Paul R. McHugh

For other people named Paul McHugh, see Paul McHugh (disambiguation).
Paul McHugh
Born
Paul Rodney McHugh

(1931-05-21) May 21, 1931 (age 93)
Lawrence, Massachusetts, U.S.
EducationHarvard University (BA, MD)
King's College London
AwardsJoseph Zubin Award (1995)
Sarnat Prize (2008)
Scientific career
FieldsPsychiatry
InstitutionsCornell University
Johns Hopkins University

Paul Rodney McHugh (born May 21, 1931) is an American psychiatrist, researcher, and educator. He is currently the University Distinguished Service Professor of Psychiatry at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine,[1] where he was previously the Henry Phipps Professor and director from 1975 to 2001.

McHugh opposes allowing transgender people to receive gender affirming surgery.[2] He has described homosexuality as an "erroneous desire",[3] and supported California's 2008 same-sex marriage ban, claiming sexual orientation is partly a choice.[2] Scientists such as Dean Hamer argue McHugh misrepresents scientific literature on sexual orientation and gender.[4][5]

He served as a co-founder and subsequent board member of the False Memory Syndrome Foundation, which raised skepticism about adults who claimed to have recovered delayed memories of childhood sexual abuse or incest. Throughout the 1990s, McHugh was active in challenging the idea of recovered memory – that is, the idea that people could suddenly and spontaneously remember childhood sexual abuse.

McHugh was appointed to a lay panel assembled by the Roman Catholic Church to look into sexual abuse by Catholic priests in the United States. This appointment was controversial, as McHugh had previously served as expert witness in the defense of numerous priests accused of child sexual abuse.

  1. ^ Barstow, David (July 26, 2009). "An Abortion Battle, Fought to the Death". The New York Times. Retrieved May 22, 2010.
  2. ^ a b Allen, Samantha (August 23, 2016). "The Right's Favorite Anti-LGBT Doctor Strikes Again". The Daily Beast. Retrieved October 29, 2023.
  3. ^ Frank, Nathaniel (June 16, 2014). "The Wall Street Journal's Ignorance on LGBTQ Issues Is Alarming". Slate. ISSN 1091-2339. Retrieved October 29, 2023.
  4. ^ Cite error: The named reference :0 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  5. ^ Cite error: The named reference :2 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).