After 24 years of membership, I have left the Australian Psychological Society, Australia’s peak professional body for psychologists. The recent release of the APS position statement, “Supporting the mental health and wellbeing of transgender and gender-diverse people”, made it impossible for me to continue my membership without compromising my professional integrity and feeling like a financial accessory to the “deception by omission” of psychologists and the general public.
What does it mean to “affirm” in the context of the APS position statement? Affirming in the Gender-Affirming Care model proposed by the APS is not just about being compassionate, respectful and client-centred. It is not just about being supportive and listening to people’s unique perspectives and beliefs. Affirmation within GAC requires that psychologists adopt the gender-based beliefs of the client, and unquestioningly agree that any person, including a child, who says they are transgender, is, based solely on their feelings and “innermost sense”.
Psychologists must agree that this innermost sense is an immutable, unchangeable fact, uninfluenced by anything else. Furthermore, psychologists are required to agree that if a child wants to transition socially (eg, by adopting new pronouns or clothing), legally (by changing their name, driver’s licence or birth certificate), medically (by taking puberty blockers and/or cross-sex hormones), and/or surgically (by removing breasts, penis or testicles) based on this innermost sense, the psychologist will support, promote, advocate, advise parents and write letters of support and/or referral to the medical services needed to achieve this, without exception.
This includes no exceptions for being four years old and not yet being able to distinguish fantasy from reality, or for being an adolescent, one of whose main developmental tasks is to explore identities separate from their parents.
No exceptions are made if you have a history of abuse and neglect, and hate and feel unsafe in your body. No exceptions if you have autism, cognitive rigidity, intense reactions to change, special areas of intense interest, sensory issues, including with your own body, impaired executive and social functioning, and never felt like you quite fit in. No exceptions if you have an eating disorder, depression, anxiety, self-harm, a brain injury, an intellectual disability or even psychosis.
No exceptions if other people in your friendship group have declared a similar identity, or you have no friends except online. No exceptions if your parents say they are concerned and saw no gender nonconformity or discomfort in your past, or they are worried you haven’t really thought things through. No exceptions if you spend hours online every day watching TikToks or Instagram reels about transition, or have fallen down the porn rabbit hole.
No exceptions if you are being bullied for being odd or gay. And unless the child initiates it, there is no “let’s think about this carefully and slowly”; no “let’s see if anything changes when your body and brain finish growing, when your sexuality becomes clearer”; no “let’s focus on resolving some of these other issues first”; no “Do you think some of these other issues may be impacting your feelings about yourself, your body, your identity?”
To raise these factors in GAC risks accusations of “conversion therapy”.
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