For a group that is forever chiding conservatives for their refusal to accept “the science” of global warmism, liberals sure have a strong aversion to science. In the past, they have been content to stuff their fingers in its ears and hum whenever the name Paul McHugh came up in conversation. McHugh, University Distinguished Professor of Psychiatry at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and foremost authority in the field of sexuality and gender confusion, has argued repeatedly that treating gender confusion as “a right in need of defending rather than as a mental disorder ” is dangerous and counter-productive.
Now another expert in the field has spoken, and this time the action taken against him is drastic and punitive. He is Ray Blanchard, and his claim to fame is not limited to his scholarly writing on gender confusion. He was also chairman of the working group on paraphilia for the controversial fifth edition of the “Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders” (DSM V), in which the classification of transgenderism was changed from a disorder to the more benign-sounding “gender dysphoria.” (Paraphilia is a condition characterized by abnormal sexual desires, typically involving extreme or dangerous activities.)
On Sunday afternoon, Blanchard tweeted a thread in which he acknowledged among other things that “transsexualism and milder forms of gender dysphoria are mental disorders.”
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My beliefs include the following 6 elements: (1) Transsexualism and milder forms of gender dysphoria are types of mental disorder, which may leave the individual with average or even above-average functioning in unrelated areas of life.
— Ray Blanchard (@BlanchardPhD) May 11, 2019
For that, his account was locked, along with the explanation that he had violated the social media site’s “rules against hateful conduct.”
PJ Media’s Tyler O’Neil notes that by Sunday night, Twitter had realized the error of its ways and reinstated Blanchard, but note the sheer effrontery of their apology.
Twitter has unlocked my account and graciously apologized for their error. My sincere thanks to the people who expressed their concern during the past 24 hours. pic.twitter.com/fblijhdi5k
— Ray Blanchard (@BlanchardPhD) May 13, 2019
“It looks like we made an error”? No duh! You challenged a recognized expert in his field for expressing a dispassionate scientific observation, and all you can say is you goofed?
