Eliminate Dr. Kenneth Zucker and His Practice of Transgender "Reparative Therapy"
Eliminate Dr. Kenneth Zucker and His Practice of Transgender "Reparative Therapy"
For Ontarian transgender and gender-variant individuals who wish to obtain services from CAMH's Gender Identity Clinic (GIC), the odds of accessing valuable healthcare are comparable to hitting the Lotto 6/49 jackpot.
Dr. Kenneth Zucker, head of the GIC, has treated over 500 prepubescent gender-variant youth since the mid 1970s. Part of his dehumanizing practices include teaching transgender children to be "more content with their biological gender." For example, Dr. Zucker would treat children assigned male at birth by encouraging their parents to discard of "feminine" toys in an attempt to "repair" their "biological" gender. Aside from believing that transgender folks are suffering some type of "emotional neglect," Dr. Zucker is also an alleged sex abuser.
What Dr. Zucker fails to see is that sex and gender are two separate entities. You have as little choice over your gender as you do your eye colour, hair colour, or what family you're born into. Transgender issues are continuously hitting the limelight in a negative manner; it is time to make positive change. A 2011 report from TRANS Pulse revealed that a staggering 77% of transgender Ontarians have seriously considered suicide, and another 43% have attempted it.
On April 14, 2014, new human rights laws were implemented for transgender-identified folks. Not only are Dr. Zucker's practices highly outdated and demoralizing, but they are now in violation of federal law. Along with all the signatories of my petition, I am calling upon the CAMH, the Ontario Human Rights Commission, and Peggy Nash, Parkdale MP to conduct a thorough investigation. Due to Dr. Zucker's infractions, he should be terminated as head of the Gender Identity Clinic and barred from using transgender reparative therapy.
Below are some articles for further reading on the subject: