Disturbing commentary made at the American Academy of Pediatrics Conference has emerged after a Professor of Pediatrics appeared to “glorify” a minor’s tragic suicide while discussing “gender affirming care.”
The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) held its annual conference in Anaheim this week, featuring four days of panels intended to be focused on the state of child-focused healthcare in the United States. But what should have been a gathering of professionals intent on improving the state of pediatrics has prompted outrage after one Doctor was seen giving a speech which appeared to lionize a teenager’s death.
On October 11, Dr. Julia Mason uploaded a phone camera recording to Twitter of Dr. Morissa Ladinsky giving a panel talk at the conference. Ladinsky’s presentation, titled “Standing Up for Gender-Affirming Care,” was focused on discussing “current public policy landscape on gender-affirming care as well as the impact on children and families.”
But Ladinsky’s presentation drew particular concern from Mason, who is a US-based pediatrician and a clinical advisor at the Society for Evidence Based Gender Medicine.
On Twitter, Mason, who was in attendance at the conference, took footage of Ladinsky discussing the 2014 suicide of Ohio teen Leelah Alcorn. Alcorn, who was born male but identified as transgender, ended his life by stepping in front of an oncoming semitrailer on a highway near his home. The suicide came after a prolonged depression and drastically increased Prozac regimen, both of which were related to his self-perception.
The FDA states that antidepressants, including Prozac, may increase the risk of suicide in children and adolescents. In a Reddit post made before his death, Alcorn wrote he was taking 60mg per day — which is far higher than the standard recommended pediatric dose.
Mason recorded Ladinsky seeming to lionize Alcorn’s suicide, repeatedly calling it “bold.”
Here’s my iPhone video of Dr. Ladinsky glorifying suicide in a 16 year old. In case you were thinking I misunderstood. pic.twitter.com/zrlSU2puVZ
— Julia Mason MS MD (@JuliaMasonMD1) October 11, 2022
Referring to Alcorn using feminine pronouns, Ladinsky can be heard saying: “And in the final days of 2014… a local 16-year-old lady, Leelah Alcorn, of trans experience, stepped boldly in front of a tractor-trailer, ending her life. Her suicide note, written to post on social media about an hour after her death, went viral around the world. Now, Leelah was not my patient. But I took care of hundreds of her classmates at Kings Mills High School. But each day, on the way to work, I passed that spot — where this teen boldly ended her life…”
Taken in the context of the subject of Ladinsky’s panel, Alcorn’s death appears to have been used to push the narrative that teenagers will commit suicide unless sufficiently “affirmed” by practitioners and parents.
Ladinsky’s comments prompted outrage from Twitter users who watched Mason’s footage, many of whom pointed out the dangerous nature of glorifying suicide in minors.
This is appalling. It’s exactly what suicidal teens want to be said of them after their deaths and this doctor is feeding right into those fantasies.
— From Chicago (@FromChicagoland) October 12, 2022
Medical experts uniformly agree that suicide contagion is a risk amongst adolescents, and the U.S. Department of Health and Homeland Services has set forward guidelines to limit the risk of suicide contagion. Among those recommendations include that “reports should not glorify the victim and should not imply that suicide was effective in achieving a personal goal,” such as gaining attention.
“This is so grossly exploitative,” Physician Mike Ziffra wrote in response to Mason’s post, to which Mason replied that the positive reaction from the audience towards Ladinsky’s comments left her “feeling crazy.”
Other users who watched the video noted that Ladinsky’s tone, which some described as “gleeful,” disturbed them, and that her use of the teenager’s tragic death to push a political mandate was disturbing.
What sort of social movement celebrates suicide as a bold act?
— Polemology Positions (@polemologyfix) October 12, 2022
The answer is a cult. Cults do that
The comments at the conference were not the first time Ladinsky has used the threat of suicides in teenagers to promote “gender affirming care” for minors.
In May, Ladinsky wrote an op-ed in Alabama’s largest news outlet in protest of a state law that would make it illegal to facilitate the medical transitioning of minors.
“I am a pediatrician. But Alabama may soon take my white coat and stethoscope, charging me with a felony for doing my job,” Ladinsky wrote.
In the article, she details a young patient in her care who attempted suicide three times, and continues that only “affirming” care will prevent the potential deaths of gender-distressed children.
“… internalized guilt, confusion, shame and sense of defeat lead almost half of transgender youth to embark on suicide during their journeys. Our clinic patients have made large right turns away from that darkness, serving as daily reminders of the healing power released by affirmation and hope.”
Earlier this year, Ladinsky was featured on a podcast during which she claimed that children as young as four years old can understand the concept of their “gender identity.”
“Between four, five, even six years old, a sense of gender identity fills in. Remember the dress-up box? Did you put on the princess outfit? If you were assigned male at birth, what did your teacher say? Or how did they look? Those are the beginnings of aligning someone’s internal sense of gender with what is available to them to express it.”
The podcast Ladinsky spoke on was through Pride365 Plus — an LGBT resource site which appears to exist solely to promote products distributed by pharmacy benefit manager and health care provider Optum.
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