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Tobias Banaschewski vs. transgender people

Tobias Banaschewski is a German psychiatrist and anti-transgender activist. Banaschewski is associated with anti-trans hate group Society for Evidence-Based Gender Medicine (SEGM).

Background

According to the SEGM 2025 conference schedule:

Professor of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry at the Medical Faculty Mannheim of the University of Heidelberg and Medical Director of the Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry of the Central Institute of Mental Health in Mannheim (since 2006), and Deputy Director of the CIMH (since, 2014). He studied psychology and medicine at Marburg University. His main research areas are developmental trajectories of child and adolescent psychiatric disorders with associated risks and protective factors, their underlying etiological and neurobiological mechanisms, development of individualized treatment strategies, and evidence-based clinical guidelines.

Anti-trans activism

Banaschewski co-authored a review with Florian Zepf that criticized Germany’s proposed protocols for trans healthcare. In a 2024 article in Die Welt, Banaschewski said proposed gender care for minors in Germany was “dangerous”:

Co-author Tobias Banaschewski, director of child and adolescent psychiatry at the Central Institute of Mental Health in Mannheim, told WELT: “As long as you initially consider it merely a wish or idea to belong to a different gender than the one you were born with, that is basically fine.” But he said that the guidelines create expectations that minors can eliminate their identity insecurities through medication or surgery, he said, “dangerous.”

“Gender confusion” is all too often cited as the cause of psychological problems and insecurities, without recognizing that the reverse connection can also exist. “It is almost absurd to dismiss psychotherapy as conversion therapy and rely on medication and surgery, even though there is insufficient scientific evidence that minors are clearly better off in the long term after a medical transition than before,” Banaschewski summarized.

References

Kröning, Anna (April 25, 2024). Behandlungsleitlinie für „Trans“-Kinder – Jugendpsychiater schlagen Alarm. [Treatment guidelines for “trans” children – child psychiatrists sound the alarm] Welt https://www.welt.de/gesundheit/article251196828/Behandlungsleitlinie-fuer-Trans-Kinder-Jugendpsychiater-schlagen-Alarm.html

Selected publications by Banaschewski

Zepf, F. D., König, L., Kaiser, A., Ligges, C., Ligges, M., Roessner, V., Banaschewski, T., & Holtmann, M. (2024). Beyond NICE: Aktualisierte systematische Übersicht zur Evidenzlage der Pubertätsblockade und Hormongabe bei Minderjährigen mit Geschlechtsdysphorie. Zeitschrift für Kinder- und Jugendpsychiatrie und Psychotherapie, 52(3), 167–187. https://doi.org/10.1024/1422-4917/a000972

Resources

Universitätsmedizin Mannheim (umm.uni-heidelberg.de)

Zentralinstitute fĂĽr Seelische Gesundheit (zi-mannheim.de)

Google Scholar (scholar.google.com)