Pediatricians Warn Educators

The American College of Pediatricians, a nonprofit organization funded by members and donors, sent a letter in early April to more than 14,000 school superintendents across the U.S. warning them that promoting — or "affirming" — the homosexual lifestyle to young children can damage them. "It is not the school's role to diagnose and attempt to treat any student's medical condition, and certainly not a school's role to 'affirm' a student's perceived personal sexual orientation," the letter said. It further stated that schools can create a "life of unnecessary pain and suffering" for a child when they reinforce a behavior chosen out of a child's "confusion." "Even when motivated by noble intentions, schools can ironically play a detrimental role if they reinforce this disorder," said the letter.

The group has also created a Web site, FactsAboutYouth.com, as a resource for school officials, parents and youth to obtain facts about sexual development from a "non-political, non-religious channel." The effort is intended to counter information delivered to the same schools in 2008 in a brochure called "Just the Facts About Youth and Sexual Orientation" that was sponsored in part by the American Psychological Association. The College of Pediatricians claims that the APA brochure "omits critical facts and makes recommendations that are refuted by decades of scientific research and extensive clinical experience." "Most alarmingly," the College's Web site says, "the recommendations offered will place young people at increased risk of grave psychological, emotional and physical harm."

"In dealing with adolescents experiencing same-sex attraction, it is essential to understand there is no scientific evidence that an individual is born 'gay' or 'transgender.' Instead, the best available research points to multiple factors — primarily social and familial — that predispose children and adolescents to homosexual attractions and/or gender confusion," states the Web site.

"Rigorous studies demonstrate that most adolescents who initially experience same-sex attraction, or are sexually confused, no longer experience such attractions by age 25," says the letter to schools. "In one study, as many as 26 percent of 12-year-olds reported being uncertain of their sexual orientation, yet only 2-3 percent of adults actually identify themselves as homosexual."