Trends in 'gender-affirming surgery' reinforce 'white supremacy,' professor argues
A professor at a medical school in Oregon recently published a short piece in an academic journal criticizing gender reassignment surgeries for not being inclusive enough.
The professor has a history of advocating for sex change operations to be performed on children.
Dr. Blair Peters, an assistant professor of surgery at Oregon Health & Science University (OHSU), recently authored an academic article in which he argues that the field of gender reassignment surgery enforces white supremacy and needs to be made more inclusive.
“[Gender-affirming surgery],” Peters argues, “has long been practiced under the influence of a binary bias” which, in turn, “reinforces white, western ideals about gender identity and expression, further impacting care sought by BIPOC gender diverse individuals who may come from a lineage of more expansive understandings of gender.”
Peters has voiced support for performing gender reassignment operations on minors and has himself performed such surgeries as a physician.
According to Peters, the field of gender reassignment surgery needs to be made more “intersectional” to address these perceived issues. “The breadth and scope of differing gender identities lying far beyond a binary of male and female is well documented,” Peters wrote. He went on to argue that viewing sex as a binary category “goes against the reality of gender expansiveness that has existed for as long as humans have recorded history.”
As a non-binary alternative to more common forms of gender reassignment surgeries, Peters recommends a “shaft-only phalloplasty.” By not exploring such options, he asserts, “we continue to reinforce white ideals of what it means to be masculine/feminine which continues the ‘othering’ of those impacted by colonialism and white supremacy.”
[RELATED: BYU organization wants to keep ‘gender affirming care’ for minors]
Despite his criticisms of the field, Peter’s actively participates in the gender reassignment industry. Peters is a board certified plastic surgeon who bragged in a since-deleted tweet about performing double mastectomies on female minors. Peters has also gone on record staunchly opposing efforts by lawmakers to regulate gender reassignment operations among children and adolescents.
Peters declined Campus Reform’s request for an interview.
A spokesperson for Oregon Health Sciences University told Campus Reform that the institution “proudly offers gender-affirming health care to patients of all ages” and “remains steadfast in our support of transgender and gender-expansive communities and maintains our Transgender Affirming Healthcare Policy, which recognizes transgender individuals and commits to treating those patients with respect, courtesy, consideration and professionalism at all times.”
On social media, Peters goes by the tag “Queer Surgeon“ and advocates for LGBTQ+ issues. Per his Twitter username, his pronouns are “he/they.” In his pinned tweet he claims to be “one of the first surgeons in the world to complete formal academic fellowship training in advanced gender-affirming surgery.”
Progressives attacking other progressive ideas and practices for not being progressive enough is not unheard of on college campuses.
In 2022, an Obama-era department head had his commencement speech at Vassar canceled following an uproar from students. UC Berkeley’s student newspaper even published an article claiming that Grindr, a gay hook-up app “[instituted] a sexual Jim Crow that segregates who can climb into their exclusive beds.” More broadly, some lesbians are now being accused of transphobia for not being attracted to transgender women.
All relevant parties were contacted for comment by Campus Reform.
