It was deeply distressing to see the editorial spot given over Monday morning to the ignorance of a group that stokes prejudice against LGBTQ people (Monitor Opinion, June 24).

It is acknowledged by experts in the fields of psychology and medicine that there are people who have an internal sense of gender that does not match the sex that they were assigned based on genital appearance at birth. It is simply wrong to state that there are only two possibilities for gender.

Indeed, some are born with external sex characteristics that make sex difficult to decide. Those people should not be forced to conform to an arbitrary decision about their gender. Why should it be any different when the brain does not fit with the birth genitals? Forcing people to live a lie by desperately trying to conform to expectations about their gender identity causes depression with a high risk of suicide.

Allowing highly informed decisions by young people and their families who go through counseling with experts harms no one and can be life saving.

There is no special advantage to a transgender girl competing in school sports as a girl. Hormone therapy lowers or eliminates the muscular development typical of males. Even when puberty has already started before a transgender girl starts hormonal transition, the amount and duration of exposure to testosterone is likely no greater than that many girls will experience from the production of that hormone by their ovaries.

And despite the outcry from some who insist that transgender people must be sexual perverts, there is no evidence to support that idea. Like everyone else, those of us who are transgender have a fervent desire not to be seen naked by anyone who is not an intimate partner or a health care professional.

The worry I have heard expressed that some innocent girl will be forced to see a male “package” is absurd. Girls in middle school and even elementary school regularly change diapers for boys while babysitting. They would see nothing more developed than that if they accidentally intruded on a young transgender girl in a bathroom or locker room stall. Highly embarrassing for all involved, especially the transgender girl, but only traumatic if adults have made an issue around the remote possibility of such an event.

It would be nice to think that Cornerstone Action dropped “Christian” from its group name to acknowledge that their opinions have nothing to do with the Christian gospel. But I think it is more likely that they wanted to expand to include those with bigoted attitudes who don’t share their proclaimed faith.

There are many LGBTQ people who share the love of the gospel preached by Jesus and find no disparaging of gender nonconformity in any part of it. Indeed, in the book of Matthew (chapter 13, verse 12) one finds Jesus talking about some being born eunuchs (i.e. intersex) and that others having made themselves eunuchs for the sake of the kingdom of God.

I believe that is an expression that some will need to get rid of the source of male hormones in order to be true to how God made them. So Christians are on shaky ground to claim that changing gender is against the will of God.

As a physician and a transgender woman myself with knowledge of how the process of gender transition unfolds for both adults and children, I know that there is no one who tries to “hurry children and adults down a path of permanent chemical and surgical alteration.”

In fact, it is a common complaint that we have to endure excessive amounts of time and counseling before things we fervently desire can happen. Encouraging parents to not get appropriate counseling and therapy for children who are gender nonconforming will lead to increased family alienation and more suicides.

Please pay attention to the expert opinion of all of the major psychological, psychiatric and medical societies who do not think that gender reassignment is wrong.

(Jennifer Smith lives in Pembroke.)