Independent Report Demolishes Transgender Suicide Claim

A groundbreaking report has demolished a favorite rhetorical tactic used by transgender activists to argue in favor of harmful procedures for gender-confused minors.

For years, the left has emotionally blackmailed the parents of gender-confused kids, insisting that families must sign off on dangerous, irreversible drug regimens or even surgeries, or else their child will surely commit suicide. But independent researchers recently confirmed there is no proof that restricting minors from this so-called “gender-affirming care” leads to more suicides.

A favorite line of transgender activists and their allies in the medical establishment is this: “Would you rather have a dead son or a live daughter?”

Medical professionals and social workers will frighten parents with some form of this bad-faith argument, claiming that “treatments” like cross-sex hormones, puberty blockers, or surgeries that leave kids permanently disfigured are “life-saving.” A compliant liberal media has willfully repeated this lie in their own biased coverage of debates about transgender drugs and surgeries.

But a comprehensive study from Do No Harm looked at Centers for Disease Control and Prevention data across 23 states that have banned transgender drugs and surgeries for minors. Their conclusion? There is “no evidence that these bans have increased suicide rates.”

Do No Harm is an advocacy group which “represents physicians, nurses, medical students, patients, and policymakers focused on keeping identity politics out of medical education, research, and clinical practice.” It was founded in 2022 and opposes transgender drugs and surgeries for minors.

“The alarmist prediction that restricting medicalization of gender-distressed minors would produce a spike in youth suicides is not supported by the data,” Do No Harm scholars Jay Greene and Ian Kingsbury write in their new report.

Greene and Kingsbury ran three separate rigorous analyses and concluded that “state restrictions on pediatric gender interventions had no effect on state suicide rates” for individuals aged 13 to 19 years old.

The basis for the left’s claim is a classic game of telephone, the researchers argue. It all began with a 2011 paper from the Netherlands which concluded that a small group of teens had better mental health outcomes following the use of puberty blockers.

“While the study did not consider suicide as an outcome, it is routinely cited as the seminal evidence that puberty suppression improves mental health in gender-dysphoric youth, which proponents extrapolate to suicide-prevention claims,” the report states.

In other words, one claim in a paper published 15 years ago based on a small sample size has been used to justify prescribing puberty blockers to kids as young as 10 and life-altering surgeries to kids as young as 13. This assertion that “gender-affirming care” leads to a decrease in suicide has led to copycat biased “studies” that all find the same thing.

A vicious “feedback loop” followed, as the media amplified “a public narrative in which questioning the strength of the evidence meant that one risked being portrayed as indifferent to youth suicide,” Do No Harm’s report states.

Of course, liberal media outlets like CNN and left-wing groups like the ACLU simultaneously ignored detailed studies from Europe which came to the precise opposite conclusion, finding that transgender treatments for minors do not lead to a decrease in suicides and may in fact be correlated with negative mental health outcomes. (See, for example, the comprehensive “Cass Review” from Britain’s National Health Service.)

Instead of providing true medical care, activist doctors have been practicing medical quackery for years.

What kids deserve, though, is something much different, according to Do No Harm’s chief medical officer.

“If their children present with gender confusion, parents should remain calm, listen carefully, and provide loving, grounded support while holding firm to biological reality,” Dr. Kurt Miceli told AMAC Newsline.

Miceli also warned about the “negative influences” of “social media, online communities, and peer groups.” Many detransitioners, those who used to live as transgender, have said Tumblr and other social media sites encouraged their confusion.

The best medical care addresses the “root causes” of gender confusion, Dr. Miceli said.

“Parents should also seek help from professionals who explore and treat root causes like depression and anxiety rather than defaulting to instant affirmation,” he told AMAC Newsline.

Dr. Miceli also encouraged parents and grandparents to push back against “extraordinary claims” about children supposedly suffering mental anguish from being denied chemical and surgical procedures.

Most Americans likely felt that something was always off about the left’s suicide claims when it comes to children who identify as transgender. But many were likely bullied into silence by the woke takeover of American institutions, including the medical establishment. Now, their skepticism has been vindicated.

No academic study could ever prove that a boy can become a girl or vice versa. But the Do No Harm report empowers parents and grandparents to tell doctors, “Wait, no, that’s not true – and here’s the evidence” if they are ever guilted into “affirming” their child’s gender confusion.

It doesn’t take a licensed counselor or medical doctor to understand that a young person experiencing suicidal thoughts is severely mentally unstable – and it’s not something that cross-sex hormones or surgery is going to fix. There is a deeper underlying issue that must be addressed.

These confused youth deserve true compassion and honesty. That means responsible adults “affirming” them in their true biological identity – not pumping them full of drugs and chopping off healthy body parts. Thanks to Do No Harm, that common-sense approach just became a little bit easier.