NOTE: I have emailed, faxed and mailed this letter to Beverly Sheehan, the Executive Director of the Massachusetts Psychiatric Society. I encourage you to contact her as well and urge her organization to follow in the footsteps of the APA and denounce the misinformation Ablow has purposefully propagated to the national and international population while acting in his professional role as a psychiatrist for Fox News.

Beverly Sheehan, Executive Director of the Massachusetts Psychiatric Society

40 Washington Street, Suite 201

Wellesley, MA 02481-1802

781-237-8100, Ext 211

 bsheehan@psychiatry-mps.org

Greetings –

My name is Cristan Williams. I am the Executive Director of the Transgender Foundation of America. For more than a decade we have provided a range of medical and social services to the transgender community through our Transgender Centers and homeless programs. However, today I am not writing you in my professional capacity; rather, I am writing as a transsexual woman and member of the transgender community.

I’m writing to inform you of my intention to file a complaint against Dr. Ablow for what I and numerous others perceive to be ethical violations and to urge your organization to release a statement correcting the misinformation Dr. Ablow has propitiated while carrying out his duties as a psychiatrist for Fox News. As you may be aware, the sitting President of the American Psychological Association felt Ablow’s behavior to be so egregious that he took the unprecedented step of publicly denouncing Ablow’s professional assertions about transsexualism. I urge your office to likewise stand with your professional colleagues and help allay the fears Ablow’s professional assertions have created.

According to the American Psychiatric Association anyone with “personal knowledge of the alleged unethical conduct” may file a valid ethics complaint. I have begun urging transgender people and the parents of transgender children with “personal knowledge of the alleged unethical conduct” to file complaints concerning Dr. Ablow’s professional behavior as well.

Dr. Keith Ablow has, on multiple public occasions, violated the American Psychiatric Association’s Principles of Medical Ethics code of professional behavior.

On 9/2/2011, Ablow, acting in his professional capacity as a psychiatrist for Fox News, stated “I advise parents to not allow their children to watch the episodes in which Chaz appears. Chaz Bono, the “transsexual” woman who underwent plastic surgery and takes male hormones in an effort to appear to be a man, and who asserts she is a man… Chaz Bono should not be applauded for asserting she is a man… Chaz Bono should not be applauded any more than someone who, tragically, believes that his species, rather than gender, is what is amiss and asks a plastic surgeon to build him a tail of flesh harvested from his abdomen. It’s position is that Chaz Bono’s chemically and surgically altered appearance is a blessing to us all, a triumph of autonomy and self-possession on par with the triumphs achieved by the heroes of the Civil Rights movement. That’s very nearly insane. So, here it is. One psychiatrist’s prescription, sure to cost me a lot of hate mail, but reward me with the certainty that I am stating what I believe to be true and that I am doing my job: If you care about your kids, don’t let them watch “Dancing with the Stars” starring Chaz Bono.”

http://www.foxnews.com/opinion/2011/09/02/dont-let-your-kids-watch-chaz-bono-on-dancing-with-stars

On 9/6/2011, Ablow, representing himself as an opinion leader within the psychiatric community, went on satellite radio ad said, “When somebody has taken a really torturous path–literally having breasts removed, injecting oneself with hormones and is mid-stream in that process and wants me and the rest of the nation and all of our kids to agree that he is a man–that’s reality bending… If you are inhabiting a male body and you believe yourself to be female you are essentially delusional.”

http://mediamatters.org/blog/201109120022

On 9/16/2011. Ablow, acting in his professional capacity as a psychiatrist for Fox News, stated “I stand by that advice… Opioid dependence is, after all, a recognized psychiatric disorder in the DSM IV-TR, just like Gender Identity Disorder… Similarly, networks should be encouraged to have people on game shows who suffer with anorexia and who wish wholeheartedly—and quite sincerely—to be 80 pounds.”

http://www.foxnews.com/health/2011/09/16/dr-paul-mchughs-views-on-gender-reassignment-surgery

I assert that the above professional statements violates the following sections of the Psychiatric Medical Ethics code:

Section 1

A physician shall be dedicated to providing competent medical care with compassion and  respect for human dignity and rights.”

Section 2
A physician shall uphold the standards of professionalism, be honest in all professional  interactions and strive to report physicians deficient in character or competence, or engaging in  fraud or deception to appropriate entities.

3. A psychiatrist who regularly practices outside his or her area of professional competence  should be considered unethical. Determination of professional competence should be made by peer review boards or other appropriate bodies.

Section 5
A physician shall continue to study, apply, and advance scientific knowledge, maintain a  commitment to medical education, make relevant information available to patients, colleagues,  and the public, obtain consultation, and use the talents of other health professionals when  indicated.

1. Psychiatrists are responsible for their own continuing education and should be mindful of  the fact that theirs must be a lifetime of learning

Section 7
A physician shall recognize a responsibility to participate in activities contributing to the improvement of the community and the betterment of public health

1. Psychiatrists should foster the cooperation of those legitimately concerned with the medical, psychological, social, and legal aspects of mental health and illness. Psychiatrists are encouraged to serve society by advising and consulting with the executive, legislative, and judiciary branches of the government. A psychiatrist should clarify whether he/ she speaks as an  individual or as a representative of an organization. Furthermore,psychiatrists should avoid  cloaking their public statements with the authority of the profession.

3. On occasion psychiatrists are asked for an opinion about an individual who is in the light of public attention or who has disclosed information about himself/herself through public media.  In such circumstances, a psychiatrist may share with the public his or her expertise about psychiatric issues in general. However, it is unethical for a psychiatrist to offer a professional opinion unless he or she has conducted an examination and has been granted proper authorization for such a statement.

In violation of Section 1, Section 2 and Section 2 subsection 3 and Section 7 subsection 3, Ablow, in his professional role, chose to refer to Bono, who is legally a male, as a female in the national media on multiple occasions. Writing in his professional capacity as a psychiatrist, Ablow claimed, contrary to current scientific consensus on the matter, that transsexualism is like believing that one is a lizard, horse, monkey or some other species which possesses a tail. Furthermore Ablow, using  the unique national media reach afforded him as a paid psychiatrist for an international media organization, stated that from his point of view as a psychiatrist, people who are transsexual are “very nearly insane” and “delusional” – again, positions which are contrary to current scientific consensus.

In direction violation of Section 2 subsection 3 and Section 7 subsection 3, Ablow, a forensic psychiatrist, has made national statements about transsexuals and the nature of transsexualism. While Ablow is not a gender specialist, he used his unique status as a paid psychiatrist for an international media organization to make a number of statements which, while inconsistent with current scientific consensus, were nonetheless put forward by Ablow as mainstream scientific consensus. Ablow explicitly represents that he is qualified to make public assessments about the mental health of Mr. Bono as well as the mental health status of transsexuals as a group even though doing so is outside his area of professional competence.

Ablow’s professional statements are so contrary to scientific consensus that the sitting President of the American Psychological Association took the unprecedented step of publicly denouncing Ablow’s professional assertions about transsexualism. Even after receiving correction from APA, on 9/16/2011 Ablow stated via Fox News that he is choosing to disregard the guidance from the APA in favor of propagating decades old beliefs about transsexualism that are not consistent with current scientific consensus. He compounded his error by comparing transsexualism with heroin addiction. These actions are in violation of Section 5, Section 5 subsection 1, Section 7 and Section 7 subsections 1 and 2.

In violation of Section 1, Section 2, Section 2 subsection 3, Section 5, Section 7, Section 7 subsections 1 and 3, Ablow, acting in his role as a psychiatrist, targeted the recently transitioned transsexual man, Chaz Bono, in what amounts to professional bullying. Ablow has consistently and unrepentantly targeted Bono through a national campaign of misinformation and innuendo given validity by his status as a psychiatrist. Additionally, Ablow has consistently and unrepentantly targeted transgender people – a particularly vulnerable class of American citizens – through a national media campaign of misinformation and innuendo given validity by his status as a psychiatrist. Furthermore, Ablow, acting in his role as a psychiatrist, engaged in fear mongering by instructing parents to prevent their children from viewing a transgender person on television because, according to Ablow,  it could cause children to turn into transsexuals. This, as Ablow put it, “psychiatrist’s prescription” is completely unsupported by scientific consensus and yet, Ablow used his status as a psychiatrist to inspire unfounded fears in parents through an implied danger transsexuals pose to the mental health of our nation’s children.

I urge your organization to take immediate steps to right the very public wrongs Ablow, acting in his professional role, created. I urge your organization to make a public statement correcting the misinformation Ablow, who acting in his professional role propagated to the national and international public.

Thank you,

Cristan Williams