Nathaniel Sharon is an American psychiatrist practicing in New Mexico. Sharon claims the ex-trans movement’s concept of “desistance” is “not a myth.”
Background
Nathaniel Grant “Nate” Sharon was born August 13, 1976. After being constantly bullied in school, Sharon was reportedly kicked out of the house after coming out as transgender. Sharon and family later reconciled.
Sharon earned a medical degree from Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center School of Medicine in 2009. Sharon completed a Psychiatry Residency at University of California, San Francisco in 2013. During that time, Sharon was affiliated with practices in Napa and San Jose, California.
Sharon then completed a Fellowship in Child and Adolescent Psychiatry at University of New Mexico. Sharon has been licensed in California and New Mexico and has been a member of WPATH.
Media coverage
After being quoted in the 2018 Atlantic article “When a Child Say’s She’s Trans” by Jesse Singal, Sharon has been cited in gender critical and conservative outlets including Gender Health Query, The American Conservative, and Breitbart.
Below are some selected passages from the Atlantic that quote Sharon:
“Some kids don’t waver” in their gender identity, Nate Sharon, a psychiatrist who oversaw a gender clinic in New Mexico for two and a half years, and who is himself trans, told me when we spoke in 2016. “I’m seeing an 11 year old who at age 2 went up to his mom and said, “When am I going to start growing my penis? Where’s my penis? At 2.”
[…]
“You’ve got the onset of puberty right around the age where they develop the concept of abstract thinking,” said Nate Sharon, the New Mexico psychiatrist. “So they may start to conceptualize gender concepts in a much richer, broader manner than previously—and then maybe puberty blockers or cross-sex hormones aren’t for them.”
[…]
Within a subset of trans advocacy, however, desistance isn’t viewed as a phenomenon we’ve yet to fully understand and quantify but rather as a myth to be dispelled. Those who raise the subject of desistance are often believed to have nefarious motives—the liberal outlet ThinkProgress, for example, referred to desistance research as “the pernicious junk science stalking trans kids,” and a subgenre of articles and blog posts attempts to debunk “the desistance myth.” But the evidence that desistance occurs is overwhelming. The American Psychological Association, the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, the Endocrine Society, and WPATH all recognize that desistance occurs. I didn’t speak with a single clinician who believes otherwise. “I’ve seen it clinically happen,” Nate Sharon said. “It’s not a myth.”
[…]
But progressive-minded parents can sometimes be a problem for their kids as well. Several of the clinicians I spoke with, including Nate Sharon, Laura Edwards-Leeper, and Scott Leibowitz, recounted new patients’ arriving at their clinics, their parents having already developed detailed plans for them to transition. “I’ve actually had patients with parents pressuring me to recommend their kids start hormones,” Sharon said.
In these cases, the child might be capably navigating a liminal period of gender exploration; it’s the parents who are having trouble not knowing whether their kid is a boy or a girl. As Sharon put it: “Everything’s going great, but Mom’s like, ‘My transgender kid is going to commit suicide as soon as he starts puberty, and we need to start the hormones now.’ And I’m like, ‘Actually, your kid’s just fine right now. And we want to leave it open to him, for him to decide that.’ Don’t put that in stone for this kid, you know?”
References
Munro, Neil (October 30, 2019). Left embraces ‘science denialism’ to bolster transgender claims, says science writer. Breitbart. https://www.breitbart.com/the-media/2019/10/30/left-embraces-science-denialism-bolster-transgender-claims-says-science-editor/
Anonymous [~July 2019] 14) Problems with a politicized climate of harassment & censorship. Gender Health Query. https://www.genderhq.org/trans-activism-identity-politics-harassment-censorship
Peterson, Matt and Kitchener, Caroline (June 22, 2018). What Do the Parents of Trans Kids Have to Say? Parents of trans children respond to Jesse Singal. The Atlantic https://www.theatlantic.com/membership/archive/2018/06/what-do-the-parents-of-trans-kids-have-to-say/563507/
Dreher, Rod (June 20, 2018). What Trans Hysterics Reveal. The American Conservative. https://www.theamericanconservative.com/dreher/what-trans-hysterics-reveal/
Cruz, Megan (July 16, 2015). Doctor calls birth certificate law discriminatory. KOAT https://www.koat.com/article/doctor-calls-birth-certificate-law-discriminatory/5065377
Chu, Louise (July 30, 2012). SF General Hospital Joins ‘It Gets Better’ Campaign Supporting LGBT Youth https://www.ucsf.edu/news/2012/07/12447/sf-general-hospital-joins-it-gets-better-campaign-supporting-lgbt-youth
Publications
Sharon N (2020). 33.1 Ethical considerations in working with transgender youth. Journal of the American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry. Clinical Perspectives 33 Vol 59, Issue 10, S50. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jaac.2020.07.214
Sharon N (2019). 57.3 Medical Decision-Making for Transgender Youth: Ethical Challenges and Frontiers. Journal of the American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry. Clinical Perspectives Vol 58, Issue 10, S81-S82. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jaac.2019.07.473
Bass M, Gonzalez LJ, Colip L, Sharon N, Conklin J (2018). Rethinking gender: The nonbinary approach. American Journal of Health-system Pharmacy. 2018 Nov 15 https://doi.org/10.2146/ajhp180236
Hopkinson RA, Sharon N (2018). Gender Dysphoria and Multiple Co-occurring Psychiatric Issues: Compare and Contrast. In book: Affirmative Mental Health Care for Transgender and Gender Diverse Youth (pp.189-207) https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-78307-9_13
Cohen JA, Mannarino A, Sharon N (2017). 1.0 Trauma-Focused Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy for Interpersonal Violence: Practical Strategies for Child Psychiatrists. Journal of the American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry 56(10):S128. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jaac.2017.07.497
Newsome C, Colip L, Sharon N, Conklin J (2017). Incorporating a pharmacist into an interprofessional team providing transgender care under a medical home model. American Journal of Health-System Pharmacy 74(3):135-139 https://doi.org/10.2146/ajhp160322
Sharon N, Cullen C, Martinez K (2016). A Complex Presentation of Pediatric Neuroleptic Malignant Syndrome Related to Polypharmacy in a 12-Year-Old Male J Child Adolesc Psychopharmacol. 2016 Aug 1; 26(6): 571–573. https://doi.org/10.1089/cap.2014.0125
Sharon N (2016). Psychiatry’s Role in Supporting Healthy Development in Gender Diverse Children. Psychiatric Annals, Vol. 46, No. 6
https://doi.org/10.3928/00485713-20160418-02
Sharon N (September 22, 2015). Gender nonconforming and transgender youth: Understanding the basics when caring for your gender diverse children. University of New Mexico. https://hscmediasite.unm.edu/mediasite/Play/d0d76ce741e342eb819a2981d842b4d71d?catalog=251f90e48ed14118a3863d4b53dab16321
Sharon N (2014). Gender Nonconforming and Dysphoric Youth in Rural Settings: Clinical Perspectives on Current Disparities With Unique Solutions. Conference: 61st Meeting of American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry.
Media
Wilgus, Courtney (May 14, 2021). Interview with pediatric psychiatrist Dr. Nate Sharon. Presbyterian Healthcare Services https://www.facebook.com/preshealth/videos/interview-with-pediatric-psychiatrist-dr-nate-sharon/885223688999794/
Muir, Owen Scott (January 27, 2023). Self-Disclosure: Living as Your Authentic Self is Lifesaving Gift.
The Frontier Psychiatrists https://thefrontierpsychiatrists.substack.com/p/self-disclosure-living-as-your-authentic
Resources
Twitter (twitter.com)
- @sunhiker76 [deleted as of 2022]
Traditions Behavioral Health (tbhcare.com)
San Jose Behavioral Health (sanjosebh.com)
Transgender Resource Center of New Mexico (tgrcnm.org)
University of New Mexico Health (unmhealth.org)
VIVO (vivo.health.unm.edu)