Harvard offers course about healthcare for LGBTQIA+ 'infants' 

Medical students at are being taught how to care for infant patients who identify as LGBTQIA+, according to a publicly available course description. 

Students at the school, considered one of the foremost medical schools in the world, will be given: ‘Clinical exposure and education will focus on serving and sexual minority people across the lifespan, from infants to older adults.’ In Western medicine, an infant is considered from birth to 12 months old.  

According to the description for Caring for Patients with Diverse Sexual Orientations, Gender Identities, and Sex Development, students will work in both hospitals and communities with LGBTQIA+ youth. 

Among the hospitals involved in the program is  home to the first pediatric and adolescent health program in the United States. The directors of the program are Dr. Alex Keuroghlian and Dr. Alberto Puig. 

Students will work in the areas of Adolescent Medicine, Endocrinology, Family Practice, Infectious Disease, OBGYN, Pediatrics, Psychiatry, Psychology, Primary Medical Care and Plastic Surgery. In addition, students learn about ‘advocacy’ with regard to LGBTQIA+ issues. 

A spokesperson from Harvard Medical School provided DailyMail.com with this statement:   

‘As part of Our site MD curriculum, HMS offers a four-week elective course that educates and trains medical students to provide high-quality, culturally responsive care for patients with diverse sexual orientations, gender identities, and sex development across the age spectrum.

In this context, care for infants refers specifically to physical variations in sex development that arise in utero and are present at birth. These include chromosomal, gonadal, and anatomical variations, all of which are relevant to medical care and treatment to ensure healthy development.

This course aligns with Harvard Medical School’s Sexual and Gender Minority Health Initiative, and its educational framework is based on recommendations of the Association of American Medical Colleges, which together aim to address the health needs of patients who are LGBTQIA+, gender-nonconforming, or born with differences in sex development.’

Speaking about the course to an ethicist at the Ethics and Public Policy Center, Nathanael Blake said: ‘Harvard medical students should be taught the basic scientific truth that a man cannot become a woman, or vice versa.’

He added: ‘Those experiencing psychological distress regarding their biological sex need to be treated with compassion, which does not mean subjecting them to dangerous chemical and surgical treatments to mold them into a facsimile of the opposite sex.’ 

In an interview with in January 2022, one of the program’s directors Dr. Alex Keuroghlian argued against mental health screening for transgender people. 

He said: ‘I’m really not a believer in requiring that for people. Being trans isn’t a mental health problem.’

Keuroghlian is the director of the Massachusetts General Hospital Psychiatry Gender Identity Program. 

During the same interview, Keuroghlian said that mental health screening is not necessary for nose jobs, breast augmentations or hysterectomies. 

Dr. Alberto Puig, a native of Spain and graduate of Baylor’s medical school, has been working on the design and content of Harvard Medical School’s curriculum since 2015, according to his profile on Mass General’s website. 

The profile says that over the course of his career, Puig has received over 20 teaching awards and is an ‘avid student’ of medical history. Since 2019, he has been the associate dean at Harvard Medical School. 

In October 2022, the Boston Children’s Hospital, which is affiliated with the Harvard program, suggested some babies know they are transgender ‘from the womb.’ In a now-deleted video, the Boston Children’s Hospital suggested an even larger number of minors know ‘as soon as they can talk.’

The hospital also faces claims it rushed under-18s into life-altering sex change surgery.

In the clip posted to the Boston hospital’s official YouTube page in August, psychologist Dr. Kerry McGregor explains the type of patients she sees.

She says: ‘So most of the patients we have in the clinic actually know their gender, usually around the age of puberty.

‘But a good portion of children do know as early as – seemingly – from the womb.

‘And they will usually express their gender identity as very young children, some as soon as they can talk… kids know very, very early.’

It comes as several states begin to clamp down on puberty blockers being prescribed to children. Texas Gov. Greg Abbott has previously likened it to ‘child abuse’.

While the main meeting location for students for the 2022-23 academic year is Massachusetts General Hospital, which provides ‘gender-affirming surgical procedures,’ for those older than 18. 

The Mass General guide includes lines such as: ‘Being transgender is not a phase’ and ‘Being transgender is not a disease or something that needs to be cured. It is a normal human experience.’

It also states that, ‘A person usually knows that they are transgender from a young age, especially when the feelings are persistent, consistent and occur over a prolonged period of time.’ 

The guide goes on to stay that a toddler’s ‘gender identity is very fluid’ as boys like to play dress up and girls like to play with trucks. 

According to the informational page, by a person’s teenage years they should have a grasp on their gender identity.