In a recent article from Dr. Keith Ablow, the Fox News-affiliated psychiatrist takes on California's newly enacted non-discrimination law protecting transgender students, AB 1266. Unsurprisingly, Dr. Ablow speaks out against AB 1266, making his usual, condescending claims that transgender people confuse children, and that giving transgender students access to the facilities and activities in line with their gender identity will cause psychological damage to their cisgender peers (a claim he admits there is no research to support).
Not only is this essay filled with false statements and assumptions about transgender people (and cisgender people, for that matter), but it also follows Dr. Ablow's previous, outrageous rants against transgender people, well documented in GLAAD's Commentator Accountability Project. To review:
- In 2011, Dr. Ablow said he considers Chaz Bono's transition "a psychotic delusion – a fixed and false belief," and suggested that parents keep their children from watching Chaz on "Dancing With The Stars," lest they become confused.
- Dr. Ablow has compared being transgender with believing oneself to be a farm animal.
- In response to an ad depicting a mother playfully painting her son's nails with neon pink nail polish, Dr. Ablow wrote that supporting a child's gender expression could "…throw our species into psychological turmoil."
Ablow already knows how far out of the mainstream his comments are. Setting himself up as the victim by claiming he will be "getting death threats and calls for me to be fired from my academic teaching position for saying so," Albow admits that his opinion runs counter to what respectable mental health associations have stated. Namely, that transgender and gender non-conforming people need support, and should not be forced to act in more gender-conforming ways.
Ablow's claims perpetuate the same myths about transgender youth that even some of his Fox News colleagues have called "irresponsible and dangerous." The media must hold Ablow accountable for his clear bias against transgender people.