I’m glad you are doing this series, but my heart is breaking all over again remembering how desperately I was groping around in the dark trying to find other people who were questioning what was suddenly happening with the teens like my son, my niece and nephew, and loads of their friends. Everywhere I turned, including my long trusted source, the NYT, just made me feel like a terrible human, parent, liberal for not gleefully accepting and affirming what I was being told. The loss of trust in sources I once depended on has changed me forever.
I was blindly and desperately scrabbling with you, and still feel muzzled in my lefty community for fear of being cancelled, or of course risking the estrangement of my daughter. The lack of balanced reporting by the NYT has fortified the muzzle.
My kids are a bit younger than yours, and I have to admit that I was blissfully unaware of this issue until a couple of years ago. However, I experienced the same fundamental loss of trust due to the pandemic response and what it did to children. I now have a teen who would have been at high risk of being captured by this - autistic, anxious, somewhat gender nonconforming, not fitting in, probably going to grow up to be gay. He says himself he might have fallen for it if I hadn't actively pre-empted any such ideas by constantly talking about it for the past year and a half, thereby thoroughly peaking him. I feel extremely lucky that Covid peaked me so I could head this off, and I feel for all the parents (and kids) who were blindsided by it just because they came a few years before us. I hope your son is ok.
Yes, I now have a total lack of trust in the media and other institutions.
NYT has been on an official trans mission:
Dominic Holden, BuzzFeed News Reporter
Posted on May 4, 2015 at 12:06 pm
"In an interview with BuzzFeed News, Andrew Rosenthal, the Times's editorial page editor since 2007, explained why he sought to build on the paper's advocacy for LGBT rights. “One of the great things about an editorial page is that you can decide to make a big deal out of something, and we decided to make a big deal out of transgender equality..."
I just can't wrap my head around the fact that they don't see that "trans rights" have nothing to do with "equality". Marriage equality was about allowing gay people to get married just like straight people do. "Trans rights" are the demand to be seen as something you are not, which is not what most people get to do, so it's not about equality at all. Just a moment of critical thinking should dismantle this entire framework, but somehow brains are being turned off when it comes to this topic.
Yes, and trans rights are apparently about the right to indoctrinate children into a belief system, receive extreme cosmetic body modifications that are paid for as “essential care”— the list goes on.
NYT turned down this solid pitch — with real parents, raising sensible questions about gender-affirming treatment, quoting experts in the field — in 2021? Are you kidding me? Lisa, did you get a reason for that?
I wonder if one reason the NYT rejected the pitch, among other reasons, was that you argue that this field had become politicized. True believers don’t think it’s been politicized. They believe they are supporting a civil rights movement and anyone who questions it is on the wrong side of history.
You wrote this 6 months after my then 15 year made his declaration. The mainstream media failed us by not publishing pieces like this. I’m glad you’re doing this, Lisa.
If I had read this article five years ago, I would not have had to slowly piece together bits of information—because you had it all there in one place.
It's interesting to reread the comment section in one of the only NYT pieces (by Pamela Paul, albeit relegated to Opinion) that offered a more nuanced look at the medicalization issue. Clearly there are throngs who are appreciative of a perspective that allows room for questioning, particularly for this new, younger cohort. As a parent, I found it oxygen.
I’m glad you are doing this series, but my heart is breaking all over again remembering how desperately I was groping around in the dark trying to find other people who were questioning what was suddenly happening with the teens like my son, my niece and nephew, and loads of their friends. Everywhere I turned, including my long trusted source, the NYT, just made me feel like a terrible human, parent, liberal for not gleefully accepting and affirming what I was being told. The loss of trust in sources I once depended on has changed me forever.
I was blindly and desperately scrabbling with you, and still feel muzzled in my lefty community for fear of being cancelled, or of course risking the estrangement of my daughter. The lack of balanced reporting by the NYT has fortified the muzzle.
My kids are a bit younger than yours, and I have to admit that I was blissfully unaware of this issue until a couple of years ago. However, I experienced the same fundamental loss of trust due to the pandemic response and what it did to children. I now have a teen who would have been at high risk of being captured by this - autistic, anxious, somewhat gender nonconforming, not fitting in, probably going to grow up to be gay. He says himself he might have fallen for it if I hadn't actively pre-empted any such ideas by constantly talking about it for the past year and a half, thereby thoroughly peaking him. I feel extremely lucky that Covid peaked me so I could head this off, and I feel for all the parents (and kids) who were blindsided by it just because they came a few years before us. I hope your son is ok.
Yes, I now have a total lack of trust in the media and other institutions.
NYT has been on an official trans mission:
Dominic Holden, BuzzFeed News Reporter
Posted on May 4, 2015 at 12:06 pm
"In an interview with BuzzFeed News, Andrew Rosenthal, the Times's editorial page editor since 2007, explained why he sought to build on the paper's advocacy for LGBT rights. “One of the great things about an editorial page is that you can decide to make a big deal out of something, and we decided to make a big deal out of transgender equality..."
I just can't wrap my head around the fact that they don't see that "trans rights" have nothing to do with "equality". Marriage equality was about allowing gay people to get married just like straight people do. "Trans rights" are the demand to be seen as something you are not, which is not what most people get to do, so it's not about equality at all. Just a moment of critical thinking should dismantle this entire framework, but somehow brains are being turned off when it comes to this topic.
Yes, and trans rights are apparently about the right to indoctrinate children into a belief system, receive extreme cosmetic body modifications that are paid for as “essential care”— the list goes on.
NYT turned down this solid pitch — with real parents, raising sensible questions about gender-affirming treatment, quoting experts in the field — in 2021? Are you kidding me? Lisa, did you get a reason for that?
NYT has - a lot - to answer for.
I wonder if one reason the NYT rejected the pitch, among other reasons, was that you argue that this field had become politicized. True believers don’t think it’s been politicized. They believe they are supporting a civil rights movement and anyone who questions it is on the wrong side of history.
You wrote this 6 months after my then 15 year made his declaration. The mainstream media failed us by not publishing pieces like this. I’m glad you’re doing this, Lisa.
If I had read this article five years ago, I would not have had to slowly piece together bits of information—because you had it all there in one place.
Can someone leave a link to the Bazelon piece? I'm having trouble finding it. Thanks.
https://www.nytimes.com/2022/06/15/magazine/gender-therapy.html
It's interesting to reread the comment section in one of the only NYT pieces (by Pamela Paul, albeit relegated to Opinion) that offered a more nuanced look at the medicalization issue. Clearly there are throngs who are appreciative of a perspective that allows room for questioning, particularly for this new, younger cohort. As a parent, I found it oxygen.
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/02/02/opinion/transgender-children-gender-dysphoria.html
Better than the story they published!
Wow, you really soft-pedaled it, and they still didn't bite. Mixed metaphor but I can't unmix it.