I would put THIS Substack on the list. In fact I always recommend it when discussing gender issues with friends. Lisa is so nuanced and empathetic in her writing. There are a few other sources that I follow that have accurate information but the tone is angry or confrontational in a way that makes it easier to dismiss as “transphobic.” Lisa makes it clear she is trying to get at the truth while still being respectful of all the various points of view in the debate.
I would like to see reporters covering the issue of gender care for young people read Hannah Barnes’ Time to Think and the lessons learned from the rise and fall of the Tavistock gender clinic. In publications like the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, there is no acknowledgment of developments in the UK and few if any references to changing policies in other European countries. Inconvenient facts are ignored or explained away.
No *curiosity* about what they might be missing ... I'm willing to bet that at least half of the reporters on this beat couldn't explain what GIDS is or how a systematic evidence review differs from the approaches taken by the AAP, AMA, and WPATH regarding gender medicine for minors.
They need to look at the Tik Tok quizzes that tell young women uncomfortable with their changing bodies that they are transgender, they need to look at the trans influencers on Instagram promoting the joy of testosterone . They need to look at the intersection of social media and gender ideology impacting impressionable youth.
Lisa, this is a great list. The challenge is always to include everything relevant, but keep it short enough for people to follow through. I would, however, like to see the media and professionals interview parents and family members of these kids. Those of us who have been trying to navigate the waters, help our children deal with their pain, and at the same time feeling isolated if we don't immediately champion the affirmative-care model. Or maybe champion it initially, and then find that the child has started down a road with no exit signs. Many well-meaning people do not understand the devastation wrought on families; the very real pain and anger, and grief, most of all. This impacts not only the distressed youth, but the entire family fabric. I can think of nothing that has been more destructive to American families, on a multi-generational level.
There is so much good information at this point that should cause these people--hello there, you used to be my people too--to pause and reflect. But I think Lisa covered the most crucial ones. Her top suggestion of LISTEN TO DETRANSITIONERS is rightly #1. Just listen to them! A lot of them. More emerge every day. In a recent Oregon legislative hearing, a Democratic lawmaker said dismissively and arrogantly that he simply did not believe one of the stories of a detransitioner. It is so shocking to hear this sneering callousness from the party that I used to belong to, the party that that is supposed to care for the vulnerable, the party that supposedly believes in science. If your disbelief is genuine, then you should go about PROVING it. Prove it and write to Lisa with your receipts.
You won't be able to. As Lisa says, the pain of these folks is real. They exist. The damage done to them is unconscionable. Here is a list of resources for detransitioners on Genspect, which includes some Twitter handles and Youtube channels of some detransitioners trying to prevent harm to others:
Yes in Canada when the conversion therapy bill was before parliament (it was intended to criminalize anything other than affirmation ie gender exploratory therapy is now a crime in Canada) they refused to hear from detransitioners. Their lawyer was given time and said
“I was surprised to learn yesterday that the committee would not be hearing from important voices like LGB Alliance Canada and Detrans Canada. Detransitioners are ignored because they shatter the narrative. The preamble to the bill says that it's a myth that people can change their gender, but those who have detransitioned are proof that either their gender can be changed or that what some young people go through when they say they are transgender is indeed a phase that they might simply outgrow.
“Detransitioners are usually homosexual, mostly young people who have gone through medical transition and have some serious regrets. Many self-diagnosed as having gender dysphoria as minors and subsequently accessed irreversible hormone blockers, cross-sex hormones and double mastectomy without any form of psychological assessment, all by the age of 16.
“I invited a member of Detrans Canada to share my time today, but that was not allowed. They have three major concerns with the bill as written, which I share...”
So, first, appalling that they would not let them speak. Next, the MP who authored the bill thanked the witnesses who were allowed (and who spoke in favour of the bill) and said in response to the detrans Canada lawyer:
“I'm always disappointed when transphobic arguments are brought before the committee in public, even if they're dressed up in legal language, and especially when they're connected to a false narrative about detransitioning and stated as a false concern for children.”
This was so upsetting (infuriating? Disheartening?) to hear about. Randall Garrison, himself a gay man, just absolutely REFUSED TO HEAR from young gays and lesbians who transitioned and then regretted it and who his bill was supposedly “for.” This was in DEC 2020, AFTER the Keira Bell decision. There is no excuse for this but there we are! I know know that I cannot obtain exploratory therapy for my 12 yo because what counsellor is going to risk criminal charges to ask my kid “hey maybe something else is going on, can we talk about your body dysmorphia?”
I am so grateful to you Lisa for doing this work. Hopefully over the next years the Randall Garrisons of the world will take off their blinkers and realize that “gender affirming care” is not the unmitigated good it’s been made out to be.
I read the attachment. Thank you for sharing. It concerns me that they didn't let a detransitioner speak. I am also from Canada and see the issue in a very nuanced way.
And it was our Opposition (Conservative) party that authored it, promoted it, steamrolled it through, and danced and celebrated in H of C when it passed.
The BMJ articles which deal with "US major medical associations" and the evidence base--
Caring for young people with gender dysphoria | The BMJ, Editor's Choice, 2023
“The US, however, has moved in the opposite direction. An investigation by The BMJ finds that more and more young people are being offered medical and surgical intervention for gender transition, sometimes bypassing any psychological support (doi:10.1136/bmj.p382).5 Much of this clinical practice is supported by guidance from medical societies and associations, but closer inspection of that guidance finds that the strength of clinical recommendations is not in line with the strength of the evidence. The risk of overtreatment of gender dysphoria is real.”
Gender dysphoria in young people is rising—and so is professional disagreement | The BMJ, Block, 2023
“More children and adolescents are identifying as transgender and are being offered medical treatment, especially in the US—but some providers and European authorities are urging caution because of a lack of strong evidence.”
Reuters Investigates Youth in Transition (Terhune, Respaut, Colvin,Rigby)- a whole series
As children line up at gender clinics, families confront many unknowns (2022, Oct):
“But when families decide to take the medical route, they must make decisions about life-altering treatments that have little scientific evidence of their long-term safety and efficacy.”
“Experts in gender care say more specific research is needed to determine whether medically transitioning as a minor reduces suicidal thoughts and suicides compared with those who socially transition or wait before starting treatment’”
Number of transgender children seeking treatment surges in U.S. (2022, Oct)
Putting numbers on the rise in children seeking gender care (2022, Oct)
Gender imbalance emerges among trans teens seeking treatment (2022, Nov)
Why detransitioners are crucial to the science of gender care (2022, Dec)
“hard evidence on long-term outcomes for the rising numbers of people who received gender treatment as minors is very weak.”
The Economist Briefing:
The evidence to support medicalised gender transitions in adolescents is worryingly weak (April, 2023)
“But that is another way of saying that it is impossible to justify the current recommendations about gender-affirming care based on the existing data.”
Also, some of the medical articles:
Abbruzzese et al, 2023, The Myth of "Reliable Research" in Pediatric Gender Medicine: A critical evaluation of the Dutch Studies-and research that has followed
Levine & Abbruzzese, 2023, Current Concerns About Gender-Affirming Therapy in Adolescents
And if possible also the 2022 articles by Levine, Abbruzzese and Mason.
When the first BMJ article you posted here was shared on Twitter, YouTube personality Abigail Thorn (also known as philosophytube), a trans woman herself, replied that gender dysphoria was not real, but an invention of cis male doctors. I mention this to highlight the relevant divide that exists within trans ally/activist cicles regarding the topic of whether gender dysphoria should even be considered as a mental health condition. I cannot imagine a more terrible political strategy than the movement capitulating to Thorn’s perspective, btw.
This piece and the follow-up piece from Rose, an SJW lesbian mother who socially transitioned her sons and had an awakening, are both insightful and thoughtful pieces. She did an interview with Triggernometry that was great.
Also, the most powerful bit of reading I've seen comes from gender clinic whistleblower, Jamie Reed:
She's also a former gender ideology acolyte. She's a lesbian married to a transman, so no one can claim she's an outsider. What she saw at the clinic changed her mind completely about what's being done to children. She also did an excellent interview with Triggernometry.
The so-called "community" doesn't want to hear from cis, straight, hetero-normative people, so these are 2 excellent resources to start with.
I would add: listen to the very real and serious harm caused to young people because they were needing quality and appropriate mental health treatments but couldn’t get it because of what happens with diagnostic overshadowing the moment any issue of gender identity is raised. There is very real mental and physical harm that happens to these kids even if they never get to the point of medicalizing
I’d suggest reading the papers at StoneButchDisco.com and listening to the SBD podcast -- butch lesbians and butch lesbian detransitioners discussing the deep pressure to transition for lesbians. Among them are ex-college professors/teachers talking about how academia and queer theory’s ahistorical takes on gender heighten the strength of an ideology that erases sex class consciousness and (they have seen with their own eyes) directly hinders the ability of college and advanced high school women and girls to theorize from the ground of their own bodies. (And more to the point, rewards academics who do the purification ritual of vocally dismissing those women who try; for instance, signaling that “lesbian” and other competing frameworks of thought belong in the cultural past.)
I teach in this realm, and yes, it is very difficult to get students to theorize on the basis of sexed experience. Or I convince them to do it, but they quickly slide away from it. I teach a course called Gendered Bodies, which is about the way our sexed bodies intersect with social and cultural gender norms. I'm just waiting for it to get me canceled ... It's organized around Iris Marion Young's phenomenological explorations in her wonderful essay collection, On Female Body Experience. The title alone puts a target on me in the current climate. I do include several works by trans authors and so far I'm still standing.
Thanks for the recommendation - I'm not familiar with SBD but will check them out once I'm done grading final exams!
ETA: Okay, I'm going to read the one where you engage with that awful anti-TERF Transgender Studies Quarterly special issue. We discussed it at my workplace and I felt pretty shut down by my colleague who was leading the discussion, even though all I really said was that sex is material (not merely socially construction all the way down) and at times it is consequential.
I would LOVE to talk with you about this material, Rachel! To be clear, I'm a feminist scholar, second wavish, not a lesbian myself but deeply concerned about the pressures on my lesbian students. One actually got told by another student in a queer theory class that genital preferences are transphobic - the first time I've heard of this happening offline. [scurries off to read the essay instead of going to bed like a grownup would do]
a group of rich attorneys invented a PR and lobby campain for the sole purpose of removing parents rights to protect kids from harmful gender meds. they invented the myth of the "trans" child to create policy space for an entirely new type of person. this policy space and the related dogma is a huge net that has captured many and is harming many. most kids with dysphoria have a bucket of other psych issues. most had trama, abuse, are orphans or just having normal dysphoria due to being gay. 85% of kids grow out of dysphoria on their own without meds. but even if they dont, the meds dont help anything. UK sweden finland reviews found gender meds dont help gender dysphoria, mental health or social function. its a scam. but mamy kids have been tricked into thinking gender meds solve every normal issue. so they ask for them. kids learn on the internet what syntpoms to report to get the pills. and the dishonest gender biz is getting rich handing out these pills like candy to anyone who wants them. instead of allowing people to explore diversity gender ID, gender ideology forces gnc people to conform to rigid gender sterotypes. once kids take puberty blockers 96% go on to sterilizing hormomes. these meds are taken at a different phase of puberty than when theyre taken for premature puberty, which are discontinued at the time when they are started when taken for gnc. every stat and claim by gender biz is a lie. much of the dog ma that surrounds it is circular logic that contains one or more of the many lies pushed by the mens rights movement called gender ideology.
Yes, I’m aware of that article. This movement is not nearly as grass-roots and underdog-ish as it portrays itself.
The role of the internet is crucial, and I’m repeatedly surprised by how few people are curious about what accounts for the explosion of trans identities in kids. Yes, stigma has lessened, but influencers and anonymous randos on social media (including Reddit and Discord servers) create bubbles where transitioning is glamorized and held up as the solution for youthful angst. I see the social media piece as decisive. Most older adults have no clue about this entire sphere of our media ecosphere. Younger adults see it but are uncritical.
Thanks! Would absolutely love to see a broad coalition among the heterodoxy folks/liberal moderates and their counterparts in the confused/frustrated LGB community
People need to realize that the battle against trans ideology is NOT a left vs. right or believer vs. nonbeliever issue. The media portrays it this way. The fact is that real people from across the political spectrum are waking up to the dangers of this ideology. Kara Dansky, self described "radical feminist" and President of the U.S. chapter of Women's Declaration International (WDI), has been very active in legislating against transgender activism. People should be aware of her and her hard work: https://www.karadansky.com/about
And the US media doesn't cover the fact that many of the European countries (those where "gender affirming care" originated) have reversed course on this model. Leo Sapir is a great source for all of this:
This post is so timely and necessary. I think there is benefit to keeping the list short, though I am glad to see additional resources and information in the comments, too. I want to underscore two things:
I endorse putting BROADview on the list. Your Substack is the first place I point to, for all the reasons other commenters have mentioned. Second, re this bullet point: “They read media articles from multiple political perspectives on the same subject.” On this one, it might be helpful to give two or three concrete samples. Jesse Singal and Leor Sapir are both excellent. I have also pointed people to the London Times and the Economist, as well as individual journalists/commentators such as Kathleen Stock and Victoria Smith (and of course Helen Joyce), wherever they appear.
I highly endorse Lisa’s inclusion of Helen Joyce’s foundational book “Trans,” and of course Hannah Barnes’s Time to Think. I also often recommend Kathleen Stock’s “Material Girls: Why Reality Matters for Feminism.” Stock is a philosopher and former professor (hounded out her job for saying sex is real). Her book offers, among other things, many insights into what happened in the halls of academe that helped get us into this fix. Stock also writes for the UK online magazine Unherd. Her most recent article, “How the Trans Census Fooled Britain,” provides a typically smart and witty take on the mess sex and gender miscategorizations can make in compiling critical data: https://unherd.com/2023/04/how-the-trans-census-fooled-britain/
Excellent suggestions, Susan - I feel like Helen Joyce's book "Trans" should be required reading for anyone interested in learning the truth about all of this! And yes, Kathleen Stock, Jesse Singal, and Sapir...
In addition to everything you noted, please also Read the original Dutch study of 70 children upon which all of these “treatments” are based and listen to the creators of that study talk on Gender a Wider Lens. Then Read all of the subsequent studies and really look at the statistics, the methods and the analysis. And if you can still see these, read the story of Kai Shapley’ mother and listen to Susie Green’s Ted talk. Watch some YouTube videos that glorify transition and consider how a young vulnerable teen will be affected by them. Also step back and think about what “gender identity” means, and try to find a non-circular definition that is not based on stereotypes and that could possibly justify medical interventions.
One of the children from that very Dutch study who was put on puberty blockers at a young age died from their vaginoplasty surgery. As with Jazz Jennings, the child didn't develop enough penile tissue to make a neovagina, so part of the colon needed to be used. This young person subsequently died because the tissue was infected with e-coli (it's still a colon, after all) and it turned necrotic. When activists shout "would you prefer a dead child or a trans child?" wouldn't you agree these parents lost, either way? So much for the success of the Dutch experiment.
Note: Check out Josh Slocum's work at Disaffected on Substack and Rumble. He reported on this. He's the warrior we should all be on behalf of these kids.
The death was tragic and horrifying, but it wasn't recent. IIRC, it was reported in the 2014 article by the Dutch team (the second of their two reports of their initial cohort). I'm being a pedant because critics of us skeptics will pounce on any smalls misstep. (And also because I am a pedant by nature!)
Yes, and remember both Susie Green and Kai Shapley's mother said they would not have a gay child. And I suspect it was the same w/ Jazz Jennings. Homophobia is still out there and some parents still prefer a mutilated, ersatz 'heterosexual' kid than a gay or lesbian one.
Thanks, Lisa. It's such a great list, one I will share, and is a great lens through which to think about the debate around bans. I think I'd want to add something about social transition (including it explicitly in your definition of gender affirming care) and the statistics around social transition and persistence and I'd want clinicians, journalists or teachers who cite suicide statistics to talk to people whose job it is to treat suicidality in order to learn that gender affirming care is not an effective or appropriate treatment for suicidal ideation.
Agree-we brought our then-11 yo in for urgent assessment by the local child/youth mental health unit on our therapists advice because said she was worried about impulsively harming herself. I was reluctant because I didn’t think she was serious (she was going thru a peer thing at school and I think it was more about trying to legitimize not going to school the day she made the disclosure) but I *did* want her to see we were not taking her mental health lightly. The minute the intake worker heard “my mom won’t buy me a binder” that was it. The report was all “this trans youth is not supported at home” My daughter said herself she was trying to talk about wanting to hurt herself and the woman kept coming back to her ID and that we weren’t calling her him. We ended up with no help for her or us but with an investigation from child protection which was very upsetting for her and us. And of course I am now very reluctant to engage with any public mental health supports esp bc in BC kids 13+ seem to be able to engage w a gender clinic and obtain hormones without parental consent:
“Kaleb did his research and found a clinic in Kelowna that would help him be the man he wanted to be.
The problem was, Gail was never consulted by the clinic.
‘At 13 he was able to do all of it without my permission.’
At 13 he couldn’t buy alcohol or cigarettes or cannabis, he couldn’t get a tattoo without his mom’s permission, but he was given drugs and injections and was even scheduled for a top reduction this year.
‘He saw the doctor like once a year. It’s quite careless. They never even showed him how to take those injections.’”
Don't know which would be the best article, but something on "follow the money," would be nice. Because this push-to-convert is not just coming from the kids.
In meetings with our family the Drs at Mayo Gender Clinic flatly refused to review or discuss anything beyond WPATH, Endocrine society guidelines and the AAP paper. Would not acknowledge even having heard of the Cass review, let alone reading it.
I would put THIS Substack on the list. In fact I always recommend it when discussing gender issues with friends. Lisa is so nuanced and empathetic in her writing. There are a few other sources that I follow that have accurate information but the tone is angry or confrontational in a way that makes it easier to dismiss as “transphobic.” Lisa makes it clear she is trying to get at the truth while still being respectful of all the various points of view in the debate.
I do the same, for exactly the same reasons. So grateful for Lisa, every day.
I would like to see reporters covering the issue of gender care for young people read Hannah Barnes’ Time to Think and the lessons learned from the rise and fall of the Tavistock gender clinic. In publications like the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, there is no acknowledgment of developments in the UK and few if any references to changing policies in other European countries. Inconvenient facts are ignored or explained away.
No acknowledgement of what happened at the GIDS, no acknowledgement of the systematic evidence reviews...
No *curiosity* about what they might be missing ... I'm willing to bet that at least half of the reporters on this beat couldn't explain what GIDS is or how a systematic evidence review differs from the approaches taken by the AAP, AMA, and WPATH regarding gender medicine for minors.
They need to look at the Tik Tok quizzes that tell young women uncomfortable with their changing bodies that they are transgender, they need to look at the trans influencers on Instagram promoting the joy of testosterone . They need to look at the intersection of social media and gender ideology impacting impressionable youth.
Lisa, this is a great list. The challenge is always to include everything relevant, but keep it short enough for people to follow through. I would, however, like to see the media and professionals interview parents and family members of these kids. Those of us who have been trying to navigate the waters, help our children deal with their pain, and at the same time feeling isolated if we don't immediately champion the affirmative-care model. Or maybe champion it initially, and then find that the child has started down a road with no exit signs. Many well-meaning people do not understand the devastation wrought on families; the very real pain and anger, and grief, most of all. This impacts not only the distressed youth, but the entire family fabric. I can think of nothing that has been more destructive to American families, on a multi-generational level.
There is so much good information at this point that should cause these people--hello there, you used to be my people too--to pause and reflect. But I think Lisa covered the most crucial ones. Her top suggestion of LISTEN TO DETRANSITIONERS is rightly #1. Just listen to them! A lot of them. More emerge every day. In a recent Oregon legislative hearing, a Democratic lawmaker said dismissively and arrogantly that he simply did not believe one of the stories of a detransitioner. It is so shocking to hear this sneering callousness from the party that I used to belong to, the party that that is supposed to care for the vulnerable, the party that supposedly believes in science. If your disbelief is genuine, then you should go about PROVING it. Prove it and write to Lisa with your receipts.
You won't be able to. As Lisa says, the pain of these folks is real. They exist. The damage done to them is unconscionable. Here is a list of resources for detransitioners on Genspect, which includes some Twitter handles and Youtube channels of some detransitioners trying to prevent harm to others:
https://genspect.org/detransitioner-resources/
Just LISTEN to them.
Yes in Canada when the conversion therapy bill was before parliament (it was intended to criminalize anything other than affirmation ie gender exploratory therapy is now a crime in Canada) they refused to hear from detransitioners. Their lawyer was given time and said
“I was surprised to learn yesterday that the committee would not be hearing from important voices like LGB Alliance Canada and Detrans Canada. Detransitioners are ignored because they shatter the narrative. The preamble to the bill says that it's a myth that people can change their gender, but those who have detransitioned are proof that either their gender can be changed or that what some young people go through when they say they are transgender is indeed a phase that they might simply outgrow.
“Detransitioners are usually homosexual, mostly young people who have gone through medical transition and have some serious regrets. Many self-diagnosed as having gender dysphoria as minors and subsequently accessed irreversible hormone blockers, cross-sex hormones and double mastectomy without any form of psychological assessment, all by the age of 16.
“I invited a member of Detrans Canada to share my time today, but that was not allowed. They have three major concerns with the bill as written, which I share...”
So, first, appalling that they would not let them speak. Next, the MP who authored the bill thanked the witnesses who were allowed (and who spoke in favour of the bill) and said in response to the detrans Canada lawyer:
“I'm always disappointed when transphobic arguments are brought before the committee in public, even if they're dressed up in legal language, and especially when they're connected to a false narrative about detransitioning and stated as a false concern for children.”
https://www.ourcommons.ca/DocumentViewer/en/43-2/JUST/meeting-15/evidence
This was so upsetting (infuriating? Disheartening?) to hear about. Randall Garrison, himself a gay man, just absolutely REFUSED TO HEAR from young gays and lesbians who transitioned and then regretted it and who his bill was supposedly “for.” This was in DEC 2020, AFTER the Keira Bell decision. There is no excuse for this but there we are! I know know that I cannot obtain exploratory therapy for my 12 yo because what counsellor is going to risk criminal charges to ask my kid “hey maybe something else is going on, can we talk about your body dysmorphia?”
I am so grateful to you Lisa for doing this work. Hopefully over the next years the Randall Garrisons of the world will take off their blinkers and realize that “gender affirming care” is not the unmitigated good it’s been made out to be.
My god, that is deplorable behavior. Lived experience is crucially important - until it's the wrong kind.
I read the attachment. Thank you for sharing. It concerns me that they didn't let a detransitioner speak. I am also from Canada and see the issue in a very nuanced way.
And it was our Opposition (Conservative) party that authored it, promoted it, steamrolled it through, and danced and celebrated in H of C when it passed.
Not believing detransitioners and yet these legislators and others will listen to and believe everything the TRAs say.
The biggest medical scandal of the young 21st century is unfolding while we watch.
Thank you!
How about:
The BMJ articles which deal with "US major medical associations" and the evidence base--
Caring for young people with gender dysphoria | The BMJ, Editor's Choice, 2023
“The US, however, has moved in the opposite direction. An investigation by The BMJ finds that more and more young people are being offered medical and surgical intervention for gender transition, sometimes bypassing any psychological support (doi:10.1136/bmj.p382).5 Much of this clinical practice is supported by guidance from medical societies and associations, but closer inspection of that guidance finds that the strength of clinical recommendations is not in line with the strength of the evidence. The risk of overtreatment of gender dysphoria is real.”
Gender dysphoria in young people is rising—and so is professional disagreement | The BMJ, Block, 2023
“More children and adolescents are identifying as transgender and are being offered medical treatment, especially in the US—but some providers and European authorities are urging caution because of a lack of strong evidence.”
Reuters Investigates Youth in Transition (Terhune, Respaut, Colvin,Rigby)- a whole series
As children line up at gender clinics, families confront many unknowns (2022, Oct):
“But when families decide to take the medical route, they must make decisions about life-altering treatments that have little scientific evidence of their long-term safety and efficacy.”
“Experts in gender care say more specific research is needed to determine whether medically transitioning as a minor reduces suicidal thoughts and suicides compared with those who socially transition or wait before starting treatment’”
Number of transgender children seeking treatment surges in U.S. (2022, Oct)
Putting numbers on the rise in children seeking gender care (2022, Oct)
Gender imbalance emerges among trans teens seeking treatment (2022, Nov)
Why detransitioners are crucial to the science of gender care (2022, Dec)
“hard evidence on long-term outcomes for the rising numbers of people who received gender treatment as minors is very weak.”
The Economist Briefing:
The evidence to support medicalised gender transitions in adolescents is worryingly weak (April, 2023)
“But that is another way of saying that it is impossible to justify the current recommendations about gender-affirming care based on the existing data.”
Also, some of the medical articles:
Abbruzzese et al, 2023, The Myth of "Reliable Research" in Pediatric Gender Medicine: A critical evaluation of the Dutch Studies-and research that has followed
Levine & Abbruzzese, 2023, Current Concerns About Gender-Affirming Therapy in Adolescents
And if possible also the 2022 articles by Levine, Abbruzzese and Mason.
And your articles!!!
When the first BMJ article you posted here was shared on Twitter, YouTube personality Abigail Thorn (also known as philosophytube), a trans woman herself, replied that gender dysphoria was not real, but an invention of cis male doctors. I mention this to highlight the relevant divide that exists within trans ally/activist cicles regarding the topic of whether gender dysphoria should even be considered as a mental health condition. I cannot imagine a more terrible political strategy than the movement capitulating to Thorn’s perspective, btw.
What does this man, who changed his name and presents as "female", believe IS real?
https://open.substack.com/pub/pitt/p/true-believer?r=i2gm3&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=email
This piece and the follow-up piece from Rose, an SJW lesbian mother who socially transitioned her sons and had an awakening, are both insightful and thoughtful pieces. She did an interview with Triggernometry that was great.
Also, the most powerful bit of reading I've seen comes from gender clinic whistleblower, Jamie Reed:
https://www.thefp.com/p/i-thought-i-was-saving-trans-kids
She's also a former gender ideology acolyte. She's a lesbian married to a transman, so no one can claim she's an outsider. What she saw at the clinic changed her mind completely about what's being done to children. She also did an excellent interview with Triggernometry.
The so-called "community" doesn't want to hear from cis, straight, hetero-normative people, so these are 2 excellent resources to start with.
I would add: listen to the very real and serious harm caused to young people because they were needing quality and appropriate mental health treatments but couldn’t get it because of what happens with diagnostic overshadowing the moment any issue of gender identity is raised. There is very real mental and physical harm that happens to these kids even if they never get to the point of medicalizing
This is an excellent point. Thanks for noting it.
I’d suggest reading the papers at StoneButchDisco.com and listening to the SBD podcast -- butch lesbians and butch lesbian detransitioners discussing the deep pressure to transition for lesbians. Among them are ex-college professors/teachers talking about how academia and queer theory’s ahistorical takes on gender heighten the strength of an ideology that erases sex class consciousness and (they have seen with their own eyes) directly hinders the ability of college and advanced high school women and girls to theorize from the ground of their own bodies. (And more to the point, rewards academics who do the purification ritual of vocally dismissing those women who try; for instance, signaling that “lesbian” and other competing frameworks of thought belong in the cultural past.)
I teach in this realm, and yes, it is very difficult to get students to theorize on the basis of sexed experience. Or I convince them to do it, but they quickly slide away from it. I teach a course called Gendered Bodies, which is about the way our sexed bodies intersect with social and cultural gender norms. I'm just waiting for it to get me canceled ... It's organized around Iris Marion Young's phenomenological explorations in her wonderful essay collection, On Female Body Experience. The title alone puts a target on me in the current climate. I do include several works by trans authors and so far I'm still standing.
Thanks for the recommendation - I'm not familiar with SBD but will check them out once I'm done grading final exams!
ETA: Okay, I'm going to read the one where you engage with that awful anti-TERF Transgender Studies Quarterly special issue. We discussed it at my workplace and I felt pretty shut down by my colleague who was leading the discussion, even though all I really said was that sex is material (not merely socially construction all the way down) and at times it is consequential.
I would LOVE to talk with you about this material, Rachel! To be clear, I'm a feminist scholar, second wavish, not a lesbian myself but deeply concerned about the pressures on my lesbian students. One actually got told by another student in a queer theory class that genital preferences are transphobic - the first time I've heard of this happening offline. [scurries off to read the essay instead of going to bed like a grownup would do]
if you teach on this subject i wonder if youve ever read the article that explains how this all started
https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/the-document-that-reveals-the-remarkable-tactics-of-trans-lobbyists/
a group of rich attorneys invented a PR and lobby campain for the sole purpose of removing parents rights to protect kids from harmful gender meds. they invented the myth of the "trans" child to create policy space for an entirely new type of person. this policy space and the related dogma is a huge net that has captured many and is harming many. most kids with dysphoria have a bucket of other psych issues. most had trama, abuse, are orphans or just having normal dysphoria due to being gay. 85% of kids grow out of dysphoria on their own without meds. but even if they dont, the meds dont help anything. UK sweden finland reviews found gender meds dont help gender dysphoria, mental health or social function. its a scam. but mamy kids have been tricked into thinking gender meds solve every normal issue. so they ask for them. kids learn on the internet what syntpoms to report to get the pills. and the dishonest gender biz is getting rich handing out these pills like candy to anyone who wants them. instead of allowing people to explore diversity gender ID, gender ideology forces gnc people to conform to rigid gender sterotypes. once kids take puberty blockers 96% go on to sterilizing hormomes. these meds are taken at a different phase of puberty than when theyre taken for premature puberty, which are discontinued at the time when they are started when taken for gnc. every stat and claim by gender biz is a lie. much of the dog ma that surrounds it is circular logic that contains one or more of the many lies pushed by the mens rights movement called gender ideology.
Yes, I’m aware of that article. This movement is not nearly as grass-roots and underdog-ish as it portrays itself.
The role of the internet is crucial, and I’m repeatedly surprised by how few people are curious about what accounts for the explosion of trans identities in kids. Yes, stigma has lessened, but influencers and anonymous randos on social media (including Reddit and Discord servers) create bubbles where transitioning is glamorized and held up as the solution for youthful angst. I see the social media piece as decisive. Most older adults have no clue about this entire sphere of our media ecosphere. Younger adults see it but are uncritical.
Thanks! Would absolutely love to see a broad coalition among the heterodoxy folks/liberal moderates and their counterparts in the confused/frustrated LGB community
People need to realize that the battle against trans ideology is NOT a left vs. right or believer vs. nonbeliever issue. The media portrays it this way. The fact is that real people from across the political spectrum are waking up to the dangers of this ideology. Kara Dansky, self described "radical feminist" and President of the U.S. chapter of Women's Declaration International (WDI), has been very active in legislating against transgender activism. People should be aware of her and her hard work: https://www.karadansky.com/about
Kara's substack:
https://karadansky.substack.com/
And the US media doesn't cover the fact that many of the European countries (those where "gender affirming care" originated) have reversed course on this model. Leo Sapir is a great source for all of this:
https://www.city-journal.org/article/a-new-low
https://www.city-journal.org/article/how-to-regulate-pediatric-gender-medicine
https://www.city-journal.org/article/oregons-reckless-medicine
This post is so timely and necessary. I think there is benefit to keeping the list short, though I am glad to see additional resources and information in the comments, too. I want to underscore two things:
I endorse putting BROADview on the list. Your Substack is the first place I point to, for all the reasons other commenters have mentioned. Second, re this bullet point: “They read media articles from multiple political perspectives on the same subject.” On this one, it might be helpful to give two or three concrete samples. Jesse Singal and Leor Sapir are both excellent. I have also pointed people to the London Times and the Economist, as well as individual journalists/commentators such as Kathleen Stock and Victoria Smith (and of course Helen Joyce), wherever they appear.
I highly endorse Lisa’s inclusion of Helen Joyce’s foundational book “Trans,” and of course Hannah Barnes’s Time to Think. I also often recommend Kathleen Stock’s “Material Girls: Why Reality Matters for Feminism.” Stock is a philosopher and former professor (hounded out her job for saying sex is real). Her book offers, among other things, many insights into what happened in the halls of academe that helped get us into this fix. Stock also writes for the UK online magazine Unherd. Her most recent article, “How the Trans Census Fooled Britain,” provides a typically smart and witty take on the mess sex and gender miscategorizations can make in compiling critical data: https://unherd.com/2023/04/how-the-trans-census-fooled-britain/
Excellent suggestions, Susan - I feel like Helen Joyce's book "Trans" should be required reading for anyone interested in learning the truth about all of this! And yes, Kathleen Stock, Jesse Singal, and Sapir...
In addition to everything you noted, please also Read the original Dutch study of 70 children upon which all of these “treatments” are based and listen to the creators of that study talk on Gender a Wider Lens. Then Read all of the subsequent studies and really look at the statistics, the methods and the analysis. And if you can still see these, read the story of Kai Shapley’ mother and listen to Susie Green’s Ted talk. Watch some YouTube videos that glorify transition and consider how a young vulnerable teen will be affected by them. Also step back and think about what “gender identity” means, and try to find a non-circular definition that is not based on stereotypes and that could possibly justify medical interventions.
One of the children from that very Dutch study who was put on puberty blockers at a young age died from their vaginoplasty surgery. As with Jazz Jennings, the child didn't develop enough penile tissue to make a neovagina, so part of the colon needed to be used. This young person subsequently died because the tissue was infected with e-coli (it's still a colon, after all) and it turned necrotic. When activists shout "would you prefer a dead child or a trans child?" wouldn't you agree these parents lost, either way? So much for the success of the Dutch experiment.
Note: Check out Josh Slocum's work at Disaffected on Substack and Rumble. He reported on this. He's the warrior we should all be on behalf of these kids.
The death was tragic and horrifying, but it wasn't recent. IIRC, it was reported in the 2014 article by the Dutch team (the second of their two reports of their initial cohort). I'm being a pedant because critics of us skeptics will pounce on any smalls misstep. (And also because I am a pedant by nature!)
Pedant away! We need to hold ourselves to a high standard, especially when we're relying solely on facts! Happy to be corrected!
Yes, and remember both Susie Green and Kai Shapley's mother said they would not have a gay child. And I suspect it was the same w/ Jazz Jennings. Homophobia is still out there and some parents still prefer a mutilated, ersatz 'heterosexual' kid than a gay or lesbian one.
Thanks, Lisa. It's such a great list, one I will share, and is a great lens through which to think about the debate around bans. I think I'd want to add something about social transition (including it explicitly in your definition of gender affirming care) and the statistics around social transition and persistence and I'd want clinicians, journalists or teachers who cite suicide statistics to talk to people whose job it is to treat suicidality in order to learn that gender affirming care is not an effective or appropriate treatment for suicidal ideation.
Agree-we brought our then-11 yo in for urgent assessment by the local child/youth mental health unit on our therapists advice because said she was worried about impulsively harming herself. I was reluctant because I didn’t think she was serious (she was going thru a peer thing at school and I think it was more about trying to legitimize not going to school the day she made the disclosure) but I *did* want her to see we were not taking her mental health lightly. The minute the intake worker heard “my mom won’t buy me a binder” that was it. The report was all “this trans youth is not supported at home” My daughter said herself she was trying to talk about wanting to hurt herself and the woman kept coming back to her ID and that we weren’t calling her him. We ended up with no help for her or us but with an investigation from child protection which was very upsetting for her and us. And of course I am now very reluctant to engage with any public mental health supports esp bc in BC kids 13+ seem to be able to engage w a gender clinic and obtain hormones without parental consent:
“Kaleb did his research and found a clinic in Kelowna that would help him be the man he wanted to be.
The problem was, Gail was never consulted by the clinic.
‘At 13 he was able to do all of it without my permission.’
At 13 he couldn’t buy alcohol or cigarettes or cannabis, he couldn’t get a tattoo without his mom’s permission, but he was given drugs and injections and was even scheduled for a top reduction this year.
‘He saw the doctor like once a year. It’s quite careless. They never even showed him how to take those injections.’”
https://archive.is/2023.05.05-181030/https://www.vernonmorningstar.com/news/vernon-mother-looks-for-more-safeguards-around-transitioning-after-son-commits-suicide/
Don't know which would be the best article, but something on "follow the money," would be nice. Because this push-to-convert is not just coming from the kids.
It's an astro-turfed top-down movement driven by wealthy autogynephiles, imo.
Jennifer Bilek's Newsletter is full of gr eat info on all of this!
https://jbilek.substack.com/
In meetings with our family the Drs at Mayo Gender Clinic flatly refused to review or discuss anything beyond WPATH, Endocrine society guidelines and the AAP paper. Would not acknowledge even having heard of the Cass review, let alone reading it.