Thread by @jack_turban

🚨We have a new paper out today in @aap_peds🚨

We examined 2 hypotheses:

1. That youth identify as #trans due to "social contagion" & adolescents assigned female are more susceptible

2. That youth identify as trans to flee LGB-related stigma

Neither was supported by data. 🧵

We used the 2017 & 2019 CDC Youth Risk Behavior Survey - a nationally representative sample of adolescents in the US

Sadly, not all states choose to collect sexual orientation & gender identity data, so we included the 15 states that did. This meant ~100,00 teens per year🧵

We found that the percentage of adolescents who openly identified as trans actually *decreased* from 2017 to 2019 (2.4% -> 1.6%), arguing against "social contagion." 🧵

Some smalls studies from gender clinics have reported a "sex ratio" of more adolescents assigned female at birth relative to those assigned male at birth.

Some have argued people assigned female are more susceptible to social contagion and that this explains that sex ratio. 🧵

In this much larger sample (~100,000 in each year), we found that the sex ratio actually favored adolescents assigned male at birth in both 2017 and 2019. Though the ratio shifted toward those assigned female at birth in 2019, it was due to a decrease in those assigned male. 🧵

From 2017 to 2019, the percent of those assigned female at birth who openly identified as trans actually *decreased* from 1.9% to 1.4%. 🧵

Last, we looked at rates of bullying victimization. We compared trans adolescents to cis sexual minority adolescents. The former had much higher rates of victimization in both 2017 and 2019, arguing against the notion that kids come out as trans to flee LGB-related stigma. 🧵

This study comes as there are many political attacks against trans youth in legislative arenas. The social contagion and fleeing LGB stigma hypotheses have featured prominently in these debates.

We hope these new data will be urgently brought to those legislative discussions. 🧵

The full study is available here in Pediatrics, the official journal of The American Academy of Pediatrics. 🧵
publications.aap.org/pediatrics/art…

As an aside, we also hope there will be increased attention to the fact that many US states have elected not to collect sexual orientation and gender identity data for their YRBS surveys. We strongly feel this needs to change and that it should be collected by *all* states.

@ButNotTheCity @Kinnon_Ross @BrynnTannehill @GBBranstetter @Esqueer_ @ErinInTheMorn @transscribe @cmclymer @RNickGorton @queersurgeon @ChaseTMAnderson @chasestrangio @WFKARS @gp_jls @DrJenGunter @JoYurcaba @TripleThreat_MD @meganranney @AshleyGWinter @jtrebach @MPLerario

Another point I’ll make: these ratios were really pretty close to 1:1, especially in 2019.