Op-Ed: Woke American Counseling Association (ACA) Tosses Science for Transgenderism Theory — An Illusion

By Melissa Martin, Ph.D. Last updated Dec 28, 2022 Share with new partner:

American Counseling Association — The brain and body are not different entities. If the brain says you are in the wrong body – it’s a brain issue – not a body issue. If the body says you have the wrong brain – will you get another brain? File photo: Olena Yakobchuk, Shutter Stock, licensed.

“To be clear, this “alternate perspective” of an “innate gender fluidity” arising from prenatally “feminized” or “masculinized” brains trapped in the wrong body is an ideological belief that has no basis in rigorous science.” – Michelle A. Cretella, M.D.

PORTSMOUTH, OH – Where’s the hard science on gender ideology? You won’t find it because it doesn’t exist. It’s nothing more than a fairytale fantasy – not reality. And the American Counseling Association (ACA) is following the trans movement script. Why is the ACA governing board ignoring the fact-based science of biology, anatomy, physiology? Why follow a make-believe fictional model? The foundational assumptions of gender ideology are flawed and faulty.

The Transgender Resource Center lists multiple studies that debunk gender ideology and gender identity as science-based.

The brain and body are not different entities. If the brain says you are in the wrong body – it’s a brain issue – not a body issue. If the body says you have the wrong brain – will you get another brain? Of course not. Don’t tell kids to alienate and reject their own bodies – that is mentally unhealthy. Tell kids the scientific facts and reality. Gender ideology is a nonscience theory. A biological male cannot become a female. A biological female cannot become a male. It’s impossible.

And just because someone somewhere decided to separate the words ‘sex’ and ‘gender’ and pull new meanings out of the air – does not make it fact. ‘Gender identity’ is a mere phrase based on opinion and not scientific data or the outcomes of peer-reviewed research studies.

What is the American Counseling Association (ACA)?

ACA is the world’s largest nonprofit association representing professional counselors in various practice settings. There are 20 chartered divisions.

Excerpts:

The American Counseling Association stands in solidarity with all individuals and their basic human right to access public restrooms and changing facilities that match their gender identity.

Gender is the product of a complicated interaction of chromosomes, anatomy, hormones, and culture that begins before birth. Most people’s gender identity is consistent with the gender they were labeled at birth. Individuals who identify as transgender have a persistent and consistent experience of their gender being different from their sex assigned at birth…Counselors know and understand the critical importance of living consistently with one’s gender identity, which may or may not include physical or social gender transition. (bold emphasis mine)

So, does the last statement of the above paragraph inform the public that the ACA supports and promotes puberty blockers and mutilation surgery for adolescents? The public needs to know.

What kind of a society gladly cuts off healthy breasts and genitals of teens in the name of transgenderism, a nonscientific theory? A sick society.

ACA members are committed to nondiscrimination and the prevention of harassment in all forms, including protections for transgender, gender non-conforming/gender expansive, and LGBTQ+ individuals. We stand together in strong opposition to any efforts to discriminate against individuals who are living their authentic lives.

The Association for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Issues in Counseling (ALGBTIC) Competencies for Counseling Transgender Clients were approved by the ACA Governing Council in November 2009.

This is not a LGBQ issue at all – this is an issue to save and protect kids from medication and mutilation – which is child abuse in my professional and personal viewpoint. No child is born in the wrong body. And in my professional opinion, accepting and supporting transgenderism as a science is a precursor to medication and mutilation for adolescents. One falsehood leads to more falsehoods, and a house will not stand on a shaky foundation.

The following is the signature of the automated email reply I received from the Ethics division of ACA:

“Theo Brown, Administrative Coordinator: The Center for Counseling Policy, Practice & Research. Pronouns: he/him (What is this?)”

Due to the holiday, the ACA governing body has not responded to my commentaries in reference to transgenderism and children – and they may not. I’m sure they would have to consult with their legal counsel. If they respond, this commentary will be updated.

(ACA) ALGBTIC Competencies for Counseling Transgender Clients

“Across this diversity, the authors share a common approach of affirming that all persons have the potential to live fully functioning and emotionally healthy lives throughout the lifespan along the full spectrum of gender identity and gender expression…Transphobia describes the irrational fear and hatred of all those individuals who transgress, violate, or blur the dominant gender categories in a given society, which may be experienced by transgender individuals in different ways from microaggressions to violence.”

So, if a child or adult believes his/her gender identity is a transgender unicorn, a genderless rock, or a fluid gender that changes daily – does ACA and ASCA support the illusions and delusions of clients? A BIZILLION GENDERS R US.

So, when others disagree with transgenderism, they are haters. ACA, what happened to freedom of speech?

ACA Competent counselors will:

Understand and be aware that there has been a history of heterosexism and gender bias in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual (DSM). For instance, counselors should have knowledge that homosexuality was previously categorized as a mental disorder and that currently “Gender Identity Disorder” remains in the DSM.

Speaking out against the nonscientific theory of transgenderism has nothing to do with homosexuality. However, trans activists erroneously connect it to further accuse individuals with alternative views as discriminators – another power tactic used by dictators to control and condemn hard science. No child is born in the wrong body – follow the science.

Removal of healthy breasts and genitals is called “body modifications” in the aforementioned document. Really? Hmmm.

“Consider limitations of existing literature and existing research methods regarding transgender individuals…” and “Be aware of gaps in literature and research…”

So, there is an issue with the research on transgenderism. Uh-huh. A smoke screen tactic.

Articles in Counseling Today, a magazine for ACA:

As you see, practicing counselors have jumped on the nonscientific band wagon of transgenderism as well.

Follow the radical trans movement trail and leave science behind in the dust:

The American School Counseling Association (ASCA) is a division of ACA:

ACA Opposes Ohio Bill Requiring Teachers, Counselors to ‘Out’ Transgender Kids to Parents.

“Students must be allowed to speak to professional counselors about deeply personal issues without fear that their parents will be notified. Many of the young people who need these conversations the most already have problems with acceptance at home, and the requirements of H.B. 658 would only exacerbate those problems.”

So, public school counselors and teachers must be allowed to bypass parents and support/encourage students that identify as transgender (a nonscience theory). Really? Hmmm. When did parents become insignificant in the USA? When did withholding info from parents about their own children become a policy? Lying by omission is still lying. Public employees paid by taxpayers can lie to parents without repercussions due to Title IX. Really?

Read the following commentary column: Caught On Video: ASCA School Counselors Mislead Parents And Teach Kids To Lie To Parents About Transgenderism – Harmful Title IX

Sensible citizens need to unite, organize, and speak out against deceptive and deviant Title IX and the usurping of parental rights by school systems and counselors.

The radical transgender movement and language

Is it logical or reasonable to change or manufacture language in an effort to support your own doctrine to change societal norms? That’s a well-known tactic used by dictators. Change words and language to change cognitions to change emotions to change values to change behaviors. That’s a technique to use power to control the populous.

Another approach is to call names and virtue signal: transphobic, haters, dragphobic, heterosexism, transprejudice, transnegativity. Mental health professionals, medical professionals, educators, and parents that disagree with puberty blockers and mutilation surgery for kids are being shunned, criticized, and discriminated against. Freedom of speech is being censored and labeled as a hate crime.

A female is a female is a female – and by any other name a female is still a female. Science is not hate speech. Biology is not bigotry. Brain neurology is not pseudo-science. Radical rhetoric has hijacked civilized society.

Rogue physicians and rogue treatments:

“Although members of the media and politicians often claim that children are rarely undergoing any extreme treatments for gender dysphoria, Dr. Van Mol shared that a colleague of his had shocked a group of federal lawmakers who were also doctors when he shared details of the work done by NIH grant money-funded pediatric gender clinics, which included the administration of hormone drugs to children as young as 8 and children as young as 13 undergoing double mastectomies.”

Well, guess what?

Children’s rights are human rights.
Biological girls’ rights are human rights.
Biological boys’ rights are human rights.
Parents’ rights are human rights.

During my career, I was a member of ACA and attended a few of the annual conferences. I was also a member of the state chapter – The Ohio Counseling Association. If not retired, I would cancel my memberships due to the nonscientific rhetoric of fluid gender identity. A feelings-based theory is not science. A biological male cannot bleed monthly from a uterus, become impregnated, nor nurse an infant with breast milk – not possible. What has happened to common sense?

Furthermore, I would never be a member of any organization that adheres to puberty blockers and mutilation surgery of healthy breasts and genitals of children or adolescents.

What can parents and guardians do?

When seeking a counselor/therapist for your child for any reason, I suggest you inquire about the individual’s views on gender ideology for transgenderism. Ask if the individual is a member of ACA and/or ASCA and whether he/she agrees with the statement on fluid gender identity and medication or breast removal or genital surgery for individuals that identify as transgender. Know the counseling confidentiality policies and legislature in your school system and state. Ask for copies of reputable and peer-reviewed studies and research factual info. Use your own critical thinking skills and choose wisely.

The scientific research and facts tell the truthful story. Arm yourself with factual science when confronting school counselors, therapists, educators, medical professionals, and the government.

Books:

Abigail Shrier. Irreversible Damage: The Transgender Craze Seducing Our Daughters. Banned by the American Booksellers Association.

“When Harry Became Sally: Responding to the Transgender Moment,” a book by Ryan T. Anderson, Ph.D. Banned by Amazon.

Resources:

“I’m a Pediatrician. How Transgender Ideology Has Infiltrated My Field and Produced Large-Scale Child Abuse,” an article by Michelle Cretella. “But transgender ideology is not just infecting our laws. It is intruding into the lives of the most innocent among us—children—and with the apparent growing support of the professional medical community.”

“Gender Dysphoria in Children and Suppression of Debate,” a peer-reviewed article by Michelle A. Cretella, M.D. “Gender is a term that refers to the psychological and cultural characteristics associated with biological sex. It is a psychological concept and sociological term, not a biological one. Gender identity refers to an individual’s awareness of being male or female. Gender dysphoria (GD) in children is used to describe a psychological condition in which a child experiences marked incongruence between his experienced gender and the gender associated with his biological sex. He will often express the belief that he is the opposite sex.”

The higher suicide fallacy in kids that identify as trans:

The following is the conclusion from a 2011 study in Sweden published in PLoS One. “Persons with transsexualism, after sex reassignment, have considerably higher risks for mortality, suicidal behavior, and psychiatric morbidity than the general population.” (bold emphasis mine)

Michelle A. Cretella, M.D. “It is now alleged that discrimination, violence, psychopathology, and suicide are the direct and inevitable consequences of withholding social affirmation of a child’s gender discordance and allowing a gender dysphoric child to pass through puberty in accordance with his biological sex. Yet, the fact that 80 percent to 95 percent of gender-dysphoric youth emerge physically and psychologically intact after passing through puberty without social affirmation refutes this claim. Furthermore, more than 90 percent of people who die of suicide have a diagnosed mental disorder. There is no evidence that gender-dysphoric children who complete suicide are any different. Therefore, the cornerstone for suicide prevention should be the same for them as for all children: early identification and treatment of psychological co-morbidities.”

Arlington Parent Coalition: “Research cited by transgender activists in support of their ideology has proven to be flawed, inaccurate, or downright deceptive…When one digs into the research and researchers cited by transgender activists, such as the 27 doctors behind the task force that wrote the American Academy of Pediatrics statement that supports gender affirmation, one inevitably finds that the writers have financial incentive to drive children to gender clinics for transition. In the AAP statement, for example, the committee chair and the head consultant both work for gender clinics.”

Center for American Liberty CEO Harmeet Dhillon and client, Jessica Konen, join The Ingraham Angle to explain how predatory middle school educators secretly groomed Jessica’s 6th grade daughter into transgenderism—and told her daughter not to tell her mom because her mom couldn’t be “trusted.” Parents fight back against activist teachers.

Journalist Julie Kelly for The Federalist penned, “Scientific American’s Transgenderism Issue Only Delegitimizes Science.”