BROADview in Brief

"The medical and regulatory authorities are not of one mind about using hormone therapy to treat gender dysphoria.”

Photo by todd kent on Unsplash

I wanted to start this week by looking at an almost nostalgic story out of Marblehead, Massachusetts, that a reader shared. If you don’t know Marblehead, it’s a white-hydrangea-and-clapboard-houses kind of coastal New England town--very liberal, like most of MA. For Pride Month in June, there was both a sweet story in the local paper about a trans high school student who was a finalist in the NPR Student Podcast Challenge for a piece on recent state bans on what’s known as gender-affirming care, and a more strongly-worded opinion essay by the director of a regional LGBT support organization. The misinformation under the banner of truth in the latter was too much for BROADview subscriber Nyla DuBois, however, and she wrote up an extensive rebuttal that the paper (eventually!) published. Remember the days when we could disagree with our neighbors about everything from leafblowers to homeless encampments and share our strong opinions in our town papers under our own names? And the worst thing that would happen would be a cold shoulder or two at the supermarket checkout and getting blackballed at the Rotary Club? Perhaps there’s hope for a return to civil disagreement. Thank you for sharing your excellent response, Nyla, and good on you for standing up for the truth. Nyla swears she’s uncancellable…

When I look at the wider world, though, the conversation is not even semi-civil. Was the world always mad, and I just rolled along in total oblivion? Or has something fundamentally shifted in human behavior? I ponder these questions each time I delve into some of the out-there gender news. So far the UK is winning in the What-in-the-Heck stakes this week: first, a British cervical cancer charity came out with new language guidance suggesting that a vagina should be called a “bonus” or “front”  hole when working with the trans community (American LGBT organizations tend to prefer front hole, thank you very much GLSEN). Why, people? And at a Trans Pride march in London this past weekend, trans activist Sarah Jane Baker called on the crowd to punch TERFs. That’s a common threat, so no surprise there. The shocker was that Baker is an ex-con who beat up a family member, tried to kill a fellow inmate, and castrated himself in jail, yet London Trans+ Pride proudly shared video of his call to violence on their social media accounts. Baker has since been arrested, according to the online feminist news organization Reduxx, but there’s no follow-up yet as I write this. Spiked editor Tom Slater reflected afterward on Baker and the virulent strain of trans misogyny that a number of progressives support. Politicians who don’t closely follow these stories seem to be in complete ignorance of some of the darker aspects of the movement. 

Back in the States, a Seattle teen is suing their health insurance provider for refusing to pay for a double mastectomy on a minor. This is big news: a health insurance company has turned down the care that, as we understood it, the Affordable Care Act mandated them to provide. We’re wondering if perhaps they’ve read about the [failed as of yet] attempts to force them to pay for detransition care, and are trying to get out of the game.

Christina Buttons reported on the American Academy of Pediatrics continuing to pretend there’s nothing to talk about when it comes to youth gender medicine. That is, they continue to refuse to conduct a systematic evidence review as they update their 2018 policy on gender-affirming care this year. Because so many judges cite the AAP and other medical associations when siding with those promoting gender medicine, the update of the policy statement is a big deal—as is their refusal to base it on a systematic evidence review.

The Free Press reports with no fear on the topic and this week published both an op-ed by Dr. J. Michael Bailey on the retraction of his most recent paper on ROGD and a new episode of Honestly featuring an interview with BBC reporter Hannah Barnes. I’ve listened to Barnes a few times since her book Time to Think came out. She is tenacious, insightful, and thorough, and her conversation with Weiss is well worth tuning into.

Utah Governor Spencer Cox said on Face the Nation something we’ve been trying to hammer home here: American medical groups “are politicized…On this issue, it's impossible to get unbiased information out of the U.S. right now.” (Stop by here, Guv.) Cox wants to start suing social media companies for ruining kids’ mental health. He may want to talk to this Montana teen, who blames TikTok for her decision to transition. Detransition, she said, was a tough journey.

Host and producer of The Young Turks, Ana Kasparian, seems to agree with Cox about the inability to get unbiased information. She broke ranks with progressive media colleagues and laid out her questions and concerns about youth transition.

On the legislative front, Tennessee was the first state whose bans were upheld in court. Of note in their decision, the judges state the obvious—that is, what all the liberal media we consume denies: “the medical and regulatory authorities are not of one mind about using hormone therapy to treat gender dysphoria.” Most of the liberal media devoted space to stories about families considering moving because of these bans. None that I saw mentioned the families fleeing to states with bans and parental consent laws so that they could refuse gender psychological or medical interventions without fear of losing their kids. (Apparently summer camps are now hiding social transition from parents, too?)

Clinicians in Australia came out with a new study on outcomes for a cohort of young patients at the Sydney Children’s Hospital Network. The researchers raise many troubling questions and note that “despite the most careful screening and biopsychosocial assessment, some young persons who seek gender-affirming medical interventions and become eligible for and receive these interventions will come to regret their earlier decisions and will choose to desist or detransition.”

And in sports news, legally female/biologically male runner Caster Semenya won a 4-3 ruling at the European Court of Human Rights, with the majority of judges finding that requiring testosterone suppression to compete professionally was unfair in Semanya’s case. However, it was more of an intellectual victory than a practical one, since the court does not have jurisdiction over World Athletics. World Athletics promptly announced that they would not change their testosterone suppression rules for intersex athletes. It was remarkable to see how many news outlets chose not to make clear in their reporting that Semenya is not a female with abnormally high testosterone levels but a male with normal testosterone levels. To understand Semenya’s DSD,  5-ARD, you should be following Dr. Ross Tucker (@scienceofsport) and Dr. Emma Hilton (@fondofbeetles) on Twitter. Tucker talked about the issues on a Science of Sport episode back in 2019, but my guess is that he’ll be revisiting the topic on that podcast soon.

As I close this out on a Thursday, there are two breaking news items to share: one is that the California parent suing Chico Unified School District for secretly transitioning her 10-year-old daughter has had her case tossed out. You can read the basics here (the judgment is linked), but I’m sure there will be more information to come in the near future, including whether or not she’ll appeal. And finally, in a major global rebuke, clinicians from nine countries have written a pointed response to The Endocrine Society’s recent letter to the Wall Street Journal. The title really says it all: Youth Gender Transition Is Pushed Without Evidence.

With that, it’s summer, it’s time to step outside, touch grass, and enjoy some of the record heat, flooding, and wildfires that are going around. Share your tips here and see you next week!