Hence, it's of little surprise that, tragically, of those who put themselves through this imaginary "transition," 41 percent will subsequently attempt suicide.

Still, this "progressive" socio-political scheme moves quickly from merely pitiable and delusional to ghastly and abusive when children are the targets -- when selfish adults exploit sexually confused young people by feeding their "gender" delusion and pumping them full of dangerous hormones, or otherwise surgically mutilating and sterilizing them for life via so-called "gender reassignment surgery."

In order to address the growing momentum of this harmful, gender-bending, pseudo-scientific quackery, a number of America's leading medical experts on the subject have finally weighed in. "The American College of Pediatricians (ACPeds) urges educators and legislators to reject all policies that condition children to accept as normal a life of chemical and surgical impersonation of the opposite sex. Facts -- not ideology -- determine reality," they warn.

This child-health advocacy group has released a report that determines, among other things:

1. Human sexuality is an objective biological binary trait: "XY" and "XX" are genetic markers of health -- not genetic markers of a disorder.

"The norm for human design is to be conceived either male or female. Human sexuality is binary by design with the obvious purpose being the reproduction and flourishing of our species," they observe. "This principle is self-evident. The exceedingly rare disorders of sexual differentiation (DSDs), including but not limited to testicular feminization and congenital adrenal hyperplasia, are all medically identifiable deviations from the sexual binary norm, and are rightly recognized as disorders of human design. Individuals with DSDs do not constitute a third sex."

2. No one is born with a gender. Everyone is born with a biological sex. Gender (an awareness and sense of oneself as male or female) is a sociological and psychological concept; not an objective biological one.

Let's take it a step further. The "gender" phenomenon is, in the larger sense, an artificial and anti-theist-tainted social construct. It's an overt act of fist-shaking rebellion against the laws of nature and nature's God.

And it's dangerous.

Johns Hopkins Hospital was the pioneer in "gender reassignment surgery." It now refuses to perform these discredited cosmetic procedures. Dr. Paul R. McHugh, the hospital's former psychiatrist-in-chief and current distinguished service professor of psychiatry, is among those who participated in the ACPeds report. He has noted in the past that, as even the left-leaning APA reluctantly acknowledges, transgenderism is a "mental disorder" and that the idea of a "sex change" is "biologically impossible." "People who identify as 'feeling like the opposite sex' or 'somewhere in between' do not comprise a third sex. They remain biological men or biological women," determines ACPeds.

3. A person's belief that he or she is something they are not is, at best, a sign of confused thinking.

"When an otherwise healthy biological boy believes he is a girl, or an otherwise healthy biological girl believes she is a boy, an objective psychological problem exists that lies in the mind not the body, and it should be treated as such," notes the report. "These children suffer from gender dysphoria. Gender dysphoria (GD), formerly listed as Gender Identity Disorder (GID), is a recognized mental disorder in the most recent edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of the American Psychiatric Association (DSM-V). The psychodynamic and social learning theories of GD/GID have never been disproved."

4. Puberty is not a disease, and puberty-blocking hormones can be dangerous.

"Reversible or not, puberty-blocking hormones induce a state of disease -- the absence of puberty -- and inhibit growth and fertility in a previously biologically healthy child," notes ACPeds.

5. According to the DSM-V, as many as 98 percent of gender confused boys and 88 percent of gender confused girls eventually accept their biological sex after naturally passing through puberty.

And so what do we call a physician or a parent who takes a gender-confused boy, with a 98 percent chance of full recovery, and severely and irrevocably harms that child with dangerous hormones or sterilization surgery?

We should be calling them what they are: criminals.

To its credit, the ACPeds report goes on to identify this so-called "gender ideology" for exactly what it is: "Child abuse."

6. Children who use puberty blockers to impersonate the opposite sex will require cross-sex hormones in late adolescence. Cross-sex hormones are associated with dangerous health risks including but not limited to high blood pressure, blood clots, stroke and cancer.

So much for the Hippocratic Oath: "Practice two things in your dealings with disease: either help or do not harm the patient."

Gender ideology is anathema to good medicine and sound science.

B7. Rates of suicide are 20 times greater among adults who use cross-sex hormones and undergo sex reassignment surgery, even in Sweden which is among the most LGBQT--affirming countries.

"What compassionate and reasonable person would condemn young children to this fate knowing that after puberty as many as 88 percent of girls and 98 percent of boys will eventually accept reality and achieve a state of mental and physical health?" the report asks.

8. Conditioning children into believing a lifetime of chemical and surgical impersonation of the opposite sex is normal and healthful is child abuse.

"Endorsing gender discordance as normal via public education and legal policies will confuse children and parents, leading more children to present to 'gender clinics' where they will be given puberty-blocking drugs. This, in turn, virtually ensures that they will 'choose' a lifetime of carcinogenic and otherwise toxic cross-sex hormones, and likely consider unnecessary surgical mutilation of their healthy body parts as young adults."

There you have it. "Gender ideology" is child abuse -- empirically and irrefutably. Isn't it high time, at least where minors are concerned and as a matter of public policy, that we begin treating it as such?

If such abuse were associated with anything other than the "LGBQT" political special interests, we already would have.

Matt Barber is founder and editor-in-chief of BarbWire.com