A study conducted by former psychiatrist-in-chief at Johns Hopkins University, Paul McHugh, and a colleague of his, were blasted by the Human Rights Campaign (HRC), a group representing the LGBT community. The College Fix reported on the HRC’s comments this week.
The HRC knocked 25 points off JHU’s rating on the Health Equality Index (HEI) that the group compiles. The group wants the university to disavow the study. So far, the administrators have not done so.
Nonetheless, three professors from JHU’s Bloomberg School wrote an op-ed critical of the McHugh study which appeared in The Baltimore Sun. Also, a petition protesting the McHugh report is circulating at the university, with hundreds of names from the Johns Hopkins community signed onto it.
Yet and still, McHugh is standing by his findings. “There are no little boys born in little girls’ bodies or little girls born in little boys’ bodies,” McHugh told the Johns Hopkins News Letter. “You can’t change the biology of a human being, and in my opinion, the attempt to do so is merely a fad.”
The study pointed out that the “rate of lifetime suicide attempts across all ages of transgender individuals is estimated at 41%” when compared to 5% in the overall U.S. population, among other findings.
Human Rights Campaign claimed that the university’s refusal to disavow McHugh’s study puts the health and safety of gay patients at risk.
