Sexual-minority youth should not be considered abnormal.
At first glance, it just seems like a fancy way of saying "Queer kids ain't weird."
But that statement means so much more, especially since it was issued by the American Academy of Pediatrics.
As you can imagine, a lot of self-styled "pundits" are now convinced that the medical profession is being used to promote homosexuality among kids. Oh, right: Folks who take the Hippocratic Oath specifically to help kids are going to encourage them to adopt a "lifestyle" that leaves them vulnerable to ostracism, bullying and worse. Just like Janice Raymond--and a onetime friend of mine who takes her words as gospel--got it right when they said people like me "change" genders because we want to take all of those women's studies faculty positions that should go to "real" women.
I'll admit that I don't know anything about the practice of medicine, let alone pediatrics. However, I think I wouldn't be too far off in assuming that most practitioners are interested in healing and making their patients whole. Telling said patients that they're sick or immoral because of whom they love is really going to help accomplish that, isn't it?
It seems to me that reactionaries are feeling the heat, now that trans people are not deemed mentally ill in DSM-V and a slightly-right-of-center judge wrote the Supreme Court's opinion that the so-called "Defense of Marriage" Act is unconstitutional.
I still remember when relatively mature and sane people actually thought that all lesbians, gays and transgenders were trying to "recruit" kids. Recruit them to what, exactly?, I used to ask myself.
At least I haven't heard that canard in a while. What it means, I guess, is that haters and other lunatics will come up with new bogus arguments in their attempts to win the day. But they can only win one day, and another, and another. Eventually, those with the facts on their side win the (instead of "the", "this" or "one") day. It just takes a while sometimes.
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