Settling the Insanity
By Pastor Carl Gallups
Let's settle the lunacy once and for all.
The radical transgender movement is a mental illness (a psychotic disorder according to WEB-MD and the DSM-5 own definitions of PD) that needs to be compassionately treated as such and not normalized, celebrated, and enabled. Nor should it be "forced" upon otherwise unsuspecting and innocent children and their bathroom and shower-hygiene functions.
Is that declaration simply a bigoted, homophobic, insensitive statement made by an outspoken and concerned pastor? Nope. Although, those are my words - and I am a deeply concerned citizen, man, father, grandfather, and pastor - it is also the scientific, medical, and academic position of respected professionals throughout America. Need proof?
Following is a recent sampling of what the experts are saying:
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JOHNS HOPKINS SHRINKS WARN AGAINST KIDS GOING TRANSGENDER
McHugh, Mayer: Little scientific evidence for 'born that way' theory
http://www.wnd.com/2016/08/johns-hopkins-shrinks-warn-against-going-transgender-with-kids/
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LUDICROUS, SUPERSTITIOUS, NO BASIS IN FACT
Robert P. George, the McCormick Professor of Jurisprudence at Princeton, publicly questioned the science behind the transgender movement, in reaction to the Obama administration’s threatening letter to educators mandating accommodation of gender-confused teenager. He insists that the notion that a woman can be trapped inside a man’s body” is ludicrous and superstitious, with no basis in medical fact.
DR. GEORGE TWEET: There are few superstitious beliefs as absurd as the idea that a woman can be trapped in a man's body
DR. GEORGE TWEET: With Obama's bathroom edict, the right of parents to direct the upbringing and education of children is in graver peril than ever.
(http://www.breitbart.com/big-government/2016/05/16/princeton-prof-transgenderism-not-scientific-superstitious-belief)
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CONFUSED THINKING, AN OBJECTIVE PSYCHOLOGICAL PROBLEM
And there is the recent statement by the American College of Pediatricians, which argues forcefully against encouraging young people to question their own biological sexuality.
Gender Ideology Harms Children
"The American College of Pediatricians urges educators and legislators to reject all policies that condition children to accept as normal a life of chemical and surgical impersonation of the opposite sex. Facts – not ideology – determine reality."
“A person’s belief that he or she is something they are not is, at best, a sign of confused thinking,” the doctors stated. “When an otherwise healthy biological boy believes he is a girl, or an otherwise healthy biological girl believes she is a boy, an objective psychological problem exists that lies in the mind not the body, and it should be treated as such.”
(http://www.acpeds.org/the-college-speaks/position-statements/gender-ideology-harms-children)
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TRANSGENDER SUICIDE ATTEMPTS - STAGGERING!
"According to UCLA surveys, 4.6 percent of the overall U.S. population has self-reported a suicide attempt, with that number climbing to between 10 and 20 percent for lesbian, gay or bisexual respondents. By comparison, 41 percent of trans or gender non-conforming people surveyed have attempted suicide. Trans men are the most impacted, with 46 percent reporting an attempt in their lifetime. Trans women are close behind at 42 percent, and female-assigned cross-dressers report rates of 44 percent."
The bottom line? When almost HALF a population of people who are identifying as something other than their DNA, sexual organs, physical appearance plainly declares - attempts to kill themselves - it's time to call this what it is ... a mental illness that needs to be lovingly and sanely treated. It does not need to be called "normal" and enabled by politically correct insanity.
(http://www.vocativ.com/culture/lgbt/transgender-suicide/)
(http://williamsinstitute.law.ucla.edu/wp-content/uploads/AFSP-Williams-Suicide-Report-Final.pdf)
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TRANSGENDER SURGERY DOESN'T ADDRESS UNDERLYING PSYCHO-SOCIAL TROUBLES... “INCREASED MENTAL DIFFICULTIES and TWENTY-FOLD INCREASE IN SUICIDE RATES”
Dr. Paul McHugh, former psychiatrist in chief at Johns Hopkins Hospital (pioneers in Transgender Surgery) authored this article in the Wall Street Journal. Following are a few excerpts from that article.
"Transgender Surgery Isn't the Solution: A drastic physical change doesn't address underlying psycho-social troubles."
"This intensely felt sense of being transgendered constitutes a mental disorder in two respects. The first is that the idea of sex misalignment is simply mistaken—it does not correspond with physical reality. The second is that it can lead to grim psychological outcomes."
"The transgendered suffer a disorder of "assumption" like those in other disorders familiar to psychiatrists. With the transgendered, the disordered assumption is that the individual differs from what seems given in nature—namely one's maleness or femaleness. Other kinds of disordered assumptions are held by those who suffer from anorexia and bulimia nervosa, where the assumption that departs from physical reality is the belief by the dangerously thin that they are overweight."
"You won't hear it from those championing transgender equality, but controlled and follow-up studies reveal fundamental problems with this movement. When children who reported transgender feelings were tracked without medical or surgical treatment at both Vanderbilt University and London's Portman Clinic, 70%-80% of them spontaneously lost those feelings."
"We at Johns Hopkins University—which in the 1960s was the first American medical center to venture into "sex-reassignment surgery"—launched a study in the 1970s comparing the outcomes of transgendered people who had the surgery with the outcomes of those who did not. Most of the surgically treated patients described themselves as "satisfied" by the results, but their subsequent psycho-social adjustments were no better than those who didn't have the surgery. And so at Hopkins we stopped doing sex-reassignment surgery, since producing a "satisfied" but still troubled patient seemed an inadequate reason for surgically amputating normal organs."
"It now appears that our long-ago decision was a wise one. A 2011 study at the Karolinska Institute in Sweden produced the most illuminating results yet regarding the transgendered, evidence that should give advocates pause. The long-term study—up to 30 years—followed 324 people who had sex-reassignment surgery. The study revealed that beginning about 10 years after having the surgery, the transgendered began to experience increasing mental difficulties. Most shockingly, their suicide mortality rose almost 20-fold above the comparable non-transgender population."
(http://www.wsj.com/articles/paul-mchugh-transgender-surgery-isnt-the-solution-1402615120)
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THE MOST RECENT EDITION OF THE DSM-5
Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-5)
Observe the opening paragraph of the latest DSM-5 document. In its attempt to redefine, in a politically-correct manner, the mental disorder of transgenderism – it steps all over itself in blatant hypocritical and duplicitous language. But, they can’t help it! They have to. Why? Because it is a mental disorder and they know it!
“In the upcoming fifth edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-5), people whose gender at birth is contrary to the one they identify with will be diagnosed with gender dysphoria. This diagnosis is a revision of DSM-IV’s criteria for gender identity disorder and is intended to better characterize the experiences of affected children, adolescents, and adults. Respecting the Patient, Ensuring Access to Care DSM not only determines how MENTAL DISORDERS [emphasis added] are defined and diagnosed, it also impacts how people see themselves and how we see each other."
"It is important to note that gender nonconformity is not in itself a mental disorder. The critical element of gender dysphoria is the presence of CLINICALLY SIGNIFICANT DISTRESS (In other words – a “mental disorder!”) [Emphasis and comment added] associated with the condition.”
(http://www.dsm5.org/documents/gender%20dysphoria%20fact%20sheet.pdf)
Here is a professional journal article about "Clinically Significant Distress." It is defined as a "disorder."
FROM THE ARTICLE...
"However, if the experience of distress is far in excess of what is CULTURALLY APPROPRIATE (emphasis added) or persists well after the termination of the primary (or secondary) stressor, then it is considered part of a pathological psychological process and should be seen as a marker of a mental disorder."
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2691169/
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THIS IS HOW WEB-MD begins its "definition" of Gender Dysphoria (Transgenderism)
(It used to be called Gender Identity Disorder).
"People who have gender dysphoria FEEL STRONGLY that they are not the gender they PHYSICALLY APPEAR TO BE. For example, a person who has a penis and ALL OTHER physical traits of a MALE might FEEL instead that HE is actually a FEMALE. That person would have an INTENSE DESIRE to have a female body and to be accepted by others as a female." (Emphasis added) [1]
This is a fairly typical definition of the condition - found across the board on officially recognized medical sites and in modern medical journals.
THEN WEBMD DECLARES:
"Gender dysphoria used to be called “gender identity disorder.” But the mismatch between body and internal sense of gender is NOT A MENTAL ILLNESS."
The term "mental illness" is hyperlinked in the WEBMD article so that you can see their interpretation of "mental illness." And this is where the matter gets very interesting.
WEB-MD's DEFINITION OF MENTAL ILLNESS:
When you click on the hyperlink to "mental illness" you will come to a page titled TYPES OF MENTAL ILLNESSES. The third one down is labeled "Psychotic disorders..."
Here is how WEBMD states that definition:
"Psychotic disorders: Psychotic disorders involve distorted awareness and thinking. Two of the most common symptoms of psychotic disorders are [1] hallucinations -- the experience of images or sounds that are not real, such as hearing voices -- and [2] DELUSIONS, which are false fixed beliefs that the ill person accepts as true, despite evidence to the contrary. Schizophrenia is an example of a psychotic disorder." [2]
In other words - a psychotic disorder is the condition in which a person THINKS and BELIEVES that he/she is something that they are NOT - by all identifying scientific standards of reality.
And what is the definition of Schizophrenia? Here is the Mayo Clinic's definition: "Schizophrenia is a severe brain disorder in which people interpret REALITY abnormally. Schizophrenia may result in some combination of hallucinations, DELUSIONS, and extremely DISORDERED THINKING and behavior." [3]
So - a person who has all the DNA and physical conditions of being a male (i.e. - male genetics, male sex organs, male characteristics, etc.), who FEELS they would RATHER be a female, and they are severely unhappy (dysphoria) because they are not a female - isn't that EXACTLY the definition of a PSYCHOTIC DISORDER under symptom number two? Are they not in a state of "delusion?" Are they not "interpreting reality in an extremely abnormal fashion?" The answers are self-evident.
TAKE A CLOSER LOOK AT THE WORDS USED IN THE DEFINITION OF "PSYCHOTIC" (according to WEBMD):
Distorted "awareness." Distorted "thinking." Is not the gender dysphoria "state of mind" DELUSIONAL by its own definition? Is it not a FALSE FIXED BELIEF despite hardcore, biological, scientifically verifiable EVIDENCE TO THE CONTRARY? Of course it is! There's no way around it. A third grader can understand the clear connection.
In reality, WEBMD identifies "gender dysphoria" as a mental illness called a Psychotic Disorder. Sorry liberals - you can't have it "both" ways after all.
While understanding the very real heartache that can accompany any mental illness, those of us who are rational would contend that the answer to the problem is not to simply call the illness "normal" and then look for ways to enable the illness and then to impose it upon the rest of society as "perfectly acceptable" and even celebrated. Rather, like any other true mental illness - it must be identified for what it is and then appropriately treated.
We would not dream of telling a sufferer of the mental disorder classified as Bulimia nervosa that we will now provide a "place" for them to "practice" their disorder - and will allow them special regurgitation rooms so that they can feel "normal." Would we? Do you see where this insane thinking takes us?
1. http://www.webmd.com/mental-health/gender-dysphoria
2. http://www.webmd.com/mental-health/default.htm
3. http://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/schizophrenia/basics/definition/con-20021077
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WORD OF GOD
Isaiah 5:20:
Woe to those who call evil good and good evil, who put darkness for light and light for darkness, who put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter.
Deut. 22:5
A woman must not wear men's clothing, nor a man wear women's clothing, for the LORD your God detests anyone who does this.
Lev. 18:22
Do not have sexual relations with a man as one does with a woman; that is detestable.
Rom. 1:24-29
24 Therefore God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, to the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves, 25 because they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever! Amen.
26 For this reason God gave them up to dishonorable passions. For their women exchanged natural relations for those that are contrary to nature; 27 and the men likewise gave up natural relations with women and were consumed with passion for one another, men committing shameless acts with men and receiving in themselves the due penalty for their error.
28 And since they did not see fit to acknowledge God, God gave them up to a debased mind to do what ought not to be done. 29 They were filled with all manner of unrighteousness, evil, covetousness, malice.
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SOMETHING TO CONSIDER:
If transgenderism is so easily proven to be a mental illness, and if the Obama administration insists on calling Transgenderism (a proven psychotic disorder) a "civil rights issue," then does that mean that people of color and other minority groups are also suffering from psychotic disorders and delusions? Is this really what the Obama administration wishes to declare? Two plus two still equals four - right?
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Researched and written by Pastor Carl Gallups
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Additional information on "The Benefits of Mental Health According to Science" from PositivePsychology.com; a platform designed to provide science-based online courses and tools for helping professionals, may be found here:
The absence of mental illness does not equal mental health. Just as the lack of physical illness does not equal physical wellness.
To reap the benefits of mental health, special attention to the growth of practices that improve mental health is necessary. There’s, unfortunately, no magic wand, magic pill, or special potion that will move someone along the continuum of mental health.
More: https://positivepsychology.com/benefits-of-mental-health/?msID=98cc31b5-1525-4fd6-929c-bd97ffd5c666
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