Receipts: Dear PBS and Newshour

More realistic and balanced information, please.

Another entry from the Receipts series, otherwise known as: “They can’t claim plausible deniability.” Feel free to send more my way, share in the comments, and/or discuss strategies for the continuing need to diversify the media narrative about gender identity.

To whom it may concern:

The story, “Texas Supreme Court upholds state ban on gender affirming care for transgender minors” posted on the PBS Newshour website on Friday, June 28th, was not an accurate reflection of the current state of healthcare for gender dysphoric and gender non-conforming children and youth. The story quoted Dr Jack Drescher who does not practice child and adolescent psychiatry; he is a spokesperson for a political movement, not an expert in this area of care. The story could have sought commentary from Dr Erica Anderson who is an expert in this area of care and readers would have gotten more realistic and balanced information.

On June 9th, John Yang conducted an interview with Dr Jack Turban about his book, “Free to Be.” Yang asked Turban about the Cass Review and did not challenge Turban’s spin on the review. Turban obfuscated on the question of evidence for the gender affirmative model of care. Did it occur to Yang to ask Turban about the whistleblowers at gender clinics and hospitals around the country who counter what Turban claims to be the standard of care? Or to ask about de-transitioners who are speaking out and bringing lawsuits against the clinicians who treated them?

Has anyone at the Newshour listened to the interview of Dr Cass by your colleague at Boston Public Radio, Meghna Chakhrabarti in May? Did you read David Brooks’s NYT op-ed about the Cass Review?

The one thing Turban and Drescher have in common is that they are deeply invested in the politics of “gender affirmative care” and in their reputations, but not invested in following the evidence for medical science. Is the Newshour going to collude in this behavior or will you report on this area of medicine and politics more fully and accurately?

I am a lifelong liberal and Democrat. I am also a psychologist and a member of Therapy First, an association of mental health professionals who support and promote psychotherapy as first-line treatment and care for gender-distressed and gender non-conforming youth and their families. I used to believe a person could be born in the wrong body; I trusted my teachers and other authorities in my field. And I have long trusted the PBS Newshour.

This question of trust is central to a functioning democracy -- and not just in this area of medical care and science. (Alice Dreger made a forceful argument in her book, Galileo’s Middle Finger, that being able to trust our institutions is what is at stake. She also “knows a few things” about sex, gender and medicine. Maybe the Newshour will interview her?) If we can’t trust the Newshour to report honestly in this area of concern, how can we trust the Newshour’s coverage about anything? Please, cover this issue more fully and deeply with the care and nuance it deserves. Parent’s are being misled and children and youth are being harmed. And, our very democracy is at stake.

Thank you for reading my message.

best,

[name and credentials]

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Dear Ms Sy and Newshour producers:

I listened to your August 31, 2022 story, “Children’s hospitals become targets of anti-transgender attacks and harassment” about Boston Children’s Hospital and a recent bomb threat. Political violence and threats of political violence are abhorrent and should be called out, resisted and legally prosecuted.

In the online intro to the transcript of your piece you say, “[a]nti-transgender activists have been using social media to spread disinformation about gender-affirming medical care.” Your story about Boston Children’s was narrowly about gender politics not the care of children. It highlighted only terrorists (Proud Boys) on the “one side” and interviewed the leader of a political action group, the Human Rights Campaign, on the other. Your reporting repeated the unexamined cultural assumptions that “trans kids need gender affirming medical care” and that only hateful—even violent--people would question this idea.

The story did not explain gender affirming medical care – treatment that Boston Children’s does provide – or provide any reasons for why many professional and lay people raise concerns about what is known as the “gender affirmation model” of care—puberty blockers, cross-sex hormones and surgery—for gender questioning youth. These medical interventions for young people are not, as is often parroted, a well-researched, long, well-established and agreed upon protocol of care for children, adolescents and young adults who struggle with questions about gender identity or dysphoria.

I am very concerned that this story and others like it that narrowly focus on political and cultural controversies are neglecting important medical and psychological questions and increasing risk of harm to the very people we want to nurture and protect.

Gender dysphoria and identity are complex medical and psychological questions not political issues. When PBS or any news organization broadcasts a story like this about gender politics they play right into the hands of conservative ideologue politicians seeking political power. As a liberal-progressive, a feminist, a parent and a practicing psychologist, I am deeply troubled by this.

I urge you and your staff to do more critical research about these questions, and consult professionals, parent groups, trans people, detransitioners, and others who seek high-quality care for gender distressed young people.

Thank you for your work--I am a longtime member of PBS and Newshour viewer--and for reading and considering my letter.

Sincerely,

[name and credentials]