Thread by @Transgendertrd

"Social media influencers are pushing young people who are unsure about their gender into hasty decisions to transition."
When even top US pro-transition gender docs are speaking out on social contagion there's really no excuse anymore to remain blind.
thetimes.co.uk/article/gender…

"Dr Erica Anderson said some young people suffering from mental health problems such as depression and anxiety were not receiving adequate care and were instead being offered hormones or surgery."

"Rather than being transgender, the minors may be “cycling through identities” during adolescence and may be being swayed by influencers on TikTok and YouTube, according to Anderson, who specialises in transgender youths."

"She said: “I see touted on social media the encouragement to young people to make a gender transition and do it quickly. And that’s where I take exception and say a gender transition is one of the most significant and far-reaching personal changes you can ever make.”"

"Anderson, 71, urged caution for anyone contemplating transitioning and said that although for many it can be life-saving, for others it could be the wrong decision."

"Anderson, who has helped hundreds of teenagers to transition, said research had shown that adolescents are particularly vulnerable to peer pressure. “For someone at such an impressionable age, 12, 13, 14, even 15, 16, 17, they are in some cases very immature."

“And so for some providers to say, ‘We’ll just accept what they say and give them the hormones’, I think is tantamount to malpractice.”

“And unfortunately my fear is people who take these steps in a hasty way without the proper mental health support are more susceptible to problems, including the potential to crash and burn.”

“I don’t know where everyone has lost their way: medicine and psychology are driven by individual evaluation and diagnosis. To abdicate that, I think, is a serious, serious error.”

"Critics have called Anderson, who is based in San Francisco, transphobic." Of course. We have been called transphobic for saying essentially the same thing for over 6 years, as has everyone who has urged caution in this area.

@LisaLittman1 was vilified for her groundbreaking study that first asked the question about social contagion as a hypothesis. Now vindicated by a gender doctor at the forefront of child transition and former president of WPATH.
journals.plos.org/plosone/articl…

The #Cass interim report flagged up similar concerns, concluding that children & young people with gender distress must receive the same standards of clinical care, assessment and treatment as every other child or young person accessing health services.
cass.independent-review.uk/publications/i…

The government is right to #presspause on a transgender conversion therapy bill, it would be highly irresponsible not to. Anyone still pushing for a rushed bill and screaming 'transphobia' is willfully ignoring the evidence for unintended consequences of simplistic 'solutions.'

This Guardian editorial yesterday for example, is highly naive in its assumption that therapists will feel able to offer proper professional support to children under a ban, when they are already afraid to do anything other than 'affirm' a child.
theguardian.com/commentisfree/…