Paul R. McHugh

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 and the author, co-author, or editor of seven books in his field.

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

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. David Clohessy, Director of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, was appalled at McHugh's inclusion in the panel. Provided by Wikipedia