Published December 16, 2021
This week, EPPC Kate O’Beirne Fellow Mary Rice Hasson and EPPC President Ryan T. Anderson filed an amicus curiae brief in Tingley v. Ferguson, a case before the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals challenging a law in Washington state that effectively mandates that therapists serving minors use a “gender-affirmation-only” approach and that denies effective psychotherapy to minors seeking psychological help to explore alternative pathways, including the possibility of desisting from a transgender identity.
The brief states, in part:
Across the globe, gender specialists and whistleblowers have raised alarm over the scant evidence supporting gender-affirming protocols and the mounting evidence that gender affirmation causes harm to minors. In the wake of extensive evidence reviews, several leading European gender clinics recently ended or curtailed gender-affirming interventions for minors. Extensive psychotherapy, open to exploring alternative diagnoses and non-invasive ways of managing gender dysphoria, is emerging as the first-line response to adolescent identity distress.
In the United States, influential gender therapists admit that gender identity “conversion therapy” laws have exerted a chilling effect on therapists, preventing them from offering minors the careful psychological assessments and counseling they need. These transgender-affirming psychologists warn that, without in-depth psychological care to address psychological co-morbidities and to explore the roots of their dysphoria, some minors will pursue body modifications that they will end up regretting. Research on “de-transitioners” confirms that regret is real, and likely to increase in a clinical environment where minors bear the weight of self-diagnosis, and professionals must rely on adolescent claims of certainty.
We urge the Court to consider the serious ethical concerns surrounding the Law, which effectively mandates a “gender-affirmation-only” approach and denies effective psychotherapy to minors seeking psychological help to explore alternative pathways, including the possibility of desisting from a transgender identity.
Mary Rice Hasson, J.D., is the Kate O’Beirne Senior Fellow at the Ethics and Public Policy Center in Washington, D.C., where she co-founded and directs the Person and Identity Project, an initiative that educates and equips parents and faith-based institutions to promote the truth about the human person and counter gender ideology. An attorney and policy expert, Mary has been a three-time keynote speaker for the Holy See at the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women, on topics related to women, education, and gender ideology. She serves as a consultant to the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ Committee on Laity, Marriage, Family, Life and Youth. Recently, Mary was honored to receive the Christifideles Laici award at the 2023 National Catholic Prayer Breakfast.
