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APA Should Censure NARTH's Joseph Berger M.D., For Encouraging Students To 'Ridicule' Peers, Says TWO
Also, NARTH Caught 'Padding Its Petition' to the APA, TWO Reveals
MIAMI BEACH -Truth Wins Out today condemned Toronto psychiatrist Joesph Berger, M.D., for encouraging students to "ridicule" gender variant children. Berger, who serves on the "Scientific Advisory Committee" for the "ex-gay" group the National Association for Research & Therapy of Homosexuality (NARTH), made his remarks in response to a San Francisco Chroniclearticle that explored gender issues in schools.
"I suggest, indeed, letting children who wish go to school in clothes of the opposite sex -- but not counseling other children to not tease them or hurt their feelings," Dr. Berger wrote on NARTH's website. "On the contrary, don't interfere, and let the other children ridicule the child who has lost that clear boundary between play-acting at home and the reality needs of the outside world. Maybe, in this way, the child will re-establish that necessary boundary."
Earlier today, TWO contacted the Ontario branch of the American Psychiatric Association and the Canadian Human Rights Commission to inquire about filing complaints against Dr. Berger for inciting potential violence and advocating possible child abuse.
"Joseph Berger has confused therapy with thuggery and he should be censured for unethical and unprofessional conduct," said TWO's Executive Director Wayne Besen. "His comments put children at risk and exposes NARTH's dangerous agenda at a time when the 'ex-gay' industry is attempting to infiltrate public schools.'
"How can NARTH at one location on it's website take the 'principled position' that '[w]e live in a multi-cultural society where tolerance for differences is essential,' and at another location on their website take the unconscionable position that schoolchildren ridiculing gender variant schoolchildren is a good way to maintain 'boundaries?'" asked Autumn Sandeen, Spokesperson for the Transgender Community Coalition of San Diego. "It's hypocritical for NARTH to advocate both 'principled' tolerance and unconscionable ridicule -- there is nowhere on earth where tolerance equates to ridicule."
Aside from supporting harassment in school, Berger used language that was shockingly unprofessional calling statements he disagreed with "absolute garbage" and "poetic stupidity," while mocking gender variant children by saying they wanted to "play dress up." The NARTH leader also engaged in hate speech by falsely linking transgender and gay activists to child molesters with "perverted goals."
"I think that a lot of this is nonsense and is being pushed by people who have an agenda to disrupt society in order to further some perverted goals such as the acceptance of pedophilia, and, of course, the attempted 'normalization' of homosexuality," wrote Berger.
NARTH is an organization on the fringes of the mental health mainstream that uses long outdated and disproved psychological theories about gay people and repackages them as if they were new findings. The group attempts to make male clients more masculine by encouraging them to drink Gatorade and calling other men "dude." The group also believes that heterosexual men can turn gay if they suffer "defeat or failure."
As a result of such bizarre techniques, flawed research and unsubstantiated claims on the efficacy of "conversion therapy," the American Psychological Association released the following statement at their annual convention in New Orleans in August:
"For over three decades the consensus of the mental health community has been that homosexuality is not an illness and therefore not in need of a cure. The APA's concern about the positions espoused by NARTH and so-called conversation therapy is that they are not supported by the science. There is simply no sufficiently scientifically sound evidence that sexual orientation can be changed. Our further concern is that the positions espoused by NARTH and Focus on the Family create an environment in which prejudice and discrimination can flourish."
While in New Orleans, NARTH unveiled a petition that aimed to gain support from APA members for "conversion therapy." Embarrassingly, the group only received 75 signatures out of an APA membership of 155,000. This failure was highlighted by the fact that NARTH bussed in 50 professional "ex-gay" lobbyists, meaning the group received less than one signature per protester. Moreover, TWO's research has revealed that of this paltry showing of names, at least one-third of signatories are NARTH members, staff, Board members or conference presenters.
"NARTH was caught 'padding its petition' and spinning their inaction as traction," said Besen. "It is clear that they have confused momentum with their own membership list and have done virtually nothing to advance the case that conversion therapy is effective. Perhaps, this pseudo-secular organization has spent so much time in churches with Focus on the Family that it no longer knows when it is preaching to the choir."
TWO is a non-profit think tank and educational organization that counters right wing disinformation campaigns, debunks the ex-gay myth, and provides accurate information about the lives of GLBT people. Besen, the group's founder and Executive Director, is the author of "Anything But Straight: Unmasking The Scandals and Lies Behind the Ex-Gay Myth."
16 Comments:
I wonder what sexual deamons Dr Bergerbit is fighting within himself?
posted by Anonymous, at
8/31/2006 11:59 AM
I wonder if it would be possible to get the APA to take action against both Nicolosi AND NARTH for this.
posted by Anonymous, at
8/31/2006 12:52 PM
Were I the parent of a transgendered child, I would discourage her from expressing her gender identity in public. Children can be so cruel, not to mention adults, and there's really no other way I could ensure her safety. Certainly, she has a right to express her true self anywhere, but if she did it at school, I wouldn't trust teachers and administrators to protect her. Unfortunately, LGBT youngsters still have no choice but to "pass as Straight" in certain situations; with few exceptions, elementary and high school settings are very dangerous for them.
However, the need for our youth to be careful doesn't justify Dr. Berger's hateful comments in any way, shape, or form. What the Hell was he thinking? Didn't he know remarks like that wouldn't play well in the media? Much less the San Francisco Chronicle! I guess he just couldn't conceal his hostile feelings toward LGBT children. The sadist! He should be disbarred. Here's the silver lining: Berger's cruel "advice" to parents will show NARTH up in an unflattering light, and that's certainly not a bad thing to have happen.
posted by Stuffed Animal, at
8/31/2006 1:03 PM
1. Dr. Berger makes Stephen Harper look like a liberal.
2. There is no way in hell that a gay child would be ridiculed by someone who bought his wardrobe at Wal-Mart.
I am sending an email to all of the officers of the American Psychological Association's Office of LGBT Issues informing them that an APA member is advocating bullying against gender variant children. In my letter (which will be cc'd to President Koocher), I am going to request that the APA consider revoking Nicolosi's membership.
I believe that this most recent development warrants such a move by the APA. Who knows how many parents of gender variant kids will stumble upon their site and take the advice of these so-called mental health professionals. Once again, Nicolosi and NARTH are ADVOCATING harrassment and violence against very young children.
The email addresses for the officers of APA's LGBT section can be found here:
Also, I will be emailing the California Board of Behavioral Sciences, the goverment body that regulates psychologist licensure in CA. I suspect this issue may be considered problematic enough to warrant either censure or the revocation of Nicolosi's license. The CA BBS email can be found here:
That anyone of any belief would suggest that we not teach our children to be polite and courteous is foolishness at the top. This remark deserves that we not interfere with childhood bullying and ridicule is mean. That kind of thinking (from any gay or ex gay perspective) is in desparate need of help.
posted by Anonymous, at
8/31/2006 1:26 PM
Peter, and Anonymous at 1:26, one can only agree.
Is Berger truly an MD? That a Doctor of Medicine could encourage playground bullying, over which, when persistent, some children have killed themselves, is extraordinary.
Does Berger actually practice medicine? Surely whatever professional body licences him to do so, should censure him. I'm in the UK, and I imagine that any Doctor of Medicine who openly encouraged playground bullying, would risk being struck off the Medical Register, whereupon it would be ilegal for him to continue to practice.
For a Doctor of Medicine to comment that the ordinary rough-and-tumble of playground life might build character, would be one thing. But Berger certainly appears to be saying MUCH more - going MUCH further - than that.
posted by Phil, at
8/31/2006 2:11 PM
Individual letters to the APA are fine, but we need to do something as a group. Some kind of a petition, maybe? There's power in numbers!
posted by Stuffed Animal, at
8/31/2006 2:19 PM
Incidentally, on the matter of children wioth transgender feelings: Some years ago there was a very moving and touching TV documentary in the UK, about an 11 year old girl who was convinced she was really a boy inside. The subject was most sensitively handled. The child was very distressed when forced to conform to the female role, and in fact the parents and the school permitted the child to dress and "be" a boy. Did this result in bullying? As it turned out, according to the programme anyway, all the classmates were understanding and sympathetic and treated the child as a boy. There may have been more to the whole story than was shown, of course, but it did seem that the children in the school were sensitive and had good manners.
The programme highlighted the very sensitive issue of what to do. It would make a kind of logical sense to start hormones etc BEFORE breast development and the other changes of puberty (the prospect of breasts filled the child with dismay), but understandably, consultants were reluctant to commit a child of 11 to such a course.
This documentary was some years ago, and it would be very interesting to have a follow-up of the story.
I should say that (apparently unlike Berger)I am well aware of the difference between a pre-gay child with gender-atypical behaviour, and a child with transsexual feelings. Nor am I necesarily condoning or recommending gender reassignment surgery. The point here is that in a well-run school, with well-raised children, a problem with bullying is not inevitable. I guess Berger is recommending that it should be? perhaps he would care to introduce a Bullying For Schools initiative, showing how they can facilitate it?
posted by Phil, at
8/31/2006 2:24 PM
In this article Dr. Berger also advocates a cure for children who procrastinate about getting up and getting ready for school: he says to shove them out in the snow in their underwear, that'll cure 'em.
Clearly Dr. Berger is not responding rationally or considering actual living breathing children. But considering that Dr. Berger's sum total of contributions to the scholastic world is limited to anti-gay diatribes and ex-gay proclamations, we shouldn't be too surprised (he did write something called "The Independent Medical Examination in Psychiatry" but it doesn't seem to be held in very high regard. I wasn't able to find any non-NARTH references to it.)
Berger also completely misunderstood Boagart's research recently and made a fool of himself at the NARTH site.
In other words, Dr. Berger is a loser. His only claim to fame is his homophobia. He's a loon and not terribly bright. Let's be thankful that NARTH uses him as a spokesman. He gives NARTH the same credibiltiy that Cohen gave to PFOX.
posted by Timothy Kincaid, at
8/31/2006 5:02 PM
Who is Dr Berger, I pondered. He seems to be a Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians (Canada). I wonder what that august medical body thinks of its Fellows recommending playground bullying?
Dr. Berger is called "Distinguished", but ONLY on the NARTH website. Looking for information about him online, I found:
""...in my 20 years of psychiatry I have never come across anyone with "innate homosexuality". That notion has been a long-proclaimed gay activist political position, intended to promote the acceptance of homosexuality as a healthy, fully equal, alternative expression of human sexuality."
Joseph Berger, MD Assistant Professor of Psychiatry University of Toronto Globe & Mail February 26, 1992"
That is from http://www.egale.ca/index.asp?lang=E&menu=1&item=187
If Dr Berger is still at the University, what do you suppose they think there about playground bullying?
posted by Phil, at
8/31/2006 6:04 PM
Really? Children should be bullied, picked on and beaten into submission. Hmmmm? While I do agree that some of our best lessens were the hardest to learn - I don't believe that this one is good advice. What a freak.
posted by Anonymous, at
9/01/2006 9:07 PM
Dr. Berger never suggested beating children into submission as others have implied. He was simply expressing a valid, not to mention scientifically valid opinion that these people can be helped. It would be a disaster to allow these poor children to think that such behavior is ok. There is a fine line between physical assault and teasing. If children were teasing a racist for his pathetic views, nobody would mind. In fact, most would probably support letting this young racist find out early that such ideas are reprehensible. By the same token, these "alternative lifestyles" are not legite. Now I am not advocating hate of anybody, but certain lifestyles are indeed wrong. Everyone has flaws that we must work on, we all have lots of improvements to make, but improvements can only begin when we acknowledge right and wrong.
posted by Anonymous, at
5/10/2007 5:11 PM
