Groups Plan Protest Against Transgender Stance of American Academy of Pediatrics

Demonstrators reach out to Los Angelenos about complications associated with gender reassignment surgeries in downtown Los Angeles on March 12, 2022. John Fredricks/The Epoch Times

At least a dozen organizations, ranging from Christian conservatives to gay rights advocacy groups, are planning a massive protest outside the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) national convention in Anaheim this weekend.

Jaimee Michell, Founder of Gays Against Groomers, which helped organized the protests, told The Epoch Times the groups are joining forces to rally against the medical organization’s promotion of the use of transgender procedures on children, including gender reassignment surgeries and puberty blockers.

The protest is planned for Saturday, Oct. 8, the second day of the AAP’s planned five-day APP convention in the Disneyland hub of California.

“These are the real-life Frankensteins. It’s not affirming to mutilate and sterilize confused children,“ Mitchell said, referring to the term ”gender-affirming care“ that advocates use. ”It’s horrific abuse and the epitome of evil.”

The AAP did not respond to inquiries from The Epoch Times about the planned protests.

Other groups planning to participate in the Anaheim protests include Moms For Liberty, A Time To Stand, Advocates Protecting Children, FIST, M.O.M. Army, Genespect, Interfaith Coalition, Lesbians United, the California Family Council, and Partners for Ethical Care. Our Duty, an international parents group with a large membership in the United States, is expected to lead the protests.

AAP, which has about 67,000 members worldwide, has booked rooms and conference halls at more than a dozen area hotels for the Anaheim convention.

The mass-scale event, which is themed “Better Together,” consists of daily lectures and workshops on a wide variety of topics including gender reassignment for children. One of the sessions is entitled “Beyond the Basics: Gender-Affirmative Interventions in the Primary Care Office.”

Described as “gender-affirming topics,” such subjects planned for the multidisciplinary session are “menstrual suppression, chest binding safety education, safe tucking/gaff use, reproductive health care,” and another topic entitled “gender-affirming psychoeducation for parents/caregivers.”

In another planned lecture, a Florida pediatrician is scheduled to talk about “what sextortion of a child is.”

A workshop entitled “Tough Conversations: Discussing Sex and Gender” is scheduled to take place around the same time the protesters are planning to hold their rally.

According to the workshop’s description, attendees will engage in role-playing as parents and teens and practice asking each other about gender and sexuality.

One of the scheduled instructors for the workshop is a Rhode Island sex therapist who lists her specialties as gender affirmation, sexual functioning, and sexual pleasure. A social worker who is part of The Gender and Sexuality program team at the Hasbro Children’s Hospital is also slated to teach the workshop.

Some members of the gay community said they are ashamed of the way groups like the AAP are using them.

“If I [had] understood when I was younger that fighting for my rights as a lesbian would mean allowing children to drag shows, attaching child molesters to our community, and allowing children to change their sex before they even know what their favorite color is—I would have never done it,” Carol Hatch, a lesbian and member of Gays Against Groomers, says in a video she created and posted on social media.

Michell, who a lesbian, said groups like AAP are especially disturbing because they are part of a “gender cult hellbent” on convincing kids they were born in the wrong body just because they are different.

“We are here to save the tomboys and the feminine boys who are being preyed upon by them,” she said.

Earlier this month on a podcast called “Saving Kids From The Gender Cult,” Erin Friday, founder of Our Duty, which organized the protests against AAP, talked about being a longtime Democrat who has become ashamed by her own party’s promotion of transgendering kids.

“They don’t seem to understand the parents in my parents group, and even across the nation, were Democrats or are Democrats and we’re against this,” she said. They don’t seem to want to hear us.”