Laura A. Haynes, Ph.D., California Psychologist, analyzed the APA Handbook on Sexuality and Psychology (American Psychological Association, 2014). She found statements in the two-volume handbook that are astonishing. The APA Handbook says that people with a transgender identity are not born that way and they can change.
This is astonishing news because states are outlawing therapy that allows people to change gender identity, calling it “conversion therapy”. They use the argument that gender identity cannot be changed, yet the APA Handbook says it can and does.
The APA Handbook also warns against early social transition in children, a practice that is getting a hold in the US.
Here are the paragraphs in Dr. Haynes’ article pertinent to gender dysphoria and at the end is a link to her full article:
Also, the American Psychiatric Association (Diagnostic and Statistical Manual-Fifth Edition, p. 455) and the American Psychological Association (Bockting, 2014, APA Handbook, v. 1, p. 744) recognize transgender identity fluctuates, and the vast majority of gender dysphoric minors will eventually accept their chromosomal sex.
There is evidence that transgender identity also may not be a normal sexual variation. The APA Handbook says the origin of transgender identity is “most likely the result of a complex interaction between biological and environmental factors….Research on the influence of family of origin dynamics has found some support for separation anxiety among gender-nonconforming boys and psychopathology among mothers” (Bockting, 2014, v. 1, p. 743, emphasis added).
The American Psychiatric Association and the American Psychological Association concur that it is not the case that individuals with transgender identity are born that way and can’t change. According to the APA Handbook (Bockting 2014, v. 1, p. 744), 75% or more of gender dysphoric boys and girls accept their chromosomal sex by adolescence or adulthood. According to the American Psychiatric Association’s Diagnostic and Statistical Manual, Fifth Edition (DSM-5), as many as 70 to 98% of gender dysphoric boys and as many as 50 to 88% of gender dysphoric girls eventually accept their chromosomal sex (calculated from DSM-5, p. 455).
Further, Bockting says in the APA Handbook, “Premature labeling of gender identity should be avoided. Early social transition (i.e., change of gender role, such as registering a birth-assigned boy in school as a girl) should be approached with caution to avoid foreclosing this stage of (trans)gender identity development.” If there is early social transition, “the stress associated with possible reversal of this decision has been shown to be substantial…” (2014, in APA Handbook, p. 744). The American Psychological Association, in its Handbook (Bockting, 2014, v. 1, pp. 750-751), and the American Psychiatric Association (DSM-5, p. 455)say there are three approaches to treatment: attempts to lessen the dysphoria and nonconformity, attempts to get the environment—family, school, and community—to fully accept the child’s gender-variant identity, and the wait-and-see approach. The APA Handbook warns that the full acceptance approach “runs the risk of neglecting individual problems the child might be experiencing and may involve an early gender role transition that might be challenging to reverse if cross-gender feelings do not persist” (Bockting, 2014, v. 1, p. 750).