The Republican party is apparently the only party in existence, and therefore the only label ever worth mentioning before providing a quote. Literally everyone else is completely apolitical and their statements should be interpreted as free from bias.
It is extraordinary how the article spins everything done by Republicans in the most negative way while doing exactly the opposite for Democrats. The NYT had become no better than FOX. In fact the NYTs articles make the existence of partisan right wing news sources critical. People need to ensure they read both a left wing and a right wing newspaper to have any balance.
I'm currently reading "Time To Think" by Hannah Barnes. Those who will not learn from the history of the collapse of the Tavistock are condemned to repeat it, as this St Louis clinic and those in and around it are certainly doing.
Truly fantastic. These subtle shifts, "teens with gender-related distress." along with the wholesale elimination of the fiction, "Sex Assigned at Birth" would greatly improve discourse on this topic.
I think Azeen Ghoyrashi is the right person to be reporting on this. She is reporting on facts and not appearing to take one side or the other but inserts enough to pop the illusion that this stuff is harmless. She is not writing an op-ed which most other pieces have been, giving her more credibility. She has written for Mother Jones and went to UC Berkeley. She has her pronouns in her LinkedIn. But TransgenderMap calls her a transphobe. The mainstream liberals can't dismiss her as a right winger or that she is partisan--she is a science reporter, and a millenial. I think this is exactly what we need.
Hello! I am a recent subscriber and love your column. Looking to crowdsource some advice. Please delete if this is the wrong forum. My second grader received her teacher assignment. I was initially unhappy with the teacher because he is new to the school. But now I am feeling apprehensive over his classroom wishlist which contain books promoting gender ideology to young kids. I did not see the list before. The rest of the books on the wish list are all about activism and social justice issues (nothing wrong with the other books) but from the list I get the sense that this teacher is an activist and he believes that gender ideology is a social justice issue that he will promote in class. I am worried because this is not something I want to introduce to my daughter at such a young age. I believe it is more appropriate for upper elementary. I like introducing issues in stages and I want to make sure she has a strong sense of the biological differences between males and females before introducing gender as a concept. I’m not sure how to go about this. I am scared that I will be labeled as bigoted. I don’t want to cause trouble. I just want my child to be transferred to another classroom
Note the high number (8%) of surgeries that have been done on patients 12-18. If I understand this article correctly, 8% of 48,000 would be 3840 surgeries. Also note that nearly half of these 48,000 surgeries have been done on patients 19-30. A 30 year old is very different than a nineteen year old, more of a breakdown would be interesting to know.
Great edit! It's a large step in the right direction for the Times, but still full of trans-apologia. Even so, no doubt the TRAs and wokies on the Times staff are going apeshit. Will they go on strike I wonder? It's too bad that Comments aren't enabled on the article.
Other errata in the article:
--Saying that the study showing 30% desistance after 4 years was one of the "small" ones when it was actually the largest study of them all (952 patients).
--Heavily de-emphasizing the fact that kids are routinely being prescribed blockers or hormones after 1 visit, and that both inside and outside therapists are giving recommendations after 1 brief session.
On the other hand, give them credit for including mention of the idea that the TRAs try most desperately to suppress: that believing oneself to be trans could be a result of pre-existing mental illness, rather than their unfulfilled trans destiny being the cause, or being unrelated.
"The small Midwestern gender clinic" sounds so cute, innocent... A quaint Midwestern place with kind doctors. If THAT's a small clinic, I wonder what the medium size or large look like.
Excellent points. I wish they'd allowed comments on it. New York Times readers have proven themselves to be both rational and thoughtful in their responses to articles about childhood transition like these.
A few more picyune edits I would add. They put so many "transgender" people in this that it's hard to find them all, like a "where's Waldo" where Waldo is all over the place.
"Other parts of the St. Louis hospital were also seeing more [add "young patients with gender distress," and delete] transgender patients."
"The E.R. staff, she wrote in an email, had been seeing more [add "young patients with gender distress," and delete] transgender adolescents experiencing mental health crises,"
"Missouri’s ban of ["medical interventions to create the appearance of the opposite sex" and delete} gender care for minors will begin on Aug. 28"
"Dr. John Daniels was the sole endocrinologist in St. Louis prescribing hormones to [trans-identified" and delete] transgender adults ." [I was okay to say "transgender adults" to describe Jamie Reed's spouse, since the spouse has already transitioned.]
Also, with respect to Heidi's "daughter," I would not write "daughter," but would go with a neutral term like "child." Further, it would be worth noting that, although the serious complication this child experienced may be a result of a combination of synthetic cross-sex hormones and other medical issues, the clinic chose to provide such synthetic cross-sex hormones despite the other medical issues.
Again, with respect to Jamie Reed's "spouse," I would use that more neutral term rather than "husband." I believe Jamie Reed identifies as a lesbian, and her spouse is a female who chose to transition, but I'm not so sure that turns this person into a "husband."
I'm also wondering if gender treatments should perhaps be in quotations. It's perhaps a more neutral term than "gender care," but still implies that there might ever be a need for "treatments" relating to "gender," which is a questionable idea.
Anyway, your edits were meaningful and helpful, and the article is at least a start toward letting the world know that detransition is a real issue, and that at least some teens are indeed being rushed to medicalization. It's not perfect, but it's moving in the right direction.
Thank you, Lisa, as always! There's so much here that needs unpacked on the left and by the media: what is gender, anyway? what are we really talking about when we talk about "gender care" (I suggested to Azeen that perhaps what we need is a "gender care" version of the WaPo article about what guns do to the body)? and - surprise - maybe the Republicans, in aligning on this issue with Western Europe, are onto something...
The Republican party is apparently the only party in existence, and therefore the only label ever worth mentioning before providing a quote. Literally everyone else is completely apolitical and their statements should be interpreted as free from bias.
I hope you’re sending these comments to the editor of the NYT. They are excellent points!
It is extraordinary how the article spins everything done by Republicans in the most negative way while doing exactly the opposite for Democrats. The NYT had become no better than FOX. In fact the NYTs articles make the existence of partisan right wing news sources critical. People need to ensure they read both a left wing and a right wing newspaper to have any balance.
One patient emailed the clinic, in January 2020, to say they had detransitioned and were seeking a voice coach for their masculinized voice.
The pronouns should be changed to "she". She detransitioned, why does the NYT use "they" for her?
Fantastic, editing, Lisa.
I'm currently reading "Time To Think" by Hannah Barnes. Those who will not learn from the history of the collapse of the Tavistock are condemned to repeat it, as this St Louis clinic and those in and around it are certainly doing.
Truly fantastic. These subtle shifts, "teens with gender-related distress." along with the wholesale elimination of the fiction, "Sex Assigned at Birth" would greatly improve discourse on this topic.
I think Azeen Ghoyrashi is the right person to be reporting on this. She is reporting on facts and not appearing to take one side or the other but inserts enough to pop the illusion that this stuff is harmless. She is not writing an op-ed which most other pieces have been, giving her more credibility. She has written for Mother Jones and went to UC Berkeley. She has her pronouns in her LinkedIn. But TransgenderMap calls her a transphobe. The mainstream liberals can't dismiss her as a right winger or that she is partisan--she is a science reporter, and a millenial. I think this is exactly what we need.
Hello! I am a recent subscriber and love your column. Looking to crowdsource some advice. Please delete if this is the wrong forum. My second grader received her teacher assignment. I was initially unhappy with the teacher because he is new to the school. But now I am feeling apprehensive over his classroom wishlist which contain books promoting gender ideology to young kids. I did not see the list before. The rest of the books on the wish list are all about activism and social justice issues (nothing wrong with the other books) but from the list I get the sense that this teacher is an activist and he believes that gender ideology is a social justice issue that he will promote in class. I am worried because this is not something I want to introduce to my daughter at such a young age. I believe it is more appropriate for upper elementary. I like introducing issues in stages and I want to make sure she has a strong sense of the biological differences between males and females before introducing gender as a concept. I’m not sure how to go about this. I am scared that I will be labeled as bigoted. I don’t want to cause trouble. I just want my child to be transferred to another classroom
This from the NYT today too, based on a new JAMA report about the increase in gender surgeries:
https://archive.ph/rIqpz
Note the high number (8%) of surgeries that have been done on patients 12-18. If I understand this article correctly, 8% of 48,000 would be 3840 surgeries. Also note that nearly half of these 48,000 surgeries have been done on patients 19-30. A 30 year old is very different than a nineteen year old, more of a breakdown would be interesting to know.
Great edit! It's a large step in the right direction for the Times, but still full of trans-apologia. Even so, no doubt the TRAs and wokies on the Times staff are going apeshit. Will they go on strike I wonder? It's too bad that Comments aren't enabled on the article.
Other errata in the article:
--Saying that the study showing 30% desistance after 4 years was one of the "small" ones when it was actually the largest study of them all (952 patients).
--Heavily de-emphasizing the fact that kids are routinely being prescribed blockers or hormones after 1 visit, and that both inside and outside therapists are giving recommendations after 1 brief session.
On the other hand, give them credit for including mention of the idea that the TRAs try most desperately to suppress: that believing oneself to be trans could be a result of pre-existing mental illness, rather than their unfulfilled trans destiny being the cause, or being unrelated.
"The small Midwestern gender clinic" sounds so cute, innocent... A quaint Midwestern place with kind doctors. If THAT's a small clinic, I wonder what the medium size or large look like.
Excellent points. I wish they'd allowed comments on it. New York Times readers have proven themselves to be both rational and thoughtful in their responses to articles about childhood transition like these.
Thank you, made me feel just a bit better with your edits. by the way - there is no way to comment on the article, ugh!
A few more picyune edits I would add. They put so many "transgender" people in this that it's hard to find them all, like a "where's Waldo" where Waldo is all over the place.
"Other parts of the St. Louis hospital were also seeing more [add "young patients with gender distress," and delete] transgender patients."
"The E.R. staff, she wrote in an email, had been seeing more [add "young patients with gender distress," and delete] transgender adolescents experiencing mental health crises,"
"Missouri’s ban of ["medical interventions to create the appearance of the opposite sex" and delete} gender care for minors will begin on Aug. 28"
"Dr. John Daniels was the sole endocrinologist in St. Louis prescribing hormones to [trans-identified" and delete] transgender adults ." [I was okay to say "transgender adults" to describe Jamie Reed's spouse, since the spouse has already transitioned.]
Also, with respect to Heidi's "daughter," I would not write "daughter," but would go with a neutral term like "child." Further, it would be worth noting that, although the serious complication this child experienced may be a result of a combination of synthetic cross-sex hormones and other medical issues, the clinic chose to provide such synthetic cross-sex hormones despite the other medical issues.
Again, with respect to Jamie Reed's "spouse," I would use that more neutral term rather than "husband." I believe Jamie Reed identifies as a lesbian, and her spouse is a female who chose to transition, but I'm not so sure that turns this person into a "husband."
I'm also wondering if gender treatments should perhaps be in quotations. It's perhaps a more neutral term than "gender care," but still implies that there might ever be a need for "treatments" relating to "gender," which is a questionable idea.
Anyway, your edits were meaningful and helpful, and the article is at least a start toward letting the world know that detransition is a real issue, and that at least some teens are indeed being rushed to medicalization. It's not perfect, but it's moving in the right direction.
Thank you, Lisa, as always! There's so much here that needs unpacked on the left and by the media: what is gender, anyway? what are we really talking about when we talk about "gender care" (I suggested to Azeen that perhaps what we need is a "gender care" version of the WaPo article about what guns do to the body)? and - surprise - maybe the Republicans, in aligning on this issue with Western Europe, are onto something...