Even by Fox News standards, psychologist Keith Ablow pushes the boundaries of right-wing reason. And today, the vociferously transphobic so-called resident psychologist proved once again why he remains at the top of many LGBT people's misinformer of the year lists.
Zeroing in on the country's current cultural obsession with the deception of former Spokane, Wash., NAACP chapter president Rachel Dolezal, who has allegedly been masquerading as a black woman for a decade, Ablow wasted no time in advancing misinformed parallels between Dolezal's racial identity and trans people's gender identities.
But while trans advocates continue to do the work to debunk this comparison -- pointing out that a trans person's gender is internal and inborn, rather than passed on hereditarily like race -- Ablow is predictably taking the conversation in the opposite and far more dangerous direction.
As Media Matters for America pointed out, today's edition of Fox & Friends turned to Ablow to weigh in on Dolezal, with predictably fear-mongering results.
Speaking to cohost Steve Doocy in response to Dolezal's first public appearance since her misrepresentation was revealed, on this morning's episode of the Today show, Ablow declared that he predicted the entire debacle:
"I warned, right, I warned during the Caitlyn Jenner experience, during the Chaz Bono experience, that it would pave the way for people not only to assert the identity, the sexual identity or gender identity they felt they were, but also other kinds of identity, including racial identity. We've rushed into this, Steve. We've rushed into letting people say, 'I feel, therefore I am.' And we've done it without a lot of psychological study and without clear facts to guide us."
Ablow added that allowing trans people access to medical care, including gender confirmation surgeries, is a "massive threat to our children," which somehow leads to "the idea that I would be pressured by doctors at an academic medical center to support the notion that my 10-year-old being tattooed head-to-foot black because he or she feels that her identity."
In typical fashion, Ablow then doubled down on his assertions, concluding that the nonexistent pressure to tattoo children is "a direct parallel" to trans children being allowed access to hormone therapy at Boston Children's Hospital. Predictably, Ablow did not mention the growing body of research that shows that affirming trans children's authentic gender identities has positive outcomes in the lives of these young people.
Media Matters has kept track of Ablow's appearances on Fox News, revealing last November that numerous medical experts have condemned Ablow's often underinformed "psychological" analyses of figures like President Obama and Chaz Bono as "self-promotion" and "irresponsible and embarassing" to the medical profession.
Ablow has a particularly long record of expressing transphobic notions under the cover of medical "expertise," including a memorable 2011 attempt to dissuade viewers from allowing their children to watch trans male actor Chaz Bono perform on Dancing With the Stars.
More broadly, Fox News has for years been inundated with requests from groups including the National Center for Transgender Equality and GLAAD to stop misinforming viewers about the lived experiences of transgender individuals, though the network has yet to formally respond or change its ways.
See more in the Fox & Friends video below.