GAY TRUTH

The author of a new study on transgender teens that’s been censored by Brown University is responding to critics of her work, which suggests gender-confused teens are significantly influenced by outside pressure to “identify” as a different sex. Last week, we  reported that the study , authored by Brown University behavioral scientist Lisa Littman and published last month in the Public Library of Science’s journal PLOS One, found that 87% of the teens reviewed (via questionnaires to 256 parents) belonged to a friend group characterized by some degree of “social influence” on gender, such as other gender-confused teens; and that 63% of the teens had been diagnosed with at least one mental health disorder or neurodevelopmental disability before deciding they were a different gender. Littman’s findings suggest that what she calls “rapid-onset gender dysphoria (ROGD)” is an effort to conform to one’s social circle, rather than an act of individuality or “authenticity.” “To be heterose

Brown University, perhaps the quirkiest of the Ivy League schools, recently removed from its website information about a peer-reviewed study on gender confusion. The study is called “Rapid-onset gender dysphoria in adolescents and young adults.” It looks at hundreds of cases of young people with a condition that appears during or after puberty in individuals who have not previously experienced gender dysphoria. Why the censorship? University officials couldn’t point fingers at the source. The peer-reviewed descriptive study was done by Lisa Littman, a faculty member in Brown’s own School of Public Health. It recently appeared published in the well-respected scientific journal PLOS ONE. They pointed fingers at the content, which did not, it seems, sufficiently support the transgender cause. There’s an alarming trend of adolescents suddenly announcing they’re in the wrong body. We should all want to know why. Dean of the School of Public Health Bess H. Marcus defended its removal. S

Most teens who identify as “transgendered” do so after joining peer groups with other gender-confused teens and have been previously diagnosed with at least one mental disorder, according to a new study being derided by pro-LGBT activists. Authored by Brown University behavioral scientist Lisa Littman and published last month in the Public Library of Science’s journal PLOS One, the study reviews 90-question surveys completed by 256 parents of gender-confused children. Eighty-three percent of their children were biologically female, with a mean age of 16.4 and 41 percent having expressed homosexual attraction prior to “coming out” as a different gender. The study found that 87 percent of the teens belonged to a friend group characterized by some degree of “social influence” on the subject, such as one or multiple other teens in the group announcing their transgenderism “during a similar time as they did” and/or exhibiting increased social media or internet use. Sixty-three percent o

PROVIDENCE , February 8, 2013, ( LifeSiteNews.com ) – Students at Brown University who decide they want to live as the opposite sex will now be covered under the school’s student health insurance plan. Starting in August, Brown’s student health insurance plan will pay for more than a dozen different sexual reassignment surgery procedures, including scrotoplasty, labiaplasty, clitoroplasty , and placement of testicular prostheses,  reports   The Brown Daily Herald . “We identified this as an important benefit for students to have access to,” Director of Insurance and Purchasing Services Jeanne Hebert wrote in an e-mail to the  Daily Herald . She said that the school-funded sex change operations were part of a broader effort “to support all students” at Brown. The total cost for any given sexual reassignment surgery can be as much as $50,000. Kelly Garrett , who coordinates Brown’s LGBTQ Center, said that the sexual reassignment procedures soon to be included in Bro

Image via Wikipedia In March, the popular HBO series “ Big Love ” ended its five-year run. The show about a polygamist household in Utah is as close as the vast majority of Americans will ever get to polygamy. Or maybe not.  Shockingly, polygamy is on the rise in the West, especially in Muslim enclaves. And there are 30-50 thousand polygamists in the U.S., the vast majority living in Mormon splinter groups. And despite the rosy picture of polygamy painted by “Big Love,” Rose McDermott, who teaches at Brown University , will tell you that in the real world, polygamy is abusive and exploitative: Women in polygamous communities suffer “higher rates of HIV infection ,” increased incidences of domestic violence, and even a higher likelihood of dying in childbirth. To stem the abuses, McDermott urges governments to “think twice” before legalizing polygamy. But elected officials may not have any say in the manner.  Since the 1960s and later, Roe v. Wade, decisions regarding marriage, fa