Sceptical parents of trans kids likened to perpetrators of abuse
A prominent transgender specialist has likened sceptical parents to perpetrators of abuse.
A prominent transgender specialist has likened sceptical parents to perpetrators of abuse and given therapists tips for getting time to speak to the child alone.
Even outwardly supportive parents might be engaged in unconscious “gaslighting” — causing children to doubt their trans declaration — and committing a form of “identity-related abuse”, according to the academic paper by lead author Damien Riggs of Flinders University. Gaslighting may involve parents who “overemphasise safety concerns for their child in an attempt to limit actions which affirm their gender”, the paper says.
Affirmation can be social (a new name, hair and clothes) or medical (puberty blocker drugs, cross-sex hormones and surgery in rare cases under the age of 18).
The Riggs paper says “gaslighter” parents may refuse appointments for a child alone because “it is well known that in abusive contexts perpetrators will try to segregate themselves and the person they are abusing off from others”.
“Requests for individual appointments, however, can be couched in clinical terms, for example in regards to building rapport,” the paper says.
Email contact may be another option, depending on a child’s age, and “this must be done with express permission of the child and ideally the parents should be aware if a clinician has contact details for a young child.”
The paper blames society for focusing on parental feelings of “loss” when gender change is declared, rather than the needs of the trans child.
Clinical psychologist Dianna Kenny, a critic of the “affirmation model”, which reinforces a child’s trans self-declaration as vital for mental health, described the Riggs paper as “appalling”.
“It’s setting up parents who dissent from affirming as the baddies, as abusive,” she said.
The Australian does not dispute that Dr Riggs and co-author Clare Bartholomaeus believe their advice serves the best interests of children. They did not respond to request for comment yesterday. A worried mother found their 2018 paper on the internet after puzzling over a complaint from her female-identifying teenager that she was “gaslighting” him.
The term refers to a film in which a malevolent husband manipulates his wife into questioning her sanity.
Dr Riggs, who also offers psychotherapy at $80 an hour for trans children aged 12 and under, seized upon Scott Morrison’s objection last year to the idea of “gender whisperers” in school seeking out potential trans kids.
Writing for The Educator website, Dr Riggs argued the Prime Minister had unwittingly helped the cause of needy trans children, since his analogy to baby- or horse-whisperers suggested “someone who is empathetic, who shows genuine compassion”.
He said teachers “who listen and who are affirming” in response to a child’s self-declaration of trans identity represented “best practice backed up by sound evidence”.
In 2013, Dr Riggs won a prestigious Australian Research Council Future Fellow grant worth almost $700,000 for a study of “family diversity” challenging “social norms”. One result was a paper critiquing “the hegemonic status of genetic matter” in kinship.
In a 2016 comment on media images, Dr Riggs faulted a 60 Minutes profile of a trans girl, Emma, for saying she was “born a boy”. This was “a problem because it asserts assigned sex as a truth,” he said.
The Australian Psychological Society did not respond to a request for comment on the “gaslighting” paper.
Cops probe fresh anti-Semitic attacks
Multiple vehicles, garages and properties have been plastered with anti-Semitic graffiti in Sydney’s eastern suburbs overnight.
Almost half of young Australians vote because they’re scared of a fine
In a new landmark survey, researchers found – surprisingly – that young Australians not registered to vote were more likely to be wealthy students than registered voters who simply forgot to show up on election day.