Dear Editors of The Therapist at CAMFT, 

In the March/April edition of The Therapist, CAMFT chose to include a “Letter to the Editor” that contains transphobic hate speech and inaccurate information on gender-affirming care. We are submitting this petition to draw attention to the irresponsibility of publishing inaccurate mental healthcare claims, make clear the impact that this choice has had on the community of Marriage & Family Therapists that CAMFT serves, as well as make demands for CAMFT to be accountable to its dues-paying members.

The American Psychological Association (APA), the World Health Organization (WHO), and the World Psychological Association of Transgender Health (WPATH), amongst other national and international health agencies, have issued statements in support of gender-affirming healthcare for transgender and gender-diverse adults and youth. It is well documented that gender-affirming healthcare saves lives and improves health outcomes. Psychotherapists providing gender-affirming care do not dictate to clients what their gender journey should look like or suppose outcomes for clients. The practice supports assessment, guiding clients and their families to engage in thoughtful processes, assisting in understanding healthcare options, and linkage to providers as indicated. The current standards of care in the field can be found by reviewing the most recent SOC8 (Standards of Care) published by WPATH (2022).  

This is to say, gender-affirming care is not controversial when consulting with experts in the field. CAMFT chose to give the author of this letter, who has no apparent expertise of gender-related care, a platform; and he used this platform to share information that goes against the current guidelines and evidence-based practices. In this letter, he references an organization called the, “Gender Exploration Therapy Association,” (GETA) which purports to serve gender diverse populations. There is strong evidence to suggest that GETA provides a type of conversion therapy which seeks to pathologize and limit access to life-saving, gender-affirming care by convincing transgender, gender-diverse, and gender-questioning individuals that they suffer from psychological issues. Further, it appears that GETA’s philosophy is in violation of California Law AB 2943, which bans efforts to change a person’s sexual or gender identity.

It is important to also make clear the very real harm that was caused to individual members of CAMFT in the publishing of this letter. The author writes, “I would hope that most of my colleagues of sound mind and body would think twice before encouraging an immature and already confused and overwhelmed child to alter and mutilate their bodies, potentially causing irreversible and irreparable physical and emotional harm.” To refer to life-saving gender-affirming healthcare as ‘mutilation’ lays clear the author’s bias, and CAMFT must take full responsibility for allowing such hateful wording to be published. Implying that clinicians who may refer youth for gender-affirming healthcare may not be of ‘sound mind and body’ seeds doubt against real, earned expertise in this field and sets a dangerous precedent at a time of unprecedented attacks on the human rights of the transgender and gender-nonconforming community. This language was disturbing, threatening, and harmful to read for many transgender and gender-nonconforming CAMFT member clinicians. This language has no place in a publication that purports to lead with an anti-discrimination mission. 

We are deeply concerned that the editors of The Therapist would choose to provide Mr. McCarthy a platform in this enormous and nearly obligatory organization for California Marriage & Family Therapists. There are therapists in California who may be only marginally aware of the basics of gender affirming care who now may believe that there is legitimacy to Mr. McCarthy’s message; and may incorrectly assume that CAMFT would not publish a letter which provides misleading information in such a crucial area of treatment as gender care. Printing this letter was a choice, and the damage has already been done. Many of us are fee-paying members of CAMFT, and we do not wish to support an organization that would inflict such harm on us as individuals, on our communities, and especially on our clients. We strongly urge CAMFT to take the following actions in response to our letter:

• Issue an apology for the harm that publishing this letter has caused in the next issue of The Therapist.
• Issue a detailed correction on the misinformation shared in this letter with up-to-date evidence-based gender-affirming care standards in the next issue of The Therapist.
• Review the procedures by which Letters to The Editor are approved and integrate CAMFT’s existing Ethics Code into those procedures, with special attention to non-discrimination. 
• Investigate the culture at CAMFT which has allowed for such a letter to be published in the first place.

Sincerely, 

The Undersigned