She’s a nutter.

I’ve written about her before.  But pretty well she thinks it’s her job to take vulnerable, questioning young people and turn them into heterosexuals.  She thinks it’s her job to deny that teenagers should have sex and that the only place to wave people pokers around is in the confines of a marriage.

In one of her latest posts she asks three questions of the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP), an organisation that is composed of 60,000 primary care paediatricians, paediatric medical subspecialists and paediatric surgical specialists dedicated to the health, safety and well-being of infants, children, adolescents and young adults.

Fair enough that our non-PC MD would want to ask some questions about sexuality and gender identity when dealing with young people.  The AAP has just released an updated policy statement on the care for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and questioning youth.  Read about it here.

Our good MD asks her questions:

You state that a teen who questions if he is male or female, or who wants his genitalia removed, is “normal, just different.”

Let’s stop you there. Here’s what they say under their recommendations in their policy document:

Pediatricians should be available to answer questions, to correct misinformation, and to provide the context that being LGBTQ is normal, just different.

When it comes to having your bits removed it’s not as easy as fronting up to the doctor and saying I want my junk cut off, in fact they say this:

Supportive counseling is paramount to assist the teenager with any dysphoria and to explore gender roles before altering the body. The therapy consists of potentially delaying puberty with gonadotropin-releasing hormone analogs, then use of hormonal therapy, and finally surgery.

And they footnote their recommendation with a reference to the World Professional Association for Transgender Health.  So I guess you’re statement is right, normal, just different, but they need to correct misinformation.  It’s the responsible thing to do.

That was just the opening sentence, now to the first question:

Given the physical differences between male and female are more substantial than between different races, if an African American teen is convinced she is really Caucasian, is she also “normal, just different?” Should her pediatrician affirm her belief, and support her wish for facial surgery and skin bleaching?

I think you’ll find that this isn’t a problem anywhere near the same as sexual identity.   Nowhere do we find a family of white people saying to their children, “don’t you grow up black.  We’ll disown you.”  Nowhere do you hear, “well ok, if you want to marry a black she’ll need to have her face bleached.  We’ll lend you the money.”  And tell me Dr. MD with 0PC, how does a white woman come up with an idea that a teenage black teen wants to be white?

On to question two.

2. If my son thinks he’s a girl, you recommend I find a therapist who will respect and affirm his belief.

But if my son is attracted to boys, and his urges feel foreign and distressing, you advise me to find a therapist who will tell him “this is who you are, accept it.”

Honestly, does that make sense?

I couldn’t find the quote “this is who you are, accept it” anywhere in the documentation.  Perhaps you’re just making a quote up?  What I do find are words like this:

Homophobia and heterosexism may damage the emerging self-image of an LGBTQ adolescent.  Homophobia perceived by LGBTQ youth may lead to self-destructive behaviors

I think it may be best to discover why his urges feel foreign and distressing.

And this:

Another critically important role of the pediatrician is to assist parents of sexual minority youth. Pediatricians should acknowledge the parents’ feelings but should provide information and support for the adolescent who has disclosed. Parents’ reactions and attitudes may adjust over time.

and:

Many adolescents struggle with their sexual attractions and identity formation, and some may be referred to as “questioning.”

and:

If a pediatrician does not feel competent to provide specialized care for sexual minority teenagers and their families, he or she has the responsibility to evaluate families and then refer for medically appropriate care.

So nowhere is there a suggestion that a young gay or questioning man should just accept it.  In answer to your question, “honestly, does that make sense” the answer is no.  Your question is wrong.

Perhaps our MD hasn’t enough time to read the 8 page policy document, page 1 is a cover page, pages 6, 7 and 8 are footnotes, so really, just read pages 2 through to 5.  Only takes a couple of minutes and all your questions would be answered.

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She talks about oral sex and throat cancer while in New Zealand doing the rounds.  She’s making big claims that nobody tells anyone the risk of the  human papilloma virus, which may be spread through sexual contact.  The HPV has a vaccine, unlike religion.

You can see her on New Zealand’s Close Up here where she’s keen to spread the word that sex is evil and should only be had when you’re married.

Grossman is keen to talk about oral sex, which she clearly thinks is a bad idea because it may give you throat cancer.  She could probably do with a bit of oral sex, it would probably cheer her up a bit.  Sucking dick does have it’s risks, as does any sex if you have multiple partners.  The idea isn’t to tell kids not to do it, because that won’t stop them, the idea is to tell kids that there are risks and what those risks are, and more importantly how to protect themselves.  Grossman says that the medical evidence isn’t being taught to kids, and yet, in looking at some of the website she accuses of having misinformation it seems pretty clear that in fact the information is there and being taught.   Grossman mentions oral sex because it has shock value.  Alas, as we all know, oral sex is not anything to do with sexual relationships – just ask Bill.

Checking in on the Facebook page for Close Up it’s clear that her brand of sex education isn’t welcome in New Zealand.  Here’s a sample of comments:

What a load of crap. What is that woman doing over here in New Zealand? When we lived in the US, 7 years ago, our 2 teenage daughters were in Middle School, aged 13 and 14. Out of the 25 students, more then half of the girls were pregnant.  Before telling someone else what to do, she should clean up her own back yard.

Bad choice putting an American prude on, not a good representation of discussion in NZ

Get the foreigner off! Fix your own country before you trample around in our backyard!!!

I think Dr Grossman needs to get a life

Clearly this lady spent more time in the library than she did sucking d!#K.

omfg the AMERICAN SO IGNORANT SO IGNORANT. I DON’T EVEN NEEED TO SAY ANYMORE. teenagers are going to have sex whenever the hell they please, they need to be educated on how to be safe about it or we’ll just get more stds and preganancys.

There are of course comments that go the other way, you can check those out too.

Grossman is in New Zealand to attend the Family First Forum – seems that Family First is a lobby group in New Zealand that is your typical fundamental christian fuckwits that think nobody but married people should have children.  Sort of like a NZ version of the ACL.  I’m sure there are tickets still available, I don’t think it’d be a sell out.  I hear some of our very own ACL members are heading over for the wank-fest.

Does anyone know if NZ’s Maccas have free wi fi? Do they have the internet there?

— Lyle Shelton (@LyleShelton) June 25, 2012

Grossman will be in Australia for her Sunday chat with the locals at the Glen Eira College, be sure to check in with Mike Stuchbery he has asked the question about why a state school is hosting such an event.

See, I think that a state school performing arts centre – ostensibly a school hall – is the least appropriate place to host a speaker who would be there to marginalize and abuse young gay men and women, telling them that there is something wrong with them and they can be ‘fixed’.

He asks good questions.  I’m aware that several people have written to the school asking for some clarification.  It would seem that the school can’t find the reply button on their email program.

You can also check out Ideologically Impure, there’s a promise of an in-depth blog to come, that should be fun!

On the other side, there’s a blog called Leeds which sounds remarkably like a variety of onion, Leeds thanks me for bringing this talk to its attention and is keen to get along.  I’m not sure who the Leeds is, but according to its friend:

failures as an educator and writer as well as a person and a role model

Leeds says this:

For the very very reasons that they try to howl her down and people like her, who obviously talk commonsense and have done their research, I want to hear what she has to say and it sounds as though her book may be an interesting and good read.

When you base your sexuality and education on texts that were written well over 2000 years ago, you are not applying common sense.  Like all religious types there is no common sense to any of this.  The starting point is, this is what the bible says, therefore everything I do will be based on that.

That’s crazy.

Free speech is fine, however, if you put yourself out in the public and base your talk on pseudo science and make-believe, expect people to exercise their free speech right against your insanity.

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Just so we know who we’re talking about here, the AFA is a right-wing group who think that marriage can only be between a man and a woman.  It has the likes of Margaret Court as patron, and other ratbags including Shimon Cowen¹

Shimon Cowen is chairing the meeting.  Cowen earlier this year was widely criticised for his ‘paper‘ on homosexuality and bullying.  His paper included this:

 From a religious standpoint, if a person felt an overwhelming homosexual impulse of the deepest nature, that would be viewed with compassion but it would not constitute permission to indulge homosexual activity in practice. It is an abnormality, which as far as possible should be treated.

Miriam Gross is an American child and adolescent psychiatrist.  She’s an ultra-orthodox Jew which no doubt has a huge impact on her profession and her ideology.  No doubt she’s an expert in her field.  She does seem to be very keen on telling young people not to have sex.  One of the things she says is that she treats lots of people for problems with having sex early in their lives. I’m not at all surprised that someone who offers counselling for adolescent children will see children with a wide range of problems, including sexual matters.

Miriam is going to give a public lecture, and just to make sure we’re paying attention she’s giving the talk in a state secondary school, Glen Eira College.  That’s done as a way of adding some sort of credibility to the talk.  The school community will know it’s on and they have plenty of victims to pick from.  One of the major concerns you have as a parent is sex and what your kids are doing.  It’s really easy for someone like the AFA to play on those concerns and make it look like they care.

The title of the talk is Sex Education Protecting our Children’s Well-being (that’s the title in the press ads). That says all the right things!  What parent doesn’t want to protect their child’s well-being?

Grossman’s attitude towards sex education is very traditional and conservative.  Her attitude no doubt is that children should never be told anything about sex, because they might go out and try it.

The AFA website says this:

She will provide you with critical health information and facts about sex that you can share with your teenagers. It is sound medical advice you will not have heard elsewhere.

Grossman also champions an online petition that says

We declare that sex education programs should encourage the ideal of delaying sexual activity until marriage as the only sure way to avoid sexually transmitted diseases, out-of-wedlock pregnancies, abortions, and a myriad of the other well-documented negative health consequences associated with premarital sex.

A clear indication that she thinks sex should not happen outside traditional marriage, ignoring the fact that very few people actually wait until they are married to have sex.  Her approach is one of fear tactics and guilt.

Grossman also thinks homosexuality is wrong.  Earlier this year she put her name to a letter in support for Lesley Pilkington, a psychotherapist involved in among other things, unwanted homosexuality and therapy.  In the letter that she supports is this paragraph:

Psychological care for those who are distressed by unwanted homosexual attractions has been shown to yield a range of beneficial client outcomes, especially in motivated clients. This is supported by recent empirical evidence from Byrd, Nicolosi, Shaeffer, Spitzer, Jones and Yarhouse. Such therapy does not produce harm despite the Royal College of Psychiatrists (RCPsych) and others maintaining the contrary. In this area, the RCPsych seems to be guided by the Lesbian, Gay and Bisexual Mental Health Special Interest Group, and could therefore be partial to one view

I’ve already blogged onthe work of Spitzer, and he has since recanted his research.

One of Grossman’s books is called “You’re Teaching My Child What?”. That’s a really good question, and one that should be asked of Grossman.

Her idea of sex education is abstinence. No sex outside marriage.  Her idea is that children should not be told about homosexuality, transsexuality or bisexuality.  Children should not be encouraged to explore their bodies and understand how they work.  Her talks are about instilling fear into children, that the best way to avoid any sexually transmitted disease is by not having sex with anyone but your married partner.

Her attitude is most definitely driven by religious dogma by both the christian and jewish traditions.

It has no place in modern Australia.

The school should deny her access to their premises and anyone promoting this talk should be told more precisely just what it’s about.

Grossman will peddle hatred and mistrust to unsuspecting parents.

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