, which we have referenced in the past, to understand why the AAP, while still an organization where input on various childhood medical and psychological conditions should be considered, is absolutely wrong on this topic.