„Es gibt nur zwei biologische Geschlechter. So weit reichtunser Wissen“
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8 october 2024 - By Anna Kröning - WELT
More and more minors feel that they were ‘born in the wrong body’. Child psychiatrist Alexander Korte is highly critical of transgender ideology. He considers current treatment methods to be extremely dangerous and warns against an ‘absurd path unique to Germany’. In his essay ‘Behind the Rainbow’, child psychiatrist Alexander Korte deconstructs the apparently irreversible certainty of some children and adolescents that they were born in the wrong body. Korte draws on medical facts and discusses the political links.
WELT: You're known as a critic of ‘trans ideology’ and you say you're expecting a barrage of criticism because of your book. Are you mainly preparing for this - or do you also hope to have an impact on your opponents, both medical and political?
Alexander Korte: I don't take part in symbolic battles on social networks. I get reports on compliments and criticisms (‘Candy’ and ‘Shit’), to find out whether I should thank someone or contact my lawyer instead. I'm also not naive enough to think that I can really influence my opponents in a positive way. They need to be convinced or forced to recognise the normative power of facts. Fortunately, the number of people who are increasingly open about their well-founded criticism of the unique path taken by German directives is also growing in our country.
WELT: In your book, you not only criticise the ideology and politics of the ‘woke’ left, but you also expressly distance yourself from the AfD. Have you been taken over by this party?
Korte: This is happening all the time, whether we like it or not. The AfD seizes on any subject that can be exploited in a populist way, particularly in the area of gender. The other side uses this to defame critics like me. So I've got into the habit of marking my political position in the centre, although I find this kind of demonstration really constraining, especially as a scientist. Have we really reached the point where we have to whisper in secret ‘And yet it's spinning’?
WELT: The discussion about transgenderism has become a political issue, to the detriment of physically healthy children and adolescents, as you describe in your book. How can we get back to a factual debate, without the extremes losing too much face?
Korte: The loss of face, if you like, already started at the beginning of this year, when the Cass Review revealed that the affirmative approach and puberty blockers are what they are: dangerous freestyle medicine for children, without any scientific proof. The pendulum of the zeitgeist is starting to swing back - even if some people haven't yet seen the ‘Big Bang’. The Greens have understood this: their leaders have resigned and repented. Respect for them! It's also a way of saving face!
WELT: In addition to identity politics, could economic aspects also play a role? After all, doctors and pharmaceutical companies benefit from interventions and gender advice centres. The coalition government agreed in its coalition contract to cover the costs of ‘gender reassignment’ measures.
Korte: In the United States, pharmaceutical companies and body modification medicine are already making hundreds of millions of dollars from the booming transgender market, with exponential growth rates that we will soon see here too. It used to be that American doctors would cynically say, ‘A pacemaker a day keeps your boat in the bay!’ Soon, we might hear, ‘I'm a doctor in the gender entertainment industry!’
WELT: You write that transidentity, unlike intersex, has no genetic or biological component, and that there is therefore no such thing as ‘transidentity’. Yet the theory of ‘transidentity’ seems to be gaining ground, just like the theory that there are more than two sexes. Is this sustainable?
Korte: Once again, the categories of sex and gender become confused! Yes, there are countless identities acquired after birth. There's nothing wrong with that. But there are only two biological sexes. That's where our knowledge stops today. Feelings go further - and as a doctor and scientist, we should only oppose them when they deny the facts and defame those who insist on evidence. Otherwise, the enemies of the Enlightenment will end up triumphing over all its advances.
WELT: You describe the fact that minors feel they belong to a different gender as a ‘way of life’. Psychotherapy seems ‘old-fashioned’, and body modification is ‘trendy’. These young people don't want to be pathologised - they will be able to ‘determine’ their gender themselves in the future - but they still want to be treated medically. What are the consequences of this paradox for the people concerned and for society?
Korte: For a tiny minority, it's not a question of lifestyle, but of life and death. But around them, fashion, the media and opinion formers have created a golden calf, around which an entire transgender lifestyle industry now dances. With disastrous consequences for vulnerable children and teenagers, mainly girls, who force themselves into this new mould of identification in the mistaken belief that it contains their true selves. And then begins the tragic tug-of-war between desperate parents, over-ambitious doctors, hypocritical activists and repugnant populists, all trying to lure these children into their camp, as if into the new Caucasian chalk circle. We can only help these people with empathy and the expertise of psychotherapeutic science and practice, even if our know-how may not be as ‘sexy’ as the trendy but dangerous pressure to press the pause button on puberty.
WELT: Proponents of medical treatment use the argument of preserving life to administer puberty blockers to children who are uncomfortable with their bodies, claiming that ‘doing nothing’ is not an option because the risk of suicide is high. This obviously creates a lot of time pressure. What is your analysis?
Korte:Contrary to the claim that early intervention is ‘vital’, there is no evidence to date that it reduces the suicide rate. A recent analysis shows that it is not gender dysphoria but the presence of other concomitant psychological disorders that determines the risk. The argument that not intervening is not a neutral option is not convincing, because psychotherapy that is open to various possibilities and aims to explore alternatives is by no means a lack of action. The Werther-Effekt, which has long been well known, shows that suicidality is socially contagious. It is extremely unprofessional to pressure parents into accepting medical treatment for their children by making false claims. Not to mention the effects of this recurrent talk about the so-called ‘suicide risk’ for the people concerned.
WELT: You see ‘transgender’ in children and adolescents as a fad. However, this does not seem to be reflected in the future guidelines for the treatment of children and adolescents with gender ‘dysphoria’ or ‘incongruence’, which are due to be published in autumn 2024 despite resistance - including yours as a former member of the commission. What consequences will these guidelines have?
Korte: What consequences do the Ten Commandments have? Not everyone follows them. And these guidelines come not from Mount Sinai, but from somewhere in Westphalia. Ten professors, many specialists and a majority at the German Doctors' Day have already announced that they will never follow these guidelines in their current form. My colleague Florian Zepf from Jena recently emphasised at the congress of the German Society for Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Psychosomatics and Psychotherapy (DGKJP) in Rostock how ideologically biased and extremely dangerous he considers these guidelines to be, and that no one will be exempt from responsibility if they base their treatment on them. This was a liberating thunderclap at the end of the presentation of the guidelines by their promoters. The end of the impasse was resoundingly clear to an audience full of specialist colleagues in Rostock.
WELT: How do you explain the fact that so many of your medical colleagues are prepared to start complex medical treatments on physically healthy children? Why is there no outcry?
Korte: There is an outcry around the world, but very little in Germany. Here, anyone with reservations thinks long and hard before risking their career by taking a stand against what they perceive as the domination of trans propagandists. When I started voicing my warnings years ago, whether in lecture halls, auditions or interviews, for a long time I was one of the few. Fortunately, the situation has changed. My ‘cry of alarm’ is 400 pages long. With this book, Kohlhammer is sending out a strong signal, finally paving the way for a debate in Germany, and I'm very grateful for that.
WELT: You speak of endangering the well-being of children and of an ‘absurd course unique to Germany’. In fact, many countries are gradually withdrawing from prescribing hormones for children and teenagers, a practice that has been little studied. Why isn't Germany doing the same?
Korte: Traditionally, Germany seems to find it difficult to break away from entrenched ideologies and return to a scientific approach.
WELT: Where will Germany be in ten years' time if this path of medical treatment for healthy minors continues to be followed?
Korte: Some people will feel a reduction in their suffering and will praise their doctors for that. But many others will curse their parents, doctors and friends for not having prevented them from causing irreversible damage to their bodies and souls. We will see their faces altered, hear their voices lowered by hormones, and wonder whether all this is really in keeping with the medical mission and the principle of Hippocrates: ‘primum non nocere’, first do no harm.
WELT: The proportion of pubescent teenagers suffering from gender dysphoria has increased considerably. You see parallels with anorexia and trans ideology, particularly in the rejection of the female body. Would you see the trans movement as tending towards misogyny?
Korte: Yes, denying the biological difference between the sexes and demanding the uncompromising implementation of ‘gender self-determination’ tends in that direction. It insidiously leads to changes in meaning and marginalises legal rights that are linked to being female and that have been hard-won by feminists for decades. It is totally incompatible with the interests of children and women to convince young girls in the throes of identity confusion, overwhelmed by the challenges of puberty, that they belong to the other sex simply because they do not conform to traditional gender stereotypes.
WELT: The use of psychotherapy for people suffering from gender dysphoria is often criticised as ‘conversion therapy’. You, on the other hand, describe physical interventions for children and adolescents as a ‘homosexuality prevention programme’. Could you clarify this?
Korte:There is clear evidence that the medical blockade of puberty prevents other avenues of development, in particular the possibility of a homosexual coming-out and reconciliation with the sex assigned at birth. Around 95% of children and adolescents treated in this way subsequently choose to take hormones of the other sex. This is probably because, due to the drastic effect of this treatment on the libido, they have no opportunity to have the necessary experiences to develop a homosexual identity. I find this ethically very worrying.
WELT: What are the consequences?
Korte: Exploratory gender psychotherapy aims to reflect on the reasons for trans identification and to explore alternatives to medical gender adjustment. The aim is not to change a person's sense of gender, but to deconstruct gender stereotypes, challenge unrealistic expectations and find creative solutions to identity conflicts. It's exactly the opposite of conversion therapy!
WELT: Your book incorporates the latest scientific findings, but is written in a way that is understandable to non-specialists. A final word of advice for the parents and families concerned: how can you find genuine, unbiased support?
Korte: The way to find truly impartial support is to turn to professionals who take an open and exploratory approach, who don't rush into medical solutions, and who focus on the individual and psychological development of the child or adolescent. It's important to ensure that the emphasis is on listening to the child's needs and exploring different possible pathways, rather than immediately validating a medical transition.
Korte: Somewhere in my book it says: ‘I can't help you give better answers to your children's doctors and therapists. But you will come up with better questions.’ And then you'll quickly know whether you're really getting an unbiased consultation or a ‘through-the-clothes diagnosis,’ whether transaffirmative or transcritical. Before giving your child medicines that are not authorised for these so-called non-conforming uses and whose effectiveness has not been proven in the slightest, get a second and third opinion first. Above all, pay attention to the source of your child's belief that he or she is ‘in the wrong body’. It's usually not the doctor who suggests this self-diagnosis, but TikTok and other social networks, and sometimes ideologically-influenced educators or social workers. The best guidance you can offer your child starts at home.
Dr Alexander Korte is a specialist in child and adolescent psychiatry, as well as a sex therapist, supervisor, cultural scientist and author. He works as a senior physician at the University Clinic of Munich's Ludwig-Maximilian University, although he is currently on parental leave. Korte was a member of the committee which, after seven long years, drew up the new guidelines for sex reassignment treatment for children and adolescents, and he says he was often outvoted when decisions were made.
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