Alexander Korte is a German psychiatrist and anti-transgender activist. Korte is associated with anti-trans hate group Society for Evidence-Based Gender Medicine.
Background
Alexander Korte is a specialist in child and adolescent psychiatry and psychotherapy with an additional qualification in sexual medicine and holds a master’s degree in psychoanalytic cultural studies. Since 2010, Korte has worked as a senior consultant at the Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Psychosomatics, and Psychotherapy at Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich.
Anti-trans activism
Chantal Louis of feminist magazine EMMA has promoted Korte on several occasions. In a 2019 piece, Louis touts Korte’s credemtials as a psychiatrist and a parent:
Dr. Alexander Korte is a senior physician at the Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Psychosomatics, and Psychotherapy at Munich University Hospital and has been treating adolescents who feel “in the wrong body” since 2004. Korte is the father of two daughters. The child psychiatrist is highly alarmed. He speaks of a veritable “trans hype” and warns of the danger of acting too quickly. Isn’t gender-conforming behavior simply surgically removed? Girls, in particular, are increasingly not breaking their gender roles, but simply changing them.
In a 2020 interview with Chantal Louis in the feminist magazine EMMA, Korte said:
“Before we initiate lifelong hormone treatments and surgical procedures that have irreversible consequences, we must take a close and thorough look,” demands Alexander Korte, who has been treating children and adolescents with “gender incongruity” since 2004 and views this development with great concern. His conclusion: “The law is disastrous. The mere equation of homosexuality and transsexuality is completely nonsensical and simply wrong.”Â
The result: “All therapists who view this development critically are extremely intimidated by the law,” says therapist Korte. He knows: “Many child and adolescent therapists who don’t work purely trans-affirmatively have already withdrawn from the field and no longer treat patients with gender incongruity. They say: I don’t have to put myself through that!”Â
“It was de facto written into the law that all therapists must now treat patients ‘transaffirmatively,'” explains Alexander Korte, a child and adolescent psychiatrist at the University Hospital of Munich. “Until now, the principle was that therapeutic support should be open-ended. And that now puts us therapists in an extremely precarious position. What happens when you question a person’s desire to transition?”
“It absolutely should have been clearly written into the law that open-ended therapy is not conversion therapy,”
In a 2022 interview with progressive publication Taz, Korte claimed “Es ist in bestimmten Szenen hip, trans zu sein. [It is in certain scenes, hip to be trans].” When pressed, Korte clarified:
“I’d rather call it a zeitgeist phenomenon. Trans is clearly a new identification template for which there is a social acceptance. And this primarily appeals to a vulnerable group of young women. 85 percent of transgender people are, after all, biological girls. This is an international phenomenon.Â
In Sweden, the diagnosis rate among 13- to 17-year-old girls rose by 1,500 percent from 2008 to 2018.”
Attacks on public media
Korte was an author and signatory of an open letter published on the site of feminist Eva Engelken that attacked German publicly-financed German television broadcasters ARD and ZDF for presenting trans-supportive content, which they characterize as “indoctrination”: “We, scientists and doctors, call on public broadcasters to present biological facts and scientific findings truthfully. We demand a departure from the ideological approach to the topic of transsexuality and a fact-based presentation of biological issues based on the current state of research and science.”
In 2022, anti-trans activist Uwe Steinhoff announced in Quillette:
In June, a group of five authors—biologist and journalist Rieke Hümpel, biochemist Antje Galuschka, University of Munich gender-dysphoria expert Dr. Alexander Korte, Humboldt University behavioral physiologist Marie Vollbrecht, and myself—published an article in the German newspaper Die Welt, in which we highlighted our open letter demanding that publicly-financed German television broadcasters ARD and ZDF stop indoctrinating children with fake news about biology, such as the nonsense claim that human sex lies on “a spectrum.” [this links to a Colin Wright piece in Quillette defending J.K. Rowling] (Our appeal, we are glad to report, has inspired a French version.)
Korte, Steinhoff, and coauthors argue that trans-supportive coverage violates the Media State Treaty [Medienstaatsvertrag], which requires content to be age-appropriate, factual, and respectful of human dignity. They accuse the broadcasters of political activism, supporting Green and FDP policies such as the proposed Self-Determination Act [SBGG, or Gesetz ĂĽber die Selbstbestimmung in Bezug auf den Geschlechtseintrag], which would allow minors from age 14 to change their legal gender and access treatments even against parental wishes.
In 2024, Catholic news agency Exaudi News wrote:
In Germany, Alexander Korte, a child psychiatrist at the Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich, believes that “this therapy is irresponsible due to the unclear data situation. The administration of opposite-sex hormones after puberty blockers, as is known occurs in more than 95% of children treated with gonadotropin-releasing hormone (GnRH) analogues, leads to permanent infertility, in addition to a permanent impairment of the ability to experience sexuality.
References
Feddersen, Jan; Kutter, Kaija (May 2, 2022). Jugendpsychiater über Transidentität„Es ist hip, trans zu sein“ [Child psychiatrist on transidentity: “It’s hip to be trans”] Taz https://taz.de/Jugendpsychiater-ueber-Transidentitaet/!5845336/
Louis, Chantal (May 8, 2020). Trans: „Das Gesetz ist ein Desaster!“ [Trans: “The Law Ia a Disaster!”]. EMMA https://www.emma.de/artikel/trans-das-gesetz-ist-ein-desaster-337751
Louis, Chantal (December 17, 2019). Wir wissen nicht, was wir anrichten [We don’t know what we’re doing]. EMMA https://www.emma.de/artikel/was-richten-wir-da-337375
Louis, Chantal (December 17, 2019). Trans sein: Der Druck ist riesig [Being Trans: The Pressure Is Huge]. EMMA https://www.emma.de/artikel/der-druck-ist-riesig-337377
Coverage in anti-trans press
Staff report (June 19, 2024). European policies in relation to minors with gender dysphoria:A comparative analysis. Exaudi News https://exaudi.org/european-policies-in-relation-to-minors-with-gender-dysphoria/
Meder, Marielena (August 24, 2024). GERMANY: Transgender Politician Calls For Parents To Be Imprisoned If They Do Not “Affirm” Their Child’s Gender Transition. Reduxx https://reduxx.info/germany-transgender-politician-calls-for-parents-to-be-imprisoned-if-they-do-not-affirm-their-childs-gender-transition/
SEGM (March 10, 2024). Gender Dysphoria and Anorexia in Adolescent Females: Significant parallels between gender dysphoria and anorexia in teen girls calls for a nuanced and developmentally-informed approach. https://segm.org/gender-dysphoria-anorexia-korte-gille-elective-affinities
Steinhoff, Uwe (July 20, 2022). Gender Ideology Comes to Germany. Quillette https://quillette.com/2022/07/20/gender-ideology-comes-to-germany/
Von Rieke HĂĽmpel, Uwe Steinhoff, Antje Galuschka, Alexander Korte, Marie Vollbrecht (June 1 , 2022). Wie ARD und ZDF unsere Kinder indoktrinieren [How ARD and ZDF indoctrinate our children[. Welt https://www.welt.de/debatte/kommentare/plus239113451/Oeffentlich-rechtlicher-Rundfunk-Wie-ARD-und-ZDF-unsere-Kinder-indoktrinieren.html
Staff report (April 5, 2022). German psychiatrist critical of trans law proposal. Christian Network Europe News https://cne.news/article/1073-german-psychiatrist-critical-of-trans-law-proposal
Selected publications by Korte
Korte, A., & Gille, G. (2023). Wahlverwandtschaften? Trans-Identifizierung und Anorexia nervosa als maladaptive Lösungsversuche für Entwicklungskonflikte in der weiblichen Adoleszenz. Sexuologie. Zeitschrift Für Sexualmedizin, Sexualtherapie Und Sexualwissenschaft, 30(34), 105-122-105–122. https://doi.org/10.61387/s.2023.34.27 english pdf: Elective Affinities?* Trans-Identification and Anorexia Nervosa as Maladaptive Attempts to Resolve Developmental Conflicts in Female Adolescence. https://segm.org/sites/default/files/2024-03/korte_gille_heft_2023-3-4_engl.pdf
Singatories (June 1, 2022). Aufruf: Schluss mit der Falschberichterstattung des öffentlich-rechtlichen Rundfunks! [Call: Stop the false reporting by public broadcasters!] https://www.evaengelken.de/aufruf-schluss-mit-der-falschberichterstattung-des-oeffentlich-rechtlichen-rundfunks/